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Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont » Norfolk » Civic and Financial Norfolk » 500 East Main Street

500 East Main Street

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1966–1970, Vlastimil Koubek. 500 E. Main St.

The influence of German architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe is readily apparent in this International Style bank building designed by a Washington-based architect. Rising eighteen stories without setbacks, the building's dark exterior is sheathed in anodized aluminum and tinted glass with I-beam mullions in the manner of Mies's Seagram Building (1956–1958) in New York City. The ground-level lobby is recessed behind the outermost piers and enclosed in glass. An unusual construction feature of the building is its Franki foundation, a Belgian technique for sinking concrete footings. Hollow metal tubes are hammered into the ground, and the bottom of each tube is filled with concrete to create a footing. A steel shell is inserted above the footing and filled with more concrete to form a pile, and the tube is then removed. About six footings per day were sunk in a process that is quieter than conventional pile driving.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Richard Guy Wilson et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Confederate Monument (Removed)
Norfolk Southern Tower
First Virginia Bank (Bank of Virginia)
Bank of America Building (Virginia National Bank Building)
Main Street Tower

Citation

Richard Guy Wilson et al., "500 East Main Street", [Norfolk, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-01-NK4.

Print Source

Buildings of Virginia: Tidewater and Piedmont, Richard Guy Wilson and contributors. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, 400-401.

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