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What were the tallest skyscrapers never built in southern cities?

Atlside

By Atlside
in USA South

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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Most likely the 100 story proposed headquarters for First Union Bank in Charlotte. (Now known as Wachovia) The were very close to announcing it in 1999 but the downturn in the economy forced them to reconsider the decision and then when they took over Wachovia bank, those plans were put on permanent hold. It might have been the tallest tower in the USA at the time.

There were two different designs considered:

firstunionnew.jpg

first_union%204.jpg

Against the 1999 skyline

firstunion100.jpg

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vdogg Megalopolis

vdogg

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Most likely the 100 story proposed headquarters for First Union Bank in Charlotte. (Now known as Wachovia) The were very close to announcing it in 1999 but the downturn in the economy forced them to reconsider the decision and then when they took over Wachovia bank, those plans were put on permanent hold. It might have been the tallest tower in the USA at the time.

There were two different designs considered:

firstunionnew.jpg

^^^This looks suspiciously like the RSA battlehouse tower in Mobile.

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Atlside Whistle-Stop

Atlside

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Or quite possibly this 6,864 ft, 500-floor monster in Houston that was posted in the Louisiana forum the other day.

I'm assuming this never left the visionary stage but I'm not sure.

Are you sure that building was 6,864 ft?

This is what I found for Houston's tallest that was never built.

Bank of the Southwest Tower 1,404 ft 82 floors

BankOfSouthwest.jpgbankofsw.gif

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dimebag1980 Metropolis

dimebag1980

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Are you sure that building was 6,864 ft?

This is what I found for Houston's tallest that was never built.

Bank of the Southwest Tower 1,404 ft 82 floors

BankOfSouthwest.jpgbankofsw.gif

Yeah I'm familiar with the Bank of Southwest Tower. That eventually did get built, but in Philadelphia rather than Houston. It became One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, though slightly redesigned from the original proposal.

This other building was posted by Dan326 in the Louisiana forum, so I'm going by what he said about the height. I believe he read that somewhere, though I don't know where. I'm going to try and find it myself and see what kind of source it is.

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Atlside Whistle-Stop

Atlside

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Yeah I'm familiar with the Bank of Southwest Tower. That eventually did get built, but in Philadelphia rather than Houston. It became One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, though slightly redesigned from the original proposal.

This other building was posted by Dan326 in the Louisiana forum, so I'm going by what he said about the height. I believe he read that somewhere, though I don't know where. I'm going to try and find it myself and see what kind of source it is.

Yes, that photo you posted was for a skyscraper proposed for Houoston. But, it wasn't taller than 2,000 feet. It may have been shorter than the proposed Southwest Tower. I remember that building was shown in the 1980s in 2 different major architecture magazines.

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atlrvr Metropolitan Area

atlrvr

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I'm glad someone else thought that as well... it certainly does, just on a larger scale.

That's because it was designed by TVS also. When they got fired from the First Union project, they kept the design in reserves, and used most of the elements for RSA's tower in Mobile.

The second rendering was from KPF, who First Union hired after firing TVS.....interestingly, that went back to TVS for the desing on the tower now currently under construction in Charlotte.

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Plasticman Hamlet

Plasticman

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That's a pretty tower, and would have been stunning for Charlotte. Can anyone find any Tallests for TN or FL?

For Nashville it's actually quite ironic. According SSP, there was a "fantasy" building called "Silver Tower" which was to rise 60 floors / 1,000 feet by the year 2,010. That was their FANTASY!!

And now they have Signature Tower definitely going up which is even taller 65 floors / 1,057 feet. Talk about irony. Their reality is more than their fantasy and looks a heck of a lot better. :blink:

On the other end of the state, Memphis is just not getting a lot of breaks. They don't even have any fantasies. Just mid-rise proposals.

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monsoon Gigalopolis

monsoon

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On the other end of the state, Memphis is just not getting a lot of breaks. They don't even have any fantasies. Just mid-rise proposals.

Honestly my favorite cities are those with a lot of mid-rise development than one with one single out of place tall skyscraper. DC, London, Tokyo all very very liveable great places that are almost all midrise development.

There is a reason that a lot of these monster skyscrapers did not get built... They don't make any sense in the places they are proposed.

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Charlotteman Burg

Charlotteman

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I'm one of those folks who's glad the "giant feather" Four First Union was never built in Charlotte. Talk about a behemouth!!!!!

Out of scale, bizarre, it would have been an eyesore for a looooooooooooooong time:(

However I think the version similar to RSA was quite beautiful. It's a shame that one never materialized.

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dan326 City

dan326

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Yeah I'm familiar with the Bank of Southwest Tower. That eventually did get built, but in Philadelphia rather than Houston. It became One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, though slightly redesigned from the original proposal.

This other building was posted by Dan326 in the Louisiana forum, so I'm going by what he said about the height. I believe he read that somewhere, though I don't know where. I'm going to try and find it myself and see what kind of source it is.

I got that information from emporis.

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Plasticman Hamlet

Plasticman

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Honestly my favorite cities are those with a lot of mid-rise development than one with one single out of place tall skyscraper. DC, London, Tokyo all very very liveable great places that are almost all midrise development.

There is a reason that a lot of these monster skyscrapers did not get built... They don't make any sense in the places they are proposed.

Good point. Memphis is one of my favorite cities and certainly has an urban feel mixed with the smell of southern barbeque.

Although I hardly call Signature tower out of place nor do I call RSA such. Even BOA Charlotte stuck up all alone. In all those cases, they are/weren't out of place, they are/were just waiting for their friends to arrive. ;)

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ariesjow Hamlet

ariesjow

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Good point. Memphis is one of my favorite cities and certainly has an urban feel mixed with the smell of southern barbeque.

Although I hardly call Signature tower out of place nor do I call RSA such. Even BOA Charlotte stuck up all alone. In all those cases, they are/weren't out of place, they are/were just waiting for their friends to arrive. ;)

I tend to agree with you on the "waiting" for friends thing. "Sticking out" shouldn't necessarily be a reason developers should shy away from building talls. Pretty much every U.S. city I can think of where a tower was built substantially taller than the city's other towers eventually got other taller, "balancing" towers as well - NYC, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Charlotte, etc. If anything, the building of tallest in those places encouraged more developers to build taller.

I also don't buy into the argument that building taller towers necessarily harm the future urban fabric of economically strong cities still filling in.

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johnnydr87 Burg

johnnydr87

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Or quite possibly this 6,864 ft, 500-floor monster in Houston that was posted in the Louisiana forum the other day.

I'm assuming this never left the visionary stage but I'm not sure.

x43u3q.jpg

Over a mile.

Whoa.

Yeah, there's no way they could lease out the rooms in a city the size of houston. Maybe Tokyo.

The WTC Centers had 50,000 people.

Yeah.....there's no way that could be 6000+ feet.

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Plasticman Hamlet

Plasticman

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Over a mile.

Whoa.

Yeah, there's no way they could lease out the rooms in a city the size of houston. Maybe Tokyo.

The WTC Centers had 50,000 people.

Yeah.....there's no way that could be 6000+ feet.

Look at the number of floors. In order to be 6,000 feet, those floors would have to be at least 100 feet tall each.

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dimebag1980 Metropolis

dimebag1980

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Look at the number of floors. In order to be 6,000 feet, those floors would have to be at least 100 feet tall each.

Look at the number of floors. In order to be 6,000 feet, those floors would have to be at least 100 feet tall each.

How do you figure that?

6,864 ft / 500 floors = 13.7 (14 ft)/floor

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