World Trade Center Norfolk
 "A World Trade Center is a recognizable symbol of locally focused economic strength in world commerce. Anchored by a unique combination of tenants and visitors, a World Trade Center is bustling hub of export activity."
This line, from the Web site of the World Trade Center Association, sums it up quite well. I personally found it comforting to find out that there is a lot more to the concept of "World Trade Center" than the Twin Towers in New York, and I hope you find it comforting to see that the mission of the World Trade Center lives on after September 11th in the Norfolk World Trade Center as seen here, and at hundreds of other World Trade Centers worldwide. The World Trade Center in New York was just one of many World Trade Centers - over 300 of them, in fact, in over 100 countries. Through the WTCA's Web site, I found out that there are actually three World Trade Centers within my day-trip range - one in Washington DC, one near Dulles Airport in Virginia, and then one in Norfolk, Virginia.
Unfortunately, though, while visiting the World Trade Center in Norfolk, I was unable to get any photographs inside. The woman running the security desk was very nice about it, saying that she couldn't authorize photographs of the inside herself, and offered to let me speak with her supervisor, but since I was on a schedule, I thanked her for the offer, but graciously declined it. However, the outside architecture is perhaps more amazing than the inside (which is quite nice, by the way), with the various changes in the shape and style of the building as you proceed around the semicircle it creates. According to Skyscrapers.com, the building was actually designed to resemble a cruise ship!
The World Trade Center in Norfolk is an absolutely gorgeous nine-story building on the waterside in Norfolk. At the side of the building facing us here, starting from the top of the building, the floors stair-step down to the fifth floor.
Right at the intersection of Main Street, Boush Street, and Waterside Drive is where those in the Norfolk area can find their nearest World Trade Center and all the services it offers.
This was the verification that I was looking for when I went about making this photo essay. Unlike some other World Trade Centers, like the Tampa Bay center, this building does not have "World Trade Center" emblazoned on it in large letters. But indeed, this is an official World Trade Center!
At the side of the building near the parking garage entrance, we find the first evidence of what turns out to be the center's largest tenant, Wachovia, with an ATM machine.
Wachovia is by far the biggest tenant in the Trade Center, and makes sure you know it, with "Wachovia" on the sign in front, and in a number of other prominent places.
Parking at the World Trade Center is somewhat limited, thus parking along the main driveway is limited primarily to Wachovia customers.
Around the building, the grounds are beautifully landscaped with colorful flowers.
In front of the building is this spiral sculpture - a lovely work of art, indeed.
The Norfolk World Trade Center is noteworthy for the way they went about maximizing the space within the general format of the building. In this case, on the third, fourth, and fifth floors, the building extends over the sidewalk before stair-stepping up to the ninth floor.
Starting on the fourth, fifth, and sixth floors respectively, the floors begin to come to points on what would otherwise be a flat surface going straight up, to maximize space, and break what would otherwise be somewhat monotonous lines on this side of the building.
Welcome to the west entrance to the World Trade Center! Please enter through the revolving door.
At the west entrance, the primary point of interest is, you guessed it - Wachovia, with separate banking lobbies for business and individual banking, and space for Wachovia customer parking.
On the side of the building facing Waterside Drive as it curves to become Boush Street, stripes of blue are added to enhance the color of this otherwise white building.
As Waterside Drive straightens out, the blue ends, the building takes a slight dip away from the street, and then the façade continues, with the first three floors ending slightly sooner than the top six floors.
For employees who don't like direct sunlight while working, this is the place to be, as the building itself works to shade these areas from direct sunlight.
Did I mention that Wachovia was the biggest tenant in this World Trade Center? I can see why some people from Norfolk that I spoke to didn't realize this was a World Trade Center. The casual observer would be led to believe that this was, as I described it, "the Wachovia building". In fact, I initially drove right past it without realizing it, despite having seen pictures of the building, due to the large Wachovia sign.
The World Trade Center was lit on the "inside" side by a strange reflection. I initially believed that it was the way the sun was hitting the glass canopy, because this reflection was not visible in other pictures I'd seen. However, it turns out that this reflection comes from a building being built across Main Street from the World Trade Center, whose glass curtain wall is reflecting the sunlight back onto the building.
And with my photographing of the World Trade Center successfully complete, I gracefully depart from whence I came.
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