Southeast Financial Center
| Southeast Financial Center | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Former names |
Southeast Financial Center (1984-1992, 2011-) First Union Financial Center (1992-2003) Wachovia Financial Center (2003-2011) |
| General information | |
| Status | Complete |
| Type | Commercial offices |
| Location | 200 South Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Florida |
| Coordinates | 25°46′20″N 80°11′16″W / 25.772255°N 80.187677°WCoordinates: 25°46′20″N 80°11′16″W / 25.772255°N 80.187677°W |
| Construction started | 1981 |
| Completed | 1984 |
| Management | Jones Lang LaSalle |
| Height | |
| Roof | 233 m (764 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 55 |
| Floor area | 1,199,990 sq ft (111,483 m2) |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect |
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Edward Charles Bassett Spillis, Candela and Partners, Inc. |
| Developer |
Gerald D. Hines Interests Southeast Bank Corporation Corporate Property Investors |
| Structural engineer | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill |
| References | |
| [1][2][3] | |
Southeast Financial Center[4] is a two-acre development in Miami, Florida, United States. It consists of a 765 feet (233 m) tall office skyscraper and its 15-story parking garage. It was previously known as the Southeast Financial Center (1984–1992), the First Union Financial Center (1992–2003), and the Wachovia Financial Center (2003-2011). In 2011, it retook its old name of Southeast Financial Center as Wachovia became Wells Fargo and moved into its new headquarters, the nearby Wells Fargo Center building.
When topped-off in August 1983, it was the tallest building south of New York City and east of the Mississippi River, taking away the same title from the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, in Atlanta, Georgia.[5] It remained the tallest building in the southeastern U.S. 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 and the second tallest building in Miami.
Structure
Southeast Financial Center was constructed in three years with more than 500 construction workers. Approximately 6,650 tons of structural steel, 80,000 cubic yards of concrete, and 7000 cubic tons of reinforcing steel bars went into its construction. The complex sits on a series of reinforced concrete grade beams tied to 150 concrete caissons as much as ten feet in diameter and to a depth of 80 feet. A steel space-frame canopy with glass skylights covers the outdoor plaza between the tower and low-rise building.
The tower has a composite structure. The exterior columns and beams are concrete encased steel wide flanges surrounded by reinforcing bars. The composite exterior frame was formed using hydraulic steel forms, or “flying forms”, jacked into place with a “kangaroo” crane, that was located in the core, and manually clamped into place. Wide flange beams topped by a metal deck and concrete form the interior floor framing. The core is A braced steel frame, designed to laterally resist wind loads. The construction of one typical floor was completed every five days.
The low-rise banking hall and parking building is a concrete-framed structure. Each floor consists of nearly an acre of continuously poured concrete. When the concrete had sufficiently hardened, compressed air was used to blow the forms fiberglass forms from under the completed floor. It was then rolled out to the exterior where it was raised by crane into position for the next floor.
The building was recognized as Miami's first och only office building to be certified for the LEED Gold award in January 2010.
History
The center was developed by a partnership consisting of Gerald D. Hines Interests, Southeast Bank, and Corporate Property Investors for $180 million. It was originally built as the headquarters for Southeast Bank, which originally occupied 50 percent of the complex’s space. It remained Southeast Bank’s headquarters there until it was liquidated in 1991.
The Southeast Financial Center comprises two buildings: the 55-story office tower and the 15-story parking annex. The tower has 53 stories of office space. The first floor is dedicated for retail, the second floor is the lobby and the fifty-fifth floor was home to the luxurious Miami City Club. The parking annex has 12 floors of parking space for 1,150 cars. The first floor is dedicated for retail, the second floor is a banking hall, and the fifteenth floor has the Downtown Athletic Club. A landscaped plaza lies between the office tower and the parking annex. An enclosed walkway connects the second story of the tower with the second story of the annex. The courtyard is partially protected from the elements by a steel and glass space frame canopy spanning the plaza and attached to the tower and annex. Southeast Bank's executive offices were located on the 38th floor. Ground was broken on the complex on December 12, 1981, and the official dedication and opening for the complex was held on October 23, 1984.
The Southeast Financial Center was designed by Edward Charles Bassett of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. The Associate Architect was Spillis Candela & Partners. It has 1,145,311 ft² (106,000 m²) of office space. A typical floor has about 22,000 ft² (2,043.87 m²) of office space. Each floor has 9 ft x 9 ft (2.7 m x 2.7 m) floor to ceiling windows. (All of the building's windows are tinted except for the top floor, resulting in strikingly bright and clear views from there.) 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 offices and the top twelve floors have as many as 16. There are 43 elevators in the office tower. An emergency control station provides computerized monitoring for the entire complex, and four generators for backup power.
The Southeast Financial Center can be seen as far away as Ft. Lauderdale and halfway toward Bimini. Night space shuttle launches from Cape Canaveral 200 miles to the north were plainly visible from the higher floors. The roof of the building was featured in the Wesley Snipes motion picture Drop Zone, where an eccentric base jumper named Swoop parachutes down to the street from a suspended window cleaning trolley. The building also appeared in several episodes of the 1980s TV show Miami Vice and at the end of each episode's opening credits.
Because of the staggered "Qbert" type roof, this building (along with the nearby County Courthouse) is a popular gathering place every winter for the colony of turkey vultures which summers in Hinckley, OH. As a result of this roof configuration, many offices on the upper floors have outside their windows a small platform which is the roof of the next lower floor. Thus, more than one lawyer in this building has suffered the deeply surreal experience of sitting in his office, listening to a client complain that legal bills are bleeding him dry, while - literally four feet away on the adjoining platform - a turkey vulture is enthusiastically consuming a carcass.
Major tenants
Gallery
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Closeup frontal view
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14 story parking annex
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Bottom of the building from the south with a Metromover vehicle passing by
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Angle showing bevelled side
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Roof over the plaza between the tower and the parking garage
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The Wachovia Financial Center in 2011
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200 Biscayne Boulevard sign located at the main entrance
See also
References
- ↑ Southeast Financial Center at Emporis
- ↑ Southeast Financial Center at SkyscraperPage
- ↑ Southeast Financial Center at Structurae
- ↑ http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2011/02/wachovia-financial-center-gets-new-name.html
- ↑ ”Southeast Financial Center is Topped Off” Ocala Star-Banner - August 12, 1983
External links
- Southeast Financial website at Hines Interests Limited Partnership
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by One Biscayne Tower |
Tallest Building in Miami 1984—2003 233m |
Succeeded by Four Seasons Hotel Miami |
| Preceded by One Tampa City Center |
Tallest Building in Florida 1984—2003 233m |
Succeeded by Four Seasons Hotel Miami |