southeast financial center

address: 200 south biscayne boulevard, miami, united states
architects: edward c. bassett of skidmore, owings and merrill
date: 1985

Built for Southeast Bank, the serrated profile of the 55-story Wachovia Financial Center dominated the Miami skyline from its completation in 1985 until the topping out of the Four Seans in 2002. Southeast -previously First National Bank of Miami-, the city´s preeminent financial institution since pioneer days, chose Edward C. Bassett of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill´s San Francisco office to design what would be its last headquarters. The site sat just across SE Second Street from its existing headquarters in the First National Bank Building. The granite-clad office tower´s novel sawtooth, trapezoidal floor plates offer a primary facade to each of the site´s three major ventage points: the MacArthur and Rickenbacker causeways to the southeast and northeast, and the city to the west. Clad in perforated precast panels, the parking structure combines commercial space and a grand bank lobby on its lower levels with an athletic club on the top floor. The Miami´s finest public open spaces, its animated nature further enlivened by the periodic passing of the Metromover on its south side.

Allan T. Shulman, Randall C. Robinson Jr., James F. Donnelly