By the mid-1960s the company had outgrown its home office location in downtown Nashville. It had also been somewhat shamed when one of its principal competitors, the Life and Casualty Insurance Company of Tennessee ("L&C"), built a 31-story skyscraper which had opened in 1957 and which was, briefly, Nashville's only skyscraper and the tallest building in the Southeast. The new National Life building, across the street from the Tennessee State Capitol, had 30 stories and was both considerably larger and located on higher ground, so it appeared to be grander than that of its rival, which was part of the intended effect.