I spent a few days in St. Paul and Minneapolis and what stood out most was how much of their architectural identity is still intact. There’s a lot of heavy stone, cathedral domes, early high-rises, and old theatre marquees, buildings that were clearly designed to last.
Neither city feels flashy or constantly reinventing itself. Instead, the older architecture still defines the streets, and that gives the Twin Cities a steady character that feels shaped by their history rather than replaced by something newer.