HOUSTON — A big boom could be heard on Sunday at the Texas Medical Center in Houston as demolition crews brought down a 20-story building that was once the home of WFAA's sister station, KHOU-TV.
Crews demolished the former Prudential Life Insurance Building, located on the corner of Holcombe and Fannin, at 11:15 a.m. The demolition was originally scheduled to take place around 7:50 a.m., but was moved back due to fog.
Prudential Insurance Co. commissioned architect Kenneth Franzheim to design a stylish regional headquarters.
The skyscraper, on the current Texas Medical Center campus, opened in 1952. KHOU operated out of the building from January of 1954 to 1960. New Jersey-based Prudential sold it in 1975.
The structure was razed to make way for a new clinical building that will connect to the Duncan Building and Mays Clinic.
A $4 million ranch life mural by artist Peter Hurd, called "The Future Belongs To Those Who Prepare for It," has been removed from the building and will be part of a public library in Artesia, N.M.
Hurd, who died in 1984, once had a studio in Artesia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
