The Houston Main Building (HMB)
." University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Retrieved on April 4, 2010. formerly the Prudential Building, was a skyscraper in the

Texas Medical Center The Texas Medical Center (TMC) is a List of neighborhoods in Houston, neighborhood in south-central Houston, Texas, United States. It is immediately south of the Houston Museum District, Museum District and west of Texas State Highway 288. Over 6 ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. It originally housed offices of the

Prudential Insurance Company Prudential Financial, Inc. is an American financial services company whose subsidiaries provide insurance, retirement planning, investment management, and other products and services to both retail and institutional customers throughout the Uni ...

, 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 and autonomous university of the University of Texas System in Houston, Texas. It is the largest cancer center in the wo ...

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

Kenneth Franzheim Kenneth Franzheim (October 28, 1890–March 13, 1959) was an American architect. His early work was in Chicago and Boston with C. Howard Crane. Starting in 1928, most of his work was in Houston, to where he moved his practice in 1937. Early life ...

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 broadcasting, 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, University of Houston System, and is opera ...

''. 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, 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''. ...

''. 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 with each market ...

''. 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'' (and before that ''Business Week'' and ''The Business Week''), is an American monthly business magazine published 12 times a year. The magazine debuted in New York City in Septembe ...

''. 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 Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. 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, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

, 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 Houston) 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 ...

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 ( 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 plaster, the painting become ...

, 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 desert climate, arid and semiarid climate, semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Texas, Wichita Falls, Abilene, Texa ...

. The Prudential Life Insurance Company commissioned the mural from the artist

Peter Hurd Peter Hurd (February 22, 1904 – July 9, 1984) was an American painter whose work is strongly associated with the people and landscapes of San Patricio, New Mexico, where he lived from the 1930s. He is equally acclaimed for his portraits and hi ...

. 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

Lincoln County, New Mexico Lincoln County is a county in the U.S. state of New Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 20,269. Its county seat is Carrizozo, while its largest community is Ruidoso. History Prior to the creation of Lincoln County, the Mescal ...

, 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 known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

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. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

, 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 2020 census, the city population was 12,875. His ...

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

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Emporis Emporis was a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022. Emporis was acquired ...

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