Tom Meyer Meyer, Scherer and Rockcastle: "The IDS is such a graceful, beautiful tower; it's clearly the best of any contemporary tall building in the area. Every new building that goes up verifies IDS as the premier tower. I think it put Minneapolis on the map -- in one fell swoop -- as a national player."

Joan Soranno HGA Architects and Engineers: "It really hasn't gone out of style. Like most great architecture, it transcends trends. The proportions and the materials are beautiful. It's minimal without being sterile. I like the ethereal nature of the reflective blue glass, which changes depending upon the season or the time of day. Sometimes it can look very gray, and other times it's very blue and very intense. It still looks fresh and it still looks relevant to the 21st century, and that's hard to do. It has also been so well-preserved. When so many other buildings downtown are looking tired or past their prime, the IDS always looks great."
James Dayton James Dayton Design : "It's a wonderful, timeless building. ... It doesn't necessarily speak to a partic- ular era in skyscrapers. It could have been made now. The Crystal Court is by far the best skyway space in the city, and the only one that achieves what is possible in the skyway. It really works as an urban space, the two-story visual connection between the second floor and the street. I wish more of the skyway system would follow the Crystal Court's precedent."

Julie Snow Julie Snow Architects: "It's such an elegant building. [The Crystal Court] is one of the most success-ful interior public spaces ever built. I can't think of anything better. Grand Central [Station, in New York City], maybe. It's really amazing the way that it's woven into the city, the way people use it and the way it has evolved over time. That's rare."

Phillip Koski Leo A Daly: "The Multifoods Tower -- it's called 33 South Sixth now, but to me it's always the Salmon Loaf -- never changes. But the IDS is moody. The glass, and its reflectivity, gives it a chameleon-like presence. That makes it somewhat provocative. Johnson really got the skyways right. They're tall, they're wide, they have those huge areas of plate glass and those skylights. ... I don't want to give Johnson too much credit, because he did some really lousy, anti-urban architecture over the course of his career. In a way, Minneapolis really lucked out, because in that particular moment in history, he had refined his abilities with the modern idiom. It's going to be a great building in another 40 years."