LeVeque Tower

Infobox_nrhp | name = American Insurance Union Citadel (LeVeque Tower)
nrhp_type =

---

caption =LeVeque Tower with the Ohio Courts Building in front.
location= Columbus, OH
lat_degrees = 39 | lat_minutes = 57 | lat_seconds = 44.15 | lat_direction = N
long_degrees = 83 | long_minutes = 0 | long_seconds = 7.42 | long_direction = W
area =
built =1924
architect= Crane,C. Howard; John Gill & Sons
architecture= Art Deco
added = March 21, 1975
governing_body = Private
refnum=75001398 cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2006-03-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]

LeVeque Tower is a 47-story Art Deco-style building in Columbus, Ohio. Located at 50 West Broad Street, it was the tallest building in Columbus from 1927 until 1974 when the State Office Tower was completed. The LeVeque Tower is 555 feet and 6 inches tall, which at the time of its completion made it the tallest building between New York City and Chicago and the 5th tallest building in the world. It was meant to be built exactly one half foot taller than the Washington Monument in Washington DC (but the actual difference is less, see below.)

History

LeVeque Tower was commissioned by the American Insurance Union and originally called the American Insurance Union Citadel (AIU Citadel for short). The term "citadel" was chosen for its strong and enduring connotations, which the AIU wanted to exude to the public. Its creation was widely spearheaded by the leader of the AIU, local magnate John J. Lentz. It was designed by architect C. Howard Crane. Its construction occurred along with a massive revitalization of the river front area in downtown Columbus after much of the area had severe problems with flooding. In addition to the tower, a new city hall, the 14-story Ohio Courts Building, and the widening of the Scioto River were all undertaken during the same period. The tower was originally only going to be around 480 feet tall, but for promotional purposes the leaders of the AIU decided to have the architect augment the original design so the tower would be 555.5 feet tall, or one half foot taller than the Washington Monument. This aspect of the building was often played up in marketing campaigns. Today, using better measuring devices, it is now known the Washington Monument is 555 ft 5 1/8 in tall, making the tower only 7/8 in taller than the Washington Monument.

Due to the Great Depression and the subsequent high cost of the tower, the American Insurance Union went bankrupt, and sold the building in order to pay off unpaid policies. The tower was purchased by John Lincoln and Leslie L. LeVeque in 1945 for a fraction of the amount it cost to erect and also a fraction of what was owed to policy holders, subsequently those holding policies never received the full amount they were owed.

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. In 1977, the name was officially changed to the LeVeque Tower. The building changed hands to Lennar Properties in 2004, and then again to the new owners Finsilver/Friedman Management, a Michigan based regional developer and property manager.

LeVeque Tower is home to a variety of businesses and offices, including, at its base, the elegant Palace Theatre of Columbus.

Palace Theatre

The Palace Theatre is a 2,827-seat theater which was designed by Thomas Lamb in his typical "Adamesque" style, reminiscent of classical 18th century English architecture by Robert Adams. The construction of the theater was personally supervised by vaudeville mogul Edward Albee of Keith-Albee. The dressing room tower in the backstage area was designed as a small hotel, complete with a “front desk,” where performers picked up their room keys and mail. Kitchen facilities and a children’s playroom were available. The dressing rooms are named after cities on the vaudeville touring routes.

In 1929, the Palace was renamed the RKO (Radio Keith Orpheum). In 1989, the Palace Theatre was purchased by CAPA, which consolidated its administrative functions with those of the Ohio Theatre. The Palace now hosts performances by the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Jazz Arts Group, the Broadway Series, and scores of CAPA-sponsored shows.

Trivia

*The Tower is a steel frame building covered in glazed architectural terra-cotta tiles with an oak-bark texture.

*Five people lost their lives during the construction of the tower. One fell from the steel framing. Four others died during the construction of the foundation when a pocket of noxious gas was opened during digging. The gas overwhelmed the workers and they fell into the hole of the foundation.

