Architecture of Houston
Encyclopedia
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and the United States.
Some of Houston's oldest and most distinctive architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
is found downtown, as the city grew around Allen's Landing
Allen's Landing
Allen's Landing is the birthplace of the city of Houston—the largest city in the U.S. state of Texas. In August 1836, just months after the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico, two brothers from New York—John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen—purchased 6,642 acres in...
and the Market Square historic district. During the middle and late century, Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...
was a modest collection of mid-rise office structures, but has since grown into the third largest skyline
Skyline
A skyline is the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as...
in the United States. The Uptown District
Uptown Houston
The Uptown District of Houston is located 6.2 miles west of downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard, Westheimer Road , and the Galleria...
experienced rapid growth along with Houston during the 1970s and early 1980s. In the late 1990s Uptown Houston saw construction of many mid and high-rise residential buildings. The Uptown District is also home to other structures designed by architects such as I. M. Pei
I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei , commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese American architect, often called a master of modern architecture. Born in Canton, China and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the gardens at Suzhou...
, César Pelli
César Pelli
César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...
and Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
.
Houston has many examples of residential architecture of varying styles, from the mansions of River Oaks and Memorial to row houses in the several wards. A number of Houston's earliest homes are located in what is now Sam Houston Park
Sam Houston Park
Sam Houston Park is a park located in downtown Houston, Texas, and is dedicated to the buildings and culture of Houston's historic past. The park, which was the first to be established in the city, was developed on land purchased by former Mayor Sam Brashier in 1900.-History:Mayor Brashear...
. Homes in the Heights have varied architectural styles, including Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
, Craftsman
American Craftsman
The American Craftsman Style, or the American Arts and Crafts Movement, is an American domestic architectural, interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts style and lifestyle philosophy that began in the last years of the 19th century. As a comprehensive design and art...
and Colonial Revival. Post-war housing constructed throughout Houston reflects many architectural styles.
Skyscrapers
Some of Houston's oldest and most distinctive architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
are found in the northern sections of downtown, as the city grew around Allen's Landing
Allen's Landing
Allen's Landing is the birthplace of the city of Houston—the largest city in the U.S. state of Texas. In August 1836, just months after the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico, two brothers from New York—John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen—purchased 6,642 acres in...
and the Market Square historic district, where several representations of 19th-century urban architecture still stand.
The Hilton Houston Post Oak (formerly Warwick Post Oak) Hotel was designed by I. M. Pei. Its twin towers are joined by a spacious lobby with a curved glass ceiling that by day lights up the entire space. The hotel has more than 30,000 sq ft (3,000 m²). of meeting space and 448 guestrooms, including two 3,000 sq ft (300 m²). presidential suites and is only one block from the Galleria. In 2005, the hotel was renovated to reflect a more contemporary style that mirrors the original design.
Republic of Texas
The Republic of Texas was an independent nation in North America, bordering the United States and Mexico, that existed from 1836 to 1846.Formed as a break-away republic from Mexico by the Texas Revolution, the state claimed borders that encompassed an area that included all of the present U.S...
, was restored in 1998, after years of standing unused. The original building was razed in 1881 by Colonel A. Groesbeck, who subsequently erected a five-story hotel named the Capitol Hotel. William Marsh Rice
William Marsh Rice
William Marsh Rice was an American businessman who bequeathed his fortune to found Rice University in Houston, Texas.-Biography:...
, the founder of Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
, purchased the building in 1883, added a five-story annex, and renamed it the Rice Hotel. Rice University then sold the building in 1911 to Jesse Jones, who demolished it and built a 17-story structure on the site. The new Rice Hotel building opened on May 17, 1913. This historic hotel now serves as an apartment building known as The Rice Lofts, designed by Page Southerland Page.
The Texas State Hotel was built in 1926 from a design by architect Joseph Finger, who also created the plans for Houston's City Hall. The hotel has Spanish Renaissance
Spanish Renaissance
The Spanish Renaissance refers to a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries...
detailing and ornate metal canopies, which remain largely intact even though the building had, until recently, been vacant since the mid-1980s. The hotel is a designated City of Houston landmark, and with refurbished ornate terra cotta
Terra cotta
Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...
detailing on the façade, it has been returned to active use.
