The historic Minnesota building that became known as the Ivy Tower was abandoned and boarded up for more than a decade. It has since been restored and is now the crown jewel in one of Minnesota’s best hotels.

Construction on the building, with its distinctive ziggurat-style architecture, was completed in 1930.
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It was originally commissioned as the Second Church of Christ Scientist in Minneapolis.
An investment company purchased the building from the church in 1965, renamed it “The Ivy Tower,” and converted it to use as an office building.
Hotel Ivy/Facebook
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986. In 1990, a developer sought to demolish the building in order to create 25 parking spaces. After the permit was denied, the developer boarded up the building in 1993, and it stood abandoned for more than a decade.
In the early 2000s, a new developer was granted a permit to incorporate the tower into a larger development.
Zach Korb/Flickr
Ground broke on the project in 2006. The lot surrounding the Ivy Tower was carefully excavated.

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The planned hotel and residences was built around the historic building.
Payton Chung from Chicago, USA - Ivy Tower Uploaded by xnatedawgx/Wikimedia Commons
Once the 300-foot skyscrapers were complete, renovation work began on the boarded-up Ivy Tower.
Todd Murray/Flickr
The historic Ivy Tower is now the crown jewel of its namesake Hotel Ivy + Residences in Minneapolis.
Hotel Ivy/Facebook

The Ivy Tower’s happy ending is also a boon for the guests and residents of this world-class hotel in Minnesota. In fact, with its downtown location, the Hotel Ivy + Residences is central to all that Minneapolis has to offer. For more information about the hotel and its amenities, visit Hotel Ivy’s website.

Have you seen the Ivy Tower in Minneapolis, or do you remember it before its restoration? What other historic buildings in Minnesota have been abandoned and left to decay, only to be restored to new-found glory?

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Hotel Ivy, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Minneapolis, South 11th Street, Minneapolis, MN, USA