Daniel Building

[distortedlogic]

I know there have been threads about this building in the past but I think they are all archived. I was looking up some more information about it and came across some interesting articles and links, and thought I would post them.  In more recent times it has been known as the BB&T, the Landmark, the Windstream, and I'm not even sure what it is now; but I guess the true name is still the Daniel Building. We have all made comments before about the appearance. To me it is very ugly and I wish it could be redone; but definitely not torn down. I hate the double shaft look with the elevator wall in back and the concrete bars over the windows are hideous. But, it is certainly from a different time period and was once highly considered. Anyway, here are some links:

 

https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/greenville-roots/2017/05/23/daniel-building-greenville-sc/99441266/

"At 25 stories, it would be the tallest building in the Carolinas, and one that required legislative approval, since South Carolina’s maximum height limit was then 17 stories. " (which would have been the Woodside Building)

 

https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/SC-01-045-0058

This has some interesting comments like "Situated on a sloping lot and rising twenty-two stories to an overall height ranging between 305 and 335 feet, the Daniel Building allowed Greenville’s skyline to rival Atlanta’s."                   Hard to imagine that statement ever being true.

 

https://schpr.sc.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/4706

 

https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/images/daniel-building-greenville-s-c-1964/

Cool pic during construction.

 

This next one is from when it was sold in 2022. It speaks of immediate renovations but apparently all of those were to the inside.  https://rebusinessonline.com/nai-earle-furman-brokers-sale-of-25-story-landmark-office-tower-in-downtown-greenville/

 

Now this is an interesting site and you may want to spend a few minutes looking through these. It's a site to buy old postcards and the one on the link is an old (and ugly) photo of the DB but you'll see there are lots of photos of other old Greenville landmarks and old skyline shots (just click on Greenville tab above the photo). https://www.cardcow.com/241489/greenville-south-carolina-daniel-building/

 

Anyone have any insight on how this building could be made over without totally erasing the past significance or completely taking Daniel's fingerprint from it? There's got to be a way to make this a better looking building. Have city leaders or developers never thought about doing it? How could they not have?

It's pretty amazing to think that Greenville twice had the tallest building in either South or North Carolina; Woodside and Daniel. There must have been some really big momentum in Greenville's past that just suddenly died. Now just about every peer city (except Chas) has taller buildings in the Carolinas; of course Charlotte, Raleigh, Columbia, Winston Salem, Greensboro, and even Durham and MYB.

 

Not to derail, but speaking of the Woodside, here is a link on that one. https://www.scencyclopedia.org/sce/entries/woodside-building/

[btoy]

I looked at it with a buyer a number of years ago with the idea of putting an apartment building on top of the parking garage.

[distortedlogic]

5 hours ago, btoy said:

I looked at it with a buyer a number of years ago with the idea of putting an apartment building on top of the parking garage.

Very interesting.  Can you share any more details? Were there any plans for the existing tower?

[btoy]

didn't get very far not much to share.  We were not able to come to an agreement on it at that time.

 

[distortedlogic]

Do you have any insight on what it would take for a developer to makeover the building? Are there any restrictions; maybe some that Daniel himself put on it? Is it just a matter of a developer having a vision?

[btoy]

All I remember is we we were told the garage was designed to be able to accommodate additional floors.

[vicupstate]

Plaza redesign for 301 N. Main St.

[cabelagent]

47 minutes ago, vicupstate said:

Plaza redesign for 301 N. Main St.

Meh....the tower needs redesign too!

[GVLer]

Yeah....that tower is so dated and unattractive.

[distortedlogic]

Interesting, but looks pretty minimal tbh.

Is that black building in the background a plan to re-clad the parking garage or it is just a generic insert to show there is something in the background?

[GvilleSC]

It's there for context. The garage really needs to be torn down and reimagined. That's a more critical component than some massive renovation of the exterior of the high rise, IMO. 

[gman430]

https://upstatebusinessjournal.com/square-feet/the-daniel-building-downtown-greenville-landmark-renovation/

[GVLer]

Unfortunately there is not enough ROI to renovate the exterior facade. 

[rabbit seisin]

It would be nice to have a good retail draw in the lobby there. Currently the feeling you get when you hit College/Beattie heading north is YOU HAVE REACHED THE END OF DOWNTOWN 

[distortedlogic]

They're just wasting 4 million dollars here. It needs a TOTAL makeover.