Wells Fargo Center

The Wells Fargo Center is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Johnson/Burgee Architects, and built in 1983 in Denver, CO.

Wells Fargo Center 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:

• United Bank of Denver between 1983 and 1995.
• One Norwest Center between 1995 and 1998.
• Wells Fargo Center from 1998 until this day.
• Cash Register Building until .
• Mailbox Building until .

Its precise street address is 1700 Lincoln Street, Denver, CO. You can also find it on the map here.

In 2003 the Wells Fargo Center was awarded with the BOMA International.

The building underwent a major restoration between 2013 and 2016. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was ESI Design.

Johnson/Burgee Architects 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 Wells Fargo Center a reality:

• CB Engineers in charge of Structural Engineering
• Lighting Consultant as the Main Contractor
• Gerald D Hines Interests as the Main Developer
• Enoc Perez as the collaborating Artist

The Wells Fargo Center can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The Wells Fargo Center was completed in 1983. At that time Postmodernism was the prevailing style. Fresh, bold and daring, architects were exploring the freedom of designing without having to follow the strict, sometimes arbitrary rules of a specific architectural movement (which ironically became a movement itself). The Wells Fargo Center was therefore every much in line with what the architecture community, and the people liked and wanted at the time.

The Wells Fargo Center uses a frame structure made of concrete and steel columns and beams.

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 of the building however, is load bearing. This doesn't imply that it is a traditional load-bearing wall. Rather, it means that the structure's exterior pillars have been pushed to the very edges, becoming integrated with the facade, and therefore, technically, a part of it.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features reddish granite panels and reflective dark gray glass, creating a unique articulated pattern that rises from street level to the curved crown, covered with glass and brass lattice.

The curved and glazed atrium crowning the tower is eight stories high, and requires heating to prevent snow from accumulating on it and eventually falling down to the streets around .