May 21, 2014, Wednesday - Happy Hour With a Preservationist: The Soo Line Building

5/9/14 UPDATE:

Due to a scheduling conflict for our tour guides, the May 14th Happy Hour With a Preservationist at the Soo Line Building has been RESCHEDULED for May 21st at 5:30 pm. Tickets are free but space is limited.
 
We gave previous registrants first crack at tickets for the new date, and there are still some left. Go get ‘em! 
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/happy-hour-with-a-preservationist-soo-line-building-rescheduled-tickets-11571906885

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Time: 5:30pm to 6:30pm

Location: 501 Marquette Avenue South

May Happy Hour: The Soo Line Building
 
Join Preserve Minneapolis for an insider’s tour of downtown’s newest large-scale preservation and rehabilitation project: The Soo Line Building. Tickets are free but space is limited, so you MUST reserve a spot.  

Some building background:The 19-story First National Bank‐Soo Line Building once stood as the tallest building in Minneapolis. The classically detailed Second Renaissance Revival building was a collaboration between two Minneapolis companies: The First National Bank and the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Sault Ste. Marie Railway (the Soo Line) and wasbuilt for their corporate offices. Originally designed by architect Robert Gibson, and completed in 1915, the building was stately and grand, incorporating a 3-story open banking hall at the base with ornate detailing and a grand stair at its center oriented toward the main entrance fronting bustling 5th street.
 
Over the years the building’s interiors underwent numerous modifications, ultimately destroying much of its pristine elegance of the ornate interior plaster cornices and coffered ceilings, infilling the original 3-story lobby to a modest 2-story space, eliminating much of the historic fabric and replacing and reorienting the grand stair.

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