Temple Of Luxury

摘要

As the stock market crashed, so too did the church's plans for additional buildings. When the tower was sold in 1965, it was renamed Ivy Tower, and its reading areas and classrooms were converted to office rental space. In 1986, the Minneapolis Heritage Preservation Commission awarded it historic designation. But it was boarded up in 1994 and for a period faced the wrecking ball: The building's shape and pedigree were unique, but its exterior declasse. Meanwhile, a local designer, Bob Brantingham, had been keeping an eye on the lonely, often vandalized building from his office nearby. In 2000, he convinced two developers, Gary Benson and Jeffrey Laux, to purchase the building, by then a bare concrete shell inside. Benson and Laux turned to local architects Walsh Bishop Associates to implement the concepts the developers sold to the Luxury Collection of Starwood Hotels: a new 25-floor condominium tower and 18-story hotel tower attached via a vertical glass "zipper" and wrapping two sides of the historic Ivy-the latter transformed into a restaurant, a spa, and hotel suites.