Hewing Hotel

Hewing Hotel occupies the historic Jackson Building in Minneapolis’ North Loop, a former warehouse and farm-equipment showroom dating from 1897. This was working architecture. Timber, machinery and agricultural equipment moved through the building, while railway tracks running into the basement connected it to the wider Midwest. When Aparium Hotel Group converted the property into a 124-room hotel in 2016, the smartest decision was also the simplest: leave as much of that history visible as possible. Brick walls, timber beams, wood floors and substantial columns remain an essential part of the experience.

Nordic, Minnesota Style

Local practice Elness Swenson Graham Architects — ESG — looked to Minnesota’s deep Scandinavian roots for the design. But rather than filling the place with predictable pale woods and minimalist furniture, the Nordic influence is layered onto the rugged warehouse shell. Custom wallcoverings, textiles, patterned blankets and locally sourced artwork soften the industrial architecture, while darker woods and dusky colours give the rooms considerably more warmth than stereotypical Scandinavian minimalism. Faribault Woolen Mill throws provide perhaps the most appropriate finishing touch: local, practical and designed for a climate where blankets are taken seriously.

A Hotel That Became a Neighbourhood Living Room

Like many of Aparium’s most successful hotels, Hewing was conceived as much for Minneapolis as for visitors. The ground floor functions as a large communal living room, where hotel guests mix with North Loop residents over coffee, dinner and drinks. That idea proved successful enough that, almost a decade after opening, the original design team returned to update the interiors. The approach was evolutionary rather than revolutionary: rethink how certain public areas function, refine the guest rooms and improve the hotel without sacrificing the identity that had made it popular in the first place.

Rooms With Industrial Bones

The 124 guestrooms let the Jackson Building do much of the decorative work. Exposed brick and substantial timber elements are balanced by rich colours, mid-century-influenced furniture, locally inspired artwork and those reassuringly thick Minnesota blankets. There is polish, but not too much of it. The best rooms still feel like they belong inside an old warehouse rather than behind the anonymous walls of a newly constructed lifestyle hotel.

Tullibee and the North

The restaurant is called Tullibee, after a freshwater fish found in Minnesota’s northern lakes. Its original concept took its cues from the state’s forests, lakes and rural cooking traditions, interpreting the region through a contemporary Nordic lens. Wood-fire cooking sits naturally within that story, as does an emphasis on local produce and ingredients. It is exactly the kind of restaurant a hotel like Hewing needs: connected to where it is rather than simply imported into the building.

Up on the Roof

The rooftop may be Hewing’s most memorable piece of Minneapolis logic. There is a bar, skyline views and an outdoor pool during the warmer months. Then winter arrives. Instead of closing down, the pool becomes a hot tub and guests can retreat to a large cedar sauna before stepping back out into the Minnesota cold. It is Nordic wellness without the wellness branding — and considerably more fun for it.

Why It Works

Hewing Hotel could easily have become another exposed-brick warehouse conversion. What makes it stronger is the specificity. The building is Minneapolis. The materials are Minneapolis. The wool blankets, local spirits, food traditions and Scandinavian references all make sense here. Aparium and ESG understood that the Jackson Building did not need a new identity imposed on it. It needed its existing one brought back to life.