Benson Tower
- Architect
- HOK
- Year
- 1989
- Style
- Postmodernism
- City
- New Orleans, LA
Benson Tower rises 26 stories and 406 feet at 1450 Poydras Street in the Central Business District, one of a cluster of towers designed by the firm HOK and completed in 1989 as a postmodern addition to downtown's skyline. Originally called Dominion Tower and later CNG Tower, the building took its present name after Saints owner Tom Benson bought it on September 15, 2009. It sits within a connected complex that also includes the Caesars Superdome, 1250 Poydras Plaza, Entergy Tower, Orleans Tower, and the Hyatt Regency New Orleans.
the building
Ochsner's top floors. In 2012, Ochsner Health System moved executives and as many as 750 administrative employees into the tower's top four floors, along with second- and third-floor space with balconies overlooking Champions Square and the Caesars Superdome.
A TV studio inside. The second floor also houses Tom Benson's own television station, Fox affiliate WVUE (Channel 8), which uses the space for its morning newscast, sporting events, and other leased programming.
Three names, one tower. The building has carried three identities over its life — Dominion Tower, then CNG Tower, then Benson Tower after Tom Benson's September 15, 2009 purchase — each renaming tracking a change in ownership rather than in the structure itself.
the style
Benson Tower is identified as postmodern architecture, one of the 1989-completed towers that gave the Central Business District its late-20th-century high-rise profile.
More on Postmodernismthe architect
The tower was designed by HOK, one of the major architecture firms working on large commercial towers of this era.
nearby
- John Minor Wisdom United States Court of Appeals Building
- Sister Stanislaus Memorial Building
- Plaza Tower
- Shell Building
- Orpheum Theater
- Latter & Blum Building