Only the east wall of the 1913 bank annex, pictured left, is original, according to an architectural study. (Bob Vint)

In downtown Tucson, a 92-year-old former bank will likely be torn down for a condominium complex after a city-hired architect determined last month that it is not historic.

"There's just nothing left that's original," says local architect Bob Vint, who studied the former Bank One Annex. "It's unfortunate, what was done to it, but it's already been done."

Built as a Western Union office in 1913, the building was renovated as a bank in 1960. Workers removed brick walls, replaced them with poured concrete, built a new foundation, and installed a new granite facade, Vint says.

A city of 800,000, with nine National Regiser Historic Districts, Tucson is trying to revitalize its small downtown, largely abandoned for suburban malls in the 1960s.

Bourn Partners, Inc., which paid the city just $100 for the block that includes the annex, will likely tear it down to make way for its $23 million project. Last year, the company demolished the beloved 115-year-old Pusch Building, which had been abandoned for about 20 years. The city council will approve Bourn's final plans for the complex this winter.

Vint hopes that someone will step forward to save part of the building. "The only thing that has any merit is the 1960s facade," he says. "We might want to use that facade and reintegrate it into a new structure."

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