City: Minneapolis, MN

Category: Tours & Attractions

Telephone: (612) 344-1200

Address: 90 South Seventh St.

Description: The Wells Fargo Center sits at the heart of downtown and is perhaps Minneapolis’s most recognizable building, with its golden-hued glow and art deco look. The third-tallest building in the Twin Cities, the Wells Fargo Center is 57 stories high, the same number of stories as the neighboring IDS Center, although it is 18 feet shorter. The building was completed in 1988 as the Norwest Center. The name changed when the Norwest and Wells Fargo banks merged in 1998.The Wells Fargo Center was constructed in the ashes of tragedy. A Thanksgiving 1982 fire destroyed the Northwestern National Bank Building. The structure itself was not as important a piece of architecture to the community as the 157-foot “weatherball,” which sat atop the building and changed color to reflect the weather forecast. Norwest set out to construct a replacement for its destroyed headquarters.The Wells Fargo Center was completed in 1989. The Cesar Pelli–designed building features a 100-foot-high domed ceiling rotunda as well as a gorgeous lobby that hearkens back to the 1920s. The golden color of the building is created by the Kasota limestone used in its facade.