Truist put its name on its new HQ. The building’s architect calls it vandalism.

When Truist hoisted its glossy new name and logo on the uptown tower it bought for its headquarters, it hoped for applause. Instead, it got a rebuke from the building’s architect and a petition to take it down.

It’s the latest hiccup in the occasionally rocky public rollout of the combination of BB&T and SunTrust, which merged last year to form Truist.

In November, the bank used helicopters to lift up four signs to the top of the former Hearst Tower, which it bought for $455 million last year. On alternating sides of the tower, over 47 stories high, two 558-square-foot logos are opposite two 980-square-foot nameplates.

The depictions of the name “Truist” with a solid rectangular backing have received the most criticism for the stark contrast they offer to the subtle curves of the building.

In a note on the petition to take down the signage, Charles Hull, the architect of record of the building, wrote that he was “terribly disappointed to see the building vandalized in this way.”

“It’s not too late for Truist to pick up the baton from their predecessors and put more importance on corporate citizenship than on corporate ego,” Hull wrote. As of Friday, 672 people have signed the change.org petition.

‘Not exactly high design’

“It is not what I think any of us were expecting,” said Larken Egleston, the Charlotte city councilman who represents much of uptown. The council unanimously approved the zoning change that allowed for the signage in July.

“My personal feeling is that the two little logo signs they’ve got on two sides of the building are not bad looking. But I definitely think that the placard looking nameplates that they have are not exactly high design,” he said.

Egleston made a point to say that he’s grateful for all the work that Truist does in the Charlotte area, and that the disagreement is solely on aesthetics.

“It looks tacked on,” said Sam Spencer, chair of Charlotte Mecklenburg Planning Commission. He voted against approving the signage while on the commission’s zoning committee. The zoning panel approved the signage in a rare 4-3 vote in June.

“I am very keenly aware that there are much more important issues that come in front of zoning,” Spencer said, “(The tower) is a great example of neo-Art Deco architecture, and it didn’t deserve it.”

A take on Art Deco

Truist bought the Hearst Tower late last year and renamed it the Truist Center. The $455 million purchase price set a record for an office building in North Carolina.

While many bank workers are working remotely, the tower eventually will be home to Truist’s executive team, along with the bank’s legal, finance and technology staff.

The signage was always part of the plan: CEO Kelly King mentioned it in his initial public statement on the purchase of the tower.

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback here in Charlotte, but we also know there are others who feel differently, and we certainly respect their opinions,” bank spokesman Kyle Tarrance said in a statement. “Our hope is that our new Truist Center signage comes to represent a symbol of something so much more — a purpose-led company that is committed to improving education, affordable housing, health care and access to capital for everyone in our diverse community.”

The Art Deco-inspired tower was opened in 2002 for Bank of America. It was designed to complement the Bank of America Corporate Center, a block away.

In one respect, the signage represents the end of a particular era of Charlotte’s growth.

Under former CEO Hugh McColl, Bank of America didn’t put its name or logo on the towers it built. It didn’t need to. If you knew the first thing about Charlotte, you knew who built them. (And the name of the bank kept changing, too)

In the years since McColl’s retirement, Charlotte’s grown and diversified. Wachovia fell. Bank of America’s CEO lives in Boston. Charlotte’s now home to far more major financial firms than it was in past decades.

Those firms added the names Ally, Barings and Regions to the city’s skyscrapers. It might now be necessary for a bank to put its name on the skyline.

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 6:00 AM.