The Robert B. Atwood Building is an office building in Downtown

Downtown (Anchorage)

Downtown Anchorage is a neighborhood in the U.S. city of Anchorage, Alaska. Considered the central business district of Anchorage, Downtown has many office buildings, cultural points of interest, shopping areas, as well as dining and nightlife attractions...

 Anchorage

Anchorage, Alaska

Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...

, Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. The building houses government offices for the State of Alaska

Government of Alaska

The government of Alaska is divided into various departments. Alaska has 246 federally recognized tribal governments and one federal Indian reservation.-History:...

. Standing at 20 stories and 81 m (265 ft), it is the second-tallest building in Alaska. The building was formerly known as the Bank of America

Bank of America

Bank of America Corporation, an American multinational banking and financial services corporation, is the second largest bank holding company in the United States by assets, and the fourth largest bank in the U.S. by market capitalization. The bank is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina...

 Center. Together with the slightly taller Conoco-Phillips Building

Conoco-Phillips Building

The Conoco-Phillips Building is the tallest building in the U.S. state of Alaska at . Located in downtown Anchorage at 700 G Street, it has 22 floors and was completed in 1983. The Conoco-Phillips Building, along with the nearby Robert B...

, the skyscraper defines Anchorage's skyline.

Facilities

A landscaped plaza

Plaza

Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...

 is featured on the building's east side. The single-story basement is used as a parking level. There are nine elevator

Elevator

An elevator is a type of vertical transport equipment that efficiently moves people or goods between floors of a building, vessel or other structures...

s in the building. Amenities include teleconferencing-enabled conference rooms, vending

Vending machine

A vending machine is a machine which dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets, consumer products and even gold and gems to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine....

 and break rooms, and a central mail room.

Parking Garage

The State of Alaska completed a new parking garage in 2008 across the street from the Robert B. Atwood Building. The garage is named the Linny Pacillo Parking Garage

Linny Pacillo Parking Garage

The Linny Pacillo Parking Garage is a 10 story parking garage in downtown Anchorage, Alaska. The upper nine stories are for parking, with the first story serving as retail space. The structure contains a total of , including the retail space. Owned by the state government of Alaska, it provides...

 after local parking activist Carolyn 'Linny' Pacillo who, with her sister, Susan, became famous during the 1990s for wearing tutus and plugging parking meters downtown in protest to strict parking enforcement. The sisters were dubbed the Parking Fairies. Linny Pacillo died in 2006.

Involvement in Seismic Research

In 2003, the United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

 installed a network of accelerometers throughout the building to monitor the effects of earthquakes on tall buildings. The Atwood Building was selected due to the unique properties

Liquefaction

Liquefaction may refer to:* Liquefaction, the general process of becoming liquid* Soil liquefaction, the process by which sediments become suspended* Liquefaction of gases in physics, chemistry, and thermal engineering* Liquefactive necrosis in pathology...

 of the "Bootlegger Cove Formation" soil it stands on, and the historical seismicity of the region (see Good Friday Earthquake

Good Friday Earthquake

The 1964 Alaska earthquake, also known as the Great Alaskan Earthquake, the Portage Earthquake and the Good Friday Earthquake, was a megathrust earthquake that began at 5:36 P.M. AST on Good Friday, March 27, 1964...

.) The mission of the research is to better understand the effects of seismicity on similar buildings to better prepare them for future large earthquakes.

History

The architect for the Atwood building was Harold Wirum & Associates. The building officially opened for business on March 17, 1983, although only 15% of the office space was occupied. The building was developed by NB Hunt Trust Estate who filed for bankruptcy from the Silver Thursday

Silver Thursday

Silver Thursday was an event that occurred in the silver commodity markets on Thursday, 27 March 1980. A steep fall in silver prices led to panic on commodity and futures exchanges.-Background:...

 debacle in the late 80s. After Chapter 11 was filed, ownership of the building was transferred to Equitable Life Assurance in September 1988 that later sold their interest in the building to the State of Alaska in 1997 for $27 million dollars.

Namesake

The building was originally named after the original owner Nelson Bunker Hunt

Nelson Bunker Hunt

Nelson Bunker Hunt is an American oil company executive. He is best known as a former billionaire whose fortune collapsed after he and his brother William Herbert Hunt tried but failed to corner the world market in silver. He is also a successful thoroughbred horse breeder.-Personal:Hunt was born...

 as the Hunt Building. It was renamed the Enserch Center in September of 1985 and later renamed again as the Bank of America Center. Most recently it was named after Robert Bruce Atwood

Robert Atwood

Robert Bruce Atwood was the long-time editor and publisher of the Anchorage Times, and a proponent of Alaska statehood.-Biography:...

, an Alaska statehood activist and Anchorage Times

Anchorage Times

The Anchorage Times was a daily newspaper published in Anchorage, Alaska that became known for the pro-business political stance of longtime publisher and editor, Robert Atwood. Competition from the McClatchy-owned Anchorage Daily News forced it out of business in 1992.-History:The Anchorage Times...

editor and publisher.