Empire Building (Citizens & Southern National Bank)

The high-rise building northeast of the intersection of N. Broad St. and Marietta St. NW was once the tallest building in Atlanta. Constructed as the Empire Building from 1900 to 1901, the office building was one of the city's first steel-framed buildings. From 1919 to 1929, the building was called the Atlanta Trust Building. New owners in 1929 redesigned the first three floors to become the headquarters for Citizens & Southern National Bank (later NationsBank, then Bank of America). In 1972, the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places' it became an Atlanta Landmark Building in 1992. The structure became the home of the Georgia State University School of Business in the 2010s; a Bank of America location still occupies the first floor. The building appeared in the 2016 film The Founder, starring Michael Keaton as McDonald's CEO Ray Kroc.

The 14-story, steel-framed Empire Building was likely named for the insurance company that funded its construction. The design for the Commercial style structure was by the architectural firm Morgan and Dillon, with vertical piers and horizontal spandrels echoing the steel cage construction. When it was finished in 1901, the brick-faced office building became the tallest building in Atlanta at 185 feet high, overtaking the Flatiron Buidling's 160 feet. The W.D. Grant Building, completed in 1898 and ten stories, was another steel-framed building in Atlanta, completed just three years before the neighboring Empire Building (across N. Broad Street from each other). The Empire lost its tallest in Atlanta status when the Fourth National Bank building was completed in 1905.

One of the first tenants in the Empire Building after its 1901 completion was the National Weather Service. A number of real estate firms had offices in the building in the 1910s, including Turman, Black, & Calhoun; Ben Graham Company, Greene Realty Company; Empire Trust & Safe Deposit Company; and Cofield Investment Company. The 1911 Sanborn map depicts the banking space on the ground floor of the fireproof building at its southwest corner (by N. Broad and Marietta) with entrances to the east and north. There were ground-floor offices near the center of the N. Broad side of the building, with three store spaces to the north. An 80,000-gallon water tank or "fire cistern" stood in N. Broad to the west of the offices.

In 1919, the building was acquired by the Atlanta Trust Company who renamed the building after their firm; they were previously located at 140 Peachtree St. The president of Atlanta Trust Company in 1922, Eugene R. Black, touted the company's four percent interest paid on all sums invested with them; their tag line was that if they could make a man save, it would help him to become independent.

The first three floors of the building were redesigned by architect Philip Schutze of the firm Hentz, Adler, and Schutze in 1929 in the Second Renaissance Revival style. The structure became the headquarters of the new owners, Citizens and Southern National Bank. The large and luxurious, two-story banking hall with a liberal use of marble flooring and wainscoting, and the three-story base with arched entrances and rusticated stone trim were said to be loosely based on the Pantheon in Rome, Italy.

In 1991, Citizens and Southern merged with North Carolina National Bank and became NationsBank. The former Empire Building continued to be the headquarters of NationsBank into the 2010s. NationsBank acquired BankAmerica Corporation and became Bank of America. The ground floor continues to hold a Bank of America Financial Center ("Marietta Street") and walk-up ATM. Bank of America's corporate headquarters are in Charlotte, North Carolina. The upper floors contain the J. Mack Robinson College of Business Administration, the business school of Georgia State University. The former Empire Building (35 Broad St. NW) is one of two downtown locations for the business school, along with 55 Park Place NE. Undergraduate and Master's degree programs are offered.

Atlanta Georgian staff. "Atlanta Real Estate is Certain to Increase in Value. There are Bargains in these Ads." Atlanta Georgian (Atlanta) April 27th, 1913. Classifieds sec, 5B-5B.\

Atlanta History Center. Empire Building, Album: Digital Resources of the Kenan Resource Center. January 1st, 2011. Accessed February 25th, 2023. https://album.atlantahistorycenter.com/digital/collection/athpc/id/1262.

Atlanta Trust Company. "Capital $500,000,000. Surplus $100,000.00." Atlanta Georgian and News (Atlanta) January 27th, 1914, 6-6.

Bank of America. Bank of America in Atlanta with Walk-up ATM, Marietta Street, Bank of America: Locations. January 1st, 2023. Accessed February 26th, 2023. https://locators.bankofamerica.com/ga/atlanta/financial-centers-atlanta-11045.html.

Black, Eugene R. "untitled Atlanta Trust Company advertisement." The Atlantian (Atlanta) November 1st, 1922. , 16-16.

Dunagan, H. Lee. Lyon, Elizabeth A. NRHP nomination of Citizen's and Southern Bank Building, 35 Broad St., Atlanta, Georgia. National Register. Washington, DC. National Park Service, 1976.

Georgia State University. Discover Robinson, Georgia State University. January 1st, 2023. Accessed February 26th, 2023. https://robinson.gsu.edu/discover-robinson/#locations.

Wheatley, Thomas. This was Atlanta's Empire Building circa 1900. Atlanta. September 20th, 2017.