Buff brick sheathes the Nissen Building's 18 stories, completed in 1927 at 283 feet. For a time it was the largest building in the city, succeeding the Hotel Robert E. Lee, and it stood as the tallest building in North Carolina from 1927 to 1929 before being succeeded by the Reynolds Building; all three are in Winston-Salem. With its spire the height reaches 102.1 m.
The tower’s structure is a steel frame, its exterior dressed in buff brick and pre-cast concrete, with details in granite, marble and limestone. W.M. Nissen and new lessee Coach Kolstad, owner of Nissen Wagon Works, built this on the site of a former YMCA between 1926 and 1927, and New York architect William Lee Stoddart, known for the Battery Park Hotel in Asheville, designed it. When it opened the basement even housed a Bob-a-Link miniature golf course.
Early tenants included the Civil Service Administration, the Veterans Administration and the Office of Flying Safety. The building was named to the National Register of Historic Places on March 17, 1983, with a 2004 boundary increase to include a one-story 1969 addition. Picture the buff brick facade climbing toward its spire, once the tallest tower in North Carolina.