Metropolitan Dreams: The Scandalous Rise and Stunning Fall of a Minneapolis Masterpiece

(Hardback)

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The story of one of Minnesotas most famous and most mourned buildings, set against the history of downtown Minneapolis

When it opened in 1890, the twelve-story Northwestern Guaranty Loan Building was the tallest, largest, and most splendid commercial structure in Minneapolisa mighty stone skyscraper built for the ages. How this grand Richardsonian Romanesque edifice, which later came to be called the Metropolitan Building, rose with the growth of Minneapolis only to fall in the throes of the citys postwar renewal, is revealed in Metropolitan Dreams in all its scandalous intrigue. It is a tale of urban growing pains and architectural ghosts and of colorful, sometimes criminal characters amid the grandeur and squalor of building and rebuilding a citys skyline.

Against the thrumming backdrop of turn-of-the-century Minneapolis, architectural critic and historian Larry Millett recreates the impressive rise of the massive office building, its walls of green New Hampshire granite and red Lake Superior sandstone surrounding its true architectural wonder, a dazzling twelve-story iron and glass light court. The drama, however, was far from confined to the building itself. A consummate storyteller, Millett summons the frenetic atmosphere in Gilded Age Minneapolis that encouraged the likes of Northwestern Guarantys founder, real estate speculator Louis Menage, whose shady deals financed this Minneapolis masterpieceand then forced him to flee both prosecution and the country a mere three years later.

Dubious as its financial beginnings might have been, the economic circumstances of the Metropolitans demise were at least as questionable. Anchoring Minneapoliss historic Gateway District in its heyday, the buildings fortunes shifted with the citys demographics and finally it fell victim to the fervor of one of the largest downtown urban renewal projects ever undertaken in the United States. Though the long and furious battle to save the Metropolitan ultimately failed in 1962, its ghost persists in the passion for historic preservation stirred by its demiseand in Metropolitan Dreams, whose photographs, architectural drawings, and absorbing narrative bring the building and its story to vibrant, enduring life.

Reviews

"Minneapolis was booming and bursting, and the newwonder in green New Hampshire granite and red Lake Superior sandstone housed amagnificent twelve-story iron and glass light court, with six elevator cages, thousands offeet of detailed ironwork, and a rooftop observation tower 222 feet above the street. Andthere was drama: finagling, nefarious deals and vanished money through founder andspeculator Louis Menage."Lavendar

"Larry Millett does a thorough job of conveying the beauty and uniqueness of this lost landmark, and its role in helping ignite our countrys preservation movement."Minnesota Alumni

"In Metropolitan Dreams, Millett dives deeply into the building's design and realization, the Midwest city's decisions to develop and demolish, and even how parts of the building live on elsewhere in the city: a great read for Minnesotans but also preservationists in any state."A Daily Dose of Architecture Books

Author Bio

Larry Millett is the author of many notable books on regional architecture, including Once There Were Castles, Minnesota Modern: Architecture and Life at Midcentury (winner of a Minnesota Book Award), and Heart of St. Paul: A History of the Pioneer and Endicott Buildings, all published by Minnesota, as well as Lost Twin Cities, Minnesotas Own: Preserving Our Grand Homes, and several AIA Guides to the architecture of the Twin Cities. He has also written eight historical novels involving Sherlock Holmes set in turn-of-the-century Minnesota.