*The building is extremely stable because the foundation goes all the way down to bedrock. C. Howard Crane devised a system derived from the method used to build the foundations for the towers of the Brooklyn Bridge. Caissons were sunk into the ground and workers dug out the dirt from inside their pressurized walls. This method was necessary due to the towers proximity with the Scioto River which meant ground water was only a few yards below the surface. This method was, however, very costly. Both from the standpoint that the equipment and power needed to run it (air compressors, decompressors) but also because working in a pressurized environment is very taxing on the workers. It was also time-consuming to get workers ready to work and they also had to go through a process of depressurization to prevent caisson disease. All said, some workers would only spend 30 minutes actually digging before heading back up to the surface. The foundation resulted in the longest leg of the building process.

*Ironically building architect C. Howard Crane is much more famous for building theatres (over 250) and fancy movie palaces (See Detroit & St. Louis Fox Theatre's). Had he been the theatre architect as well as the building architect, the theatre would likely have been much fancier. Palace Theatre architect Thomas Lamb (preferred by the Keith-Albee-Orpheum circuit) was still in his "Adamesque" style of building rather plain (but elegant) theatres, the sudden burst of ornate movie palaces didn't hit the Lamb architectural firm until 1928, after the Palace was designed. However Crane was in his ornate phase earlier (1927), when he planned a trio of opulent movie palaces for the United Artists chain in 1927, and by 1928-29 designed his exotic opulent Fox masterpieces in Detroit, St. Louis and Brooklyn.

*Originally, the building had more sculpture. However, for legal and safety reasons much of it had to be removed because the terra-cotta began to crumble and fall to the street. Lost sculpture includes four 18 foot eagles at the corners of the building at the 36th floor and four 20 foot statues of colossus and youth on the sides of the building at the setback of the 40th floor (these were actually removed so Mr. LeVeque could have a view from his office). The spaces left by the departed sculpture serve as the bases for lights used to illuminate the tower.

*A radio news commentator lived in an apartment near the top of the tower and gave his commentaries straight from his window.

*During the 40s, 50s and 60s, visitors could travel to the top of the tower for a small fee. However, the addition of antennas to the top of the tower has made this dangerous. A view of the tower and the surrounding area can be had from the top floor of the Rhodes State Office Tower; visitors may go to the 40th floor of that building for free.

*Originally the two wings of the building were used as a 600-room addition for the Deshler-Wallick Hotel, which was considered at the time to be one of the world’s largest hotels. (The hotel was later the Deshler Hilton and then later still demolished and replaced with a parking lot which was replaced in turn by One Columbus Center).

*The building originally had a scaled-down replica of the Hall of Mirrors, a ballroom from the Palace of Versailles. It was later removed to make way for additional rentable office space.

*It is nicknamed the “lighthouse tower” or the “aerial lighthouse” due to the extensive use of lights to illuminate the tower at night and the original placement of signal lights on the four turrets of the tower.

*The tower is normally lit in white, but for special occasions the color is changed. During the month of February, the tower is lit red in support of Go Red For Women, the American Heart Association's national movement raising awareness of the nation's No. 1 killer of women - heart disease. In late April and early May, the tower is pink for The Columbus Race for the Cure. During the Christmas season, the tower is red and green, while it is simply green for St. Patrick’s Day. It was lit red, white, and blue for an extended period of time following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. And, for the first time in September 2008 the tower will be lit in teal for Ovarian Cancer Awareness (Break the Silence walk on September 21, 2008).

References

*Perkins, Michael (2004). ’‘LeVeque: The First Complete Story of Columbus’ Greatest Skyscraper’’. Bloomington: Authorhouse. ISBN 1-4208-0294-1.
* [http://www.capa.com/columbus/venues/palace_history.php CAPA venues–Palace Theatre history]
* [http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2004/02/16/tidbits1.html Columbus ’‘Business First’’: “Papers clarify LeVeque Tower owner change”]

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box| before=8 East Broad Street
title=Tallest Building in Columbus| years=1927—1973 169m| after=Rhodes State Office Towersuccession box| before=PNC Tower
title=Tallest Building in Ohio| years=1927—1930 169m| after=Terminal Tower