‘Yeah, we build things tough’: Children of Leaning Tower of Dallas architect, contractor say of dads’ work – The Dallas Morning News

Updated at 6:45 p.m.: Revised to include information about the tower collapsing.

Ann Spillman and her sister Jane Spillman Wansley walked out into the field by the Leaning Tower of Dallas and marveled at what they saw.

The dusty, gray remains of the building stood tilted against the skyline with its crumbled exterior after it was partially imploded Feb. 16. In the days since the failed implosion, the towers slow demolition has become the subject of memes and cheeky marketing strategies, solidifying its status as an accidental Dallas icon.

But the former Affiliated Computer Services building isnt just a meme or a questionable landmark to Spillman and Wansley. The concrete core they watched being slowly torn apart in front of them was partially designed by their father, Pat Y. Spillman of Fisher and Spillman Architects.

He was a very determined person, Wansley said. In his office, he had a quote that said: Fall down seven times, get up eight ... I always liked that one.

Pat Y. Spillman died in 2016. The celebrated architects firm designed the Dallas Central Library and several buildings on the UT Southwestern Medical School campus.

The Leaning Tower, which was first owned by the Southland Corporation, was built in 1972. According to Dallas Morning News archives, the structure was built from the inside-out. The core was put together using a slip method, in which concrete was poured floor by floor until the structure stood 11 stories tall. The tower rose 6 inches an hour as builders worked around the clock, The News reported.

Once the buildings interior was at its full height, workers installed steel bars and the exterior was built around it. The Feb. 16 implosion demolished those steel bars, leaving just the concrete core. A wrecking ball had to be brought in to whack away at the concrete.

In the video you see online, its a little bitty wrecking ball and a great big building, Spillman said. The wrecking ball looked like a little pearl necklace.

On Monday afternoon, that pearl-like wrecking ball hit the tower for the last time, causing it to finally fall to the ground.

Its 15 minutes (or days) of fame are over, Spillman said via text message.

Their brother, Pat Spillman Jr. of Washington, D.C., learned about the Leaning Tower as most people did: through the internet. But he didnt know that his father had designed the building until he was contacted by The News.

I didn't focus on it and see that not only was this my dad's design, but I actually worked there, he said. And I immediately called my sister.

Pat Spillman made $5 an hour working on a landscaping project during the summer of 1978, years after the building was fully constructed. He said his father helped him apply for the construction job to build character, perhaps to eventually be tough, like the part of the building that stood until Monday.

They designed buildings to last, Pat Spillman Jr. said. The fact that this building refuses to go down without a fight kind of shows that.

Dallas resident George Gimarc shared in a Facebook post that his father and three brothers worked on the site from 1972 to 1973. One picture he shared shows workers hoisting large slabs of concrete onto the building. Another image shows what the building looked like when it was finished.

Yeah, we build things tough, he said in the post of his familys handiwork.

His father, Johnny Gimarc, who died in 2007, worked for Robert E. McKee General Contractors and was the construction superintendent on the project. He also helped build Dallas City Hall and the Statler Hotel.

My dad would think this was hilarious, George Gimarc said. He would find enormous amusement in this.

His brother, Alex Gimarc, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, said he couldnt recall much of the sweltering summer he spent on the site between his junior and senior years at Texas A&M University, but there was one detail he was certain of.

There was a lot of concrete used on the building, he said. ... just a whole bunch of concrete on the darn thing.

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'Yeah, we build things tough': Children of Leaning Tower of Dallas architect, contractor say of dads' work - The Dallas Morning News