Wachovia Financial Center

When it opened on July 16, 1984, it was the tallest building south of New York City and east of the Mississippi River, taking away the title of tallest building in the south from the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, in Atlanta, Georgia. It remained the tallest building in the South until 1987, when it was surpassed by One Atlantic Center in Atlanta, and the tallest in Florida until October 1, 2003, when it was surpassed by the Four Seasons Hotel And Tower also in Miami. It remains the tallest office tower in Florida.

The Wachovia Financial Center is comprised of two buildings: the 55 story office tower and the 14 story parking annex. The office tower has 52 stories of office space. The first floor is dedicated for retail, the second floor is the lobby and the fifty-fifth floor is home to the luxurious Miami City Club. The parking annex has 11 floors of parking space. The first floor is retail, the second floor is a banking hall, and the fourteenth floor has the Downtown Athletic Club. A landscaped courtyard lies between the office tower and the parking annex. The courtyard is protected from the elements by a glass roof stretching from both buildings.

It was originally built as the headquarters for Southeast Bank. Southeast Bank remained there until they liquidated in 1991. It was known as the Southeast Bank Center (from 1984-1991), the First Union Financial Center (from 1991-2003), and now as the Wachovia Financial Center. 12% of the office space is now occupied by Wachovia Bank, which is the largest tenant and the namesake of the center. The complex was bought two years ago at a record price of $270 million by Lend Lease Real Estates Investments.

The Wachovia Financial Center was designed by Edward Charles Bassett of Skidmore, Ownings, and Merrill. The Associate Architect was Spillis Candela & Partners. It has 1,145,311 ft² (106,000 m²). A typical floor has about 21,000 ft² (2,000 m²). Each floor has 9 ft (2.7 m) floor to ceiling windows. The total complex has over 2.2 million ft² (204,000 m²). The distinctive setbacks begin at the 43rd floor. Each typical floor plate has 9 corner windows. There are 43 elevators in the office tower. The center also has a full-sized basketball court. An emergency control station provides computerized monitoring for the entire complex, and four generators for backup power.

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