Time Capsule Tower
To escape the intense weekend heat, I retreated to the 18th floor of the Foshay Tower – the first skyscraper west of the Mississippi.
Modeled after the Washington Monument and completed just before the stock market crash of 1929, the historical building is now the first W hotel in the Twin Cities.
The W furnishings and lighting are all nouveau nightclub glam – Carrie and Samantha chic, I guess. But the buildings original detailings remain as they were eighty years ago and were the true signals of style at the hotel.
The elevator doors, the ceiling, the original mail slot…why is nothing today fashioned with such detail and dignity?
Another retro rush of the Foshay tower is its observation deck above the thirty-second floor. To this day the tower remains one of the tallest concrete skyscrapers, second only to the Empire State Building.
Wandering around the Foshay’s narrow decks from way up above in the warm August winds was supremely cinematic.
A gigantic gorilla, second in size only to King Kong, might as well have crawled on up to paw down propellor planes.
It’s good to look at your world from a new vantage point, and to look at your world the way it once was. My hometown W was pretty perfect for doing both.
