ATTRACTS WIDE ATTENTION
Minneapolis Manufacturing Building Rouses Interest in the East
With the ground floor plan and complementary references, Howard Knowlton devotes over page of matter in the Engineering Record of New York to the new Cream of Wheat building in Minneapolis he begins with this statement that it is unusual in these days for a manufacturing establishment to be built in the heart of a city’s business district when good sites can be secured, at lower cost in the less thickly settled sections, he says that the tendency of the times seems to be a concentration of office buildings, retail stores and wholesale houses in downtown sections leaving the outlying regions to the factories. From the standpoint of architecture the modern factory building cannot be called an ornament to a city street except in rare instances, one of which is found in the new structure of the Cream of Wheat company rapidly approaching completion at 5th St. and 1st Avenue North.
Enclosing a technical description of the plant, Mr. Knowlton speaks of a feature which first attracts the attention of the casual observer: “Part of the lot to the east of the building, about 44 by 100 feet, will be devoted to an open air Italian garden for the use of employees during the noon hours, etc. A roof garden will also be built over the engineerroom.” the writer calls attention to the fact that a large part of the second floor will be devoted to the comfort of employees, many of whom are women. The arrangements includes a grill, cafe, locker and restroom. To the uninitiated it is interesting to know one the most of the manufacturing is to be done on the third floor leaving the remainder of the building for storage of raw materials- wheat “middlings”. The floors are built to withstand easily a pressure of 300 pounds per square foot.
-Minneapolis Journal
November 19th, 1904
The Cream of Wheat company moved to a larger facilty in Northeast Minneapolis in 1928. The old downtown Cream of Wheat building was converted into a parking garage in 1931 and demolished in 1939.