Metropolitan Building (Guaranty Loan Building), Minneapolis Minnesota

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Date added: June 17, 2010 Categories: Minnesota Commercial Romanesque Revival

One of the most impressive and dizzyingly exuberant interior courts of all multi-story commercial blocks built in the late 19th century.

Exterior masonry bearing walls of New England granite and Portage red sandstone. Interior supports of cast iron, with hollow tile and terra cotta and concrete floors. Cantilevered interior balconies floored in structural glass.

Consisted of offices around a central court (56'x90'). Ground coverage 128'x 155': gross floor area: 40,000 sq.ft. Twelve stories; 175' in height.

Central court open throughout twelve stories, roofed by skylight. Twelfth floor originally restaurant with roof pavilion. Two banks, three elevators, each with open cages in open shafts: freight elevator and two staircases. Cantilevered balconies which served as corridors to offices, floored in translucent structural glass.

The builder was N.N. Leighton and Company. It cost $2,000,000 to build in 1890 and was originally owned by the Northwestern Guaranty Loan Company.