Minneapolis Skyline

Philip Johnson's IDS Center opened in 1972 at 792 feet and established the visual language the rest of the skyline followed. Its facade is not flat — the corners are notched into a series of stepped vertical recesses, so the building catches light in bands rather than as a single sheet.

At the base sits the Crystal Court, and from it run the skyways: the enclosed second-level walkways that connect most of downtown Minneapolis and let people cross the city in January without going outside. They are invisible in a silhouette and they explain why the downtown is built the way it is.

Capella Tower finishes in an open crown — a detached ring held above the roof — and Wells Fargo Center steps back in a way that reads as deliberately Deco despite being built in 1988. Between them they give the cluster two memorable tops in a skyline that is otherwise restrained.

The Mississippi runs along the northern edge, and the Stone Arch Bridge curves across it below the falls. Minneapolis is one of the few skylines in this catalogue where the water is not an afterthought behind the towers but a defining edge of the city itself.

The IDS Center leads at 792 feet, its corners notched into stepped vertical recesses that catch light in bands. Capella Tower sits beside it, finished with a detached open crown ring held above the roof.

Wells Fargo Center steps back in a way that reads deliberately Art Deco despite being built in 1988, and the Foshay Tower — 1929, modelled on the Washington Monument, and the real thing the later towers are answering — stands much lower among them. The Mississippi and the Stone Arch Bridge close the northern edge, which is unusual: in most of these models the water is a backdrop, and here it is an edge of the city itself.