Simms Building

Simms Building
Alternative names	Sandia Savings Bank Building
General information
Type	Commercial offices
Architectural style	International style
Location	400 Gold Avenue SW Albuquerque, New Mexico
Coordinates	35°04′59″N 106°39′08″W / 35.0830°N 106.6521°W / 35.0830; -106.6521Coordinates: 35°04′59″N 106°39′08″W / 35.0830°N 106.6521°W / 35.0830; -106.6521
Completed	1954
Height
Roof	54.86 m (180.0 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	13
Floor area	114,000 sq ft (10,600 m2)[1]
Design and construction
Architect	Flatow & Moore
Simms Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
N.M. State Register of Cultural Properties
NRHP Reference #	97001653
NMSRCP #	1693
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	February 2, 1998
Designated NMSRCP	November 21, 1997[2]
References
[3][4][5][6]

The Simms Building is a 13-story, 55 m (180 ft) highrise in at 400 Gold Avenue SW in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is the city's first modern, International Style skyscraper, and when completed in 1954, it became the tallest building in the state until the neighboring Gold Building was completed seven years later. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.^[6] The Simms Building is a contemporary of the similar Lever House in New York City, and it was erected on the site of the old sandstone Commercial Club building.

Like the Gold Building, the Simms Building has windowless brick walls on the east and west sides and glass curtain walls on the other two faces. It was designed in 1952 by Flatow & Moore,^[7] the same firm responsible, ten years later, for the Dennis Chavez Federal Building one block to the west.

The Simms Building is used in Breaking Bad as the DEA office of character Agent Hank Schrader.^[8] Ironically, there is a historic Federal Building in the same block, the Federal Building and United States Courthouse, built in 1930, located at 421 Gold Avenue SW in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is part of the complex of federal buildings on Gold Avenue that includes the Old Post Office, Dennis Chavez Federal Building, and the Federal Building at 517 Gold Avenue SW.

References