I don’t frequent the Chase Tower all that often, so it was a shock to my system this morning when I walked into the lobby from Tyler Street to attend a pre-dawn meeting on the 30th floor.
The place has been dolled up — considerably.
I remember a time when the tower — in one of its previous incarnations — was in a relatively disheveled state. The first-floor lobby looked dingy. Business were vacating the tower for other locations. The building infastructure was in terrible shape.
No longer is that the case.
The building is virtually full. West Texas A&M occupies two floors in its Amarillo Center campus. And that lobby? Well, it’s no longer a dump.
It’s bright. The elevators have been refinished. The walls are decorated tastefully. The place is home to a shop that serves gourmet coffee (which suits this caffeine addict quite nicely).
I recall hearing when I moved here in January 1995 that the tower is the tallest building between Fort Worth and Denver. I trust that’s still the case, unless someone’s built a taller one in Colorado Springs. It’s an arguable point, I suppose, to suggest that the Chase Tower is downtown Amarillo’s “signature” structure; I am kind of partial to the Santa Fe Building — but I won’t argue the point here.
It’s worth noting, though, that as downtown’s revitalization continues on, that downtown’s tallest structure — a point that clearly is not to be disputed — has seen a renaissance of its own.