The home of the Minnesota Orchestra, it is a major landmark of the southern portion of Nicollet Mall and hosts many events throughout the year.

The auditorium is actually a second building separated for acoustical reasons by a one-inch gap from the "shell" which contains the lobby and various administrative offices.

The lobby area's original "power plant" design was meant to remove tones of class and privilege from the symphony-going experience; it was upgraded in late 1997 and included several bars.

[6] The lobby was doubled in size, a cross-aisle in the auditorium was added, and new and larger seats were installed, reducing their number by 365 for a total of 2085.

[7] While aspects of the interior design in the auditorium had a mixed reception,[8] the acoustics were highly praised, [8][9][10] and called "almost too good to be true".