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Hennepin County Government Center | |
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General information | |
Location | Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S. |
Coordinates | 44°58′33″N93°16′0″W / 44.97583°N 93.26667°W |
Construction started | 1969 |
Completed | 1974 |
Height | 403 feet (123 meters) |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 24 |
Design and construction | |
Architecture firm | Warnecke & Associates |
Hennepin County Government Center is the courthouse and primary county government administration building for Hennepin County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It is located in downtown Minneapolis, [1] the county seat of Hennepin County. [2] Before its construction, the Hennepin County government offices were housed in the Minneapolis City Hall-Hennepin County Courthouse. The building was opened in 1974 and occupied in stages in 1975. [3]
The building was designed by the architectural firm of John Carl Warnecke & Associates. It was dedicated in 1973 and completed in 1977. It is 403 feet (123 m) tall and has 24 stories. When viewed from the northeast or southwest sides, it takes on the appearance of a stylized letter H. This shape serves as the logo of Hennepin County. Each side of the "H" is a separate tower. The towers are connected by catwalk bridges on several floors. The whole is enclosed by glass windows to form an atrium. In early 2015 remodeling was done on the skyway-level public area, which now features new seating, high-top tables with electrical outlets, lighting and flat screen TVs.
The southeast side is known as the court tower. It houses courtrooms, county attorney offices, and the Hennepin County Law Library. The northwest side houses county administrative offices such as social services and county records.
The Hennepin County Government Center is built over 6th Street using the air rights over the street, which enabled two large plazas to be built in the city blocks.
It is connected by a tunnel to the Minneapolis City Hall, underneath 5th Street and the METRO Blue and Green lines. The Government Plaza METRO station is between the two buildings. The tunnel also connects to the federal courthouse for the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.
The building has a skyway link to the US Bank Plaza Building (formerly Pillsbury Center). The link to the Thrivent (formerly Lutheran Brotherhood) headquarters building was closed in June 2018 due to demolition of an adjacent parking ramp and planned construction of a new Minneapolis public service center.
There is a separate secure tunnel to the Hennepin County Public Safety Facility (jail) located diagonally across the plaza.
Before its construction, the Hennepin County government offices were housed in the Minneapolis City Hall-Hennepin County Courthouse.
After earlier suicides by jumping from the catwalk bridges, 10-foot high Plexiglass wall panels were added to the bridges & balconies throughout the building in the 1980s. [4]
Following a deadly shooting within the court tower in 2003, new security measures were implemented. [5] New metal detectors were installed, along with X-ray equipment. The 2nd-floor lobby service desks at the skyway level were re-configured to accommodate the changes.
Hennepin County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Its county seat is Minneapolis, the state's most populous city. The county is named for the 17th-century explorer Louis Hennepin. It extends from Minneapolis to the suburbs and outlying cities in the western part of the county. Its natural areas are covered by extensive woods, hills, and lakes.
A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclosed or covered footbridges that protect pedestrians from the weather. Open-top modern skyways in mountains now often have glass bottoms. Sometimes enclosed urban skywalks are made almost totally from glass, including ceilings, walls and floors. Also, some urban skyways function strictly as linear parks designed for walking.
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Nicollet Mall is a twelve-block portion of Nicollet Avenue running through Downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It is a shopping and dining district of the city, and also a pedestrian mall and transit mall. Along with Hennepin Avenue to the west, Nicollet Mall forms the cultural and commercial center of Minneapolis.
Minneapolis City Hall and Hennepin County Courthouse, designed by Long and Kees in 1888, is the main building used by the city government of Minneapolis, as well as by Hennepin County, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The structure has served as mainly local government offices since it was built, and today the building is 60 percent occupied by the city and 40 percent occupied by the County. The building is jointly owned by the city and county and managed by the Municipal Building Commission. The Commission consists of the chair of the County Board, the mayor of the City of Minneapolis, a member of the County Board and a member of the Minneapolis City Council. The County Board chair serves as the president of the Commission and the mayor serves as the vice president. The building bears a striking resemblance to the city hall buildings in Cincinnati and Toronto. The City Hall and Courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
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Mayo Clinic Square on Block E in downtown Minneapolis, is a building bounded by Hennepin Avenue, North 6th Street, North 7th Street, and 1st Avenue North. It is part of the Downtown West neighborhood in Minneapolis, historically known as the Warehouse District. It is one block south of the Warehouse District/Hennepin Avenue light rail station on the METRO Blue and Green lines. "Block E" is a City planning department designation of the block; other blocks have similar designations
The Gateway District of Minneapolis is centered at the convergence of Hennepin Avenue, Nicollet Avenue, and Washington Avenue. Its borders are not officially designated or recognized, but are visible as the Mississippi River to the northeast, Cedar Lake Trail and the railroad tracks to the northwest, Fifth Avenue South to the southeast. and Fourth Street South to the southwest. The district includes a significant part of the Downtown West neighborhood and abuts the North Loop.
Minneapolis is the largest city by population in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The origin and growth of the city was spurred by the proximity of Fort Snelling, the first major United States military presence in the area, and by its location on Saint Anthony Falls, which provided power for sawmills and flour mills.
The Minneapolis Skyway System is an interlinked collection of enclosed pedestrian footbridges that connect various buildings in 80 full city blocks over 9.5 miles (15.3 km) of Downtown Minneapolis, enabling people to walk in climate-controlled comfort year-round. The skyways are owned by individual buildings in Minneapolis, and as such they do not have uniform opening and closing times. The 9.5 miles of skyway are comparable to the Houston tunnel system, the systems in Canadian cities such as Toronto's PATH, Montreal's Underground City, Calgary's 11-mile +15 system and the 8-mile Edmonton Pedway system.
The Finance & Commerce is a daily newspaper devoted exclusively to business in the Twin Cities and Rochester, Minnesota.
33 South Sixth, formerly known as International Multifoods Tower, is a skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and stands 52 stories tall at 668 ft (204 m). Its name comes from its address: 33 South Sixth Street, Minneapolis. It was completed in 1983 as headquarters for International Multifoods Corporation, which occupied the structure until 1997 when it moved to suburban Wayzata. Although the corporate offices relocated, the name remained until 2003 under the terms of its lease. Adjacent to the tower is the Minneapolis City Center shopping mall, which occupies the ground level, skyway, and third levels.
The US Bank Plaza is a two-tower high-rise building complex in Minneapolis, Minnesota. US Bank Plaza I is a 561-foot (171 m) tall, 40-floor skyscraper. US Bank Plaza II is a 321-foot (98 m) tall, 23-floor skyscraper. Originally called Pillsbury Center, the complex was completed in 1981. The complex has a 500 car parking garage below and is connected by skyway to the Capella Tower, Hennepin County Government Center, Canadian Pacific Plaza, and the McKnight Building. Tower I served as the corporate headquarters of the Pillsbury Company from its 1981 completion until Pillsbury's acquisition by General Mills in 2001. The name of the building was changed to US Bank Plaza in 2004. The towers are clad in travertine marble and have bronze-tinted reflective windows.
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Occupy Minneapolis (OccupyMN) is a grassroots collaboration that began in October 2011 with a series of demonstrations in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Protesters have staged numerous occupations, most notably of the Hennepin County Government Center plaza.