page_title: Laura Street Trio
section_title: Florida Life Building
hierarchical_section_title: Laura Street Trio / Structures / Florida Life Building
caption_attribution_description: English: Florida Life Building in Jacksonville, Florida
context_page_description: The Laura Street Trio is a group of three historic buildings located on and near Laura Street in downtown Jacksonville, Florida. The Trio consists of two perpendicularly arranged skyscrapers, the Florida Life Building and the Bisbee Building, plus a third structure, the Old Florida National Bank, which is framed by the other two in a unique pattern. The three buildings, constructed in the wake of the Great Fire of 1901, are architecturally significant, but are currently endangered.
context_section_description: The Florida Life Building was also designed by Klutho, between 1911 and 1912. It stands next to the Marble Bank's back wall, and is the only one of the Trio that actually faces Laura Street. It was constructed at the same time as Klutho's St. James Building (now Jacksonville City Hall). Standing 45 meters and 11 floors high, it was Jacksonville's – and Florida's – tallest building when it was built, though it was superseded less than a year later by the Heard National Bank Building. Still, Wayne Wood of the Jacksonville Historic Landmarks Commission writes that with its narrow and well-proportioned tower, the building "was and perhaps still is Jacksonville's purest statement of a 'skyscraper.'" Like the Bisbee Buildings, it is an example of Klutho's Chicago-influenced Prairie Style. On April 18, 2012, the AIA's Florida Chapter placed the Florida Life Building on its list of Florida Architecture: 100 Years. 100 Places.
  The building was constructed for the Florida Life Insurance Company, but the firm folded in 1915, and the structure changed hands a number of times over the years. In 1994, its then owners, Nations Bank, removed the original capitals on the top floor, doing structural damage in the process. Like the other buildings, the Florida Life building fell into disrepair.
caption: The Florida Life Building (background)
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