FourFortyFour South Flower Building

The FourFortyFour South Flower Building is a Modern Style skyscraper designed by AC Martin & Associates, and built between 1978 and 1981 in Los Angeles, CA.

FourFortyFour South Flower Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The building has changed names several times over the years, and is also known as:

• Wells Fargo Building between 1981 and 2003.
• Citigroup Center between 2003 and 2016.
• 444 Plaza Building.

Its precise street address is 444 South Flower Street, Los Angeles, CA. You can also find it on the map here.

In 2012 the FourFortyFour South Flower Building was awarded with the BOMA Earth Award .

The building underwent a major restoration in 2016. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Gensler.

AC Martin & Associates was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the FourFortyFour South Flower Building a reality:

• AECOM Hunt Tishman as the Main Contractor
• Rockefeller Group as the Main Developer
• Marc Di Suvero, Michael Heizer, Frank Stella, Robert Rauschenberg, and Bruce Nauman Augustine Kofie as the collaborating Artist

The FourFortyFour South Flower Building can be categorized as a Modern Style building.

By their own nature, the Modern and International Styles can still look current, even in contemporary buildings. So that's not to say the FourFortyFour South Flower Building appeared old or outdated when it was completed, but AC Martin & Associates certainly did not take many risks when it came to choosing the design style. This made the building look more "classic" and integrated within the city's architecture.

The FourFortyFour South Flower Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a curtain wall with dark-tinted glass and lighter spandrels, creating a repetition of horizontal layers that stack on top of each other.

As the building grows a series of setbacks give the building its unique silhouette.