| 100 North Main Street | |
|---|---|
| Wachovia_Center_Skyscraper.jpg 100 North Main Street from below |
|
| Record height | |
| Tallest in Winston-Salem since 1995[I] | |
| Preceded by | Winston Tower |
| General information | |
| Type | office |
| Location | 100 N. Main Street Winston-Salem, North Carolina |
| Coordinates | |
| Completed | 1995 |
| Height | |
| Roof | 140.21 metres (460 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 34 |
| Design and construction | |
| Owner | SL Winston-Salem LLC |
| Architect | César Pelli |
100 North Main Street[1][2] is a postmodern, 460-foot (140 m), 34-floor office skyscraper in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. Originally named Wachovia Center, the building served as the corporate headquarters of Wachovia bank from 1995, the year of the tower's construction, to 2001, the year the corporation merged with First Union and moved its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina. It is the tallest building in the Piedmont Triad region and was the tallest in the Carolinas outside of Charlotte until 2008, when the RBC Plaza was completed in Raleigh.
The building was designed by Petronas Towers architect César Pelli and features Moravian architectural themes, which are widely found in Winston-Salem. Notable aspects include the Moravian arch, which was used in the dome's design, and the Moravian star, which was used on the lobby's mosaics. Pelli said the tower design resembled a rosebud about to bloom. It is sheathed in Olympia white granite and is the only granite-domed skyscraper in the world. The granite comes from a single quarry in Sardinia. The dome rises 59 feet and houses mechanical equipment. The gardens around the site were designed by Cesar Pelli's wife Diana Balmori, a landscape architect.[3]
The building was built for Wachovia bank to replace the nearby Wachovia Building (which was renamed Winston Tower) as the corporation's world headquarters. Wachovia Center, as the tower was originally named, surpassed Winston Tower as Winston-Salem's tallest building and remained Wachovia's corporate headquarters from its completion date in 1995 to 2001, when Wachovia merged with First Union. Once the merger was finalized, the corporation, which retained the Wachovia name, decided to locate its headquarters at One Wachovia Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Wachovia subsequently sold Wachovia Center to American Financial Realty Trust in May 2004 for $39.6 million as part of a $546 million deal which included 150 bank properties.[4] Wachovia bank continued to lease space in the tower, mostly for offices of its wealth management division. On April 1, 2008, American Financial was bought by Gramercy Capital, which assumed ownership of the building. Gramercy then sold the property to the current owner, SL Winston-Salem LLC, on October 23, 2008 for $36 million.[4] Triad Commercial Properties, which was hired to sell vacant space in the tower, promotes the building as 100 North Main Street, the building's formal address, dropping the Wachovia Center name.
Wachovia, which as of 2009 leases seventeen floors of 100 North Main Street, was purchased by Wells Fargo on December 31, 2008 and continues to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo. It is uncertain whether Wells Fargo will elect to continue to lease space in the tower in near future, but Bobby Finch, 100 North Main Street's leasing handler, hopes "that the low cost of the lease will be attractive and compelling to Wells Fargo as it evaluates the Winston-Salem and Charlotte operations it is taking over from Wachovia."[4]