Southern Bell Telephone Company Building vs Atlanta City Hall

Comparing the Southern Bell Telephone Company Building and the Atlanta City Hall is interesting because they both stand in Atlanta, GA, and were completed just one year apart, but they were designed by different architects.

This offers a unique glimpse at how rival designers approached projects in the same city during the same era.

Both the Southern Bell Telephone Company Building and the Atlanta City Hall were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Art Deco style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So both Marye, Alger and Vinour and G.Lloyd Preacher followed what was in many ways expected of them, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms, rather than breaking with convention.

The Southern Bell Telephone Company Building is primarily commercial, while the Atlanta City Hall is primarily governmental.

These two towers illustrate the many possible ways to combine structure and enclosure in skyscraper design.