NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Nashville’s tallest constructing looms giant over town. It’s such an iconic a part of the skyline, it’s even featured on the state of Tennessee driver’s license.
The skyscraper has an official identify, however everybody in Nashville is aware of it by its unofficial nickname: The Batman Building.
Residence of the Tennessee headquarters for AT&T, the constructing, recognized additionally because the “Bat Constructing” or the “Bat Tower,” has been the fixture of downtown Nashville for 30 years.
“It was an instantaneous hit on the Nashville skyline and nonetheless is right this moment,” native historian David S. Ewing informed Nexstar’s WKRN.
Development on the tower started in 1992 and was accomplished two years later, in September 1994. The aim on the time, Ewing mentioned, was to consolidate a number of smaller places of work for the South Central Bell firm into one workspace.
“South Central Bell had a really giant presence in Tennessee. Their essential workplace within the state of Tennessee was in Nashville; they’d a variety of smaller places of work across the metropolis, and so they consolidated these all into downtown in a really tall constructing to place everybody in a single area — about 1,800 staff,” he mentioned.
The AT&T Constructing, because it’s now referred to as, was beforehand often called the South Central Bell Constructing after which the BellSouth Constructing. However its unofficial nickname comes from its resemblance to the Caped Crusader of DC Comics.
“In case you have a look at [news] protection on the time when the Batman constructing opened in 1994, all people noticed this iconic picture of Batman. Even months earlier than the constructing opened, on the entrance web page of The Tennessean, there was a picture of the constructing and a picture of Batman aspect by aspect that mentioned, ‘Holy Excessive Rise!’” Ewing remembered.
The imagery, whereas iconic, was solely unintentional, in line with AT&T Tennessee President Joelle Phillips.
“That’s a mirrored image of fine previous Center Tennessee folks calling issues what they thought,” she informed WKRN. “I believe it was simply form of a pure factor.”
Neither the corporate nor the architects sought out to create a constructing utilizing that particular sort of images. Actually, the workforce that designed a part of the constructing told WKRN the distinctive spires on both aspect of the constructing have been impressed by the technological developments of the age. However the resemblance to Batman was unmistakable.
“When the Batman constructing opened in 1994, a reporter requested DC Comics, the writer of Batman comedian books, about it, and so they have been flattered that Nashville would do a constructing that appeared like Batman,” Ewing mentioned. “The particular person recommended that they construct a smaller constructing after Robin with an R and a circle on it.”
In accordance with Phillips, locals needed to guarantee members of Warner Media, who have been at one time a part of the identical firm as AT&T and guarded the identify and picture of Batman merchandise, that the identify was an natural creation and never meant to infringe on anybody’s mental property rights.
“It’s simply what folks name it,” Phillips mentioned. “If something, we form of got here away from that dialog with even the parents who management the Batman mark considering it was good for the model. Individuals name [the building] that in a really optimistic approach.”
For the final 30 years, the Bat Constructing — or the Bat Tower or the Batman Constructing — has been the centerpiece of the Nashville skyline, main the cost for downtown Nashville’s development.
Ewing mentioned he thought of the tower’s building a inexperienced gentle for redevelopment following an financial slowdown within the Seventies and ‘80s.
“That was an actual sign to return again to downtown Nashville — a bat sign, if you’ll — that downtown was open as soon as once more, and it prompted a variety of different folks to put money into the core of town,” he mentioned. “Lots of people have been constructing buildings exterior of the Nashville space, within the Inexperienced Hills space and the Cool Springs space, however we weren’t constructing these iconic towers. Actually, within the ‘70s and ‘80s, many of the different tall buildings in our skyline have been constructed as inns or by banks.”
Whereas the constructing is iconic from the surface, the within is equally as distinctive, in line with each Phillips and Ewing.
The inside was designed by the late native architect Earl Swensson and features a signature design factor that Swensson put in lots of his buildings: the all-glass atrium.
In accordance with Ewing, Swensson “form of invented” the grand glass atrium for the Opryland Resort and used related atriums in different giant initiatives, together with the AT&T constructing and Centennial Hospital.
“A whole lot of different architects have copied him over time,” Ewing mentioned.
The constructing was one Swensson didn’t wish to appear to be a typical boxy skyscraper, in line with Ewing.
“There’s a ton of sunshine within the constructing,” he mentioned. “The best way the rooms and the flooring are arrange, there’s not your typical grid system. There’s a variety of curves and completely different angles. It was actually meant to be expertise and structure mixed.”
Earl Swensson Associates says the constructing features a two-story financial improvement middle, a nine-story 1,308-space underground parking storage, and an 8,000-square-foot enclosed winter backyard, which serves as one other focal point.
One other distinctive characteristic of the constructing is its orientation. Whereas most skyscrapers or downtown workplace buildings run parallel with the streets they’re on, the Batman constructing sits catty-cornered on its lot, going through the nook of Commerce Road and third Avenue North relatively than anybody road.
“So the constructing doesn’t flip its again on both aspect,” Phillips mentioned.
Whereas AT&T and former iterations of the corporate have been the primary homeowners and sole renters of the constructing at first, the tower started internet hosting different corporations via rental agreements beginning within the mid-2000s.
When Nissan North America introduced it might be relocating its headquarters to Franklin, the corporate wanted a short lived area for its staff to work, and the AT&T constructing made room. AT&T cleared out about half the constructing for Nissan to make use of whereas they have been awaiting the opening of the Williamson County facility.
“Actually, for a time, there was a Nissan signage form of down low over the entrance door of the Bat Constructing,” Phillips mentioned.
These days, the constructing is residence to a number of tenants, together with U.S. Financial institution and legislation agency Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs. It’s owned by restricted legal responsibility firm MTL Leasing.
