Built 1951 NMSRCP # 1853 Opened 1951 Architect John Gaw Meem | NRHP Reference # 04000252 Designated NMSRCP August 8, 2003 Added to NRHP 31 March 2004 | |
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Location 723 Silver Ave. SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico Similar Albuquerque Aquarium, ABQ BioPark Botanic G, Albuquerque Biological Park, American International Rattlesna, Cliff's Amusement Park | ||
The Southern Union Gas Company Building is a historic building in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, which is notable as one of the earliest International style buildings in the city. Built in 1951, it was the largest of several Southern Union offices around the state designed by southwestern architect John Gaw Meem. Meem was much better known for working in the Pueblo Revival style but did design a handful of other modernist buildings, such as the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center.
Meem completed the design for the Southern Union building in 1949, intending to "project the image of a progressive, public-spirited company". The building has two stories, with the former appliance showroom on the ground floor and a multipurpose "hospitality room" upstairs. The main showroom space is 17 feet (5.2 m) high, with a sweeping staircase to the upper level and expansive plate-glass windows on the south and west sides.
In 2004–5, the then-vacant building was renovated and converted into a Flying Star restaurant at a cost of $3.5 million. It was added to the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties in 2003 and the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.