Posted on 03/17/2006 8:00:13 PM PST by Peanut Gallery
They'll be serving champagne cocktails and scrambled eggs at the Petroleum Club, offering a 40th-floor view when the Landmark Tower implodes Saturday morning and removes a deteriorating eyesore from the Fort Worth skyline.
Courtyard by Marriott, itself a rehabilitated downtown building near the Landmark, has been renting rooms with a view to people -- mainly curious North Texans -- who want a firsthand glimpse of this footnote to urban history on Houston Street between Sixth and Seventh.
One hotel guest is an implosion enthusiast who's traveling from Arizona to watch the tallest Texas structure ever demolished.
Courtyard guests have booked "about 40 rooms on the upper floors, from the eighth through the 20th," said Mike Muzik, the hotel's guest care manager. "Most are local. I know one room is going to people from Granbury. They are all specifically getting rooms to watch."
The Fort Worth Club, much closer, was less lucky.
"We've been instructed to be evacuated at the time, even our hotel guests," said Kara Shelton, an employee who works the front desk.
Top executives of XTO Energy, which bought the Landmark in a foreclosure sale in 2004 and announced the demolition the following year, will bear witness from a command post at the Fritz Lanham Federal Building, which is bordered by Throckmorton and Taylor. Employees will be in a VIP viewing area right behind them.
Closed will be at least two ground-floor businesses in the area, Sundry Mart, a convenience store across from the Landmark on Sixth, and Downtown Market Deli, on the opposite side. Neither can be open before, during or shortly after the 13-second implosion, which is scheduled for 8 a.m.
That's fine with Sundry Mart, which didn't expect any business anyway.
But Jana Hughes, the deli's owner, says she's less than pleased.
"We were never notified," said Hughes, whose business occupies what was once part of Barber's Book Store, itself a downtown landmark. The shop owner said she found out her deli was required to be closed by checking on the Internet.
"We had planned to open early and monopolize the crowds out here," she said. "It's not life or death, and Saturday is not a big moneymaker for us. But it would have potential for business, like when you have a convention or a parade that draws people downtown."
It's quite a different story on the top floors of the Carter Burgess Plaza, home of the Petroleum Club.
The 53-year-old club was first told it couldn't be open, said Sandy Bowersox, membership director.
Then Monday the restriction was lifted, and an e-mail went out to members Tuesday, offering a $25 champagne brunch.
"We were booked by Wednesday," she said. The club will serve bottomless plates of eggs, bacon and sausages, to be washed down with mimosas and coffee.
The club limited the viewing to 180 rubberneckers.
"We just have so much window space," Bowersox said.
An office worker across from the Landmark said his building will be closed Saturday morning, so he'll watch from a friend's condo in The Tower nearby.
"I've had to turn down so many friends," said Steve Dutton, a resident on the 24th floor of The Tower with a picture-postcard view of the implosion site. "We only have 720 square feet."
So Dutton is throwing a stand-and-gaze party for six friends, who will nosh on bagels, cream cheese and bloody marys as the building his partner worked in for 10 years goes down. "I'm sure he has bittersweet feelings, as it was his first banking job in Fort Worth," Dutton said.
At the Courtyard by Marriott, retired auto engineer George Nagy will be more than a casual observer.
He's coming from Arizona to take sequential photos of the Landmark tumbling down, as he has for such big demolitions as the Seattle Kingdome in 2000, Cincinnati's Cinergy Field in 2002 and Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia in 2004.
"The tallest structure I have photographed was the 25-story Hudson's Department Store in Detroit in 1998," Nagy said by e-mail. "So the Landmark will be a 'landmark' blast."
Barry Shlachter, (817) 390-7718 barry@star-telegram.com
lol!
An ugly building, located in the more attractive of the metroplex cities.
Thanks.
Maybe you could sneak in and exchange the orders/building plan with the demolition crew?
heheh.
Should be fun. The weather forcast is for thunderstorms. Perhaps the rain will settle the dust.
For those of you interested in viewing in person: http://www.dfw.com/multimedia/dfw/implosionmap.pdf
Couldn't they just get someone to fly a plane into it. I could name names, but I have no interest in adding to my Secret Service file.
Facts
- Until April 16 2000, a four-sided clock on the roof brought the height to 420 feet. The clock was at various times the world's largest revolving clock, digital clock, & 4-sided sign.
- Tallest building in Fort Worth from 1957 until 1974 when the The Tower was completed.
- Once planned for adding a pyramid and spire to the roof, for a total height of 481 feet (435 feet to the top of the pyramid), this is now set for demolition in late 2005.
- The proposed XTO Energy Headquarters will occupy this site if built.
- Once demolished, the tower will become the tallest building to have been demolished in Texas.
- The 40-foot clock and sign did not feature in the original plans; the sign was added after the building was complete. The structural supports for the tower had be strengthened to support the added weight of a moving clock.
- Demolition is scheduled for Saturday, March 18, 2006 between 7 am and 8 am.
I *think* they used to call this the Mercantile Bank Building back in the fifties. I remember the clock...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.