Bank of America Building

Bank Of America Building
  1. About the Bank of America Building in Baltimore
    1. Prizes & Awards
  2. Architect and team
  3. Architectureal style
  4. Spaces and uses
  5. Structure and materials

The Bank of America Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed by Taylor & Fisher, in association with Smith & May, and built between 1928 and 1929, for a reported $3.00 million dollars, in Baltimore, MD.

Bank of America 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:

  • Baltimore Trust Company Building between 1929 and 1933.
  • Mathieson Building between 1940 and 1960.
  • Maryland National Bank Building between 1961 and 1993.
  • NationsBank Building between 1993 and 1997.
  • Bank of America Building from 1997 until this day.
  • 10 Light Street from 2012 until this day.

Its precise street address is 10 Light Street, Baltimore, MD. You can also find it on the map here.

The Bank of America Building has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since . The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

At the time of its inauguration, the Bank of America Building was the tallest building south of New York.

The building underwent a major restoration between 2012 and 2015. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was BCT Design Group.

Building's timeline

Construction begins
1928
96
Baltimore Trust Company Building
1929
95
Mathieson Building
1940
84
Maryland National Bank Building
1961
63
NationsBank Building
1993
31
Bank of America Building
1997
27
10 Light Street
2012
12
a
Restoration
2015
9
years ago
2024
  1. 2012 to 2015 - After years of abandonment, the building was restored to be used as a mixed-use community, including apartments, street-level commercial space, and a three-story gym-spa.

    The former water tank on the terrace was modified to create a pool, and the bank's vault was cleaned and disassembled down to its steel walls, transforming it into a luxurious lounge and service areas.. The architect in charge was BCT Design Group.

Architect and team

Taylor & Fisher was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Smith & May.

Taylor & Fisher was in charge of the architectural design, however, architecture is a complex discipline, which usually involves 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 Bank of America Building a reality:

  • Girard Engineering, Inc. in charge of Structural Engineering
  • J.Henry Miller & Son as the Main Developer
  • Hildreth Meiere, Griffith Baily Coale, and McGill Mackall as the collaborating Artist

Architectural Style

The Bank of America Building 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 Bank of America Building was completed in 1929, right when the Art Deco movement was at its peak, so it kind of went with the trend at that time.

Spaces & Uses

The Bank of America Building reaches an architectural height of 509ft (155m), 591ft (180m) if you count the antenna. It has a total of 71 floors, 34 above ground and 37 basements.

When it opened its doors to the public in 1929, the Bank of America Building was primarily used as Commercial space. That however, is no longer the case, and today it mainly provides Residential space, with other complementary uses such as sports, and retail spaces.

About the residences

The Bank of America Building has a total of 419 residential units throughout its 34 floors.

591ft (180m)
509ft (155m)
37 basements

Materials & Structure

The Bank of America 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 is non-load bearing either, as it is common in frame structure type buildings.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features dark-brown bricks with Indiana limestone at the coronation of the building and the setbacks. The limestone is adorned with carved symbols referencing the building's values,

The central tower is topped off with a hipped copper and gold roof.

Sources

  • en.wikipedia.org
  • www.nps.gov
  • structurae.net
  • demo.processwire.com
  • architizer.com