Nationwide outgrew its 246 North High Street Building by the 1970s and work began on a new headquarters for the company. In 1977, the 146 m (485 ft) building was completed. The building is located at the corner of N. High Street and what is now Nationwide Blvd. on the northern edge of downtown Columbus, Ohio.
Design
The building was designed by Brubaker/Brandt (the same firm that designed Rhodes State Office Tower, the tallest building in Columbus) and Harrison & Abramovitz.[1] The façade is dark vertical steel ribs bordered by white limestone ends (akin to the World Trade Center) and follows the modernist style. Blue spotlights light the exterior at night, mimicking the blue box logo of Nationwide Mutual Insurance. In December the interior lights are set so that it reads "happy holidays" to observers of the building. They also do the same but with a heart on Valentine's Day. The glass elevator on the side of the building is an express elevator (meaning that it skipped all office floors) that once went up to a restaurant on the 38th floor of the building, called One Nation. One Nation lasted many years, but closed in 1997, and the glass elevator is permanently out of service.
One Nationwide Plaza was the first of several buildings known collectively as Nationwide Plaza:
One Nationwide Plaza, completed in 1977
280 Plaza (also known as Two Nationwide), completed in 1981
City of Columbus, Ohio
