Designed by Thomas R. Kimball, the older structure features a Mesopotamian style as a rare example of the Ziggurat form of architecture in Minneapolis.

Designed as a small-scale "skyscraper", it originally housed administrative offices, classrooms, and reading rooms and was intended to be the first phase of what would be four towers surrounding a main church building.

In 1986, the Minneapolis City Council's Zoning and Planning Committee voted to affirm the recommendation of historic designation.

The older building was remodeled to include several single-floor hotel rooms and a two-level suite furnished with a baby grand piano priced at $3,000 a night.

The condominiums, most of them initially priced at more than $1 million, included full use of the hotel's amenities, like the food, valet and maid service and the 17,000-square-foot (1,600 m2) spa.