Federal Reserve Building—510 Marquette Building
1922-25, 1956, 1968, 1973
The 510 Marquette Building currently functions as an office building. It has a storied history. The Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis was established on May 18, 1914, as one of twelve banks created after signing of the Federal Reserve Act by President Woodrow Wilson. Both Minneapolis and Saint Paul had vied for the bank, with Minneapolis the victor. The Bank serves as the headquarters of the Ninth District which includes Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the upper peninsula of Michigan.
After the passing of the Act, and the selection of Minneapolis as the headquarters, the Bank purchased a tract of land at Fifth Street and Marquette Avenue. Cass Gilbert, who designed the Minnesota Capitol and the United States Supreme Court building, was selected as the architect. The building opened in 1925. The structure cost more than two million dollars. The site cost $600,000.
Construction began in 1922, with the cornerstone laid in 1923. The four-story building was described in the Star Tribune on January 1, 1925, as “an edifice that would furnish a notable addition to the business structures of any community, however proud its architectural traditions.” The article further described the Bank with its front elevation classical with eight thirty-six-foot Corinthian columns, each weighing sixty tons, quarried from Minnesota granite. The building was four stories high with three basements, one of which contained the vault. The building has a steel structure with stone and concrete walls. The stonework is Indiana limestone. The structure was such that three additional floors could be added.
The building was composed of two outer walls. Anyone trying to penetrate the outer wall would encounter the second wall. There was a single entrance on the alley with a huge portcullis, or sliding gate, protecting the entrance where armored vehicles delivered currency.
The building was unusual in that there were no windows on the lower walls facing the street. Only at the top was anyone able to look out onto the street. Security was a priority.
On the street side, a massive bronze single door provided access. This door lowered during business hours, disappearing below the sidewalk. Inside the entrance an Italian Travertine marble stairway led up to the main banking floor. Marble wainscoting and bronze grills fronted the teller’s cages. The building’s second wall served as a lightwell permitting daylight to penetrate the Bank. Large chandeliers, hanging from chains, added light over the stairway, the entrance door, and the lobby. The flat roof of the building housed a summer garden.
By 1945, plans were made, but not executed, to build a four-story addition. In 1954, plans were again made to add eight stories. In 1956, the first major changes were made when an eight-story, five-million-dollar addition was built.
After completion of the addition, the Star Tribune reported on July 9, 1958, that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) moved from St Paul into ninth-floor offices, the move called “a matter of economics.”
By 1968, the building was for sale for $4.6 million dollars. The Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors had approved a new structure in the Gateway Center. By September of 1969, construction of the new building was underway.
After the Federal Reserve moved out of the building in 1973, the new owner, a partnership of New York developers (Tishman and Schwamm) had the lower portion of the building façade covered to better complement the upper addition. The windowless, lower floors were stripped of granite which was replaced with a limestone façade designed by Minneapolis architect, Robert Cerny. Landscape architect, Lawrence Halprin. designed a three-thousand square foot interior garden. In addition, a five-story vault was removed allowing a skyway connection. Upon completion, BMO Bank became the building’s principal tenant. The renovation subsequently received an award for contributing to Minneapolis’ urban environment.
In 2013, the 510 building was sold for $6.69 million. Swervo Development became the new owner.