It was designed by the architecture firm of Hewitt and Brown in the Beaux-Arts style as the headquarters of the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company.

The front entrance has a Palladian loggia style, with a tall archway flanked by Ionic columns and a porch behind it.

Hewitt & Brown had designed two nearby buildings: St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral and the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church a block away.

The site had an odd shape because of the street intersection on which it faced, and Hewitt considered it an "interesting problem".

The company continued to expand, though, so in 1949 they purchased land on the east side of Lake Calhoun between 35th and 36th Streets South.

Northwestern National Life announced plans to build their new headquarters in the Gateway District at the intersection of Hennepin, Nicollet, and Washington Avenues.

In 2011, Kraus Anderson purchased the building and spent 20 million dollars converting it from offices into luxury apartments, which opened in 2012.