College Life Insurance Company Headquarters
Indianapolis, Indiana · 1971
A key precedent for late-modernist corporate architecture, demonstrating how monumental concrete shear walls and sloped, reflective glass facades can create a striking, sculptural campus identity.
- What we like about this project
- The sheer verticality of the concrete side walls contrasts sharply with the extreme angle of the glazed facades.
Materials
- concrete
- reflective-glass
- steel
Visual identifiers
- sloped-glazing
- concrete-monolith
- pyramidal-massing
- suburban-campus
Style tags
- late-modern
- monumental
- sculptural
Visual tags
- monumentalism
- sculptural-architecture
- corporate-headquarters
- brutalist-influence
- late-modernism
- Geometry
- Three identical, monumental, truncated-pyramidal masses aligned in a row. Each volume features a sheer, vertical concrete end wall and a steeply sloping, glazed curtain wall facade.
- Facade system
- Sloped structural glass curtain wall paired with solid, cast-in-place concrete end walls.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete core and end walls supporting a sloped steel-framed glazing system.
- Spatial scale
- Large-scale corporate headquarters; the tiny scale of cars and a single doorway at the base of the concrete wall highlights the monumental height of the structures.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight casting soft shadows on the concrete surfaces and creating a deep blue reflection on the sloped glass facades.
- Atmosphere
- A stark, futuristic, and imposing presence rising cleanly from an open green landscape under a clear blue sky.
- Environmental context
- Set within a flat, grassy field with a distant tree line and parking area, emphasizing its isolated, campus-like suburban setting.
- Spatial experience
- The building reads as a series of monumental, sculptural monoliths rising abruptly from a flat landscape, offering a dramatic sense of scale and geometric purity.
- Composition rhythm
- A repeating, rhythmic sequence of three identical sloped volumes stepping back in parallel alignment.
- Style reading
- Late Modernist Monumentalism
- Program
- Corporate office headquarters
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- concrete, reflective-glass, steel
- Visual identifiers
- sloped-glazing, concrete-monolith, pyramidal-massing, suburban-campus
- Style tags
- late-modern, monumental, sculptural
- Visual tags
- monumentalism, sculptural-architecture, corporate-headquarters, brutalist-influence, late-modernism
- Geometry
- Three identical, monumental, truncated-pyramidal masses aligned in a row. Each volume features a sheer, vertical concrete end wall and a steeply sloping, glazed curtain wall facade.
- Facade system
- Sloped structural glass curtain wall paired with solid, cast-in-place concrete end walls.
- Structural guess
- Reinforced concrete core and end walls supporting a sloped steel-framed glazing system.
- Spatial scale
- Large-scale corporate headquarters; the tiny scale of cars and a single doorway at the base of the concrete wall highlights the monumental height of the structures.
- Lighting
- Bright, direct daylight casting soft shadows on the concrete surfaces and creating a deep blue reflection on the sloped glass facades.
- Atmosphere
- A stark, futuristic, and imposing presence rising cleanly from an open green landscape under a clear blue sky.
- Environmental context
- Set within a flat, grassy field with a distant tree line and parking area, emphasizing its isolated, campus-like suburban setting.
- Spatial experience
- The building reads as a series of monumental, sculptural monoliths rising abruptly from a flat landscape, offering a dramatic sense of scale and geometric purity.
- Composition rhythm
- A repeating, rhythmic sequence of three identical sloped volumes stepping back in parallel alignment.
- Style reading
- Late Modernist Monumentalism
- Program
- Corporate office headquarters
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture