Site overview
The Industrial Trust Building, completed in 1928, is one of Providence's most visible landmarks. Not only is it the tallest building in Providence, at a height of 420 feet above the street level, but at night it punctuates the city's skyline with its glowing green lantern, and dramatically illuminated facade. It is a twenty-six story steel frame building enclosed by masonry and faced with Indiana Limestone, with a Deer Island granite base. The building form derives from the 1916 zoning laws in New York City that required tall buildings to be setback to allow light and air onto the streets below. It consists of six wings off of a central tower. The central tower rises above the mass of the building another two stories, which are purely decorative. This turret has a green glass paneled lantern, topped by a decorative globe. The globe is surrounded by a seven and half ton circle of stone eagles. The second, ninth, fifteenth and twenty-second floors each recede back to achieve the distinctive style, now associated with other building from the same era in New York, such as the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building. However, the Industrial Trust Building was completed even before construction began on either of the New York monuments. Industrial Trust predated these buildings both in form and decoration. Carved eagles like the ones from the Industrial Trust Building, similarly adorn the Chrysler building. (Adapted from ProvidenceArchitecture.org, Brown University)
