Markel Building flying saucer-like

The inspiration, he told WTVR, was a baked potato wrapped in aluminium. Axios says he ate such a potato at an American Institute of Architects dinner in 1962. The crinkled band of metal was shaped on site: Jamgochian recalled being handed an 11-pound sledgehammer, and Axios says he dented the top level himself while contractors did the other two. According to an architecture-focused content creator quoted by Axios, each floor’s exterior is a single 555-foot piece of aluminium, the longest piece of unbroken aluminium ever used for siding; Axios does not cite an engineering source.

Axios notes it was once maligned as one of the “10 ugliest buildings in the world”, and that Richmonders also call it the Foil Building, the Spaceship, the Flying Saucer and the Jiffy Pop Building. Jamgochian’s drawings, photographs and models are at the Library of Virginia, which he donated in 2004.

Markel has since moved out. The building is now called the Enterprise Center, and Axios says about a dozen other businesses are based there.