VyStar Tower | |
---|---|
Former names | SunTrust Tower, Jacksonville Center, American Heritage Life Building, Humana Building |
General information | |
Type | Commercial offices |
Architectural style | Postmodern [1] |
Location | 76 South Laura Street Jacksonville, Florida, United States |
Coordinates | 30°19′33″N81°39′36″W / 30.32589°N 81.65990°W |
Completed | 1989 |
Owner | Parador Group (Majority owner) [2] |
Height | |
Roof | 357 ft (109 m) [1] |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 24 [1] |
Floor area | 383,000 sq ft (35,580 m2) |
Design and construction | |
Architecture firm | KBJ Architects |
VyStar Tower (originally American Heritage Life Building) is a skyscraper in the downtown area of Jacksonville, Florida, at the northwest corner of Independent Drive and Laura Street. Standing 357 feet (109 meters) tall, it is the city's sixth tallest building. [3] It was formerly known as the SunTrust Tower, Jacksonville Center and the Humana Building, among other names. [1] Completed in 1989, the building was designed in the postmodern style by the Jacksonville firm KBJ Architects. [1]
In 2018, it was announced that VyStar Credit Union, the second largest credit union in Florida, and sixteenth largest in the country, [4] was purchasing the building for its new headquarters. The deal was finalized in late 2019, after the lease of the former tenant, Suntrust, had expired. [5]
VyStar completed construction of its sign atop the building in August 2019. On July 1, 2020, VyStar finished the installation of electric blue LED edge lighting on the top tiers of the tower to accompany the VyStar sign. [6] The project was completed by local businesses Dana B. Kenyon Company, Miller Electric Company and RS&H and was part of a multi-phase initiative by the credit union to bolster its VyStar Campus, which includes the 100 W. Bay building next to the VyStar Tower.
The improvements made to the 100 W. Bay building include the addition of food and retail space. In March 2020, The Bread & Board, a local food concept that offers sandwiches, charcuterie and more, announced it planned to open its third location on the first floor of the VyStar Credit Union's downtown campus at 100 W. Bay St. [7]
Including the VyStar Tower and the 100 W. Bay building, VyStar planned to move more than 1,000 employees to downtown Jacksonville.
Jacksonville is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonville consolidated in 1968. It was the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020, and became the 10th largest city by population in 2023.
The University of North Florida (UNF) is a public research university in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools to award baccalaureate, masters, and doctorate degrees. Its campus comprises 1,300 acres amid a natural preserve on Jacksonville's Southside. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". The current president is Moez Limayem.
Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Located in the city's Arlington district, the school was founded in 1934 as a two-year college and was known as Jacksonville Junior College until September 5, 1956, when it shifted focus to building four-year university degree programs and later graduated its first four-year degree candidates as Jacksonville University in June 1959. It is a member of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). JU's student body currently represents more than 40 U.S. states and approximately 45 countries around the world. As a Division I institution, it fields 18 varsity athletics teams, known as the JU Dolphins, as well as intramural sports and clubs. Among the top majors declared by JU students are aviation management, biology, nursing, business, and marine science.
VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena is a multi-purpose arena located in Jacksonville, Florida. It currently serves as the home arena of the Jacksonville Icemen of the ECHL, the Jacksonville Giants of the American Basketball Association, and the Jacksonville Sharks of the Indoor Football League.
Downtown Jacksonville is the historic core and central business district (CBD) of Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It comprises the earliest area of the city to be developed and is located in its geographic center along the narrowing point of the St. Johns River.
Barnett Bank was an American bank based in Florida. Founded in 1877, it eventually became the largest commercial bank in Florida with over 600 offices and $41.2 billion in deposits. Barnett was purchased by NationsBank in 1997.
1 Independent Square is a skyscraper in the downtown area of Jacksonville, Florida, located northwest of the Main Street Bridge and north of St. Johns River, at the southeast corner of Bay and Laura streets. Standing 535 feet tall, it is the city's second-tallest building. It was formerly known as the Modis Building until 2011, when Wells Fargo acquired the naming rights. From 2011 to 2024, it was known as the Wells Fargo Center. In July 2024, the building was renamed to 1 Independent Square after Wells Fargo did not renew its naming rights.
