The old Medical Arts Building
#1
Posted 13 April 2005 - 09:05 PM
#2
Posted 13 April 2005 - 09:15 PM
#3
Posted 13 April 2005 - 09:37 PM
#4
Posted 13 April 2005 - 09:42 PM
#6
Posted 13 April 2005 - 10:11 PM
#7
Posted 14 April 2005 - 08:22 AM
Thanks for posting these. I would love to see all of the pictures in the sequence. I also took pictures of the implosion, but I need to find them and scan them.
yow John you were there too?.. your lens has witnessed much in this city =]
what's the earliest downtown shots you ever took?
#8
Posted 14 April 2005 - 09:13 AM
Also, great parking rates back then.
#9
Posted 14 April 2005 - 10:49 AM
I'm guessing that the earliest that I took pictures of the city was probably between 1970 and 1972. I was more interested in photography and architecture after I started high school, and that was in the fall of 1972.
#10
Posted 14 April 2005 - 02:21 PM
Also, didn't the MA Bulding have green awnings over the windows?
Bill Sievers
Natick, Mass.
#11
Posted 14 April 2005 - 04:13 PM
#12
Posted 15 April 2005 - 06:08 AM
What a wonderful building. It's such a shame that was demolished to make way for hideous BP!!!!!
I agree that the Medical Arts Building was beautiful. It was designed by Fort Worth's own Wyatt C. Hedrick, architect of many other beautiful 1920's skyscrapers present in downtown. It would have made a great loft apartment building.
If John is reading this....do you think you could sketch a crown or some sort of cap for Burnett Plaza?? I would love to see something done with that. It's not really a bad building until you get to the top. It currently looks like a big concrete box, especially from a distance.
I read every post on this forum. I may not respond to them all, but I do read them. Although I liked the Medical Arts Building, it is now gone and you can't change the past. I also appreciate all types of architecture. The architects of Burnett Plaza intended for the building to look like a big concrete box. That was their design intent.
The Medical Arts was demolished in 1973 specifically for the future construction of a new bank headquarters of the First National Bank of Fort Worth. The bank never moved into the building, but the opening date for Burnett Plaza was 10 years later, in 1983. This goes to show that plans for buildings take quite some time for them to actually get built from the day owners purchase the site until the building finally opens.
Bill, your story of the worker killed by being dropped from a crane is actually an incident from the construction of the Fort Worth National Bank Tower, a.k.a. The Tower, back in 1973. The Tower was under construction at the same time the Medical Arts was being demolished.
#13
Posted 15 April 2005 - 10:06 AM
Bill Sievers
#14
Posted 15 April 2005 - 03:34 PM
Thanks for posting these. I would love to see all of the pictures in the sequence. I also took pictures of the implosion, but I need to find them and scan them.
yow John you were there too?.. your lens has witnessed much in this city =]
what's the earliest downtown shots you ever took?
John and I have photos we took of Butch Cassidy shooting craps on Main Street. Of course, we were both much younger then.
#16
Posted 15 April 2005 - 04:57 PM
Not to sound pushy, but you didn't answer my question about crowning the building. Or are you saying you like the building as is??? I appreciate all types of architecture also, but I just think it's an unattractive building, that could be made much more attractive with some alterations...especially since it is such a prominent fixture to the FW skyline. I'm sure you've seen One Main Place here in Dallas, another huge bland concrete box...it reminds me so much of BP...except you don't notice it much because it's dwarfed by the rest of the skyline. I guess I'm just not a fan of huge concrete boxes.
#17
Posted 15 April 2005 - 11:15 PM
I'm also too much of a purist. I don't believe in changing a facade of a building just because someone doesn't like it.
You would then probably ask me what I thought of the redesign of The Tower. I have mixed emotions. The purist in me says that it should have been restored to the way that it looked before the tornado. However, the practical side of me knows that the current building codes and availability of that type of glass would not allow the facade to be rebuilt exactly as it looked before. Knowing that, a new facade would not be inappropriate. I do like the new incomplete facade better than the old one.
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