It started with this.

I was googling for info on Moab, for reasons that don't matter here. Or possibly anywhere else. The origin of the photo was the "US National Archives and Records Administration," and I thought I'd see what they had on Minneapolis. Googling led to a Wikipedia page, and that brings us to this:

How many separate entities do you see? That's different from how many buildings. I see five. Don't forgrt the blue patch.

It was taken to celebrate the construction of the IDS and its final victory over the runty Foshay. The tall structures on right and left side? The Curtis Hotel. It's part of the same complex. Two wings flanking low-rise structures from the teens.

The details on the picture were interesting: it belonged to the EPA, which send out photographers to "Photographically Document Subjects of Environmental Concern." Donald Emmerich, a commercial photographer with a substantial rep, shot more than the IDS. He wandered around the Nicollet Mall, snapping candids.

The pictures are small and they're all in need of color-correction, but it's not impossible to restore them to their 70s glory. Here's one:

I remember that, but I don't remember where it was. The material was a pebbly aggregate that was absolutely no fun to sit on with bare legs.

Another shot. (If the images are a bit squeezed, it's because . . . I don't know why. Yes, the image properties are correct in the code; it's inexplicable. But you can drag it to your desktop for the true size.) (Apologies.)

That little fountain was across from the NSP building, by the McDonald's. It went dry years before it was removed, and always seemed to be a sad little thing. Hey, I'm just sculpture now, and that's okay!

More to come; you can browse the page yourself, or wait for me to fix them.