File:Foshay Tower, 9th Street and Marquette Avenue, Minneapolis, MN - 51752495310.jpg

English: Built in 1929, the Art Deco-style 32-story Foshay Tower was designed by Magney & Tusler, Inc. and modeled on the Washington Monument, taking the form of a large, Indiana Limestone-clad obelisk, and was built by William Foshay, owner of the W. B. Foshay Company, a utility company created by the merger of three smaller utility companies. The building stands in the center of the block, set back far from the street, and tapers towards the top, where it is crowned by an antenna and adorned by large signs made up of multiple lightbulbs projecting the name “Foshay” out across the surrounding city. The first building in Minneapolis to surpass the height of the 4th Street Clock Tower of Minneapolis City Hall, the building was the tallest in the city and in the state of Minnesota until the IDS Center was completed in 1972. The building features a podium two stories tall, which historically housed retail shops, offices, and a parking garage, and featured a residential apartment on the 27th and 28th floors that was intended to be the three-bedroom, three-bathroom residence of Foshay, but was never occupied thanks to the Great Depression hitting around the time the building was completed, leading to a collapse of Foshay’s business empire. The building subsequently became home to Citizens Utilities, which was formed from the remaining assets of the W. B. Foshay Company. Various other tenants occupied the building’s commercial spaces over the years, most notably, the Norwegian Consulate was located in the building until 2007. The building was adaptively reused and restored to become home to the W Hotel Minneapolis in 2008, with the original lobby decorations and other interior elements being restored, along with extensive work on the exterior. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.