Raymond James Tower is a 21-story

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 ...

and is the second tallest building in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. The building is located at the corner of North Front Street and Jefferson Avenue and South Main Street. It is tall, including a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

, and has of office space.RJ tower
Parkway Properties . Retrieved September 19, 2010. It is currently owned by

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

based

Parkway Properties Parkway Properties, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings in the Sun Belt. In 2016, the company was acquired by Cousins Properties. Notable properties owned by the company included Liberty Place, Phoenix ...

, which has owned the building since 1997. The company once owned six other buildings in Memphis, but has since sold them off. As of July 2008, the building was 100% occupied.

Structure

The building is clad in carmen red flame cut and polished

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 ...

, and is topped with a 61-foot spire, which is a distinctive feature of the Memphis skyline. In a nod to the past, the four giant stone

griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

s — a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle - that adorned the former Hotel King Cotton are displayed in the atrium of the Raymond James Tower.

History

The site was previously occupied by the Hotel King Cotton, a 12-story high-rise hotel built in 1927. The building demolition was performed by Memphis Wrecking Company and

Controlled Demolition, Inc. Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) is a building implosion, controlled demolition firm headquartered in Phoenix, Maryland. The firm was founded by Jack Loizeaux who used dynamite to remove tree stumps in the Baltimore, Maryland area, and moved on to ...

in April 1984. The building was developed by Lowery Companies, LLC.,Portfolio
lowerycompanies.com . Retrieved September 19, 2010. and was designed by 3D/International of

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. It was home to Raymond James, formerly known as

Morgan Keegan & Company Raymond James , Morgan Keegan is the name of the former Morgan Keegan & Co. business units acquired by Raymond James Financial on April 2, 2012. The combined firms’ subsidiaries engage primarily in investment and financial planning, investment ...

. Raymond James was the anchor tenant. As of February 2021, Raymond James has moved to two East Memphis locations. Other tenants include

KPMG KPMG International Limited (or simply KPMG) is a multinational professional services network, and one of the Big Four accounting organizations. Headquartered in Amstelveen, Netherlands, although incorporated in London, England, KPMG is a net ...

, Dr. Kelli Dumas DDS, and several local law firms.

References

External links

Emporis Listing of building
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raymond James Tower Skyscraper office buildings in Memphis, Tennessee Office buildings completed in 1985 1985 establishments in Tennessee

Structure

History

See also

References

External links