Back when my great-great-great grandfather built the annex to his hotel in 1908, it was the tallest building in the city, and held that record until 1921, just two years before the family sold it. The hotel had fourteen floors – a site that back then was massive but grand. Of course, today, fourteen floors is hardly anything to marvel over. This is evidenced by the fact that over thirty-five other buildings in the city have since surpassed the record the Grunewald’s once held.
The following buildings are not likely to blow you away with their detail work or old world charm, however, these modern high rises make up the ten tallest buildings in the city of New Orleans.
1. One Shell Square
Location: 701 Poydras Street
1979
This skyscraper was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (”SOM”), an architectural and engineering firm whose post-war designs have become icons of American modern architecture. At 51 storeys and 697 feet tall, it is the tallest building in both New Orleans and in the state of Louisiana.
It was built using a double tube system with a steel core and concrete parimeter, and clad in an Italian travertine (limestone) and bronze exterior. It was a structure that posed concern over its years of operation as to how the building would fare through severe weather – a paramount consideration in a such a city as New Orleans. Fortunately, these fears were no issue during hurricane Katrina, as One Shell Square came through with only minimal damage and was able to re-open to tenants just three months following the storm.
Like Houston’s One Shell Plaza, also built by SOM, One Shell Square was designed in the international style and primarily used for leasable office space with a small amount of retail space at the ground level. Shell Oil Company is the skycraper’s largest tenant and current occupancy of the building is about 90 percent.
At the time of its completion in 1972, One Shell Square was the tallest building in the Southeast, surpassing Atlanta’s 44-storey Wachovia Bank of Georgia. It held this record until 1976, when it was surpassed in height by Atlanta’s Westin Peachtree Plaza.
Hines Interest is the developer of One Shell Square.
2. Place St. Charles
Location: 201 St. Charles Avenue
Formerly known as the Bank One Center or First NBC Center, the Place St. Charles is 53-storeys (giving it more floors than any other building in the city) and 645 feet tall. Towering over the city’s 19th century commercial buildings, the building currently serves as the headquarters of the retail banking division of Capital One. Other prominent tenants include JPMorgan Chase, Jones, Walker, Waechter, Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, and Energy Partners. Place St. Charles’ current occupancy is approximately 98%.
Standing tall behind Canal Street’s 19th Century buildings
Place St. Charles was constructed by Japanese-Canadian architects Moriyama and Teshima along with the Mathes Group (now Mathes Brierre Architects), a local firm, in 1984 on the site of the former St. Charles hotel. The granite and glass exterior is complimented by the unique feature of French Quarter-inspired balconies on the lower three levels along St. Charles Avenue.
The first two floors are occupied by 58,000 square feet of retail space which includes two restaurants, a food court, and a Chase branch location. There are also eleven levels of parking accessed from Gravier Street and an elevated walkway connecting the skyscraper to an adjoining Hampton Inn.
LLC is Place St. Charles’ current owner, while Corporate Realty leases the property. It was the least damaged high rise in New Orleans following hurricane Katrina and re-opened October of 2005.
3. Crescent City Towers
Location: 1001 Howard Avenue
Crescent City Towers was originally founded as the Plaza Tower, and construction began in 1964, but came to a sudden halt in October two years thereafter. Construction resumed in 1968 when the property was bought out and upon completion the building became the tallest in Louisiana at 45 storeys and 531 feet in height, a record held until the construction of One Shell Square (see above #1) in 1972.
The Plaza Tower was one of the first modern high rises constructed in the city of New Orleans, and from its completion was a prominent figure in the city’s skyline, even after the “building boom” along Canal Street during the 1970’s, and still after the 1980’s boom along Poydras Street (you will note, a good portion of New Orleans’ tallest buildings are located on Poydras Street). Both its unique “mushroom top” design and its distinct location on the extreme edge of the city’s Central Business District are contributing fators to its continued recognition.
Though originally designed as an office building with a residential space on the upper floors, the tower ended up yielding very little residential space upon completion and what little did materialize were converted to offices by 1984.
The towers’ reputation as a retail space vendor began to deteriorate in 2001 when tenants began to publicly criticize the building’s owners for lack of proper maintenance which had led to the exposure of toxic mold and asbestos. The owners’ negligence continued and class action lawsuits were eventually filed by workers, managers, and even their own employers, as well as the state departments of Social Services and Health and Hospitals. In 2002, 700 Louisiana state and New Orleans District Attorney’s Office employees relocated en masse to offices on Common Street and since then the building has sat sealed off and unused.
The building was not all together abandoned, however. In 2005, the Giannasca Development Group LLC purchased the Plaza Towers for million with plans for a 0 million renovation and a proposed vision of converting the office tower into 197-unit condominium tower. These plans were, however, shattered by hurricane Katrina when the company was involved in faulty appropriations of insurance money that were issued following the storm. Consequently, the skyscraper sat unused for an additional two years.
In 2007, the Plaza Towers were sold to Plainfield Asset Managements, an investment firm, after being auctioned off, for 3,000, who subsequently began a renovation, staying true to the previous owners’ plans to revive the building as a condominium complex.
The renovation began with a full gutting down of the skyscraper, of its exterior as well as its interior, a necessary measure because of Plaza Towers’ history with asbestos, toxic mold and water leaks. The building will also receive a new facade in neomodern style, which features extensive use of glass and staggered balconies. Proposed internal features include gourmet restaurant, a spa, a fitness center, an indoor pool and retail space. An adjoining building housing a 350-space parking garage and several townhome units will also be renovated.
