Welcome to the Archives of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation. The purpose of this online database is to function as a tool for scholars, students, architects, preservationists, journalists and other interested parties. The archive consists of photographs, slides, articles and publications from Rudolph’s lifetime; physical drawings and models; personal photos and memorabilia; and contemporary photographs and articles.

Unless otherwise noted, all images and drawings are copyright © The Estate of Paul Rudolph and The Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation. Please speak with a representative of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation to get permission to use any drawings or photos. Drawings, sketches and other materials produced by Rudolph’s architectural office at the Library of Congress are maintained there for preservation, but the intellectual property rights belong to the Paul Rudolph Estate and Ernst Wagner, founder of the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation.

Bass Towers.jpg

LOCATION
Address: 200-298 Commerce Street
City: Fort Worth
State: Texas
Zip Code: 76102
Nation: United States

 

STATUS
Type: Office
Status: Built

TECHNICAL DATA
Date(s): 1978-1983
Site Area:
Floor Area: Tower I - 720,000 s.f.; Tower II - 900,000 s.f.
Height: Tower I - 476.51 ft. (145 m); Tower II - 546.75 ft. (167 m)
Floors (Above Ground): Tower I - 33; Tower II - 38
Building Cost:

PROFESSIONAL TEAM
Client: Bass Brothers Enterprises; City Center Incorporated
Architect: Paul Rudolph
Associate Architect: 3D/International, Inc.
Interior Design: Halbach-Dietz Architects
Landscape:
Structural: CBM Engineers, Inc. - Joseph Colaco
MEP: 3D/International, Inc.
Elevators: Calvin Kort
QS/PM:

SUPPLIERS
Contractor: Linbeck Construction Company
Subcontractor(s):

City Center Towers Complex

  • The project consists of two towers that are of different heights and similar pinwheel plan and construction details.

  • The project includes a multi-level parking garage (1,000 car capacity) that spans over two blocks and is connected to the base of each tower by an enclosed skywalk.

  • The tower design has incised balconies and chamfered projections at the upper floors, which Rudolph refers to as “ears” which are meant to twist the forms visually.

  • Rudolph uses paired structural columns exposed to various heights at the base of each tower to visually alleviate the mass of the towers at street level.

  • Construction begins in May 1980 and is completed in 1983.

  • When the construction of City Center I is completed in 1982, the building becomes the tallest tower in Fort Worth until it is superseded in 1983 by Burnett Plaza.

  • The taller tower, City Center II - is known as the Bank of America Tower. It was formerly known as the D.R. Horton Tower, when the home construction company’s headquarters were located in it.

  • The shorter tower, City Center I - is known as the Wells Fargo Tower and also as the Chase Texas Tower.

  • City Center II is today the second tallest building in Fort Worth, and City Center I is the fifth tallest building.

  • In 2011 the project is given a 25 Year Honor Award by the AIA Fort Worth Chapter. Other Rudolph-designed projects presented with the award include the Bass Residence in 2005 and the Sid W. Richardson Physical Sciences Building in 2021.

My intention was to relate the three-story-high buildings by scale, not by materials, or paint, or ‘motifs.’ You see, people who add on imitation quoins or other historical references are attempting to give their buildings scale, but they use such low means to accomplish this that I want to get off the boat.
— Paul Rudolph in Architectural Record, June 1985
The variety of functions at the base is used to break down the scale, in an effort to make the scale at the base more sympathetic with the human being. Urbanistically, the towers resemble human beings or robots. They walk proudly among the three-to-six-story-high buildings as giants, for they cannot and should not disguise their size.
— Paul Rudolph in Architectural Record, June 1985

DRAWINGS - Design Drawings / Renderings

DRAWINGS - Construction Drawings

DRAWINGS - Shop Drawings

PHOTOS - Project Model

PHOTOS - During Construction

PHOTOS - Completed Project

PHOTOS - Current Conditions

LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION
City Center Towers Complex on Wikipedia
Wells Fargo Tower on Wikipedia
Wells Fargo Tower on Emporis
D.R. Horton Tower on Wikipedia
D.R. Horton Tower on Emporis

RELATED DOWNLOADS

PROJECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Clustered Columns Play Hide-and-Seek.” Architectural Record, no. 170, July 1982, pp. 124–27.

James P. Warfield. Paul Rudolph: 1983-1984 Receipient of the Plym Distinguished Professorship. School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1983.

Mildred F. Schmertz. “From Object To Space: An Interview With Paul Rudolph.” Architectural Record, no. 173, June 1985, pp. 156–61.

“Multi-Use Complex Underway in Downtown Fort Worth.” Texas Architect, no. 30, June 1980, p. 19.

“Paul Rudolph, the City Center.” Global Architecture Document, no. 7, Aug. 1983, pp. 90–99.

Roberto De Alba. Paul Rudolph: The Late Work. Princeton Architectural Press, 2003.

Timothy Rohan. The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. Yale University Press, 2014.