Duke Energy Center

The Duke Energy Center is a 786 feet (240 m) tall, 48-floor (54 floors including mechanical floors) skyscraper in Charlotte, North Carolina. When completed in 2010, it was the largest building in Charlotte (in square footage), second tallest building in Charlotte, and the tallest in the world to use precast double tees built by Prestress of the Carolinas. The building is named for its anchor tenant, Duke Energy, and both the tower and the adjacent cultural arts campus are owned by Wells Fargo.

Sonnenschein will use 35,000 square feet (3,300 m²) on the 34th and 35th floors and Deloitte will use 82,000 square feet (7,600 m²).

Originally, the building was to be known as the Wachovia Corporate Center. It was to replace One Wachovia Center as the headquarters of Wachovia. Wachovia was to occupy 450,000 square feet (42,000 m²) of the 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 m²) tower. Wells Fargo plans to use five of its 14 floors.

Construction

The project was announced in spring of 2004, and official renderings were not released until December 6, 2006. In the original petition to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Commission, the building was going to be built on a 1.29-acre (5,200 m²) parcel next to 400 South Tryon, with a height of 510 feet (160 m) and 34 floors. The site preparation began with the demolition of a Firestone Tire dealership in February 2006, and on February 28, 2006, the excavation and blasting of a 100-foot (30 m)-deep hole for the below-grade parking garage began. Over 600,000 pounds of explosives were used during its excavation and it took just over 60,000 dump truck loads to remove all of the excavated material from the site, some of which was used in the construction of a third runway at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport.