In it's day this was the financial center of Atlanta and the building looked it. Built in 1901 as the Empire Building. Hentz, Adler and Shutze renovated it in 1929 to the headquarters of Citizens and Southern National Bank.
I have a personal connection to all the Shutze buildings I'm blogging about. Perhaps this one most of all. Mrs. Architecture Tourist worked here as a teller while in grad school. Later she was kicked upstairs. We were young married folks. Both of us worked in a company headquarters, in beautiful historic buildings just three blocks from each other, when downtown Atlanta was at it's peak.
All the major banks were within a block but C&S seemed the city's favorite. It's president Mills B. Lane Jr. was an important Atlanta booster and remarkable personality.
This is the Broad and Walton corner, the most comfortable intersection in downtown Atlanta. How can such formal architecture produce human comfort? I don't know but that's why classic architecture will never go out of style.
It's elaborate on the outside. The banking floor itself is beyond words.
Today Bank of America runs the banking floor. The building is home to Georgia State's Robinson College of Business. Important things still happen here. But very few Atlantans have any occasion to visit here anymore.
Our lives have changed a bit since our newlywed days. But I still visit this block at least once a week to see a client whose office has this view.
Mrs. Tourist has fond memories as a teller there. I hope you'll have an opportunity to visit the banking floor yourself to see why.
No pro photography or pro architecture was committed in this post.
Thanks,
Terry
terry @ surf303.com