Tax Credit Program Highlight: Magnolia Building

History

Constructed in 1922 as headquarters for the Magnolia Petroleum Company, the Magnolia Building was one of Dallas’s early skyscrapers and its tallest building for decades. Its design, by local architecture firm Lang and Witchell, is influenced by New York City’s Equitable Building with a tall, U-shaped tower set on a solid, rectangular base. A large arched connector spans the open end of the tower at the 17th floor. The Magnolia Petroleum Company, which later became Mobil Oil was known for its flying red horse logo, and, in 1934, added a thirty-foot tall, spinning version in red neon to the building’s roof. The Pegasus subsequently became a symbol for the city of Dallas.

Rehabilitation Project

The overall building was sensitively rehabilitated into a hotel in 2000, using historic tax credits. The current project focused only on a small, full-height addition made to one side of the building in 1938. The original structure is clad in limestone, while this ‘mini-wing’ was clad in cast stone, with decorative bands to match the original building. The cast stone panels have cracked and spalled over the years creating dangerous street conditions and allowing for moisture infiltration, which has led to failure of the original attachments. All veneer materials were fully removed and replaced in-kind, with new sheathing and a modern attachment system. Original decorative banding pieces were unfortunately too deteriorated to reinstall, but were used to create molds for new pieces.