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 and adjacent cultural arts campus are owned by Wells Fargo.

Sonnenschein will use 35,000 square feet (3,300 m square) on the 34th and 35th floors and Deloitte will use 82,000 square feet (7,600 m square). 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 m square) of the 1,500,000 square feet (140,000 m square) tower. Wells Fargo plans to use five of its 14 floors.

Features :
It is the tallest building in the Wells Fargo Cultural Campus and the largest building in Charlotte, which will have an 250,000-square-foot (23,000 m square) footprint. The complex will also include a 46-floor condominium tower (future), the Afro-American Cultural Center, the Mint Museum, the Knight Theatre, the Bechtler Art Museum and a History Museum. The building has achieved LEED Platinum status by including water-saving plumbing devices, a water storage system that will treat rainwater to be used for cooling tower make-up water, and a green roof. Rock that was blasted for the parking structure is being recycled by hauling it to a local quarry, where it will be crushed for gravel.

The facade of the structure is illuminated by hundreds of programmable color changing LED and metal halide luminaires with design work by Gabler-Youngston Architectural Lighting Design. The facade lighting system provides various shows and effects. Highly visible over the east corner of Bank of America Stadium, the lighting show is used during key moments of sporting events played there. For example, if the Carolina Panthers are playing it may light up blue. For the 2011 ACC Championship game, the building displayed orange and purple lighting for Clemson University and red and orange for Virginia Tech.