Hennepin County Government Center

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hennepin County Government Center located in the county seat of Minneapolis

The Hennepin County Government Center is the courthouse and primary county government administration building for Hennepin County in the State of Minnesota. It is located in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, the county seat of Hennepin County. Before its construction, the Hennepin County government offices were housed in the Minneapolis City Hall.

1 Building
2 Location
3 History
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Building

The building was designed by the architectural firm of John Carl Warnecke & Associates. It was dedicated in 1973 and completed in 1977. It is 403 feet (123 meters) tall and has 24 stories. When viewed from the Northeast or Southwest sides, it takes on the appearance of a stylized letter H. This shape serves as the logo of Hennepin County. Each side of the "H" is a separate tower. The towers are connected by catwalk bridges on several floors. The whole is enclosed by glass windows to form an atrium.

The Southeast side is known as the court tower. It houses court rooms. The Northwest side houses administrative offices such as social services.

[edit] Location

The Hennepin County Government Center is built over 6th street using the air rights over the street, which enabled two large plazas to be built in the city blocks.

It is connected by a tunnel to the Minneapolis City Hall, underneath 5th Street and the Hiawatha Line. The Government Plaza Hiawatha line station is between the two buildings. The tunnel also connects to the federal courthouse for the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota.

The building has skyway links to the Thrivent headquarters building and the US Bank Plaza Building (formerly Pillsbury Center).

There is a separate secure tunnel to the Hennepin County Adult Detention center located diagonally across the plaza.

[edit] History

Before its construction, the Hennepin County government offices were housed in the Minneapolis City Hall.

Following a deadly shooting within the court tower in 2003, new security measures were implemented.^[1] New metal detectors were installed, along with X-ray equipment. The 2nd floor lobby service desks at the skyway level were re-configured to accommodate the changes.