The architectural team behind this transformation consists of Williams Architects of New Orleans and Marks Thomas Architects of Baltimore. If all goes as planed, the skyscraper – to be re-named Crescent City Towers upon its re-opening, will go from tallest unused building in the city to the city’s tallest all-residential complex.
4. Energy Centre
Location: 1100 Poydras Street
Like many New Orleans high rises, the Energy Centre’s exterior structure is clad in polished granite panels and reflective bronze glass. It is recognized for its dozen bay windows on every floor, each offering a breathtaking view of the Mississippi River, as well as its beautifully landscaped plaza paved with Spanish and Napoleon red granite. This paving surrounds the property and opens into a large triangular plaza, with a stainless steel centerpiece in the form of a six-storey sculpture with cascading water.
Located in the heart of New Orleans’ Central Business District, the Energy Centre is within walking distance of city hall, civil district courts, the Louisiana Superdome, and a wide variety of retail stores.
Like most high rises, New Orleans’ Energy Centre’s main use is that of commercial office and retail. Designed by HKS Inc. (an architectural firm headquartered in Dallas, TX) the building is touted as a “state-of-the-art tower designed for maximum efficiency and superior technological operating systems.”
The Energy Centre, which stands 530 feet tall, contains 39 floors, and was constructed in 1984.
5. First Bank and Trust Tower
Location: 909 Poydras Street
Welton Becket and Associates, who have designed many notable buildings in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, are responsible for this 36-storey, 481-foot post-modern office and retail tower. Completed in 1987, First Bank and Trust Tower features an exterior of vertical bands of mahogany-colored granite with bronze-tinted glass. It is one of the most visible high rises of New Orleans night life, as the exterior is illuminated by numerous spotlights on a nightly basis.
The striking exterior is completed by a pair of bronze statues depicting David and a lute player at the main entrance. They were created by Mexican-born Louisiana artist Enrique Alférez who specialized in the art deco style.
The building’s second through eighth floors are designated for parking while the remaining storeys house office space. The lobby is decorated in a variety of quality finishes that include custom carpeting inserted into mosaic marble floors, a grand chandelier, coffered ceilings and soft pastel frescoes. The tower’s chamfered corners create panoramic views in all directions.
First Bank and Trust Tower was originally the LL&E Tower and is also known as the 909 Poydras Tower.
6. Sheraton New Orleans
Location: 500 Canal Street
Completed in 1985, the New Orleans Sheraton was part of a large convention hotel movement on Canal Street that began in the early 1970’s. While this hotel may not boast the storied histories and timeless physical features of others in the area, it is nonetheless a grand one, and at 48 storeys and 479 feet, holds the distinction of tallest building in the city to be used exclusively as a hotel.
In addition to the 1,110 guest rooms, the hotel boasts five grand, spacious ballrooms, 54 individual meeting rooms, and over 100,000 square feet of meeting space.
7. New Orleans Marriott
Location: 555 Canal Street
The New Orleans Marriott, 42 storeys and 449 feet tall, was constructed in 1972, a building effort led by the Curtis and Davis architectural firm.
Until the construction of the New Orleans Sheraton (see #6 above) in 1985, the New Orleans Marriott was the tallest hotel in the city. It remains the tallest building on the downriver side of Canal Street.
8. Texaco Center
Location: 400 Poydras Street
This prominent black granite office tower is strategically located in the city’s Central Business District, on the intersection of Poydras and Magazine. It offers one of the most sought-after parking capacities in the neighborhood, made up of both in-building parking and the adjacent Tchoupitoulas Garage.
The center was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill with a design featuring a curtain wall of black granite with insulated glass set into black aluminum spandrel framing. The building’s outdoor plaza features a statue sculpture entitled the “Painted Trio,” by Dr. Arthur Silverman, a distinguished local metal sculptor.
Texaco Center’s, clad in imperial granite patterned with embedded chrome, doubles as a gallery for collections of regional artwork and local flowers.
Texaco Center was built in 1983, is 442 feet and 32 storeys high, and serves as an office tower.
9. One Canal Place
Location: 365 Canal Street
Keeping the Canal Street shoppers’ spirit alive, One Canal Place (known simply as “Canal Place”) is the home of such attractions as the Shops of Canal Place Shopping Mall and the Westin New Orleans hotel, with which it shares a parking garage. It is also among the city’s finest class “A” commercial office buildings.
The land on which this building stands dates back to the colonial era before the levees were constructed and thus was frequently covered by the waters of the Mississippi River during that time. By the 20th century, the premises was occupied by the American Sugar Refinery facilities, but these 19th century warehouses, along with Crossman Streets (which parallel to Canal Street) were removed to allow the construction of One Canal Place.
The construction took place in three phases. The first phase, which began in 1979, consisted of the main office tower while New Orleans’ Saks Fifth Avenue location and the aforementioned Westin Hotel were constructed as phase two in 1982-83. The third phase, a 0 million project currently in development, will feature a new multi-use high rise tower.
Currently, One Canal Place is 32 storeys, same as the Texaco Center (see #8 above), which surpasses it in height by two feet. It is the city’s most popular shopping destination.
10. 1010 Common
Location: 1010 Common Street
Originally the Bank of New Orleans Building, 1010 Common was constructed in 1970. The skyscraper, like the Texaco Center (see above #8) was designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill and architectural features of the Art Deco and Nouveu period.
1010 Common, which serves mainly as a commercial office complex, is adjacent to the 14-storey Latter Center Garage & Annex. The skyscraper itself measures 438 feet and 31 storeys.
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