Bridgeport Center (also known as the People's Bank Building) is a continuous complex of low to mid-rise office buildings in downtown Bridgeport, Connecticut. The complex served as the headquarters of

People's United Financial People's United Financial, Inc. was an American bank holding company that owns People's United Bank. The bank operated 403 branches in Connecticut, southeastern New York State, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire. It is the second-l ...

, now a subsidiary of

M&T Bank M&T Bank Corporation (Manufacturers and Traders Trust Company) is an American bank holding company headquartered in Buffalo, New York. It operates 1680 branches in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts ...

. It is to serve as the regional headquarters of M&T Bank in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. It was designed by Richard Meier & Partners Architects LLP and finished construction in 1989. The complex was built in part of efforts to revitalize the city's Downtown. Perhaps best known for its central tower, this 18-story

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

style building, at tall, is the tallest building in Bridgeport. It is adjacent to the

Barnum Museum The Barnum Museum is a museum at 820 Main Street in Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States. It has an extensive collection related to P. T. Barnum and the history of Bridgeport, and is housed in a historic building on the National Register o ...

. The building is located at 850 Main Street on the site of the First National Bank Building, which shared the same address. PostcardFirstBptNatBankBridgeportCT1916

Law firm Pullman & Comley LLC also has space in the complex.

Design

Bridgeport Center has a gross total of of interior space. The form of the building consists of a continuous fabric of low to mid-rise office buildings. A seven-story parking garage resides on the eastern portion of the building's base, with access to the lobby

atrium Atrium may refer to: Anatomy * Atrium (heart), an anatomical structure of the heart * Atrium, the genital structure next to the genital aperture in the reproductive system of gastropods * Atrium of the ventricular system of the brain * Pulmona ...

and elevators. The ground floor also houses a People's United Financial branch.

Tower

Bridgeport Center viewed from the ground

An 18-story tower rises from the complex, clad with

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

and

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

facades. The southern face of the tower is primarily made of granite and is in the shape of a

rectangular prism In geometry, a cuboid is a hexahedron, a six-faced solid. Its faces are quadrilaterals. Cuboid means "like a cube", in the sense that by adjusting the length of the edges or the angles between edges and faces a cuboid can be transformed into a cub ...

, with a 1x2x2

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News g ...

shape of thick granite pillars forming the tower's distinguishing roof piece. To the north of the granite portion of the tower, a wider white portion holds most of the tower's area. On the west face, this part of the building has a central curve inward. The roof of this portion contains two mechanical penthouses that are stacked on top of each other, each having a greater setback than the last.

In popular culture

* The building is featured on a

plaque Plaque may refer to: Commemorations or awards * Commemorative plaque, a plate or tablet fixed to a wall to mark an event, person, etc. * Memorial Plaque (medallion), issued to next-of-kin of dead British military personnel after World War I * Pla ...

Library Way The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch, 42nd Street Library or the New York Public Library, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. T ...

Midtown Manhattan Midtown Manhattan is the central portion of the New York City borough of Manhattan and serves as the city's primary central business district. Midtown is home to some of the city's most prominent buildings, including the Empire State Buildin ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridgeport Center (Bridgeport, Connecticut) Office buildings in Connecticut Headquarters in the United States Office buildings completed in 1989

Design

Tower

In popular culture

See also

References