Half a century earlier, Independent Life was greater than a high structure in Jacksonville

One week earlier, the huge yellow letters that defined “WELLS FARGO” boiled down.

Individually, a classic 1958 Sikorsky S-58 helicopter lugged them away, leaving the top of the 37-story structure in the center of Jacksonville’s Northbank space once more.

The pictures and video clip that Times-Union professional photographer Bob Self took of that minute seemed like mirrors of some black-and-white pictures in our archives.

Fifty years earlier, in June 1974, that area was empty till a solitary letter was put atop what was after that a brand-new structure.

It was a 19-foot high “E”– the last letter in what would certainly define “INDEPENDENT LIFE.”

Greater than highest structure in Florida

To comprehend what a huge bargain this remained in Jacksonville, begin by returning concerning 2 1/2 years to Dec. 16, 1971, and the speech that Jacob F. Bryan III, head of state and chairman of the board of Independent Life, provided to the Jacksonville Chamber of Business Board of 100.

” Finally I can undo my lips …” he started.

Bryan discussed that as Independent Life transformed 50, it was expanding so swiftly that it not just had actually filled up all 18 tales of the structure it improved W. Duval Road in 1955, it needed to locate area somewhere else.

” For some years we had actually been building up arrive on the block surrounded by Water and Bay roads and Key and Laura roads,” he stated. “The inquiry was: Should we utilize this block for our brand-new structure? Or should we situate our brand-new structure somewhere else, possibly in among the suburban areas of Jacksonville?”

Presumably, he stated, midtown Jacksonville really did not resemble a great area.

” You stay in Jacksonville,” he informed those collected. “You do not need to be informed that the midtown location isn’t what it utilized to be. The decrease of the facility city is a sensation that is located in several American cities … A few of these cities have actually taken favorable actions to stop the decrease by developing brand-new town hall, appealing locations that provide individuals brand-new factors ahead midtown. Jacksonville has actually been creating prepare for such a town hall.”

He stated Independent Life took into consideration constructing a stretching structure somewhere else. Something a lot more straight than upright. The land would certainly be more economical. However it additionally would certainly call for a great deal of it. And the nature of such a structure would certainly make interaction within it harder.

” A stroll from one division to one more and back may become a long, lengthy walking,” he stated, stating in a skyscraper that can be achieved in secs.

He stated midtown Jacksonville had disadvantages. Dining establishments were limited. Vehicle parking was poor. And it had not been pedestrian-friendly. However somewhat, that was specifically why they had actually made a decision to develop midtown. To transform it.

” This financial investment will certainly not just provide Independent Life a brand-new structure, it will certainly provide Jacksonville a fantastic brand-new sign of our city’s goals, and will certainly offer the starts of an abundant, significant, and amazing midtown setting,” he stated.

There was a discussion, with shade slides, concerning what they intended to develop.

At the time, Jacksonville can still flaunt the highest office complex in the state, the 28-story Gulf Life Structure on the Southbank. However that will transform. When the very first National Financial institution Structure in Tampa fl was finished, it would certainly be 35 tales and 464 feet high. And in Miami, a 465-foot high structure was being constructed. And after that there was the Automobile Setting Up Structure at Cape Kennedy, simply one tale however the state’s highest framework at 525 feet.

Every one of this brought about the drum-roll minute: “Ladies and gents, Independent Square will certainly be 37 tales and 535 feet high.”

It would certainly have a pyramid-shaped base, with greater than 200,000 square feet of reflective glass, with the protecting power of 8 inches of block. From outdoors, the structure would certainly have a chameleon-like high quality, tackling every shade and color of Jacksonville. From within, it would certainly have floor-to-ceiling sights of the city. And at the base, there would certainly be an imposing room that would certainly be called “the biggest greenhouse worldwide.”

The structure would certainly have 3,000 individuals doing far more than operating in its 1 million square feet of area. With stores and dining establishments and even more, it would certainly practically be “a city under one roof covering.” And it would certainly transform the remainder of the city.

