Come… to Winston Salem
Every day on my way to work, I stop at the end of my street and see a big penis. I’m not talking about my drunk neighbor Otto–it’s way too early for him to be out. Nor am I talking about my own, but thanks, anyway. No, the phallus I’m talking about is more than 30 stories tall and made of Sardinian white granite and glass. The Chamber of Commerce calls it Wachovia Center. City residents call it many things: The Giant Tampon in the Sky, The Cockovia Tower, The Phallus Palace, Stone Ween. If he were alive today, Freud would write volumes about it.
A little history: Winston-Salem, NC’s Wachovia Tower was, um, erected in 1995 to serve as headquarters for the bank of the same name. It was designed by highly-regarded Argentine architect César Pelli, better known for structures like The Petronas Towers and Wells Fargo Center. It served as Wachovia’s main HQ until 2001, when a merger with First Union moved the bank’s nerve center south to Charlotte, but several businesses still call the Wachovia building home.
Now, I realize that the very concept of a skyscraper is phallic in nature. This has been one of the great unspoken truths in modern architecture. However, it seems obvious to most that behold the Wachovia building’s spectacular maleness that the intent was to make this phallic structure as obvious as possible.
There are several features that mimic penile anatomy, for instance: tapered corners and a 60 foot-tall dome on top of the building. Furthermore, at night, filtered accent lights give the dome a purple tint, and the “shaft” a fleshy, peach color.
You have to wonder what Wachovia’s board of directors told Mr. Pelli when they commissioned him:
“We want a headquarters that says we’re excited about or customers and take pleasure in servicing them!”
“Wachovia is a vertical organization which continues to expand, while maintaining a firm sense of integrity. How would you suggest this, architecturally?”
-or-
“Could you make it look like a giant dick? That would be awesome!”
Winston-Salem is known to have a bit of a hedonistic streak. After all, this is the city that birth Reynolds Tobacco and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. In that case, maybe a giant phallic symbol in such a town is not so out of the ordinary . One can only imagine how the city will look when a new baseball stadium is constructed just a few blocks away.
Related posts: Move Ziggy’s for Great Justice - Welcome to the Neighborhood
Its actually a huge Mosque without the crescent.
Its symbolic of the big fucking we’re gonna get one day.
And on that day thousands of dicks are gonna come running out with IEDs
How come the Wachovia Center near me doesn’t look like that
Maybe yours is a female?
I was thinking that after I copied the link and then thought that I would be torn between looking at a penis or a vagina every morning before work.
Look in the mirror and you’ll have an asshole also
I don’t have to I talk to one everyday.
Yea, some people talk to themselves.
“We want a headquarters that says we’re excited about or customers and take pleasure in servicing them!”
I wish I could tape my meetings. They all sound exactly like this. Every other word is “penetration” or “pipeline.” You name the metaphor, we’re using it. “Hey, Jocky McSublimated, I went to college. And here’s what I’m telling you: you secretly wish for this meeting to be in a bathhouse. So, you know, let’s go.”
A friend of mine from out-of-town came to see me once. The instance she saw the building she laughed her ass off. What’s funnier is that she’s from Washington, DC, which is chock full of phallic architecture.
If meetings were held in bathhouses, I’d totally get one of those job things.
nice…..I want to live in a city of giant penis-shaped buildings!
I certainly hope they make the baseball stadium look like a giant vagina..the Wachovia penis needs some company!
Freddy, your whole state is shaped like a penis. Don’t be greedy!
lol…a bent penis…ewwwwww
We do have the transamerica building in SF!
@ Freddy: You have the US Bank building in Los Angeles. Round skyscrapers always go the extra mile when it comes to looking like a cock.
lucky for me, here in chicago - we have no phallic architecture OR vaginal architecture.
But we do have a big curly building!
http://www.thechicagospire.com/
Well, wdl, the harbor lighthouse and the downtown water tower not withstanding, Chiacago is far too midwestern to beat around the bush with suggestive architecture.
you might not have a big penis to look at in your backyard but it does look like a very expensive vibrator.
Close enough for me.
The rest of the Unicorn is hiding under ground
That actually looks like the biggest “small cock” I’ve ever seen.
” …beat around the bush…”
lulz
I just stumbled upon a youtube of the Wachovia Tower.
Winston Salem - Phallus Palace: A Preview