Our Regional Office for Weidner Apartment Homes in Midland, TX is housed in the former La Force Building and it has an interesting history!
During the late 1950s, the space race was a hot topic and it was during this time that the architect designed the building at 3200 La Force by incorporating elements of a spaceship throughout the structure. The roof and most of the outside is comprised of cement and it took hundreds of truckloads of cement to construct the building.
According to legend, there’s an amusing story about that time. After almost an entire day of cement trucks driving to the site and workers spreading the cement, they began to complain and wanted to go home. To encourage them to stay, the builder apparently set up an agreement with the Coors Distribution center across the street so that, when the job was completed, the workers could drink their fill and, lo and behold, the job was finished in no time! While that might not happen today, it adds to the colorful history of the building. Finally, when the cement work was finished, the architect’s design called for the addition of brickwork and accent windows to achieve the overall effect.
Next, the builder constructed the tower, incorporating antennas and satellite equipment that had previously been located in a field just north of where the building sits today. This new placement in the tower strengthened the signal which has previously been plagued with issues including completely going off the air during inclement weather.
After the building was completed, the KMID-TV news staff and support staff moved in. One problem they hadn;'t predicted was how some of the more adventurous local folks couldn’t resist the curved structure of the front of the building and would bring their motorcycles, skateboards and bicycles to the “spaceship” and ride up and over the building! Finally, the news station had to put a stop to it by adding pipes along the roof.
During the 1950s and early ‘60s on Saturday afternoons, KMID invited new recording artists into the news studio for 30 minutes of airtime, almost like an early version of the old TV classic, American Bandstand. Artists like Roy Orbison, composer of Pretty Woman, performed in the news studio many times, helping their careers take off.
Today, the La Force building and tower have become beloved West Texas landmarks. When Weidner purchased the building in 2015, we remodeled, added beautiful landscaping, and refurbished the building to restore it to its former glory. According to Texas Regional Administrator Suzanne Lay, “We've had so many visitors stop by and thank us for purchasing the building, and the architect himself stopped by a couple of years ago and told us he is especially thankful for our efforts, and he shared some stories as well. I've even had phone calls from city and county leaders thanking us for making such a good impression on visitors coming to and from Midland/Odessa via the airport!”
The building is located right across the street from the Midland International Airport, which used to be the Midland Air Force base. Military jets and helicopters land and take off from the airport all the time. Moore Air Force Base located in South Texas, sends their new pilots to Midland to learn how to take off and land. According to Lay, “On any given day we get to see a lot of military jets coming and going.”
For fans of the supernatural, there’s even talk of a resident ghost in the building. Lay related that, “If any of us are in the office alone, we hear doors opening and closing in the office for no reason. We can also hear someone walking down the hallway with keys, but no one appears.” To further bolster her claim, Lay shared that “One of the former KMID writers stopped by one day and asked us if we had had any contact with the ‘ghost’. She said that on multiple occasions ‘something’ would push all of the papers off of their writing desks. It’s our shared theory that this ghost is a former TV weatherman who was known for his sense of humor and practical jokes.”
In its current iteration, the former news station now fits our needs perfectly as Weidner’s Texas Regional office with its front portion dedicated to the administrative and supervising staff and the former news studio converted into our in-house HVAC, welding, and plumbing shop. TO make things even better, according to Lay, “On any given day we see quail, dove, road runners, rattlesnakes, coyotes, jack rabbits and millions of butterflies. It’s like having a butterfly sanctuary here at the office and it’s a beautiful place to work.”