Capital One Tower, Office building in Lake Charles, US
The Capital One Tower was a 22-story, 375-foot (114 m) skyscraper in downtown Lake Charles, designed by Lloyd Jones Brewer Associates of Houston and built by Miner-Dederick and F. Miller and Sons. Its 400,000 square feet of space held professional offices, a two-escalator atrium, and the City Club restaurant on the top floor. It was imploded on September 7, 2024.
Construction began in March 1981, with groundbreaking in January 1982, and the tower opened in 1983 as the CM Tower for Calcasieu Marine National Bank. It was renamed the Hibernia Tower after Hibernia National Bank bought Calcasieu Marine, then took the Capital One name when Capital One acquired Hibernia in 2005. Hertz Investment Group bought it in June 2007, and the city set a November 2024 repair-or-demolish deadline before the September 7, 2024 implosion.
The building represented the financial growth of Lake Charles through multiple banking transitions from Calcasieu Marine to Hibernia and Capital One.
The tower no longer stands: it was imploded on September 7, 2024, so there is nothing to visit at the downtown site. The four-acre lot had included an attached parking garage linked to the tower's second floor by a walkway bridge. The City Club restaurant on the top floor once offered panoramic views over Lake Charles.
The tower was built with glass marketed as hurricane-proof, yet Hurricane Rita in 2005 shattered part of the atrium and upper floors, prompting the addition of ballistic protection to the exterior glass in 2007. Hurricane Laura in 2020 then stripped most of the windows before the September 7, 2024 implosion.
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