The First National Bank Building is a historic building in

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...

Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the former headquarters of the First National Bank of Albuquerque. The nine-story building was completed in 1923 and was considered the city's first

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

with an overall height of . It remained the tallest building in the city until 1954, when it was surpassed by the

Simms Building The Simms Building is historic high-rise office building in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Designed by Flatow and Moore and completed in 1954, it was the city's first large-scale modernist building and is regarded as "Albuquerque’s best exam ...

. The building was designed by Henry C. Trost of the

Trost & Trost Trost & Trost Architects & Engineers, often known as Trost & Trost, was an architecture firm based in El Paso, Texas. The firm's chief designer was Henry Charles Trost, who was born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1860. Trost moved from Chicago to Tucson, ...

firm, who was also responsible for several other nearby structures including the

Rosenwald Building The Rosenwald Building is a historic building located in Downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. Designed by Henry Trost of the El Paso firm of Trost & Trost and built in 1910, it was the first reinforced concrete building in the city. It is a massive t ...

, Occidental Life Building, and

Sunshine Building The Sunshine Building is a historic six-story building in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was built in 1924 by local theater owner Joseph Barnett and houses the Sunshine Theater as well as commercial space and offices. The Sunshine operated p ...

. It was listed on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties in 1978 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

History

The First National Bank Building was built in 1922-23, replacing an older building at Second and Gold Streets as the headquarters of the First National Bank. The bank commissioned the El Paso firm of

to design the building, with Henry C. Trost as the lead architect. The bank's president John M. Raynolds wrote in a letter that Trost "seemed to catch our ideas of what kind of a building we wanted and what kind of a banking room we wanted, and put them on paper immediately. ...We are especially pleased with the design Mr. Trost made of the exterior of the building and believe that it requires an artist like Mr. Trost to give a building distinction and individuality." with At , the nine-story building was the tallest in the city and was often referred to as Albuquerque's first skyscraper. An ''

Albuquerque Journal The ''Albuquerque Journal'' is the largest newspaper in the U.S. state of New Mexico. History The ''Golden Gate'' newspaper was founded in June 1880. In the fall of 1880, the owner of the ''Golden Gate'' died and Journal Publishing Company was c ...

'' writer described the view from the roof of the building in 1923: In addition to the bank, the building housed offices for many of the city's most prominent doctors, lawyers, and other professionals. Most of the third floor was occupied by the Lovelace Clinic until it moved to its own building in 1950. The First National Bank Building remained the tallest building in Albuquerque until the

was completed in 1954. First National Bank sold the building after moving its headquarters to First Plaza in 1975, but reacquired it in 1990 and moved some of its departments back in. First National's successor First Security Bank owned the building until 1999, when it was purchased by a private developer with the intent to convert it into a luxury hotel. Plans later changed, and the building was instead remodeled into a high-end condominium project called The Banque Lofts, which opened in 2006.

Architecture

The First National Bank Building is an L-shaped structure occupying the northeast corner of 3rd Street and Central Avenue. Architecturally, it is divided into three sections: a two-story base, a six-story main block, and a one-story crown. The base contains the original double-height banking hall and a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...

and is distinguished by a row of high arched windows extending all the way around the building, even into the alley. It is further ornamented with scrolls, rosettes, medallions, and moldings. The ninth floor is set off with a

string course A belt course, also called a string course or sill course, is a continuous row or layer of stones or brick set in a wall. Set in line with window sills, it helps to make the horizontal line of the sills visually more prominent. Set between the ...

and decorated with corner medallions and a heavy

cornice In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...

. The building has a concrete frame and includes a full basement and two

mechanical floors A mechanical floor, mechanical penthouse, mechanical layer or mechanical level is a story of a high-rise building that is dedicated to mechanical and electronics equipment. "Mechanical" is the most commonly used term, but words such as ''utilit ...

. The banking lobby has a high coffered ceiling supported by two rows of octagonal columns and continues the arched window pattern on all four sides. On the blind walls, the arches are filled with mirrors to increase the apparent size of the room. A mezzanine was added on the north side in the 1940s. The lobby area was renovated into office space in 2017 but still includes most of the original details including the bank vault.

References

External links

*
First National Bank Building
(Emporis)
The Banque Lofts
{{Buildings in Albuquerque timeline Residential skyscrapers in Albuquerque, New Mexico Bank buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in New Mexico Trost & Trost buildings Commercial buildings completed in 1922 First New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties National Register of Historic Places in Albuquerque, New Mexico 1922 establishments in New Mexico