RBC Plaza (formerly Dain Bosworth/Nieman Marcus Plaza) is a 39 story, 1,500,000 sf office tower with a 4 story shopping mall at its base, developed for Brookfield Development and located in downtown Minneapolis. The development successfully integrates a small structural bay office tower over the large structural bay retail space. The retail base is clad in stone while the office tower is clad in a taut glass curtain wall, giving each its own identity. The core of the office tower was located to the far side to provide direct access from the street separately from the retail entry and central atrium.

RBC Plaza’s adjacent neighbors include the IDS Center by Philip Johnson and the Wells Fargo Center (formerly Norwest Tower) by Caesar Pelli. The massing of the Wells Fargo Center and the glass skin and faceting of the IDS Center were acknowledged and reinterpreted in Lohan Associates’ design.

There are several similar building types in downtown Minneapolis, where a full block retail building is connected to adjacent buildings by enclosed walkway bridges on the second level, thereby turning the entire downtown into one large shopping center accessible indoors in cold and inclement weather. The RBC Plaza occupies a central location in this hub with distinction.

Completed: 1991
Architect: Lohan Associates