The Gulf Building, now called the JPMorgan Chase building, is an Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
s. Completed in 1929, it remained the tallest building in Houston
Tallest buildings in Texas
This list of tallest buildings in Texas ranks skyscrapers in the U.S. state of Texas by height. The tallest structure in the state, excluding radio towers, is the JPMorgan Chase Tower, which rises and was completed in 1982. The second-tallest building in Texas is the Wells Fargo Plaza, which...
until 1963, when the Exxon Building
Exxon Building (Houston)
The ExxonMobil Building was built in 1963 in Houston, Texas. At that time it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi River at , surpassing the Southland Center in Dallas...
surpassed it in height. Designed by architects Alfred C. Finn
Alfred C. Finn
Alfred Charles Finn , a notable Texan architect, was born in Bellville, Texas, on July 2, 1883. Finn grew up in Hempstead, and moved to Houston in 1900 to work for Southern Pacific Railroad as a carpenter and draftsman. Finn was an architect for the Capitol Lofts, the Ezekiel W...
(designer of the San Jacinto Monument), Kenneth Franzheim, and J.E.R. Carpenter, the building is seen as a realization of Eliel Saarinen
Eliel Saarinen
Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen was a Finnish architect who became famous for his art nouveau buildings in the early years of the 20th century....
's acclaimed (but unsuccessful) entry to the Chicago Tribune Tower
Tribune Tower
The Tribune Tower is a neo-Gothic building located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company. WGN Radio also broadcasts from the building, with ground-level studios overlooking nearby Pioneer Court and Michigan Avenue. CNN's...
competition. Restoration of the building was started in 1989, in what is still considered one of the largest privately funded preservation projects in American history.
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
architecture in downtown Houston
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...
. Designed by John Eberson, the two buildings were built in 1927 and 1941, respectively. They are detailed with massive columns, great urns, terraces, and a grand tempietto at the top, similar to one built in the courtyard of San Pietro in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in 1502. Mellie Esperson had the first building constructed for her husband, Niels, a real estate and oil tycoon. His name is carved on the side of the building in large letters at street level. The name "Mellie Esperson" is carved on the accompanying structure, known as the Mellie Esperson building, although it is really just a 19-story annex to the original building.
Designed by Fort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick
Wyatt C. Hedrick
Wyatt Cephus Hedrick was an American architect, engineer, and developer most active in Texas and the American South....
, the Shamrock Hotel
Shamrock Hotel
The Shamrock was a hotel constructed between 1946 and 1949 by wildcatter Glenn McCarthy southwest of downtown Houston, Texas next to the Texas Medical Center. It was the largest hotel built in the United States during the 1940s. The grand opening of the Shamrock is still cited as one of the...
was an 18-story building constructed between 1946 and 1949 with a green tile pitched roof and 1,100 rooms. The hotel was conceived by wildcatter
Wildcatter
A wildcatter is an American term for a person who drills wildcat wells, which are oil wells drilled in areas not known to be oil fields. A wildcatter notable for his success was Texan oil tycoon Glenn McCarthy....
Glenn McCarthy
Glenn McCarthy
Glenn Herbert McCarthy was a wildcatter and a charismatic oil tycoon. The media often referred to him as "Diamond Glenn" and "The King of the Wildcatters". McCarthy was an oil prospector and entrepreneur who owned many businesses in various sectors of the economy...
as a city-sized hotel scaled for conventions with a resort atmosphere. The Shamrock was located in a suburban area three miles (5 km) southwest of downtown Houston on the fringes of countryside and was meant to be the first phase of a much larger indoor shopping and entertainment complex called McCarthy Center, anchored alongside the planned Texas Medical Center. At the hotel's north side was a five-story building containing a 1,000-car garage and 25000 square feet (2,322.6 m²) exhibition hall. To the south was the hotel's lavishly landscaped garden designed by Ralph Ellis Gunn, a terrace and an immense swimming pool measuring 165 by 142 feet (43.3 m) described as the world's biggest outdoor pool, which accommodated exhibition waterskiing and featured a three-story-high diving platform with an open spiral staircase.
