1901 Sixth Avenue

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This article is about the 1989, 32-story building. For the 1976, 18-story building, see Regions Plaza.
Regions-Harbert.JPG

1901 Sixth Avenue (originally the AmSouth-Harbert Plaza, later Regions-Harbert Plaza and Harbert Plaza) is a 437-foot tall, 32-story office tower, with adjoining 2-story retail wing, located at 1901 6th Avenue North, between 19th Street North and 20th Street North. The building, with a total of 613,764 square feet of rentable floor area, includes office, retail, restaurant, and banking space. It is currently the 2nd tallest building in Birmingham.

Completed in September 1989, the postmodern-style skyscraper was designed by Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum of St Louis with Brasfield & Gorrie serving as the general contractor. The tower was constructed atop a large downtown site that once was occupied in part by both the Temple Theatre and the YMCA Building.

The brown granite cladding stretches from its base to the copper-roofed, pyramid-shaped penthouse. The shape of the roof was inspired by the towers of the nearby 1st Methodist Church and Cathedral Church of the Advent. The large spheres at the corners reproduce an element used on both those towers. The ones on the skyscraper were fabricated in sections from 1/2" thick aluminum, coated in fiberglass to simulate the building's granite cladding. The color of the granite was selected to blend with the colors of the Episcopal church, which sits directly across 20th Street. The Harbert Center on 4th Avenue North was built at the same time of gray granite, and has a similar style of detailing.

In January 1990 a major public sculpture, "Alabama Moon" by Clyde Lynds, was dedicated in the plaza outside the building. The stainless steel and concrete installation, enhanced with fiber-optic lighting, was called "undoubtedly the most ambitious site-oriented public sculpture in Birmingham," by Birmingham News art critic James Nelson.

In 1998 a portrait statue of Harbert Construction founder John Harbert sculpted by Brad Morton was placed in the covered entrance facing 20th Street as part of the Alabama-Mississippi Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society's "Legacy of Leadership" series.

When AmSouth merged with Regions in 2007 the building's name was updated. New signs were installed on July 13 of that year.

The original anchor for the retail center at AmSouth-Harbert Plaza was a 21,500 square-foot Parisian department store, which relocated from its former downtown flagship on 2nd Avenue North. The store converted to a Belk in 2005. In late July 2008 Belk announced that they would close the location in January 2009. The space was leased for an Adeptio Wellness Center in September 2010.

The exclusive Summit Club, formerly the Relay House, is located on the 31st floor.

In late February 2008 the Harbert family sold the building to the 601W Companies of New York, New York, through a pair of subsidiary LLCs, for $126 million. Harbert Realty Services Inc. continues to lease and manage the property.

In 2017, after renovating its space in the nearby Regions Center, Regions Bank vacated its leased space in the Regions-Harbert Plaza. The building's owners, NKP Alabama Acquisition and SL Regions Acquisition, refinanced its loans in order to fund renovations to the property.

In April 2019 Wells Fargo announced that it would relocate its downtown offices from the former Wells Fargo Tower to the building. Maynard Cooper & Gale renewed its multi-floor lease at the building. In December 2019 a $3 million renovation project began, designed by Williams Blackstock Architects and contracted to Rives Construction. The work focused on updating the ground floor retail and public areas.

Tenants

Building in October 2010

Regions-Harbert Plaza Retail tenants include:

References

  • The Gift: AmSouth Harbert Plaza As Interpreted by Photographer April Johnson (1989). Birmingham. edition of 2000
  • Nelson, James R. (January 7, 1990) "Works of Art in Busy Places Add Character, Stir Emotions: 'Alabama Moon' at AmSouth/Harbert is an elegant essay on architectural form." The Birmingham News
  • Cooper, Lauren B. (March 3, 2008) "Regions Harbert Plaza sold for $126M." Birmingham Business Journal
  • Kent, Dawn (July 31, 2008) "Belk plans to close downtown Birmingham store." The Birmingham News
  • Plaza - Tenant Links at Regions Harbert Plaza.co, - accessed July 29, 2010
  • Seale, Michael (April 21, 2017) "Regions renovating HQ, vacating space at Regions-Harbert Plaza." Birmingham Business Journal
  • Godwin, Brent (August 3, 2018) "Harbert Plaza owner strikes deal, plans renovation." Birmingham Business Journal
  • Coker, Angel (April 19, 2019) "Wells Fargo administrative offices also moving to Harbert Plaza." Birmingham Business Journal
  • Van der Bijl, Hanno (May 10, 2019) "Maynard Cooper remaining in Harbert Plaza, designing new space." Birmingham Business Journal
  • Van der Bijl, Hanno (December 5, 2019) "Prominent downtown skyscraper rebranding with $3M investment." Birmingham Business Journal

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