The former Prudential Life Insurance Building faces demolition.
The Houston Chronicle reported Friday that Prudential Insurance Co. commissioned architect Kenneth Franzheim to design a stylish regional headquarters.
The skyscraper, on the current Texas Medical Center campus, opened in 1952. New Jersey-based Prudential sold the building in 1975.
The structure is being razed to make way for new facilities.
A $4 million ranch life mural by artist Peter Hurd, called "The Future Belongs To Those Who Prepare for It," has been removed from the building and will be part of a public library in Artesia, N.M.
Hurd, who died in 1984, once had a studio in Artesia.
