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UER Forum > Archived US: South > The Dallas tinker toy building (Viewed 298 times)
Pandesic 


Location: Dallas\Fortworth
Gender: Male




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The Dallas tinker toy building
< on 9/7/2005 5:18 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
42154.jpg (23 kb, 300x425)
click to view




The story of ONE BROOKHOLLOW PLACE is defiantly an odd one!
The building was Originally built by Texas Industries a large concrete
and building materials manufacturer as a corporate headquarters center.

in 1967 Texas Industries Or as we know it TXI cement contracted world
renowned modernist architect Paul Rudolph to construct there new 191,369
Square foot building.
Paul was know for his design of modernist architecture and an odd
modular design concept called the "Plug In City" where large modular
structures would be built almost like big racks and apartment or
offices boxes would be built and lifted by crane to fit into these
slots or "plugged in" connecting plumbing and electrical systems as
Well,

where as (One Brookhollow Place) does not exactly follow this concept
a lot of aspects of the building are the same.
Paul Rudolph Died in 1997 at the age of 79

Paul started the design of the building for TXI in march of 1968
and 10 months later on Jan of 1969 ground was broke in Dallas on one
of probably the oddest buildings ever constructed!

Paul used a technique called precast modular construction or PMC as
its known to architects. this process is done by pre fabricating walls,
span sets, and all other structural aspects of the building out of
reinforced concrete in large wood or steel molds at a remote location
and then assembling them on site with cranes and other lifting
implements. this process in partly still used in the construction of
Commercial buildings in a format called "tilt wall construction."
sorta like all the old 70's kroger food store buildings with all the
colorful rocks embedded in the cement on the sides which was a
technique also developed by Paul Rudolph.

42156.jpg (74 kb, 609x684)
click to view

a elevation of a "Plug In City"
42157.jpg (42 kb, 500x761)
click to view

A tilt wall construction

Back to the facts...

the construction of the building lasted almost a year and a half
ending in in July of 1970

TXI moved in two months later and frequented the building till there
Decision to move to another building in 1977 ?

after that the building stood empty for almost 2 years when its second
tenant Mobile Oil And Power Corp. moved in 1980 using it as there
Corporate headquarters as well.

Mobile decided to leave after a 6 year stay in 1986

in 1988 the building had a dark cloud casted over it when it was
condemned by
Dallas code compliance due to the fact that it contained tons of
asbestos insulation.

So just go in an abate the asbestos right?
well that's anyone's best guess but the fact was that if the abatement
took place then a construction permit would have to be issued to the
Abatement company doing the tear out.

But there was only one problem with that. It also had fallen out of
code due to its 10 foot
interior ceiling height which was changed to 11 feet for all
Commercial structures in the national building codes.
and its inadequate electrical systems which were on a non bus system
required by the new NEC national electrical codes which had changed in
1987.

meaning that if a construction permit was issued for the asbestos
removal all the out of code aspects of the building would have to be
changed as well!! making the project cost almost three quarters of the
the original value of the structure!

so the place sat for another 4 years in till two Asian investors came
and impulsively bought the property in 1990 without looking in-depth
into the fact why it was sooooo Dirt cheap! oops!!!

so again the place sat and sat and sat.
being that the building owners where located a whole half a globe away
the property fell into great disarray!

vandals took over. The windows were smashed on different floors, water
mains were busted flooding whole floors. and millions of dollars worth
of damage took place!

It was even home to a large rave in 1994 which took place on the 6th
and seventh floors.

from what I have been told the rave throwers duck taped large black
hefty bags over the windows so that the inside action could not be
Spotted by the freeway outside!

in 2001 the city of Dallas listed the structure as a historical piece
of architecture even in its disheveled state?

then Finally in 2001 almost eleven years later an investment firm "Glen
Lynch construction "decided to make a move! G.L.C proposed a plan to
the Dallas City counsel for a residential mixed use development. the
Only catch was the city would have to throw in a little dough too!

A small price to pay for getting rid of a big city eyesore right?

The estimated cleanup a code upgrade cost totaled out to around a cool
$500,000

The city said OK!??

so two months later the site was purchased by Glen lynch construction
under the name PEGASUS VILLAS LTD which would be the name of the new
Development. A large scale retirement living center.

then the S@*% hit the fan one more time!

9 -11 took place and our economy went down the tubes this put a hurt
on the Pegasus villas project! and things were put on the back burner
for a while leading most people to believe that again nothing would take place.

yet in 2003 ground was broke on the project.
yet It took in till 2004 for things to actually get into motion.

the interior of the building was completely gutted only leaving the
structural supports and other elements such as salvageable plumbing
and electrical systems. Then new windows were put on as so rain could
not enter the building
and destroy any new work efforts.

so here we are in 2005 and just recently large amounts of sheetrock
and other supplies have been delivered to the site which can be seen
from the freeway resting in one of the alcoves in the base of the
Building.

its been a long journey but me just might be able to see One Brookhollow
Place Ride Again!





BY: PANÐESIC









[last edit 9/7/2005 8:08 AM by Pandesic - edited 2 times]

Explorer Zero 






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Re: The Dallas tinker toy building
<Reply # 1 on 9/7/2005 12:06 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
this may come as a surprise but there are actually explorers on this site that have actually explored that building

RevSM 


Location: South Central Texas




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Re: The Dallas tinker toy building
<Reply # 2 on 9/7/2005 1:34 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Um, me. Noah too. I thought I already posted this but here is the link to my site:

http://suv.topcities.com/16office1.htm

Thank you very much for clearing up the history for this strange building Pandesic. I had some information about it but not nearly as much as you gave. The only difference was that the architect who contacted me with additional information said that Mobil originally had it built.

Tetanus for Breakfast!
http://www.shatteredshutter.com
Pandesic 


Location: Dallas\Fortworth
Gender: Male




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Re: The Dallas tinker toy building
<Reply # 3 on 9/7/2005 7:09 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Well I definitely was not trying to step on anyones feet
this was just a informational history of the building.

im aware om many who have explored the site over the last 10 years including myself.

RevSM 


Location: South Central Texas




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Re: The Dallas tinker toy building
<Reply # 4 on 9/7/2005 7:44 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
No stepping on any feet here! I'm glad someone had some additional information about this building. My info is pretty miniscule compared to the research you've done. I just thought you might like to see some recent photos of the place in a stage apparently after they gutted it.

Good stuff, keep it coming!

Tetanus for Breakfast!
http://www.shatteredshutter.com
Pandesic 


Location: Dallas\Fortworth
Gender: Male




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Re: The Dallas tinker toy building
<Reply # 5 on 9/7/2005 7:49 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
thankyou much friend

Arch-Image 


Location: DFW
Gender: Male


"This gene pool could use a little chlorine."

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Re: The Dallas tinker toy building
<Reply # 6 on 9/10/2005 3:43 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
excellent bit of research on a building I think everyone at one time or another has wondered about. I had always heard also that the seals where all of the modules came together always leaked like crazy.

"Your kid may be an honor student but YOU'RE still an IDIOT!"
VanHook 


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Re: The Dallas tinker toy building
<Reply # 7 on 9/20/2005 8:16 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
that was actually my first UE outing here in Dallas thanks to a few folks from this site. There is actually a shot from the roof of that building on my site (www.hollisbennett.com). If you go to that URL, then navigate to 'portfolio' then click the 4th box over in the second row of the 'night' category, you will see what I am talking about, kinda like stonehenge up there.

VH

Some of us do this to escape our jobs, some of us do this wishing it was our job. I some how figured out how to make this my career.
UER Forum > Archived US: South > The Dallas tinker toy building (Viewed 298 times)



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