Beyond the glass curtain

The Ameriprise Financial Center on 7th and Second Ave. So. fits gridded window panes into a stone matrix, evolving away from the cheerless, insistant reflection of a pure glass curtain wall. Interestingly, this building replaces the first Lutheran Brotherhood Building erected here in 1955 and torn down in 1997 -- interesting, because the LB was the first fully glass-walled building downtown.