This relatively lighter outer skin enabled the building to soar to new heights.Īs part of the Tower Building’s decorative plan, an eye-catching fountain was installed near the entrance and was unveiled at the building’s opening ceremony in March 1960. Its composite steel frame allowed for a thinner outer wall that could be filled with rows of windows for natural light. Since the Tower Building was meant to represent a new, modern era, it seemed appropriate that the architects chose not only a then-contemporary style but also the current technology at the time for the design of the building. The asymmetrical style is characterized by the use of relatively lightweight industrial materials, with repetitive modular forms centered around flat surfaces that typically alternate with areas of glass. Berry chose what is called the International Style, which was popular in the postwar era.

The design team of Little Rock architect Frank Eugene Withrow and Dallas architect Harold A. The site on 4th and Center Streets chosen for the Tower Building had been more of a residential area before twentieth-century commercial buildings edged out the single-family homes, reflecting the city’s growth in the postwar era. To realize his goal of a modern high-rise in Little Rock, Rockefeller formed a consortium to handle the construction. It held that distinction until the Tower Building opened in 1960. In 1928, the sixteen-story Medical Arts Building in Hot Springs (Garland County) became the state’s tallest. It was the tallest building in Arkansas at the time of its construction, a title that only lasted until the following year when Little Rock’s eleven-story State Bank Building opened.

The city’s ten-story Southern Trust Building, built in 1908, is considered to be the state’s first skyscraper.

There had been a small number of high-rise buildings in Little Rock during earlier eras. Rockefeller was interested in economic development for the state, claiming that Arkansas would not attain its place in a modern industrialized economy without an impressive high-rise office building, preferably a skyscraper, in the capital city of Little Rock. On September 23, 2011, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Īmid the prosperity and optimism of the postwar era in the 1950s, the building was the brainchild of Winthrop Rockefeller, an influential state resident and future governor who lived at Petit Jean Mountain in Conway County. It was constructed between 19 and, as the state’s tallest building at the time of its completion, was usually referred to as a skyscraper. The Tower Building is an eighteen-story commercial structure located at 323 Center Street, which is at the northeast corner of 4th and Center Streets in downtown Little Rock (Pulaski County).

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