The Foshay Tower nameplate in Minneapolis

This is the bronze nameplate from the Foshay Tower in Minneapolis, Minnesota which is on display in the building’s museum and observation deck (on the 30th floor). The architectural style and details of the building’s exterior and interior feature primarily elements of Art Deco and Moderne elements. The lettering of the nameplate, meanwhile suggests the curvilinear elasticity and type style of Victorian typographic and lithographic printing merging with Art Nouveau—characteristics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It’s interesting that the nameplate typography signals qualities of the future while alluding to typographic forms of the past.

The Foshay Tower was completed in 1929 by Wilber B. Foshay and was for many years the tallest skyscraper in Minneapolis. The building was designed by the Magney & Tusler, architects as a classical obelisk and homage to the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.