Guest Blog: Mark Wellen's Modern Midland Tour

Mark Wellen, AIA. 

Image courtesy of Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

Mark Wellen, AIA

Rhotenberry Wellen Architects

West Texas

On March 30, Midland held its inaugural event observing Preservation Texas’ MODern Month, and I lead a tour of downtown Midland, which emphasized our stock of mid-century modern architecture. Midland rightfully earned its moniker as the “Tall City” by assembling an impressive array of office buildings established through a series of building booms fueled by the boom and bust cycles of the oil industry, which belies expectations of a city with a population of 100,000.

The observance of MODern Month in Midland was the brainchild of Brandon Melland, Planner with the City of Midland Planning Division. The list of notable structures was compiled by my research and a significant dose of data provided by the eminent architectural historian Stephen Fox. The genesis of the tour was about a year ago as a result of a request by the Texas Historical Commission for me to host a similar tour for a regional committee meeting they were holding in Midland.

We hope that the tour will become an annual event and be a stepping stone in the ongoing effort of revitalization of downtown Midland, as well as lead to a growing appreciation by our citizens of the quality of our stock of mid-century modern structures.

Below are pictures from the tour courtesy of Brandon Melland, with the City of Midland's Planning Division, and who attended UTSA's architecture school.

Architecture is Focus of Downtown Walking Tour

 Mark Wellen will lead a tour today that will highlight some of the historic mid-century to modern architecture design of buildings, like the Bank of America building on Wall Street, during Downtown Midland Walking Tour. Cindeka Nealy/Reporter-Telegram

mywesttexas.com

April 29, 2011

Audrie Palmer
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Residents will be able to view mid-century to modern architectures on a walking tour this morning around the downtown area.

Midland architect Mark Wellen (Texas Society of Architects member) will lead the free tour, which is open to the public. Those wanting to participate should meet at 10 a.m. in Centennial Plaza.

The tour is being held in conjunction with the Inaugural Texas MODern Month, and Wellen said he hopes to raise awareness of the need to preserve some of Midland's buildings.

"There are great examples of mid-century and modern architecture here," he said looking across Centennial Plaza Friday afternoon.

The tour will be about a mile of walking covering a two-block-by-four-block area and will include about 20 buildings officials have identified as buildings from that period. It's expected to last between one and two hours, Wellen said.

While there are a lot of residential projects in Midland that could be included on the tour, Wellen said officials wanted to keep this first one simple, but they could expand it over time.

Read more here.