Ever notice that many of the most successful skyscraper architects are short in stature? Slate’s Witold Rybczynski rattles off several examples of starchitects who always seem to be shorter than the developers they’re posing next to: I.M. Pei, Robert A.M. Stern, Frank Gehry, Norman Foster. Daniel Libeskind, he said, is 5 feet 4 inches. In the 1920s, designers Raymond Hood, of 30 Rock, Ely Jacques Kahn, of 2 Park Avenue, and Ralph Walker, of 1 Wall Street, were apparently often referred to as the “Three Little Napoleons of Architecture.” As Rybcynski put it, “it’s hard not to see a psychological compulsion at work when short people design tall…buildings.” [Slate]

The former Bank of America Tower at International Place, an icon of the downtown Miami skyline, needs a new corporate naming rights purchaser to maximize the 600,000-square-foot, 47-story building’s earning potential. Fairchild Partners, the leasing and marketing agency for the I.M. Pei-designed skyscraper, is seeking a new partnership for the naming rights, a deal that would be worth millions of dollars. Tony Puente, senior vice president with Coral Gables-based Fairchild, said the tower has been a fixture in the city since it opened, and remains a feature in the promotional credits for the television show CSI Miami. He said tenants like the idea that they can locate their business in the heart of the city, a factor that helped in 62,000 square feet of leasing in 2009, including a 34,536-square-foot renewal by UBS Financial Services valued at $7.5 million over its five-year term.
[GlobeSt]