One Atlantic Center, also known as IBM Tower, is a

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-ri ...

located in

Midtown Atlanta Midtown Atlanta, or Midtown, is a high-density commercial and residential neighborhood of Atlanta, Georgia. The exact geographical extent of the area is ill-defined due to differing definitions used by the city, residents, and local business ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

. It is the third tallest building in Atlanta.

History

It is the third-tallest in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

, reaching a height of with 50 stories of

office An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific ...

space with a total building area of 1,187,676 sq.ft. It was completed in 1987 and remained the tallest building in Atlanta until 1992, when it was surpassed by the Bank of America Plaza, which was built on the northern edge of Downtown adjacent to Midtown. It was also the tallest building in the southeastern U.S. at the time of completion, surpassing the Southeast Financial Center in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

Design

The building was commissioned by Prentiss Properties as a southeastern headquarters for IBM, a company responsible for many notable skyscrapers of the 1980s. Aside from introducing Atlanta to the postmodern architectural idiom of the 80s, this tower is notable for essentially creating what is now the Midtown commercial district. Located at the then-remote corner of 14th and West Peachtree Street over a mile from

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 district ...

, this building nevertheless opened nearly fully occupied and thus attracted developers to Midtown.

Architecture

The design of the building was influenced by the

Tribune Tower The Tribune Tower is a , 36-floor neo-Gothic skyscraper located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Built between 1923 and 1925, the international design competition for the tower became a historic event in 20th-ce ...

in Chicago, which is most evident in the base of the building as well as the main body. The building's exterior is clad in pink Spanish

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 un ...

and culminates in a copper pyramidal top with a gold peak. The design includes

gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

flourishes, most noticeably below the copper top of the building. At night the peak and ridges along the top are illuminated brightly, creating a glowing effect.

Other phases

It was joined in 2001 by the much shorter Regions Plaza building, which bears similar postmodern design and was constructed across the street as the second phase of the Atlantic Center development. Atlantic Center Plaza's design and architecture are so similar, it has affectionately become known in Atlanta as the "Mini Me" building, named after the comical dwarfish clone of Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies.

Development

One Atlantic Center was designed by Johnson/Burgee Architects. As associate architect,

Heery International CBRE , Heery, formerly known as Heery International, Inc., was founded in 1952 by George T. Heery and his father C. Wilmer Heery Jr., and is a full-service architecture, interior design, engineering, construction management, program management, a ...

, Inc. produced the contract documents. Both Atlantic Center Towers were constructed by HCBeck, now known as

The Beck Group The Beck Group is a company that provides architecture, construction, real estate development, and sustainable design and consulting, as well as finance and technology services. The company is based in Dallas, Texas and also has offices in Atlan ...

Major Tenants

Alston & Bird Alston & Bird LLP is an international law firm with over 800 lawyers in 13 offices throughout the United States, Europe, the UK, and Asia. The firm provides legal services to both domestic and international clients who conduct business worldwid ...

RSM Global RSM International, branded RSM since 2015, is a multinational network of accounting firms forming the sixth-largest accountancy professional services network in the world by revenue. RSM's member firms are independent accounting and advisory bu ...

Carlton Fields Carlton may refer to: People * Carlton (name), a list of those with the given name or surname * Carlton (singer), English soul singer Carlton McCarthy * Carlton, a pen name used by Joseph Caldwell (1773–1835), American educator, Presbyter ...

* Bryan Cave *

DLA Piper DLA Piper is a multinational law firm with offices in over 40 countries throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. In 2021, it had a total revenue of US$3.47 billion, an average profit per equity partner of U ...

* Duff & Phelps *

Korn Ferry International Korn Ferry is a management consulting firm headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1969 and as of 2019, operates in 111 offices in 53 countries and employs 8,198 people worldwide. Korn Ferry operates through four business se ...

Equifax Equifax Inc. is an American multinational consumer credit reporting agency headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia and is one of the three largest consumer credit reporting agencies, along with Experian and TransUnion (together known as the "Big Th ...

* JAMS *

FTI Consulting FTI Consulting is a business advisory firm headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. FTI is one of the largest financial consulting firms in the world and consistently ranks as one of the top global management consulting firms. The com ...

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 ...

References

External links

One Atlantic Center official website

One Atlantic Center
at

Hines Interests Limited Partnership Hines Interests Limited Partnership is a privately held company that invests in and develops real estate. The company has developed, redeveloped or acquired 1,450 properties, comprising over 485 million square feet. The company currently manag ...

{{Atlanta landmarks Skyscraper office buildings in Atlanta Midtown Atlanta Office buildings completed in 1987 IBM facilities Philip Johnson buildings Postmodern architecture in the United States John Burgee buildings Hines Interests Limited Partnership