The Riverplace Tower is a 28-floor office building on the south bank of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. At the time of its construction, it was the tallest building in the state of Florida and was the defining landmark in Jacksonville's skyline. On April 18, 2012, the American Institute of Architects's Florida Chapter placed the building on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places as the Riverplace Tower / Formerly Gulf Life Tower.
First City Tower, located at 1001 Fannin, is a skyscraper in downtown Houston, Texas. The building rises 662 feet (202 m) in height. Completed in 1981, it contains 49 floors. First City Tower currently stands as the 14th-tallest building in the city. The architectural firm who designed the building was Morris-Aubry, and was built by W. S. Bellows Construction Corporation. The structure is an example of late-modernist architecture. The tower, which formerly housed the headquarters of the now-defunct First City National Bank, now serves as the global headquarters of Waste Management, Inc, and the headquarters of Vinson & Elkins. It also houses the U.S. headquarters of Campus Living Villages.
Baptist Health (Jacksonville) is a faith-based, non-profit health system comprising 6 hospitals with 1,168 beds, a cancer center, four satellite emergency departments and more than 200 patient access points of care, including 50 primary care offices located throughout northeast Florida and southeast Georgia. The headquarter is in Jacksonville, Florida.
Eight Forty One is a 309 feet, 22-floor office building on the south bank of St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. Completed in 1955, it was the tallest building in the city for 13 years until surpassed by the Riverplace Tower. It was "The Tallest Office Building in the South" and the tallest in Florida until NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building was completed in 1965. The building's former names include the Aetna Building, Prudential Plaza I or One Prudential Plaza, and the Prudential Building.
The Laura Street Trio is a group of three historic buildings located on and near Laura Street in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The Trio consists of two perpendicularly arranged skyscrapers, the Florida Life Building and the Bisbee Building, plus a third structure, the Old Florida National Bank, which is framed by the other two in a unique pattern. The three buildings, constructed in the wake of the Great Fire of 1901, are architecturally significant, but are currently endangered.
100 North Tampa, formerly known as the Regions Building and the AmSouth Building, is a skyscraper in Tampa, Florida, USA. Rising to a height of 579 feet (176 m) and 42 floors in Downtown Tampa, the structure currently stands as the tallest building in Tampa and the twenty-sixth-tallest building in Florida. 100 North Tampa was designed by the HKS, Inc. architectural firm, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. The building, an example of postmodern architecture, holds offices for Regions Bank, the American International Group, Yara, North America, KPMG, and law firms Holland & Knight and Turkel, Cuva, & Barrios.
KBJ Architects, Inc. (KBJ) is an American architectural firm based in Jacksonville, Florida. The firm designed 17 of the city's 30 tallest buildings and "created Jacksonville's modern skyline", according to The Florida Times-Union newspaper. The firm designed the first high-rise in downtown Jacksonville, the 22-story Aetna Building, which opened in 1955. It took pride in "having the second-largest number of architects of any Florida firm", according to a 1997 article in The Florida Times-Union.
EverBank Center is a skyscraper in Jacksonville, Florida, with naming rights owned by EverBank, the anchor tenant. Standing 447 feet tall, it ranked third on the list of tallest buildings in Jacksonville, and is the largest in terms of class "A" rentable area with 956,201 sq ft (88,834.0 m2). The building was formerly known as the Southern Bell Telephone Building, the AT&T Tower, and TIAA Bank Center.
VyStar Credit Union is a member-owned financial cooperative that is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It offers a comprehensive selection of products, including deposit and loan services for consumers and businesses, as well as investments, insurance, retirement planning and financial counseling. Founded in 1952 as Jax Navy Federal Credit Union, VyStar is the largest mortgage lender and the fourth-largest financial institution in Northeast Florida. It is regulated by the Florida Office of Financial Regulation and federally insured by the National Credit Union Share Insurance (NCUSIF) offered by the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).
The architecture of Jacksonville is a combination of historic and modern styles reflecting the city's early position as a regional center of business. According to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, there are more buildings built before 1967 in Jacksonville than any other city in Florida, though few structures in the city center predate the Great Fire of 1901. Numerous buildings in the city have held state height records, dating as far back as 1902, and last holding a record in 1981.
Laura Street is a north–south street in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, named for the daughter of the city's founder, Isaiah D. Hart. Historically, the downtown portion of Laura Street has been considered the financial district of Jacksonville.
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