The more I've read about this the more I realize that maybe tearing down these structures was probably the right call. It appears that the structures were beyond refurbishing based on reports from former employees at Kerr McGee and folks that actually went on the tour of these buildings. Structurally both Kerr Mac and India Temple weren't sound. I would liked to have seen them pull off the facade on India Temple to see what was underneath before they decided to destroy it. If indeed the historical facade was intact, I could see trying to refurbish it, but if all elements of the facade had been sawed off, I could see just demolishing it. Just because a building is old, doesn't mean it's historically significant. I definitely don't think there was anything historically pleasing about the KerrMac buildings. And in the end, maybe McDermid saw that. Regarding his comment, I think that might be due to uncertainty about what's really behind the facade on the India Temple Building. It will be interesting to see what the India Temple Building looks like when they start demolishing it. I would think that if these structures really were historically significant, Bob Blackburn would've stated so. I trust his judgement, even if he didn't tour the structures first-hand.