Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
One of the original drawings of the First National Bank of Tucumcari, now Wells Fargo, that architect of record Gene Dyer submitted with his successful nomination to the American Institute of Architects Albuquerque Design and Honor Awards.
The former First National Bank of Tucumcari building, now a Wells Fargo, earlier this month received a special 50-year recognition award from the annual American Institute of Architects Albuquerque Design and Honor Awards.
The building marked the 50th anniversary of its opening in September. Except for a Wells Fargo sign on its exterior, the bank at 302 S. First St. is largely unchanged in the past half-century.
Gene Dyer, the bank's architect of record for the Dyer, McClernon Architects firm, submitted photographs and original architectural drawings with the award nomination.
Bradbury Stamm was responsible for the bank's brickwork; it hauled 14 rail freight cars of brick to the site.
Dyer's presentation explained how bricks were manufactured so they were suited for the building's arches. A 10-man team using "a trade's skillset of the past" was responsible for the bricklaying.
The color of the bricks also was chosen to harmonize with the area's alluvial sand.
The bank was designed with several high windows to allow natural light to steam inside. The roof was made from wooden trusses.
The First National Bank of Tucumcari cost about $1 million to build.
Even after 50 years, Dyer noted there is no deterioration in the bricks and no cracks, even in its archways. He predicted the building would last well beyond a century.
The jury for the AIA Albuquerque Design and Honor Awards praised the project.
"Right out of the gate when discussing this project, juror Kevin Rich said that this project just might be his favorite project," jury chairman Bob Borson stated.
Jurors praised the photos and original drawings submitted with the nomination: "The drawings prepared by hand were simply beautiful, and it diverted our responsibility as a jury panel from evaluating projects to a discussion about what we should go back to drawing by hand.
"There is a weight to this project that went beyond the massing - we initially expected to see that the arches would be thin - without mass or gravity," Borson added, "but as we worked through the images, you start to see how the massing and brick work combine to create something special.
"Then you are hit with the contrast of how open the interior space is ... This is the sort of project that makes you want to go experience it for yourself."
Dyer said he was encouraged by Roger Schluntz of the UNM School of Architecture to find the original drawings from stacks of poorly organized flat files.
"There were several cases of projects I did not remember but were definitely my drawings," Dyer recalled in an email to the Quay County Sun.
"And then there was the bank in Tucumcari. I had not seen the drawings for over 50 years. They were amazing, and they brought back waves of rediscovery and emotion surrounding the beginnings of my practice of architecture with my partner Pat McClernon. We started our practice in 1970."
Dyer recalled that Barton Jones, an officer with the First National Bank of Tucumcari, had asked whether Dyer could assist him and his father, bank president Wilber Jones, in selecting an architect for a new bank.
A couple of weeks later, Barton Jones traveled to Albuquerque to have lunch with Dyer to review the options of potential architects.
"After our lunch, we were saying goodbye in the street in front of the restaurant and anticipating an early decision from the bank on the architect to be appointed. While walking to the car, Barton turns and says, 'What about you?'" Dyer wrote.
Not long after designing the Tucumcari bank, Dyer went on to a long career at the Boston-based Moshe Safdie firm.
The First National Bank of Tucumcari sold its operations to Wells Fargo in 1997.
Dyer wants to nominate the building to the National Register of Historic Places.
He said in an earlier interview with the Quay County Sun that Wells Fargo has resisted the proposal, but he hoped he could eventually persuade the company to reconsider.
Ruben Pulido, the New Mexico representative of Wells Fargo, declined to comment when emailed by the Quay County Sun, adding that "we don't have anything additional to contribute at this time."
