In September 1992, a family festival with opera performances and puppetry marked the opening of Atlanta’s tallest building: NationsBank Plaza, a 55-story colossus of red granite and glass, topped with a skeletal golden pyramid of girders. Not everyone was enamored. One critic called the building’s shaft “conventional,” while noting its apex “looks peculiarly like a pencil.” Today the building is emblematic of changing fortunes. Rechristened Bank of America Plaza after a series of corporate mergers, it changed hands again in a 2012 foreclosure sale. While it remains the tallest U.S. building outside of Chicago and New York, it also remains half empty.
This article originally appeared in our March 2015 issue.
Advertisement
