CE1
Commercial Drywall, Inc.
Craftsman
Vol. 4 No. 1
November 1982
RepublicBank C®nH©ir
ODD begins unique Commercial Drywall is just a few weeks into its portion of the work on the RepublicBank Center, a 56-story office building and headquarters for RepublicBank Houston in downtown Houston. This unique building consists of two distinct visual statements — the office tower and a 12-story banking hall and will be a stately addition to Houston’s already impressive skyline. It is bounded by Rusk, Capitol, Louisiana and Smith streets and will contain approximately 1.5 million square feet of office and retail space. RepublicBank Center was designed for Gerald D. Hines Interests by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee who are responsible for the new art-deco style Transco Tower in the Galleria area as well as Pennzoil Place in downtown Houston. They chose the European Renaissance as the style for this building borrowing styles of construction popular during that period including the use of gables, spires and obelisks. The tower steps down in a series of three vertical segments. The exterior will be detailed in deep
russet color granite quarried in Sweden. It will also be used in the interior detailing. The stone finishes are used to create varying shadow patterns. Metal spires from every roof level creates a unique silhouette. The exciting entrance to the project from Louisiana is a massive 75-foot high arched granite doorway entering into the bank hall. The bank hall occupies almost the entire eastern half of the block. At its highest point, the stepped ceiling is 125 feet above the floor. Arched skylights run the entire length of the banking hall to provide natural light. The banking hall is to be completed by September, 1983. “The challenge for us lies in the banking hall,” explains CDI estimator Mike Holland, “we have a tough timetable for this part of the project, it will be tough finding the qualified manpower to tackle the roof, the access to the roof is difficult and there will be a maise of scaffolding in the bank hall to work around.” The scope of CDI’s involvement includes shaftwalls, arcade ceilings, door frames and doors and both sides of the bank hall roof which is
RepublicBank Center when completed will have a dramatic effect on Houston s downtown skyline.
The RepublicBank Center.
the “nuts and bolts of the job,” according to Mike. CDI is building the obelisks for each tier of the roof. Commercial is investigating the use of fiberglass reinforced gypsum plaster for the many arches in the bank hall. Daryl Hammons is supervising the project for CDI with Bobby Cocran overseeing the bank hall construction and Dennis Alford handling the construction of the tower. Turner Construction of Houston is the general contractor. The office space is already 70 percent leased. Due to the design, floor sizes will vary in size from about 5,000 square feet to approximately 30,000 square feet. RepublicBank Houston will occupy the first 15 floors of the tower. “Initially, everyone was awed by the project and perhaps a little afraid of it. We are ready to tackle it and are really getting excited about it,” comments Mike Holland.