Morgan Keegan Tower
Encyclopedia
Morgan Keegan Tower is a 21-story skyscraper
and is the second tallest building in Memphis, Tennessee
. The building is located at the corner of North Front Street and Jefferson Avenue and South Main Street. It is 403 feet (122.8 m) tall, including a 61 feet (18.6 m) spire
, and has 334668 square feet (31,091.7 m²) of office space.
It is currently owned by Jackson, MS
-based Parkway Properties, which has owned the building since 1997 along with six other buildings in Memphis. As of July 2008, the building was 100% occupied.
, and is topped with a 61-foot spire, which is a distinctive feature of the Memphis skyline.
In a nod to the past, the four giant stone griffin
s — a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle - that adorned the former Hotel King Cotton are displayed in the atrium of the MK Tower.
in April 1984.
The building was developed by Lowery Companies, LLC., and was designed by 3D/International of Houston.
It is the currently the corporate headquarters of Morgan Keegan, which originally owned the building and remains the anchor tenant. Other tenants include KPMG and several local law firms.
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
and is the second tallest building in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County. The city is located on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff, south of the confluence of the Wolf and Mississippi rivers....
. The building is located at the corner of North Front Street and Jefferson Avenue and South Main Street. It is 403 feet (122.8 m) tall, including a 61 feet (18.6 m) spire
Spire
A spire is a tapering conical or pyramidal structure on the top of a building, particularly a church tower. Etymologically, the word is derived from the Old English word spir, meaning a sprout, shoot, or stalk of grass....
, and has 334668 square feet (31,091.7 m²) of office space.
It is currently owned by Jackson, MS
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
-based Parkway Properties, which has owned the building since 1997 along with six other buildings in Memphis. As of July 2008, the building was 100% occupied.
Structure
The building is clad in carmen red flame cut and polished graniteGranite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, and is topped with a 61-foot spire, which is a distinctive feature of the Memphis skyline.
In a nod to the past, the four giant stone griffin
Griffin
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle...
s — a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the wings and head of an eagle - that adorned the former Hotel King Cotton are displayed in the atrium of the MK Tower.
History
The site was previously occupied by the Hotel King Cotton, a 12-story high-rise hotel built in 1927. The building demolition was performed by Memphis Wrecking Company and Controlled Demolition, Inc.Controlled Demolition, Inc.
Controlled Demolition, Inc. , founded by Jack Loizeaux in 1947, is a firm headquartered in Phoenix, Maryland that specializes in the use of explosives to create a controlled demolition of a structure, with the structure collapsing on itself into a pile of debris contained within the site of the...
in April 1984.
The building was developed by Lowery Companies, LLC., and was designed by 3D/International of Houston.
It is the currently the corporate headquarters of Morgan Keegan, which originally owned the building and remains the anchor tenant. Other tenants include KPMG and several local law firms.