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Categories: Contest
Tags: Featured
Preservation in Mississippi 
jackson
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symmetrical combination of (late) international style with some brutalist elements(more wall than window); 1970s(construction date)
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Makes me thing of a state/federal type building. But not a jail or prison ;^)
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oh, and mr white won’t like ‘another style comment’, but someone a while back ‘invented’ a name that might fit this, ‘new formalism’—- with that name, one thinks of buildings by minoru Yamasaki(1st world trade center complex) and Edward durrell stone(or, as some of his detractors said, Edward Durrell Stonehenge)— this building is making an attempt to look grand but it is just a box with vertical ribbon windows—siting on a glass-in base—- thousands of buildings— spec office buildings–built like this all over the place—
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Yes, but you are finally going to get a point for this post because New Formalism is probably the best descriptor of its “style.” You are also right; it is a box, though I believe it had a nice, modern lobby and entrance. However, it is a box that no longer exists, which is why it is in this contest.
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Minoru Yamasaki. He also gets full credit for Pruit-Igoe, in St. Louis. It’s the public housing project you get to see demolished in the film, “Koyaanisqatsi”
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Mississippi Chemical Company Headquarters (1968-69, Dean & Pursell, archts.) A landmark on the bluff at Yazoo City, coming in from the Delta. Demolished January 2012.
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Two points.
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Mississippi Chemical Company Headquarters (1968-69, Dean & Pursell, archts.) A landmark on the bluff at Yazoo City, coming in from the Delta. Demolished January 2012.
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Haha. I knew it wasn’t Jackson anyway.
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Since you submitted the same information as Blake did, I cannot give you a point. There is plenty of other information that could be submitted that would qualify for a point, though.
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Dean and Pursell also did the very striking Calvary Baptist Church in Meridian: https://misspreservation.com/2011/01/27/ms-archt-sept-1963-calvary-baptist-church-meridian/
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Yes they did. A point for you. The striking thing is that it looks the same to day as it did when it was constructed. Really remarkable preservation and National Register-eligible, now.
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The only significant change to the CBC is the glass enclosure of the previously open walkways.
As far as our featured building, Dean & Purcell was composed of Charles H. Dean, Jr.(1910-1997) and Joe T. Purcell(1908-1998). The Mississippi Chemical Company Headquarters, is the only building of theirs documented in the MDAH HRI database that has been demolished.
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I think one can tell by the highway bypass that it is Jackson – without even looking at the building.
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But the building itself doesn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen driving on the Jackson bypass,
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It’s not Jackson; it was Yazoo City.
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Yazoo Herald reported in 1977 that the firm moved to Jackson because the county would not build a new airport they needed.
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I generally call this late Brutalist style because most examples here in Arkansas are from the mid to late 1970s. However, it might be better described as late New Formalist. Edward Durell Stone, who was one of New Formalist biggest proponents along with Yamasaki, designed several buildings that were very similar to this style of design in the late 1960s and early 1970s, such as the World Trade Center in New Orleans (1967) and the First National Bank Building in Hot Springs, AR (1972).
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Styles of modernist architecture seem to lack definitive labels since we are still in the early days of writing that chapter of architectural history.
Thank you for providing those other examples of New Formalist buildings, but to qualify for a point in the competition, please provide some information a little more closely related to this specific building. Check out the competition rules for an idea of what would qualify for a point.
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Well, shoot! I got on here a few minutes too late to be the first to identify the building, which I recognized immediately. What seems to have thrown most people off was the highway ramp, which wasn’t there until many years after the building was built. Nothing I can add now except why there is no longer a Mississippi Chemical Corporation and thus why the building was torn down, but only if someone wants to hear that since business history is not what this page is about.
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You can certainly comment on the business history of Mississippi Chemical Corporation. As it pertains to this building, it will be awarded a point for the competition.
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Ok, well I’ll leave out the older part of the history so I don’t make everyone’s eyes roll back in their heads. Another company often confused with Mississippi Chemical (and for good reason!) was First Mississippi Corporation, the seed money for which was formed by Miss. Chemical (MCC) owners foregoing a dividend. First Mississippi (FRM, and later ChemFirst or CEM) was headquartered in Jackson. The two companies were historically closely related, shared board members, had joint ventures in agricultural chemicals (fertilizer) production, etc. FRM became more diversified over the years, was the first MS based company to register on the NYSE and was at one time the darling of Wall Street for having the highest ROE of any NYSE company. In the late 1990s FRM decided to concentrate on NON ag chemicals and among many other divestitures, “sold” (not technically correct, but basically what happened) its fertilizer operations and MCC was the highest bidder, so to speak. Problem is, they paid too much and fertilizer prices weren’t doing what they expected and in turn MCC got bought out by another fertilizer company, Terra Industries, from Iowa. Terra was later bought by CF Industries. Once there was no longer an MCC, all subsequent owners cared about was the fertilizer plant there in Yazoo City. No one needed an office building of that size. Can’t say for sure, but it seems like “they” (Terra or CF) tried to sell it, but there was no market for such a building in Yazoo City and I can only imagine it because a liability sitting there empty for so long.
P.S. ChemFirst eventually sold to (technically merged with) DuPont in 2002, I think. The old (but not original) FRM /CEM building at 700 North Street in Jackson is still standing, but is now the MS SOS office.
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MS SOS office moved to Capital Towers!
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Dean & Pursell also designed the beautiful Chapel of Memories on the MSU campus.
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This photo represents the last time I ever saw this building, which as Blake said was such a landmark when coming to Yazoo City from the Delta. It was winter and the setting sun was so beautiful and nobody was behind me, so as I came onto the southbound ramp, I rolled dow my window, came to a stop, semi-composed the shot, clicked, and got movig again. I had no idea that the next time through, that spot would be empty. This is yet another reminder to me that the best time to document a building, even if it’s a crooked photo out the truck window, is when you have the opporunity. There might not be a better time..
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we can all identify with those comments— even in little lyons ny: much as disappeared since I moved here with the intention of saving buildings— wasn’t very successful, alas.
and, webmaster, what have you been doing all week?
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So now that it’s gone, I tried looking for it on Google Maps and I think I found it, or the parking lot that surrounded it at one time. https://goo.gl/maps/xXzPUPNnD6E2
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