Sterrick Building – Memphis Flyer

Joyce Peterson/Twitter

”Three, two, one. See ya’.”

That’s what a young man in a video that first appeared on Instagram recently said before he plunged from the roof of the Sterrick Building in broad daylight.

The video surfaced Thursday. Though, it appears the original post has been removed.

But WMC reporter Joyce Peterson captured the video and posted it on Twitter. It had been viewed there more than 5,000 times as of Friday morning.

So this happened in downtown #Memphis… pic.twitter.com/mi3qVVagjP

— Joyce Peterson (@MemphoNewsLady) May 31, 2019

BASE Jumper Plunges from Sterrick Building

The jumper in the video has a parachute; he’s BASE jumping. This type of skydiving is different than that from a plane. BASE jumps are from fixed locations likes buildings, antennas, spans (like bridges), and Earth (or BASE for short).

The clip switches from the man’s helmet-mounted camera to another camera aimed up at him from the parking lot across the street from the building.

The young man jumps from the building, freefalls for a moment, and throws his parachute. It expands and he sways gently toward a a group of people gathered around a white truck. There’s also a stomach-flopping third angle of the event, shot down from another building across the street.

The clip is cut with a scene of a young man — presumably the same one jumping from the building — talking about the plan for the jump.

Joyce Peterson/Twitter

“We’re going to try and land in the parking lot,” the man says. “Johnny seems to think we’ll be landing in the street. But we’ll see how it goes. I’m down for whatever. I don’t think I brought the kneepads. So, I’ll try to stand it up this time.”

The video switches back to the helmet camera and shows the young man landing in the parking lot. He quickly gathers his parachute and yells to his friends, “go!”

BASE jumping isn’t allowed in most places. It’s unclear whether or not the man had permission to jump from the building. Likely not, judging from how quickly the man was racing to leave the site.

Here’s what the How Stuff Works site has to say on the legality of BASE jumping:

“BASE jumping from buildings within cities is almost always illegal. The risk of pedestrian injury and traffic disruption are too great, although the vast majority of building jumps take place at night or at dawn.

Police have promptly arrested jumpers who have leapt from the Eiffel Tower and the St. Louis Arch.”

The video isn’t the first Memphis BASE jump memorialized on the internet. Consider this one from 2011 from what appears to be the top of the AutoZone headquarters on Front Street.

BASE Jumper Plunges from Sterrick Building (2)

It looks as if a bank across the street from AutoZone Park that was slated for demolition might be saved or at least will not come down without a fight.

The former C&I Bank Building, opened in 1972, has a distinctive atrium and sloping glass front side. It is on the north side of Madison across from the ballpark and next door to the long-abandoned Sterrick Building, the second-tallest building downtown.

Last week the Memphis Regional Chamber of Commerce, which owns the building, indicated it would be demolished and replaced with a parking lot. On Tuesday, however, John Moore, head of the chamber, said, “An interested party has a plan for the site and we are running the traps to see if we can meet their needs in a potential sale.”

In a letter to architect Tony Bologna, Moore said he was previously ignorant of the building’s history “and the community’s love for it. This is valuable information and changes the perspective.”

It is unclear how much “love” the community has for a building that cannot find an occupant. It was once proposed as the site of a minor-league baseball hall of fame — an indication, perhaps, of its prospects. Moreover, the Sterrick Building and other neighbors on Madison are in the same empty boat. The vaunted downtown revival is largely confined to housing and entertainment, with commercial buildings not showing much sign of new life.

Bologna, who has designed downtown buildings and was a partner with Henry Turley in many successful downtown developments, said in his letter to Moore (copies of both letters were sent to this newspaper) that the former C&I Bank is a “one-of-a-kind design” by the late Memphis architect Francis Gassner.
“The building stands as an icon among the city’s most notable architectural creations,” Bologna said. “The removal of this building will not in any way promote the redevelopment of the Sterrick Building. There are many serious obstacles to the redevelopment of the Sterrick Building but the need for additional parking is not one of them.”

Gretchen Gassner Turley, daughter of Frances Gassner, wrote a letter to The Commercial Appeal about the building that was published Wednesday. She also urged that it be preserved.