Since I was a little girl, I remember driving along hwy. 220 or along interstate 40 and seeing this building as we approached Greensboro's downtown. I wondered what the history was with this building. It's a dominant feature on the Greensboro skyline much like the Empire state building is a dominant feature in NYC. If Jay-Z wrote a song about Greensboro instead of NYC, it would have been about the "Jefferson" state of mind!
It turns out that this building was the tallest building in N.C. and possibly the tallest building in the entire south when it was completed. It was built by an architect from New York named Charles C. Hartmann. Hartmann also assisted with the ceiling design of NYC's Grand Central Terminal's main lobby before coming to N.C. Later on he designed the Woolworths building that is now the International Civil Right's Museum (site of the first sit-ins in Greensboro).
The Jefferson Standard building was completed in 1923, and you can see the year 1922 carved in the ornate decor above the door. There is also a bust of Thomas Jefferson there. The company that built this building--Jefferson Standard Life Insurance (Jefferson-Pilot) company-- was named for good old T. J., and so they wanted to give him a solid shout-out. Several times I've come across a quote that says Greensboro was as proud of this skyscraper as a child is of his very first tooth!
The building is largely made of terra cotta tiles and granite, and while several styles were combined to form the architecture, the prevailing style is Beaux Arts. (such a beautiful name for a style) There are also Buffalo Nickels carved in stone that appear above each ground-level window. They represent "thrift and economy" according to Wikipedia. The U-shaped floor plan was designed so that even the interior offices could receive fresh cool air in the hot humid southern summers (and light). Hartmann was so clever!
The huge honking part with the grayish-greenish rooftop wasn't completed until 1990. Now you know!
So.. what does this building have to do with Sponge Bob Squarepants? This pictures says it all. This is the cover drawing of a G-Man comic book-- a special 2009 edition, at that. The sequential artist is Chris Giarusso. The artist marked the release of this comic by coming to Greensboro's Acme Comics bookstore along with some other big sequential artists. Gregg Schigiel, one of the artists of Spongebob Squarepants, was there for the release! It's a lame connection, I know-- I originally misunderstood and thought the artist who drew G-man was also the Spongbob squarepants artist, but he's not.. oh well! At least you can see Greensboro in the skyline of G-man comics!
References:
http://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/people/P000118
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson_Standard_Building
http://www.digtriad.com/news/local_state/article.aspx?storyid=130359
2 comments:
very informative, Katie! I've always thought that was an interesting building, it's nice to know more about it. :)
Thanks! I'd always wondered about that building. It turns out it's pretty interesting.
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