20" x 30" Digital print on Hahnemuhle Photorag 305 gsm archival paper. Single edition. Comes with Digital/NFT counterpart
 
Sterick Building
 
Highrise #192
Address: 8 N. Third St.
Opened: 1930
Height: 365'
Stories: 29
Style: Gothic, Art Deco
Architect: Wyatt Hedrick
 
Memphis, TN
 
Empty for nearly four decades, its crumbling concrete skin shedding paint, this speculative skyscraper designed by a Texas architect for his millionaire father-in-law was in trouble almost from the moment it opened.
 
Its name is a surname mashup of architect Wyatt Hedrick and Ross Sterling, a Houston oil magnate, newspaper publisher, and chairman of his own bank and the state highway commission. Visiting the construction site in 1929, Sterling joked that his highrise would look better in Houston, and declined to confirm rumors he would run for governor of Texas.
 
Sterling did run the next year, and won. That same year, the biggest oilfield yet was discovered in east Texas. So many gushers flooded the market that crude oil prices plummeted to 2 cents a barrel, and the new governor declared martial law to stop drillers from violating production limits. Sterling lost the next election and also his Tennessee tower, which was auctioned on the courthouse steps two years after opening.
 
Numerous renovation attempts and ill-considered paint jobs by prior owners have failed to restore the Sterick to its intended glory. The new owner plans to convert it into residential units, a project that will take several years.