Regions Center

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the Regions Center building in Birmingham, Alabama. For the building of the same name in Nashville, Tennessee, see Regions Center (Nashville).
Regions Center
General information
Status Complete
Type Corporate Headquarters
Location 1900 Fifth Avenue North Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Coordinates 33°31′07″N 86°48′28″W / 33.5186°N 86.8078°W / 33.5186; -86.8078Coordinates: 33°31′07″N 86°48′28″W / 33.5186°N 86.8078°W / 33.5186; -86.8078
Opening 1972
Owner Regions Financial Corporation
Management Carter & Associates
Height
Antenna spire 390 feet (119 m)
Top floor 30
Technical details
Floor count 30
Floor area 630,000 square feet (58,529 m2)
Design and construction
Architect Welton Becket & Associates

The Regions Center (formerly the AmSouth Center, before that the AmSouth-Sonat Tower, and originally the First National-Southern Natural Building) is a 119 meter (390 foot) tall, 30 story office tower located at northwest corner of 20th Street and 5th Avenue North in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. It served as the corporate headquarters for AmSouth Bancorporation from 1972 until 2006 and Sonat, Inc. and its subsidiaries from 1972 until 2007 when it relocated to the Colonial Brookwood Center. The building now serves as the corporate headquarters for Regions Financial Corporation.

Completed in 1972, the modernist-style skyscraper was designed by Welton Becket & Associates of Houston with Charles H. McCauley Associates serving as the local associated firm. Built as a partnership between First National Bank and Southern Natural Gas Corporation, its original name was the First National-Southern Natural Building. First National changed its name to AmSouth Bancorporation later in 1972, with Southern Natural Gas changing its name to Sonat, Inc. in the early 1980s, and the building was then given its most familiar name the AmSouth-Sonat Tower.

The reflective glass skin stretches between a generously scaled black granite base story and a louvered steel penthouse enclosure. The building is set back from the corner with a raised terrace plaza. A one story banking lobby facing 20th Street closes off the north side of a sunken courtyard which serves the basement-level cafeteria.

Sonat merged with Houston based El Paso Corporation in 1999 which resulted in the building name being changed again in 2002 to the AmSouth Center. El Paso maintained a large presence in the building with its Southern Natural Gas division using it as its headquarters. On January 29, 2007, Southern Natural announced that it would move its headquarters to the Colonial Brookwood Center, located in one of Birmingham's suburbs.

In November 2006, the name of the building officially changed to the Regions Center after AmSouth and Regions merged. The Regions logo has replaced the AmSouth logo on the top of the building.

During the Christmas season colored gels are illuminated in each panel of the glass curtain wall, creating an enormous lit graphical display visible on the skyline from well outside the city. The east side is a Christmas tree, the south a wreath, the west a candy cane, and the north a stocking.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.