The high-rise building of the future

Previously this year, understanding this would certainly be the 50th wedding anniversary for the Independent Life structure, I mosted likely to the Key Collection and considered the Times-Union and Jacksonville Journal archives. If you believe we have actually created a great deal concerning the “Arena of the Future,” you must see just how much insurance coverage there was of the high-rise building deemed the future of the city.

Thousands of tales and pictures showed up in the Times-Union and Jacksonville Journal as the Independent Life structure was being constructed, when it was completed in 1974 and when it opened up in 1975.

Simply an example:

∎ Mayor Hans Tanzler responded to the prepare for what was originally called Independent Square by stating: “It resembles a brand-new city increasing out of the ashes of an old and passing away city.”

∎ There were tales and pictures concerning apparently every component of the procedure and the structure: the $34,679 check being provided for the structure authorization; the demolition of the five-story West Structure, among the very first “high-rise buildings” put up after the Terrific Fire; the “large put” of greater than 10,000 lots of concrete; the splendor bordering a heap motorist and the very first of 2,100 pilings; the 7 acres of glass wall surfaces developed for the city’s “worst climate”; the lawn sprinkler that would certainly avoid the type of skyscraper catastrophe seen in because duration in Atlanta and New Orleans; the 15 high-speed lifts delivering individuals to the top of the tower in 30 secs; the club with a sight.

∎ As the structure was rising, Times-Union author Expense Foley composed an item with the heading, “Midtown’s Not Dead, It’s Simply Being Reborn.”

” It’s very easy to visualize tumbleweed rolling throughout the almost vacant roads,” he composed. “Yet the city, the midtown, isn’t just on the brink of its best growth. It’s dedicated to it.”

He defined several of the information in the “Prepare For Midtown Jacksonville,” a 1971 expert record that brought about the Midtown Advancement Authority, and indicated Independent Square as a crucial to what was in advance.

∎ The funding: A company tale stated that one of the most impressive truth concerning Independent Square had not been that it would certainly end up being Florida’s highest structure with the state’s fastest lifts, largest air-conditioning system and biggest individuals capability.

It was that it was being spent for in cash money– $40 million.

The initial cost was $38 million. That expanded to concerning $40 million, spent for in cash money by Independent Life. Readjusted for rising cost of living, that’s around $254 million in today’s bucks.

∎ A political message: In the springtime of 1973, with Watergate controling the headings, building employees repainted a message on among the steel girders: “We sustain Pres Nixon.”

A picture of this went viral the antique means, prior to the Net, showing up in papers around the nation. And in August, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, child of the head of state, concerned Jacksonville. A Times-Union tale– with the heading “Julie Charms Hard Hats at Square”– stated she spoke with almost 1,000 building employees, very important people and others at the structure website.

Eisenhower informed those collected that when somebody had actually sent her a clipping of the image, she had actually put it on her papa’s cushion at the White Residence.

” I understand what a huge increase that provided him,” she stated. “And it provided me an also larger increase.”

∎ The last beam of light

On Sept. 26, 1973, the documents had several tales concerning Independent’s “peaking.”

A dazzling white beam of light– authorized by Independent Life staff members– was decorated with an American flag, a little arm or leg from the Treaty Oak and a 2-foot doll impersonated a building employee. As it was raised 37 tales, the Terry Parker High band played the “Celebrity Spangled Banner,” balloons were launched and fireworks triggered.

∎ When it was completed, exactly how large was the Independent Life Structure? So large that a person made a reproduction of it out of cents.

The Oct. 24, 1974 versions of the Times-Union consisted of a picture of Tennille A. Sutton, a 55-year-old paper business staff member, standing alongside a 4-foot high reproduction constructed out of concerning 60,000 cents– $600 well worth.

∎ On a Monday early morning the list below year– July 21, 1975– 950 Independent Life staff members entered their brand-new workplaces on 13 floorings of the structure. They were welcomed by Johnny Jelinek’s Dixieland Band having fun, “Hail storm, Hail Storm, the Gang’s All Below.”

