Truist Plaza Building

The Truist Plaza Building is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed in 1987 by John Portman & Associates, and built between 1989 and 1992 in Atlanta, GA.

Truist Plaza 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:

• One Peachtree Center.
• Peachtree 400.
• SunTrust Plaza between 1995 and 2021.
• Truist Plaza Building from 2021 until this day.

Its precise street address is 303 Peachtree Street NE, Atlanta, GA. You can also find it on the map here.

In 2004 the Truist Plaza Building was awarded with the Office Building of the Year Award (TOBY).

John Portman & 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 Truist Plaza Building a reality:

• John Portman & Associates in charge of Structural Engineering
• J.A. Jones Construction Co. as the Main Contractor
• John Portman & Associates as the Main Developer
• Newcomb & Boyd in charge of MEP Engineering
• Charles Perry, and Elbert Weinberg as the collaborating Artist

The Truist Plaza Building can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The Truist Plaza Building was completed in 1992. By 1992 the Postmodernism movement was experiencing a transition. Critics argued that Postmodernism, initially a rebellious and innovative style, had become formulaic and commercialized, and so the trend started moving away from blending historical styles, irony, and playful ornamentation, and begun to give way to emerging architectural trends concerned with more present matters such as technology, ecology or sustainability.

The Truist Plaza Building uses a frame structure made of concrete columns and concrete and steel 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 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 a curtain wall system with light-grey granite and dark-grey glass, enhancing the building's faceted design. The floor plan is square with numerous setbacks. These setbacks, also used to position the perimeter structural columns, result in 36 corner offices on each level.