SunTrust Plaza

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SunTrust Plaza.

SunTrust Plaza (originally known as One Peachtree Center) is a skyscraper in downtown Atlanta. It is 871 feet (265 m) tall and has 60 stories of office space. Construction was finished in 1992 and it is currently the second-tallest building in Atlanta.

Architect/Developer John Portman originally conceived this building in the 1980s commercial real-estate frenzy as a speculative office building. Its basic design elements, a postmodern square tower with an elaborate base and crown, represented a departure for Portman from his earlier International Style work, and are said to have been inspired by Philip Johnson's wildly successful design for Midtown's One Atlantic Center. Ground broke in 1989 with great fanfare, but by completion in 1992, the bottom had fallen out of Atlanta's real estate market and the building sat largely empty, nearly forcing Portman into bankruptcy and causing him to lose control of most of his real estate holdings, events echoed in the life of fictional developer Charlie Crocker in Tom Wolfe's 1998 novel A Man in Full.In the mid-1990s, Portman sold half his interest in the building to SunTrust Bank, which then moved its headquarters to the building, prompting a name change from One Peachtree Center to its current name.

The two-level lobby is filled with many works of art, and sculpture and furniture designed by John Portman.

The architectural firm that designed it, John Portman & Associates, liked this building so much that they moved their headquarters to it.

Interestingly, at 1AM every morning, the lights at the top of the building turn off, as well as many of the window lights, and instead, three red flashing lights come on. At 5AM, the lights come back on.