Brausen Automotive:
Honoring their roots &
giving customers a unique lobby experience

Watch the behind the scenes building of this original metal diorama created from historic photo from founding gas station 1931 in Little Falls, MN.
Give customers an interesting waiting area
& Unique Business lobby decorating idea
Brausen Automotive Service in Arden Hills, MN is a client of ours and a 3rd generation family owned business.
Family, community and top service to their customers are core values.
They reached out to us to do something over the top to make their lobby inviting and interesting to their customers while honoring their roots.
The business lobby decorating idea was to take a historical picture and create a large scale metal diorama.
Ted Brausen (the owner) showed us an old picture – his father’s first service station in Little Falls, MN.
He wanted it recreated from metal as a showcase in his Arden Hills, MN customer lobby.
We started with the original photo. The elements we chose to highlight in metal were the original TANKAR sign, building, the old car, 2 gas pumps, light pole, commemorative plaque all mounted on a steel frame.



It was a fun and interesting challenge designing and fabricating the individual pieces and making it customer tough for the lobby display.
The steel platform became the base. The building has brick lines added for realism.
In the windows we added the historic photos. In left window is a photo of Liz and Joe Brausen – the original owners. In the right window is the original gas station photo.
The red powder coated frames bring out pops of color.



The original TANKAR name is steel letters offset from the building. It was fun recreating the 2 gas pumps.
We found 2 antique gas handles, added some hose, created multilayer 3D gas pump…and added a backplate with the original gas prices.
Yep – that says 18 cents/gallon!!!
You can fill up for less than a Starbucks coffee.
But to be fair the average salary/year was $1850/year. lol
Brausen has service centers in Arden Hills MN and Roseville MN.
Tell them, SirMetalman sent you! Brausen Automotive
If you are interested in a custom metal job – contact us.