‘ This was our Super Dish’

Larry Denny takes out a design of the structure and establishes it in addition to some building illustrations expanded on a table in his Fruit Cove home.

His design isn’t a reproduction constructed from cents. It was carefully made– 1:50 range– making use of the real glass that would certainly enter into the structure. It is among the designs that, long prior to there was a real structure, was utilized to imagine and reveal what they were working with at KBJ Architects.

” We had a number of plans,” he stated. “We had one that was gold, however it would not have actually mirrored the skies correctly. So we wound up with the silver plan.”

Denny, 78, began helping KBJ not long after finishing from senior high school and entering into the armed force. He claims he never ever mosted likely to university– he was as well hectic working with this task– and he obtained his level from “the College of KBJ.”

A Lot More: Meet the two men who built much of downtown Jacksonville, in miniature

He invested 35 years there, increasing to elderly vice head of state. However several of his fondest memories are from when he remained in his 20s, accountable of design structure.

He dealt with the 13th flooring of the Coast structure and had a sight of the Independent Life constructing website. When Auchter Firm was constructing it, and everybody was tingling concerning seeing what it would certainly resemble, Denny currently understood. He made the design.

” I had actually seen this structure everyday for 2 1/2 years,” he stated with a laugh. “This was my life. I would certainly get up considering Independent Life. I would certainly go to sleep in the evening considering Independent Life.”

He was young adequate to figure there would certainly be one more task like that a person. There never ever was. He dealt with a lot of various other structures, several that he’s fairly happy with. However he claims: “This was our Super Dish, our Globe Collection … I was simply fortunate. I remained in the ideal place at the correct time.”

As he scanned the building illustrations on the table in his home, he kept in mind several of the important things that dropped by the wayside– for example, there were prepare for pedestrian bridges and pathways introducing the structure– however additionally something that continues to be, at the very least in the meantime: the unblocked sight.

He claims that when the 37-story structure was constructed, the city guaranteed nothing else skyscraper would certainly increase in between it and the river. It was something when the two-story Jacksonville Touchdown opened up in 1987. However it was one more when, among the prepare for what to do with that said area currently, a 44-story skyscraper was suggested.

” That was not meant to take place,” he stated.

What has actually occurred in the last half a century– modifications in modern technology, exactly how we function and, specifically after the pandemic, where we function– afflicted office complex all over. The Independent Life structure really did not verify to be as a lot a stimulant as really hoped. A few of the 1974 tales have mirrors today, specifically ones concerning makings and midtown’s possibility.

However the riverfront does look drastically various than prior to 1974– pictures from prior to building reveal a riverfront filled with sidewalk and parked autos– and the structure currently called 1 Independent Square continues to be among one of the most identifiable frameworks in Jacksonville.

It held the title of highest structure in Florida for around 7 years, till a 39-story structure was constructed in Tampa fl. There currently are loads of taller structures in the state– consisting of the 42-story, 617-foot Financial Institution of America Tower, called Barnett Facility when it was finished in 1990.

Denny has a paint in his home, the Independent Life structure without that black tower behind it.

” I call that Darth Vader,” he stated. “You understand there are 4 of them in the USA? Various elevations.”

He claims that the Independent Life structure was unique– and continues to be the celebrity of the Jacksonville sky line.

” I have actually seen a great deal of excellent structures,” he stated. “This holds its very own due to its simpleness.”

It hasn’t been formally called the Independent Life structure in years. The business’s previous home on W. Duval Road maintained that name, however after Independent Life was gotten by American General Life in 1996, the structure on Independent Drive has actually undergone a collection of calling legal rights and signs modifications: AccuStaff, Modis, Wells Fargo.

However to some– specifically those that bear in mind exactly how large an offer it was half a century earlier– the name never ever transformed.

” It was constantly Independent Life to me,” Denny stated. “It’ll never ever be anything however Independent.”

mwoods@jacksonville.com

( 904) 359-4212

This write-up initially showed up on Florida Times-Union: Fifty years later, Independent Square still star of Jacksonville skyline