A crossed-ladder RF coil assembly (48) is employed for quadrature excitation and/or reception in an open or vertical field magnetic resonance apparatus. The RF coil assembly (48, 70, 90) includes a pair of coil assemblies (50, 52; 70, 72; 100, 102) which are disposed in a parallel relationship. Coil arrays (50, 52; 100, 102) include at least two ladder RF coils (501, 502, 503; 521, 522, 523; 1001 . . . , 1008; 1021, . . . , 1028) which are disposed in an overlapping relationship and are rotated by 90° relative to one another. Each ladder RF coil of one coil array is rotated by 90° relative to adjoining ladder coils and each corresponding ladder RF coil of the other coil array. The crossed-ladder RF coil assembly provides better B1 field uniformity and elongated anatomical coverage for spine and neck imaging. In addition, the RF coil assembly reduces noise from the body at higher fields in vertical field magnetic resonance systems.