Bank of America Plaza is a skyscraper located in between Midtown Atlanta and Downtown Atlanta, otherwise known as the SoNo district of Atlanta, Georgia. At 317 m (1,040 ft) the tower is the 60th-tallest building in the world. It is the 10th tallest building in the U.S. and the tallest building in Georgia. It is also the tallest building in any U.S. state capital, and the tallest building in the United States outside of Chicago and New York City (although it will soon lose that title to three currently under-construction skyscrapers). It has 55 stories of office space and was completed in 1992, when it was called NationsBank Plaza. Originally intended to be the headquarters for Citizens & Southern National Bank (which merged with Sovran Bank during construction), it became NationsBank's property following its formation in the 1991 hostile takeover of C&S/Sovran by NCNB.
As of 2014, the largest tenant is the law firm of Troutman Sanders.
Architectural details
The building was developed by Cousins Properties and designed by the architectural firm Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates LLC. Designed in the Art Déco style and built in only 14 months, one of the fastest construction schedules for any 1,000 ft (300 m) building. The Plaza's imposing presence is heightened by the dark color of its exterior. It soars into the sky with vertical lines that reinforce its height while also creating an abundance of revenue-generating corner offices. Located over 3.7 acres (1.5 ha) on Peachtree Street, the tower faces its border streets at a 45-degree angle to maximize the views to the north and south (midtown and downtown).
There is a 90 ft (27 m) obelisk-like spire at the top of the building echoing the shape of the building as a whole. Most of the spire is covered in 23 karat (96 percent) gold leaf. The open-lattice steel pyramid underneath the obelisk glows yellow-orange at night due to lighting. Originally, the lattice was designed to be clad in glass, but the engineers failed to take the weight of the glass into account. At its most basic, this is a modern interpretation of the Art Deco theme seen in the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. The inhabited part of the building actually ends abruptly with a flat roof. On top of this is built a pyramid of girders, which are gilded and blaze at night, with the same type of yellow-orange high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting now used in most street lights. Its design has been characterized as similar to the Messeturm in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
Some low-power TV stations have shared an antenna at the top of the building: WANN-LP 32, WANN-CD 29, and construction permits for WTBS-LP 26 and WTBS-LD 30. (These are two co-owned stations and their digital companions, all co-owned; the digital ones have moved or applied to move to the North Druid Hills site.) Also on the building was WDTA-LP 53, which moved about a half-mile (800m) south to the SunTrust Plaza, where it switched to digital TV in 2010. In addition, the tower also hosts several amateur radio repeaters.
Bank of America Plaza Atlanta is colloquially known as The Pencil Building due to its pencil-like shape, or The Cigarette due to its illuminated top ).
Renovations and sustainable building initiative
As of 2014, the building is undergoing a $30 million renovations to the lobby, health club, and conference facility. In October, it completed the Phase I renovation with the completion of its new health club, RPM. In November, building management announced Phase II renovation of the building lobby. It is also in the process of becoming Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) compliant. The building and property management was awarded Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce E3 Liquid Assets, a recognition in water sustainability. Midtown Atlanta's Midtown Alliance also recognized it as an EcoDistrict Green Luminary for its significant commitment to sustainability practices.
Building ownership
According to published reports in Commercial Property News and Commercial Mortgage Alert, the building was sold for $436 million - a record price at $348 per square foot ($3746 per square meter) - to BentleyForbes, a Los Angeles real estate investment firm headed by C. Frederick Wehba. That was offset by the tower's foreclosure in 2012 when LNR and lenders took the loan back from BentleyForbes for $235 million, half its peak price.
In 2013, CWCapital Asset Management, division of CW Financial Services, took over the asset management, sponsoring and representing the building's bond holders from LNR. Together with real estate services company Cushman & Wakefield and property manager Onyx Equities, the building is undergoing capital improvements - a multi-million comeback that could top $30 million by 2018.
Urban design
The skyscraper, built at a 45-degree angle to the city's street grid, is set back off its eastern and western street boundaries, Peachtree Street and West Peachtree Street, by over 50 yards (45 m). This setback is filled, variously, by driveways, parking garage entrances, potted plants, granite staircases, and sloping lawns. The building directly abuts the sidewalk on North Avenue, its northern boundary, with access to this street through a parking garage entrance and stairs leading from the building's main lobby.
Some urban planners decry the building as a Corbusian "tower in a park", as it actively disengages itself from the urban environment surrounding it, entirely omitting sidewalk-facing retail space. Critics argue that the building encourages its tenants to access it primarily by car and to remain inside the complex during the day. However it is across the street from the MARTA-rail North Avenue station.
In recent years, developers have rumored that the land under the surrounding driveways and lawns may soon be ripe for redevelopment into low- and mid-rise mixed-use buildings with street-fronting uses as the area urbanizes and the value of land in Midtown Atlanta increases. As of 2014, new sidewalks, pavers, ADA ramps, pedestrian light-poles, improved tree wells, new bike racks and landscaping are in planning stages. These neighborhood improvements are slated to be completed by 2016 at a cost of $1.04 million.
Gallery
See also
- List of tallest buildings in the United States
- List of tallest buildings by U.S. state
- List of tallest buildings in Atlanta
- Downtown Atlanta
- Midtown Atlanta
References
ArrayExternal links
- Official building website
- Bank of America Plaza on CTBUH Skyscraper Center
- Emporis listing
- SkyscraperPage listing
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