City National Bank Building

The City National Bank Building is an Art-deco skyscraper designed in 1939 by Alfred C. Finn, and built between 1946 and 1947 in Houston, TX.

City National Bank Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The City National Bank Building is also known, or has been known as, Texas American Building, or 1001 McKinney Building.

Its precise street address is 1001 McKinney Ave, Houston, TX. You can also find it on the map here.

The City National Bank Building is a structure of significant importance both for the city of Houston and the United States as a nation. The building embodies the distinctive characteristic features of the time in which it was built and the Art Deco style. Because of that, the City National Bank Building was officially declared as a national landmark on June 20^th 1996, and was included in the National Register of Historic Places on February 23^rd 2000.

The building has been restored 2 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 1999 and 2020.

Alfred C. Finn was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design.

The City National Bank Building can be categorized as an Art-deco building.

The City National Bank Building was completed in 1947, significantly after what could be considered the end of the Art-Deco movement. It was clearly inspired by the movement, but because it doesen't really fit into the movement's timeline it would be considered as a post-movement or neo-movement.

Especially during modern times, there are less imposed rules when it comes to design. Variety and experimentation are welcome, and architects are given the freedom to take inspiration from a wide range of sources.

Looking at the past for inspiration can be a great starting point for an architectural project, and something which Alfred C. Finn clearly took advantage of to design the City National Bank Building. Architects may choose to look to the past for multiple reasons. It could be that they want the building to merge with an older surounding, give it the feeling of having been there for longer than it actualy has, personal preference or it might even be a requieremnt from the client.

The City National Bank Building uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade is a non-load bearing masonry facade. This type of facade became common during the period when buildings, especially taller ones, transitioned from load-bearing wall systems to frame structures.

Frame structures allowed facades to be independent from the building's frame, enabling the use of lighter materials and larger openings. However, it took some time for architects to incorporate these new posibilities into their designs, and so for a while they simply replicated the look and feel fo buildings people where used to seeing.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features a granite base that rises three stories. From there up, tan-brick pillars, combined with red-striped spandrels, emphasize its verticality of the building. The main entrance is on the narrowest facade of the building.

Other materials found at the City National Bank Building include, red marble, found in the three-story columns and lobby walls, terrazzo, used for the floors in different colors and designs, and bronze, found on elevator doors and the ornamental frame of the building's main entrance.