John Portman, the Atlanta based architect who designed the Fort Worth National Bank Building (now The Tower) passed away today at 93. He was the "Father of the Modern Atrium" and he designed many hotels and buildings. The Hyatt Regency in Atlanta was his first modern atrium. When he designed the Fort Worth National Bank, he turned the atrium inside out by dropping the building's core through the center of the atrium and the it completely surrounded the core with the office building above. Later on, at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, and the Renaissance Center in Detroit, he dropped the cores of five buildings through a huge atrium lobby.
Below is a downtown aerial of the building and the construction of the Tandy Center taken in 1978. The photo is from the Tarrant County Archives.