| 100 Light St | |
|---|---|
 Transamerica Tower in 2018 | |
  Location within Baltimore | |
| Former names | U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Building USF&G Tower Legg Mason Building |
| General information | |
| Type | Mixed use |
| Location | 100 Light Street (betweenLight,East Lombard,South Charles andEast Pratt Streets),Baltimore,Maryland |
| Coordinates | 39°17′14.2″N76°36′52.0″W / 39.287278°N 76.614444°W /39.287278; -76.614444 |
| Construction started | 1971 |
| Completed | December 31, 1973 |
| Owner | COPT |
| Management | COPT |
| Height | |
| Roof | 528 ft (161 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 40 |
| Floor area | 529,993 sq ft (49,238.0 m2)[1] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect(s) | Vlastimil Koubek & Associates |
| Engineer | Robert Kylberg (civil) |
| Main contractor | Huber Hunt & Nichols |
| Website | |
| 100light | |
| References | |
| [2][3][4][5] | |
100 Light Street (colloquially known by its most recent former label, theTransamerica Tower) is a 40-story, 528 ft (161 m)skyscraper completed in 1973 indowntown Baltimore, Maryland. It occupies the city block bounded bySouth Charles (Maryland Route 139),East Lombard,Light andEast Pratt Streets. It is the tallest building inBaltimore and inMaryland.
Originally built as theUSF&G Building, it was the headquarters of theUnited States Fidelity and Guarantee Company (USF&G) inBaltimore, Maryland. USF&G, a specialized insurance company founded in Baltimore in 1896, relocated here from its former complex of three adjoining early 20th Century masonry structures at the southwest corner ofSouth Calvert and Redwood (formerly German Street before World War I) Streets. Later occupied by and known as the Legg Mason Building, the structure faces the former "The Basin" of theHelen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore on the Northwest Branch of thePatapsco River and theInner Harbor downtown business waterfront redevelopment.
The tower was one of the first skyscrapers to be constructed using a then-revolutionary method of erecting a towering central reinforced concrete column first containing elevators and service infrastructure conduits and then followed later by the surrounding scaffolding or steel horizontal beams rising floor by floor, and was a magnet for "sidewalk superintendents" and passing office workers during its construction during the early 70's. Overlooking the new harborfront parkland and expanded bulkheads of former Sam Smith Park with newly rebuilt/repaved Light and Pratt Streets with median strips and landscaped tree-lined sidewalks focused on a brick waterside promenade, soon to be anchored by the historic sailingU.S. Navy warship,USS Constellation (originally thought to be from 1797, later documented as 1854) with "Constellation Dock" replacing old Municipal Pier 1. Later surrounded by an enormous surrounding plazas rising above a series of steps on the lower south and east sides of the block paved with pink stone panels with terraced garden plots with shrubbery at the edges. A few years later, the construction ofHarborplace shopping pavilions with a new waterfall fountain in renamed McKeldin Square (renamed for former Mayor and GovernorTheodore R. McKeldin), reached by crossing-over the adjacent streets by pedestrian bridges and a central amphitheater facing the water and the ships. Within a decade, the new tower was surrounded by additional glass and aluminum office buildings, hotels, and shopping/commercial high-rises.
Construction of the new rising tower challenged for the first time forty years the "tallest tower" ranking held since its 1929 completion of theart deco-styled formerBaltimore Trust Company Building, (which later went bankrupt shortly after its completion after theGreat Wall Street Stock Market Crash of October 1929), then assumed several other names before bearing the title of theMaryland National Bank of the reorganized old B.T.C., by the 1960s soon the largest banking chain in the state.
USF&G built the 35-story tower,[6] selling it when they were purchased by the St. Paul Companies, which is now a unit ofThe Travelers Companies. Despite its own changes of owners and names, the former USF&G Building remains the tallest building in Baltimore, the tallest building in Maryland, and the tallest building betweenPhiladelphia andRaleigh after the completion ofRBC Plaza in 2008. It was also the former home ofLegg Mason investment and financial advisors who later relocated to newer headquarters on the eastern side of downtown inHarbor East.
The building was renamed the Transamerica Tower in November 2011 whenTransamerica became the largest tenant of the building, moving there from its nationally known former headquarters inSan Francisco, the iconic landmarkTransamerica Pyramid which appears in the company's logo at the top of the building.[7] The building was again put on sale in early 2015.[8]
USF&G remained in the building until the mid-1990s.[6]The building's primary occupant was asset managerLegg Mason, Inc., until 2009. In February 2007, Legg Mason announced that it would be moving to a new skyscraper in theHarbor East southeastern waterfront development, a move that was completed during summer 2009. As of 2010, the "Legg Mason" sign was no longer at the top of thePratt andLight Streets building.[citation needed]
In 2009, the building became home to the Baltimore branch ofRBC Wealth Management.[citation needed]
In spring 2011, the building also became home to Baltimore-based law firm Ober|Kaler (nowBaker Donelson).[9]The firm occupies 6 floors of the building.[citation needed]
In November 2011, the building became the headquarters ofTransamerica.[7]
In April 2013, the building became the home of the Mid-Atlantic law firmMiles & Stockbridge P.C.[10]
Around 1978, aperegrine falcon made its home on a balcony on the building's 33rd floor.[11]Every year since then, a pair of falcons have returned to the building to nest and fledge a set of chicks.[citation needed]
