Regions Center

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Regions Center
Information
Location	1900 Fifth Avenue North Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Status	Completed
Opening	1972
Use	Corporate Headquarters
Height
Antenna/Spire	390 feet (119 m)
Top floor	30
Floor count	30
Floor area	630,000 square feet (58,529 m2)
Companies
Architect	Welton Becket & Associates
Owner	Regions Financial Corporation
Management	Carter & Associates

The Regions Center (formerly the AmSouth Center, before that the AmSouth-Sonat Tower, and originally the First National-Southern Natural Building) is a 119 meter (390 foot) tall, 30 story office tower located at northwest corner of 20th Street and 5th Avenue North in Birmingham, Alabama, USA. It served as the corporate headquarters for AmSouth Bancorporation from 1972 until 2006 and Sonat, Inc. from 1972 until 1999. The building now serves as the corporate headquarters for Regions Financial Corporation.

Completed in 1972, the modernist-style skyscraper was designed by Welton Becket & Associates of Houston with Charles H. McCauley Associates serving as the local associated firm. Built as a partnership between First National Bank and Southern Natural Gas Corporation, its original names was the "First National-Southern Natural Building". First National changed its name to AmSouth Bancorporation later in 1972, with Southern Natural Gas changing its name to Sonat, Inc. in the early 1980s, and the building was then given its most familiar name the "AmSouth-Sonat Tower".

The reflective glass skin stretches between a generously-scaled black granite base story and a louvered steel penthouse enclosure. The building is set back from the corner with a raised terrace plaza. A one story banking lobby facing 20th Street closes off the north side of a sunken courtyard which serves the basement-level cafeteria.

Sonat merged with Houston based El Paso Corporation in 1999 which resulted in the building name being changed again to the "AmSouth Center". El Paso maintained a large presence in the building with its Southern Natural Gas division using it as its headquarters. On January 29, 2007, Southern Natural announced that it would move its headquarters to the Colonial Brookwood Center, located in one of Birmingham's suburbs.

In November 2006, the name of the building officially changed to the Regions Center after AmSouth and Regions merged. The Regions logo has replaced the AmSouth logo on the top of the building.

During the Christmas season colored gels are illuminated in each panel of the glass curtain wall, creating an enormous lit graphical display visible on the skyline from well outside the city. The east side is a Christmas tree, the south a wreath, the west a candy cane, and the north a stocking.

[edit] See also

• Regions Financial Corporation
• AmSouth Bancorporation
• Sonat, Inc. / El Paso Corporation
• Birmingham, Alabama