Tallest between Manhattan and Chicago? An Atlanta peach
After a review on the play, The Inquirer's call on which is the tallest U.S. building between Manhattan and Chicago stands corrected.
After a review on the play, The Inquirer's call on which is the tallest U.S. building between Manhattan and Chicago stands corrected.
Apologies to civic boosters in Atlanta . . . and readers in Philadelphia.
Since the first Comcast employees occupied the Comcast Center in 2008, the newspaper has referenced the cable-TV company's headquarters, an A.M. Stern-designed 974-foot skyscraper, as the tallest U.S. building between Manhattan and Chicago.
Oops.
That would be true - if the United States' southern border ended at South Carolina.
It may not be a straight line to the west - but to the west, indeed, it is. Sitting there in downtown Atlanta all these years has been the iconic and giant Bank of America Plaza - at 1,040 feet, a significant 66 feet taller than the Comcast Center, according to the official list from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
"I won't ding you for it, but it's been around a long time," said Lisa Dunavin, senior director at Cushman & Wakefield and the leasing agent for the Atlanta skyscraper, in an interview on Monday.
Among local institutions, she said, the Bank of America Plaza - the eye-grabbing image in panoramic photos of Atlanta's skyline - belongs with the Braves and the Georgia Aquarium.
"The tallest building in the Southeast," Dunavin called it affectionately, adding that it's a "beautiful architectural statement."
At one time, she said, the Bank of America Plaza ranked eighth in the nation among the tallest buildings. Now it's 10th, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, just below the New York Times Tower (1,046 feet tall) and just above the U.S. Bank Tower in Los Angeles (1,018 feet tall).
The last few years have been difficult for the Atlanta landmark. The building changed ownership at the height of the real estate boom when it was nearly fully leased. Its fortunes crashed with banking stocks and the national economy.
An article on Friday in the Atlanta Business Chronicle noted a new plan afoot to renovate the Bank of America Plaza for $30 million, with upgrades to the lobby, conference and fitness center, and a "chef-driven restaurant." Tax incentives have been approved to draw lease-paying tenants.
Some say that the office market in downtown Atlanta could be on the rebound. Coca-Cola, a company as important to the Atlanta-area economy as Comcast is to Philadelphia, has said it would relocate 2,000 workers from the suburbs to downtown.
"Still," the article noted, "Bank of America Plaza's vacancy is daunting - equivalent to two empty 300,000-square-foot towers."
As for the future, Comcast's new Norman Foster-designed tower announced last Wednesday will soar 1,121 feet - taller than the Comcast Center and, yes, the Bank of America Plaza.
215-854-5897
@bobfernandez1
