News
OUR 11TH CITY
January 21, 2011
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| We’re doing our best to keep the airlines in business, so we're launching yet another issue early next month, this one in Charlotte, NC. Earlier this week, your itinerant publisher snapped the city’s symbol and tallest building, the 871-foot, 60-story Cesar Pelli Bank of America Corporate Center, opened in 1992. In a reference to the Nations Bank CEO who drove the merger with BOA, legendary Hugh McColl, wags refer to the tower as the “Taj McColl.” On the right is the 659-foot, 1.6M SF, eight-year-old Hearst Tower, also owned by BOA. The finance giant has other big buildings around, including one just opened last June, obviously planned pre-recession. Do you get the idea this might be a banking town? |
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| However, it’s less a finance Mecca than it used to be. We captured the 786-foot former Wachovia HQ building (much of the staff has moved to SF since Wells Fargo acquired the bank) in the distance, doused in amazing blue and white floodlighting. The tower's been renamed Duke Energy Center, even though Wells is still the owner. It opened just last year and the new name reflects the “other” big industry in Charlotte. The boxier building is another Duke building, 400 N. Tryon. |
