The RSA Battle House Tower is located in

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 census. It is the fourth-most-populous city in Alabama ...

and is

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = " Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,7 ...

's tallest building. The building is owned by the Retirement Systems of Alabama (RSA). It is the tallest on the

Gulf Coast of the United States The Gulf Coast of the United States, also known as the Gulf South, is the coastline along the Southern United States where they meet the Gulf of Mexico. The coastal states that have a shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico are Texas, Louisiana, Missi ...

outside

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

. It replaces the

Shipt Tower The Shipt Tower is a 34-story, tall office building in Birmingham, Alabama. Built in 1986 as the corporate headquarters for SouthTrust Corporation, the building was known as the SouthTrust Tower until 2005, when SouthTrust completed its merger ...

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

as the tallest building in Alabama and the RSA–BankTrust Building as the tallest in Mobile. The building is named for the neighboring Battle House Hotel, which is now part of the tower complex. The Battle House Hotel was restored and renovated as part of the tower project.

Construction

The building began with foundation slab concrete being poured during the weekend of 7 November 2003. The foundation slab is over thick, with just over of it resting below the natural water table of downtown Mobile. The

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires a ...

, installed by a

Sikorsky S-61 The Sikorsky S-61L and S-61N are civil variants of the SH-3 Sea King military helicopter. It was developed and produced by the American helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. The commercial version of the Sea King was developed during the ...

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attribu ...

on Saturday, 16 September 2006, brought the building to its finished height of ."Helicopter to place crowning point on Alabama's tallest skyscraper." The Press-Register, Mobile, AL. September 15, 2006 During construction, five

hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Dep ...

s affected Mobile, causing delays in the construction of this building:

Hurricane Frances Hurricane Frances was the second most intense tropical cyclone in the Atlantic during 2004 and proved to be very destructive in Florida. It was the sixth named storm, the fourth hurricane, and the third major hurricane of the 2004 Atlantic ...

and

Hurricane Ivan Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlant ...

in 2004, as well as Hurricane Cindy,

Hurricane Dennis Hurricane Dennis was an early-forming major hurricane in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Dennis was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the season. F ...

, and

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

in 2005.

Facilities

The tower consists of 25 office floors, 3 lobby floors, 4 hotel floors, and 1 service floor, together with 30 elevators and of column-free floorspace and a total building area of 189,644 sq.ft The lighted crown is visible from away along

Mobile Bay Mobile Bay ( ) is a shallow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The ...

on a clear night.

References

External links

Official websiteRSA Battle House Tower at Emporis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rsa Battle House Tower Skyscraper office buildings in Mobile, Alabama Office buildings completed in 2007 Skyscrapers in Mobile, Alabama Skyscraper hotels in Alabama 2007 establishments in Alabama

Construction

Facilities

See also

References

External links