On the south bank of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida, the Riverplace Tower rises 28 floors above you. At the time of its construction it was the tallest building in the state of Florida and became the defining landmark in Jacksonville's skyline. On April 18, 2012, the American Institute of Architects' Florida Chapter placed the building on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years.
100 Places as the Riverplace Tower / Formerly Gulf Life Tower. The story in stone and concrete begins with the Auchter Company, Jacksonville's oldest general construction contractor, which built the 542,000 ft2 Gulf Life Tower for the Gulf Life Insurance Company in 1966. It was designed by Welton Becket and KBJ Architects, and when completed in 1967 it stood as the tallest precast, post-tensioned concrete structure in the world.
It remained Florida's tallest for five years until Miami's One Biscayne Tower rose in 1972, and stayed Jacksonville's tallest for eight years until the Independent Life Building, now the Wells Fargo Center, was built in 1974. As of 2023, Riverplace Tower is the fifth tallest building in Jacksonville, and Gulf Life Insurance was merged into American General Life of Houston. The tower rises beside the St. Johns River just past you.