Capital One Tower (Lake Charles)

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Capital One Tower (formerly Hibernia)in downtown Lake Charles after Hurricane Rita

The Capital One Tower is located in Lake Charles, Louisiana and was the tallest building in southwest Louisiana until L'Auberge du Lac casino (26 stories and 308' tall) was built.

The building was designed by Lloyd Jones Brewer Associates of Houston and constructed by Miner-Dederick of Houston and F. Miller and Sons of Lake Charles. Construction began in March of 1981 with groundbreaking in January of 1982. The building was opened in 1984 and stands 21 stories and 300' tall with 397,000 square feet of space. Cost was estimated $31 million.

It is one of the dominant features of the Lake Charles skyline. The building was originally called the CM Tower, for Calcasieu Marine National Bank, then renamed the Hibernia tower after Hibernia merged with Cacasieu Marine, then was changed to the Capital One Tower after Capital One acquired Hibernia National Bank in 2005.

The building sustained damage to its atrium and several upper floors during Hurricane Rita.

[edit] Floor Navigation

Two escalators in the atrium (one up and one down) serve as access between floor 1 (ground floor) and floor 2 near the bank area.

Eight passenger elevators provide access to the upper floors and are grouped in two banks of four with each bank having two cars facing each other linked by a hall. The West bank serves floors 2, 15-21 and the East most two cars also serve floor 1. Access to the elevators from floor 1 is just West inside the North entrance behind the security desk. The East bank of elevators serve floors 2-14.

A freight elevator provides access to all floors.

Two stairways provide access to all floors and are located behind each elevator bank.

A walkway bridge connects floor 2 of the tower to floor 3 of the parking garage. Two passenger elevators and two stairways in the parking garage serve floors 1-5 of the parking garage.