science

Mercantile National Bank Building

Mercantile National Bank Building is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mercantile National Bank Building rather than just read about it. In short: The Mercantile National Bank Building (known colloquially as The Merc) is a 31-story, 159.4 m (523 ft) skyscraper at 1800 Main Street in the Main Street district of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the former home of the Mercantile National Bank, which later became MCorp Bank.

Key takeaways

Mercantile National Bank Building belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mercantile National Bank Building to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mercantile National Bank Building from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Mercantile National Bank Building (known colloquially as The Merc) is a 31-story, 159.4 m (523 ft) skyscraper at 1800 Main Street in the Main Street district of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the former home of the Mercantile National Bank, which later became MCorp Bank. The design of the skyscraper features Moderne styling from the Art Deco era and was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager. The building has a series of setbacks that is crowned by an ornamental four-sided clock along with a decorative weather spire. The Merc was the main element of a four-building complex that eventually spanned a full city block.

History The site along Ervay Street between Main and Commerce previously housed the landmark Post Office building constructed in 1889 which featured a prominent clock tower and gingerbread architecture. After abandonment, it was the subject of rumors, plans and schemes, but by 1936, it had been declared a liability by local business leaders and was razed. The Mercantile National Bank Building was completed in 1943 and was the only major skyscraper constructed during World War II. The U.S. government had called for a halt of private construction to fuel supply materials for the war effort. However, most of the tower's steel had been prefabricated and was given a special waiver from the government. The bank lobby Art Deco wood murals were the largest in the world at the time. In addition to the bank and other offices, the federal government took 10 floors to hold offices for various war agencies. Mercantile Bank owner and founder Robert L. Thornton constructed his own penthouse level in the upper floors. In 1947, an illuminated tower was constructed, which newspaper-owned KERA (later renamed WFAA-FM) used for radio broadcasts. In 1958, this tower was replaced by the current illumination tower and clock. In the 1960s, the original stone façade at the base of the building was covered by a modernist curtain wall facade. At its completion, the Merc was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River and it was the tallest building in Dallas until 1954, when Republic Bank Tower I surpassed it. The building has 31 stories, and when the 115-foot (35 m) ornamental clock tower is included, is 545 feet (166 m) feet tall; making it the 19th-tallest building in Dallas. It also contains 359,348 square feet (33,385 m2) of floor space.

Expansion

The Merc was the main element of a four building complex that eventually spanned a full city block. The Mercantile Securities Building was constructed immediately east of the main tower in 1949 and was 14 stories tall, including 213,270 square feet (19,813 m2) of space. The Mercantile Dallas Building was completed in 1954. It was 360 feet (110 m) and 22 stories tall with 347,037 square feet (32,241 m2) inside. It was built behind the southern half of the Securities building and ran along Commerce Street to St Paul Street. The final addition to the block was the Securities Annex in 1972. It initially was five stories and designed for vertical expansion at a later date. Its 116,322 square feet (10,807 m2) of space was in the northeast corner of the block. The bank also built and purchased other structures near the main tower. The Mercantile Continental Building was built in 1948 across Commerce Street to serve the growing bank's parking and office space needs. The bank later built the Jackson Street Garage, which contained the bank's large motor bank, behind the Continental Building. A tunnel was built to connect the garage and Continental Building to the main complex via the Dallas Building. In 1976, the bank bought the neighboring Vaughn Tower across Commerce Street. Prather Street divides the Continental and Vaughn Tower. The bank renamed the building the Mercantile Commerce Building. The final building to be built by MCorp Bank was Momentum Place, completed in 1987 across Main Street. MCorp occupied 600,000 square feet (60,000 m2) of the 1,500,000 square feet (100,000 m2) building. The building connected the original complex to the Dallas Pedestrian Network to the north with a new underground walkway to the Securities Annex. The economic downturn of the late 1980s along with the savings and loan crisis would signal the end of MCorp Bank. It was dissolved by Bank One in the summer of 1989 after numerous quarters of earnings losses. The complex was still used occasionally until the building became vacant on February 5, 1993.

Adaptive reuse

In 1985, Cadillac Fairview, developer of Toronto's Eaton Centre, proposed renovating the complex into a 140,000-square-foot (13,000 m2) retail center, connecting adjacent anchors Neiman Marcus and Joske's. The plan included demolition of the various additions and preservation of the main tower, but the project was later abandoned. With the increased demand in urban living downtown, there was interest in converting the structure to residential uses. However, the complex was awash with asbestos, which would need to be removed before any remodeling could begin. The complex was also poorly configured for residential, as it had a lot of floor space without windows, requiring demolition of some buildings. The two combinations made for an expensive reconversion. Three different proposals fell through before Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises was able to make the financial numbers work. FCE announced a deal with the City of Dallas in June 2005 to receive US$60.5 million from the city to redo the building. The main tower was converted to 225 apartments with ground floor retail. The three additions, not considered historically significant, were demolished. The modernist curtain wall on the base was removed, revealing its original exterior and balconies were added to the east façade, although most of the interior design elements were lost during years of renovation. On the site of the Securities Annex is a new 15-story apartment building, the Element, with parking constructed beneath. A pool and plaza were added for the residents of Mercantile Place, which also includes the historic Wilson Building in an adjacent block. The grand opening was held in April 2009. Retail tenants have been slow to materialize due to economic conditions at the time of opening. Jean Michel's, an upscale French restaurant, was scheduled to open in the base of the Element building, overlooking Main Street Garden Park, which lies across St. Paul Street. These plans, however, fell through.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mercantile National Bank Building

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mercantile National Bank Building claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mercantile National Bank Building before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mercantile National Bank Building ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mercantile National Bank Building

In research: Mercantile National Bank Building appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mercantile National Bank Building in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mercantile National Bank Building is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1943 establishments in Texas, Art Deco architecture in Texas, Bank buildings in Texas, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mercantile National Bank Building outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Mercantile National Bank Building” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Mercantile National Bank Building in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mercantile National Bank Building means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mercantile National Bank Building out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mercantile National Bank Building in simple terms?

Why does Mercantile National Bank Building matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mercantile National Bank Building?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mercantile National Bank Building.