Prudential

Prudential may refer to:

Companies

Buildings

Other uses

Prudential, Warsaw

Prudential is a Warsaw skyscraper built between 1931 and 1934 in the Art Deco style as the base for British Prudential Insurance. It is located on Warsaw Uprising Square along Świętokrzyska Street.

At the time of construction it was the second tallest European skyscraper with eighteen stories (66 m). Built using a steel framework it was the tallest building in Warsaw until the Palace of Culture and Science was constructed. The building, designed by Marcin Weinfeld, included office space on lower stories and luxurious apartments further up. The steel framework, innovative at the time, was designed by Stefan Bryła and Wenczesław Poniż. Construction started in 1931 and used up over 2 million bricks, 2 thousand tonnes of concrete and 1500 tonnes of steel.

In 1936 a large antenna was constructed on the roof by professor Janusz Groszkowski, who started the first television broadcasts in Europe from that facility. The Prudential building soon became a symbol of modern Warsaw and was featured in numerous contemporary films and advertisements.

Prudential (Guaranty) Building

The Guaranty Building, now called the Prudential Building, is an early skyscraper in Buffalo, New York. It was completed in 1896 and was designed by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler.

Sullivan's design for the building was based on his belief that "form follows function". He and Adler divided the building into four zones. The basement was the mechanical and utility area. Since this level was below ground, it did not show on the face of the building. The next zone was the ground-floor zone which was the public areas for street-facing shops, public entrances and lobbies. The third zone was the office floors with identical office cells clustered around the central elevator shafts. The final zone was the terminating zone, consisting of elevator equipment, utilities and a few offices.

The supporting steel structure of the building was embellished with terra cotta blocks. Different styles of block delineated the three visible zones of the building. Writing in his Kindergarten Chats, Sullivan said that a tall building "must be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line."