The Wells Fargo Center (90 South 7th St), formerly known as Norwest Center, is the third-tallest building in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, after the IDS Center and the

Capella Tower Capella Tower (also 225 South Sixth) is an office skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The building opened in 1992 as First Bank Place, replacing One Financial Plaza as the headquarters for First Bank System. In 1997, First Bank ...

. Completed in 1988, it is tall. For many years, this was believed to be one foot shorter than Capella, but that structure actually had a different height (see the

article for details). Norwest Center was designed with a modernized

art deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

style by César Pelli, reflecting nearby structures such as the nearby CenturyLink Building and the Foshay Tower, which is several blocks away. It is also considered by many to be a homage to

30 Rockefeller Plaza 30 Rockefeller Plaza (officially the Comcast Building; formerly RCA Building and GE Building) is a skyscraper that forms the centerpiece of Rockefeller Center in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York. Completed in 1933 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Wells Fargo Center sits on the site of the old Northwestern National Bank Building, which was damaged in a fire in 1982 and imploded two years later. The original design called for a 45-story tower with a square footprint that would have been crowned the tallest building in Minneapolis; however, the site was halved in size, requiring the building's design to be changed to what it is today. Northwestern National, renamed

Norwest Corporation Norwest Corporation was a banking and financial services company based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. In 1998, it merged with Wells Fargo & Co. and since that time has operated under the Wells Fargo name. History Early formation Th ...

, maintained its headquarters here. Despite Norwest's adoption of the

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...

identity after acquiring the latter and moving to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

in 1998, significant regional operations are still maintained in this building. Other major tenants include the law firm of Faegre Drinker and the local office of accounting firm

KPMG KPMG is a multinational professional services network, based in London, United Kingdom. As one of the Big Four accounting firms, along with Ernst & Young (EY), Deloitte, and PwC. KPMG is a network of firms in 145 countries with 275,288 emplo ...

. It is lit from sunset through midnight by

floodlights A floodlight is a broad-beamed, gas discharge lamp#High-intensity discharge lamps, high-intensity artificial light. It can provide functional area lighting for travel-ways, parking, entrances, work areas, and sporting venues to enable visibil ...

pointing up from the setback rooftops, illuminating the sides of the building's upper floors. Despite this, it is still much more energy efficient than the previous building and in 2000, it was recognized by the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

as one of the 100 most energy efficient buildings in the US. In 1989, the building was praised by the

Urban Land Institute The Urban Land Institute, or ULI, is a global nonprofit research and education organization with regional offices in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong, and London. ULI aims to help its members and their partners build more equitable, sustainable, heal ...

, who honored it with their Award for Excellence in Large Scale Office Development. It is located at 90 South 7th Street. Gaviidae Common, a neighboring

shopping center A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...

, was also designed by Pelli and built at the same time. A branch of the Wells Fargo History Museum was located in the skyway level. The museum's exhibits included an 1863

stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

equipment, gold nuggets and coins. It closed in September 2020. As of April 2019, Starwood Capital Group acquired Wells Fargo Center for $315 million. The sellers were Hines and Blackstone. In December of 2024, it was announced the building would be sold again, this time to Onward Investors. The sale price of $85 million represents a 70% decrease in value since the 2019 sale.

Broadcasting

FM

References

External links

Wells Fargo Center
* * {{Minneapolis skyscrapers Skyscraper office buildings in Minneapolis Art Deco architecture in Minnesota César Pelli buildings Wells Fargo buildings Office buildings completed in 1988 1988 establishments in Minnesota Postmodern architecture in Minnesota

Broadcasting

FM

See also

References

External links