The Qwest Building in Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...

 was completed in 1932 and became the tallest building to be built in the city during the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Named for its current owner, it was previously known as the Northwestern Bell Building. Originally standing 346 feet (105 m) tall, the structure grew to 416 feet (127 m) with the addition of a microwave

Microwave

Microwaves, a subset of radio waves, have wavelengths ranging from as long as one meter to as short as one millimeter, or equivalently, with frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz. This broad definition includes both UHF and EHF , and various sources use different boundaries...

 antenna

Antenna (radio)

An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...

 "crown" in 1958. It was the second-tallest building in the city after the slightly older Foshay Tower

Foshay Tower

The Foshay Tower, now the W Minneapolis – The Foshay hotel, is a skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Modeled after the Washington Monument, the building was completed in 1929, months before the stock market crash in October of that year. It has 32 floors and stands high, plus an antenna mast...

 for many years, and stands slightly taller than the tower of its neighbor, Minneapolis City Hall

Minneapolis City Hall

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, Minnesota as well as by Hennepin County, Minnesota...

.

The building has many small details on the exterior, including electric

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

 bolts and a stylized bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 above the main entrance. When under construction, an unusual move was made by stripping a 1920s Northwestern Bell building on the site and the steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

frame was incorporated into the new structure. The building was expanded on its west side in the 1940s.