The Houston Main Building (HMB)
"

University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (colloquially MD Anderson Cancer Center) is a comprehensive cancer center in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the U.S. and one of the original three comprehensive cancer centers ...

. Retrieved on April 4, 2010. formerly the Prudential Building, was a skyscraper in the

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a medical district and neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States, immediately south of the Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 60 medical institutions, largely concentrate ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. It originally housed offices of the

Prudential Insurance Company Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American Fortune Global 500 and Fortune 500 company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers thr ...

, before becoming a part of the

MD Anderson Cancer Center The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (colloquially MD Anderson Cancer Center) is a comprehensive cancer center in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the U.S. and one of the original three comprehensive cancer centers ...

. The building was demolished on January 8, 2012. It was designed by

Kenneth Franzheim Kenneth Franzheim was an architect in Chicago and Boston in the early 1920s with C. Howard Crane. He started an independent practice in New York in 1925 and specialized in the design of large commercial buildings and airports. Franzheim becam ...

History

The building was built in 1952. Originally it housed the offices of the

.Bell, Jim.
The Art Problem at M.D. Anderson
" ''

KUHF KUHF (88.7 FM branded as ''News 88.7'') is a public radio station serving Greater Houston metropolitan area. The station is owned by and licensed to the University of Houston System, and is operated by Houston Public Media, also known as H ...

''. April 22, 2008. Retrieved on April 4, 2010. The building was the first corporate high rise building established outside of

Downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45, ...

.Turner, Allan.
PETER HURD PAINTING AT M.D. ANDERSON
" () ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. April 8, 2008. Retrieved on April 4, 2010. 18 story, building was designed by Kenneth Franzheim. It was among a group of regional headquarters buildings built for Prudential in the late 1940s and early 1950s. During its history the building had landscaped grounds, a swimming pool, and tennis courts.Hoover, Kent.
Preservationists oppose plan to demolish historic building
" ''

Houston Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

''. Friday March 29, 2002. Retrieved on April 4, 2010. The building was made of limestone and steel.Halls Of Ivy—And Crumbling Plaster
" ''

BusinessWeek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

''. July 23, 2007. Retrieved on April 4, 2010. The offices in the building served the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. The

bought the building in 1974. MD Anderson paid $18.5 million for the Prudential Building, which is located on a site. In 2002 MD Anderson announced that it planned to demolish the building and replace it with a four-story medical campus. Area preservationists opposed the plan. William Daigneau, the vice president of operations and facilities, said that renovating the buildings would be too costly. In 2008 Daigneau said that the building was slowly disintegrating. MD Anderson planned to have the building demolished around 2010. Local and state preservationists protested the proposed demolition. David Bush of the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance said that the building would be eligible for listing on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Bush also said that the organization had been told unofficially that demolishing the structure would damage equipment in adjoining structures, so he said the organization believed that the building would not be demolished. A 2007 ''

'' article said that demolishing the Houston Main Building would cost $6 million. Daigneau said that a pair of clinic buildings would replace the Houston Main Building.

Architecture

Stephen Fox, an architectural historian from

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

, said that the building was "finely built, finely finished office building that, because of its beautiful materials, generous public spaces and carefully integrated installation of art works, feels more like a public building than an office building." He also described the Houston Main Building as "a model of urbane construction in a suburban setting."

Tenants

The M. D. Anderson Alumni and Faculty Association was located in the tower. Departments of the

University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) is a public academic health science center in Houston, Texas, United States. It was created in 1972 by The University of Texas System Board of Regents. It is located in the T ...

housed in the Houston Main Building included several academic support departments and the University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston.Graduate Faculty Meeting
"

. September 8, 2005. Retrieved on April 5, 2010.Joining the Big Leagues: Q & A with Dean Starck
"

. Retrieved on April 5, 2010. The nursing school moved into the School of Nursing and Student Community Center building. The Faculty Center tower, which opened in Spring 2008, now houses several academic support departments of the University of Texas Health Science Center.

Facilities

The Houston Main Building (HMB) Exercise Room was located in HMB.B240 in the basement. A lighted jogging track was located on the west side of the building.

Mural

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

, titled "The Future Belongs To Those Who Prepare For It," was located in the Prudential Building. The fresco, by , depicts life on a farm in

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the arid and semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Abilene, and Del Rio. No consensus exists on the boundary betwee ...

. The Prudential Life Insurance Company commissioned the mural from the artist Peter Hurd. The company wanted to evoke its motto, which was used as the painting's title. To create the mural, Hurd used construction workers as his models. Hurd himself appears as a soil conservation agent in the work. Ann Hale, the director of the Hurd La Rinconada Gallery in San Patricio,

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

Lincoln County, New Mexico Lincoln County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,497. Its county seat is Carrizozo, while its largest community is Ruidoso. History Lincoln County was named in honor of President Abrah ...

, estimated the value of the painting at over $3 million. Hale said that the museum had been working with several private individuals and universities to try to get the mural moved, but she said that there were "no real solid prospects." Hale said that there were people wanted the mural, but they would have to take the responsibility for moving it. The vice president of MD Anderson, Bill Daigneau, said in 2008 the structural problems in the building are cracking the mural. Daigneau also said that the fresco "does not reflect the values of M.D. Anderson. ... There's the issue of who's running the farm, and who's working on it." The fresco portrays

African-Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ensl ...

carrying hay. According to Daigneau, polled MD Anderson employees and faculty opposed installing the mural in a new area. By 2008 no deal to remove the fresco from the building had been finalized due to the cost of removing the mural. M.D. Anderson stated that it would give away the mural, located in the building's lobby, for no charge. Allan Turner of the ''

'' said that removing the mural, restoring it, and installing it in a new location would cost over $500,000. Peter Marzio, the director of the

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

, said that the museum was approached about possibly accepting the mural. Marzio said that the museum rejected the fresco because it was too "site specific." In 2010 a benefactor from

Artesia, New Mexico Artesia is a city in Eddy County, New Mexico, centered at the intersection of U.S. routes 82 and 285; the two highways serve as the city's Main Street and First Street, respectively. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 11,301. Hist ...

agreed to have the mural removed. The mural will become a part of the public library of Artesia.Turner, Allan.
Medical center mural saved
" ''

''. November 1, 2010. Retrieved on November 3, 2010.

References

External links

Houston Main Building
-

Emporis Emporis GmbH was a real estate data mining company that was headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022. On 12 Sept ...

{{coord, 29.7055, -95.4010, type:landmark_region:US-TX, display=title Office buildings completed in 1952 1952 establishments in Texas 2012 disestablishments in Texas Skyscraper office buildings in Houston Prudential Financial buildings University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Demolished buildings and structures in Houston Buildings and structures demolished in 2012 Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion Former skyscrapers