The 1952 Pan-Am building: The other striking mid mod office tower on Canal Street

Like so many people, faithful reader Carol Burgard Crosby can't help but take note of the old Automotive Life Insurance Co. building when driving past it at 4140 Canal St.

But there was one thing she didn't recognize while reading about the eye-catching mid-century modern gem in this space last month: its name.

"I thought the building was originally named Pan-American Life Insurance," she wrote recently. "I seem to recall seeing that name across the front of the building. … During your research, this name didn't appear?"

In short: Yes, it did. But not in connection with the two-story structure at 4140 Canal (currently the Mid-City branch library,) which was commissioned by and designed for the Automotive Life Insurance Co. to celebrate its 25th anniversary – and which occupied it from the time of its 1963 construction until the company's 1979 move to Metairie.

The confusion is understandable, though. Pan-Am was another local insurance company and also had an eponymous mid-century modern building constructed at roughly the same time at 2400 Canal St.

The Pan-Am back story

Pan-Am's history begins in 1911, with its founding in New Orleans by four men led by Crawford H. Ellis, a former executive with United Fruit, who saw the need to offer life insurance to individuals and businesses throughout the Americas.

Ellis would serve as the new company's president for 55 years, until 1961, when he was elected chairman of the board, a position he held up until the year before his death in 1966 at the age of 94.

In its early days, the company kept offices on the 13th floor of the then-new Whitney Bank Building. While it had to weather a string of early economic threats – World War I, the Great Depression, the bank panics of 1920, '21 and '22 – Ellis would see Pan-American Life grow to become one of the top personal and business insurers serving the United States and Latin America.

By the early 1950s, it was doing business in nine Central and South American countries, in addition to 24 U.S. states. Back home in New Orleans, it had grown to the point that it desperately needed more space.

Building itself a home

So, it purchased 2400 Canal St. from the Catholic Sisters of Mercy and contracted the New York firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill to design a new corporate home office to build there.

Local architect Claude E. Hooton would assist in the design, with George J. Glover Co. serving as general contractor.

After 17 months of construction, the six-story structure – made of limestone, glass and aluminum – was ready for its dedication on Jan. 8, 1952. Joining city and state leaders in attending the event were representatives of the company's collection of Latin American offices, who would participate in four days of meetings, meals and general celebrations while in town.

A wide central staircase would take visitors up from the sidewalk to the building's understated main entrance, nestled amid plate-glass windows lining the first-floor façade.

In the Mid Mod style

Its most distinctive features would be on the floors above, where 592 very modernist vertical louvers – each measuring 14 feet tall – encircled the upper stories, positioned outside the windows to serve as sun shades.

In keeping with the mid-century modern aesthetic, the use of any exterior adornments ended there.

Inside, the wood-paneled lobby – uncluttered by support columns, which were "hidden" in the elevator structures – featured terrazzo floors made from 75 tons of marble chips imported from Verona, Italy.

In addition to a cafeteria, rec room, meeting room and business machine center, the first floor – with an attached wing jutting out from its rear – featured a pull-out stage with room enough in front to seat 500. A landscaped courtyard incorporated into the rear wing gave office workers a place to catch a breath of fresh air.

Pan-American would occupy the structure's two lower floors and two upper floors, with offices on the third and fourth stories being rented out.

Moving on in the '70s

Over the next 25 years, business boomed for Pan-American, which was mostly a good thing – other than the need for more space.

By the late 1970s, Pan-American had 900 local employees spread out over four buildings on Canal Street. So, for the second time in its history, it made plans to build a new headquarters.

To design it, the firm turned once more to Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, which drew up the Pan-American Life Center, a 28-story skyscraper skinned in red Swiss granite – which actually appears more peach or pinkish, depending on the light – at 601 Poydras St., on the block bounded by Poydras Street, Gravier Street, Camp Street and St. Charles Avenue.

The price tag for the 674,000-square-foot building and its eight-floor parking garage: an estimated $50 million, or around $363 million in 2023.

That didn't include the cost of the 200 local artworks the company purchased to adorn the new building's walls.

By late October 1980, it was ready for Pan-Am to occupy it, triggering a massive, multi-day operation to relocate the company the 25 blocks from its old building to the new one. It took 116 trips by a fleet of moving trucks carrying, among other things, 115,000 file boxes, 7,000 reels of magnetic computer tape and other workplace essentials, all ferried up to their respective floors on 1,500 rented hand trucks.

It took 10 days, but the move, led by police escort, went off without a major hitch.

Pan Am Life Insurance Group, aka PALIG, no longer owns the building, having sold it in 2006. It and its 300-plus local employees still call it home, though, occupying some 65,885 square feet of space that underwent a $2.2 million remodel earlier this year designed by VergesRome Architects.

Meanwhile, the company's old home – that 71-year-old, six-story structure at 2400 Canal – is part of the Department of Veterans Affairs' Southeast Louisiana Veterans Health Care System Medical Center.

Sources: The Times-Picayune archive, PALIG.com, BizNewOrleans.com.

Do you know of a New Orleans building worth profiling in this column, or are you just curious about one? Contact Mike Scott at [email protected].