Built in the mid-1930s by the federal Works Progress Administration, the Armory is a superb monument in an architectural style that could be called New Deal Moderne—an Art Deco variation that suggests industrial progress and an optimism that better times are coming. The Armory has been not only a training and storage space for the Minnesota National Guard, but also a convention facility and home of the legendary Minneapolis Lakers basketball team.
Since 1998, it’s been an impossibly stylish indoor parking lot, though a rather battered one. Last year, the Hennepin County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution to investigate reuse and renovation possibilities for the Armory, but nothing’s doing as of July. Because of its size and shape, this will be a hard building to renovate. But if done right, it could provide a lift in that no-man’s-land between the downtown core and the Metrodome.
