The Lincoln Bank Tower is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Alvin M. Strauss, and built between 1929 and 1930, for a reported $1.30 million dollars, in Fort Wayne, IN.
Lincoln Bank Tower is not the only name you might know this building by though. The building is, or has also been known as Lincoln Tower.
Its precise street address is 116 East Berry Street, Fort Wayne, IN. You can also find it on the map here.
Alvin M. Strauss was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design. But there was also one other architect involved, as far as we know. We are talking about Walker and Weeks.
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 Lincoln Bank Tower a reality:
The Lincoln Bank Tower can be categorized as an Art-deco building.
The Art Deco movement flourished during the 1920s and 1930s, with many historians marking the outbreak of World War II as its final decline. Even though a couple of decades might not seem as much, the Art Deco movement had a great impact on architecture, and it's widely represented in many American cities due to the development boom that happened during that time.
Art Deco marked the abandonment of traditional historicism and the embracement of modern living and the age of the machine. In architecture, that meant leaving behind the ornaments of Beux-Arts and Neo-Gothic buildings and instead favoring simplicity and visual impact through geometric shapes, clean lines, and symmetrical designs. Ornaments were still an important part of the design, but they became bold and lavish, and were often inspired by ancient cultures or industrial imagery, instead of nature.
The Lincoln Bank Tower was completed in 1930, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.
The Lincoln Bank Tower reaches an architectural height of 312ft (95m). It has a total of 22 floors.
Ever since opening its doors to the public in 1930, the Lincoln Bank Tower has mainly been used as Commercial space.
The Lincoln Bank Tower 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.
From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features an Indiana limestone clad for the base of the two-tiered tower. It features a grand entrance with seven bronze panels and details in a strong Art Deco style with lead spandrel panels under the windows. The terracotta details are more evident in the upper part of the building, where the material has golden tones. At the top of the building is a slender observation tower topped by a flagpole.
Other materials found at the Lincoln Bank Tower include, granite, used in the lobby with gold highlights, and marble, seen in the foyer in various types such as Italian or Vermont Travertine.