The Star-Telegram has announced that they are putting their Classifieds Building downtown up for sale, along with the parking lot behind it and two parking lots on Texas Street.

The building opened in 1961 as the home of Tarrant Savings. A blend of International Style and Googie, it’s an interesting bit of architectural history and a surviving example of a style that doesn’t get much love. The building has been uglied-up over the years – originally, it had translucent blue panels on the fins between the windows, and the mirror-tint glass certainly isn’t original. It’s also pretty dirty. If cleaned up and restored, it’d be a cool little piece of jet-age architecture, and that’s something we should make sure to preserve good examples of.

I would LOVE to see those three parking lots go away as the home of new development, but I definitely don’t want to see the Classifieds Building come down. I’ll try to keep abreast of the current happenings with the building, and let y’all know what I hear. I will certainly advocate for its preservation.