A Decade After Foshay Tower Work, Brandon Painter Recounts High-Altitude Project and Star Removal

A personal milestone tied to a Minneapolis landmark

Ten years after working hundreds of feet above downtown Minneapolis, a west-central Minnesota painter is again drawing attention to a little-known chapter in the upkeep of the Foshay Tower, the 32-story Art Deco skyscraper that has anchored the city’s skyline since 1929. The painter, Tom Slack of Slack Painting in Brandon, was hired in late 2015 to work on the tower’s antenna mast area, a job that also led to the removal of a large illuminated red star that had been mounted near the top.

The project linked a small-town contractor with one of Minnesota’s best-known historic high-rises. The Foshay Tower was constructed between 1927 and 1929 and was designed by the firm Magney and Tusler. It was Minneapolis’ tallest building when completed and remains a designated historic property, with protections that include the exterior and the interior lobby. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Work at the tower: painting and a hazardous-looking fixture

Slack’s assignment focused on the tower’s uppermost exterior elements. During the work, Slack and his team were asked to remove the star to clear older attachments from the structure. Slack has said the star was large, approximately 20 feet by 20 feet, and that its mounting raised concerns about the possibility of parts loosening and falling.

• The star was taken down in pieces using a rope-and-pulley setup and guided to the roof before being disassembled.
• Slack transported it to Brandon, reassembled it, and installed it on his business building with new lighting while keeping the original structure.
• Slack recorded the climb and removal process on a GoPro and later posted the video online.

Unanswered questions about the star’s origins

Despite its prominent size and placement, the star’s backstory remains unclear. Slack has said no one involved in the job could provide a definitive account of when it was installed or where it came from. Slack described finding older lighting components still attached to the fixture, suggesting it had been in place for an extended period.

Why the Foshay Tower continues to draw attention

The Foshay Tower’s history is tightly tied to its namesake, utilities entrepreneur Wilbur Foshay. The building debuted during Labor Day weekend in 1929 with a major public celebration, only to be followed weeks later by the stock market crash that helped trigger the Great Depression. Foshay’s financial empire collapsed soon afterward, and he lost control of the building.

The star now displayed in Brandon functions as a tangible souvenir of a specialized, high-risk maintenance job on a nationally recognized Minneapolis landmark.

Today, the tower operates as the W Minneapolis–The Foshay, combining hotel and public-facing historical features, including an observation level that keeps the building connected to both residents and visitors nearly a century after it first opened.