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Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains and West » West Texas » Midland to Toyahvale » Midland (Midland County) » Marian Blakemore Planetarium

Marian Blakemore Planetarium

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1972, Frank Welch Associates; 2009 addition, Rhotenberry Wellen Architects.

Early in his career, Welch worked for O’Neil Ford of San Antonio, whose influence shows in the massing and brickwork of this windowless building, in which a one-story rectangular office-and-exhibition block with rounded corners intersects the two-story, cylindrical planetarium. An addition in 2009 on the north side of the planetarium is a simple square with a facade wall of black brick with a scattering of white, symbolizing the West Texas night sky. The neutrality of the facade avoids competition with the geometric forms and ornate brickwork of the museum’s earlier, adjacent buildings.

To the west of the planetarium at 1805 W Indiana Avenue is the Haley Memorial Museum and Research Library founded in 1961 by the eminent historian of the Southwestern Range, J. Evetts Haley.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Gerald Moorhead et al.
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Data

What's Nearby

Fredda Durham Turner Children’s Museum
Museum of the Southwest (Fred and Juliette Turner House)
St. Ann’s Catholic Church
George W. Bush Childhood Home
Rhotenberry Wellen Architects Building (Frank Welch Associates Architects Building)

Citation

Gerald Moorhead et al., "Marian Blakemore Planetarium", [Midland, Texas], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/TX-02-MT13.2.

Print Source

Buildings of Texas

Buildings of Texas: East, North Central, Panhandle and South Plains, and West, Gerald Moorhead and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019, 459-459.

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