The 18-story Prudential Building, designed by Kenneth Franzheim, was constructed in 1952 in the Texas Medical Center
Texas Medical Center
The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the world with one of the highest densities of clinical facilities for patient care, basic science, and translational research...
. The ground level walls of the Prudential Building are clad with deep red polished Texas granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
; the upper floors on the northwest and northeast sides are clad in Texas limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
. The southwest and southeast sides, though, were faced with full-height aluminum arrangements to "utilize solar rays and air circulation to effect economies in air conditioning." The building was the first local corporate high rise office building in Houston to be located outside of the central business district.
In the 1960s, Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston
Downtown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...
was a modest collection of mid-rise office structures, but has since grown into the third largest skyline
Skyline
A skyline is the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as...
in the United States. In 1960, the central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
had 10 million square feet (1,000,000 m²) of office space, increasing to about 16 million square feet (1,600,000 m²) in 1970. Downtown Houston was on the threshold of a boom in 1970 with 8.7 million square feet (870,000 m²) of office space planned or under construction and huge projects being launched by real estate developers.
Houston Center
Houston Center is a retail and office complex in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. It is owned and operated by subsidiaries of Crescent Real Estate Equities Co. .The three towers in Houston Center have almost of Class A office space...
, originally planned to encompass a 32-block area. However, by 1989, when the company that acquired the original developer sold Houston Center, the complex consisted of three office buildings, a shopping center, and a hotel. Other large projects included the Cullen Center
Cullen Center
Cullen Center is a skyscraper complex in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The complex is managed by Brookfield Properties. Trizec Properties owns all four office buildings...
, Allen Center
Allen Center
The Allen Center is a skyscraper complex in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. It consists of three buildings, One Allen Center , Two Allen Center , and Three Allen Center...
, and towers for Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company
Shell Oil Company is the United States-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, a multinational oil company of Anglo Dutch origins, which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 22,000 Shell employees are based in the U.S. The head office in the U.S. is in Houston, Texas...
. The surge of skyscrapers mirrored the skyscraper booms in other sunbelt cities, such as Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
and Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
. Houston had experienced another downtown construction spurt in the 1970s with the energy industry boom.
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
to be constructed in Houston was the 50-floor, 714 feet (217.6 m) tall One Shell Plaza
One Shell Plaza
One Shell Plaza is a 50 floor skyscraper at 910 Louisiana Street in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. At its completion in 1971, One Shell Plaza was the tallest building in Houston, Texas, standing 715 feet tall. Including the antenna tower on its top, the height is 1,000 feet .One Shell...
in 1971. A succession of skyscrapers were built throughout the 1970s, culminating with Houston's tallest, the 75-floor, 1002 feet (305.4 m) tall JPMorgan Chase Tower
JPMorgan Chase Tower (Houston)
JPMorgan Chase Tower, formerly Texas Commerce Tower, is a , 75-story skyscraper in Houston, Texas. It is currently the tallest building in the city, the tallest building in Texas, the tallest five-sided building in the world, 12th tallest building in the United States, and the 54th tallest building...
(formerly the Texas Commerce Tower), designed by I. M. Pei
I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei , commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese American architect, often called a master of modern architecture. Born in Canton, China and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the gardens at Suzhou...
and completed in 1982. As of 2010, it is the tallest man-made structure in Texas, the twelfth-tallest building in the United States and the forty-eighth-tallest skyscraper in the world.
Pennzoil Place
Pennzoil Place
Pennzoil Place is a set of two 36-story towers in downtown Houston, Texas, United States. Designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee and built in 1975, Pennzoil Place is Houston's most award-winning skyscraper and is widely known for its innovative design....
, designed by Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
and built in 1976, is Houston's most award-winning skyscraper and is known for its innovative design. The 46-story One Houston Center, which was built in 1978, is 207 m (678 ft) tall and was designed by S.I. Morris Associates, Caudill Rowlett Scott
Caudill Rowlett Scott
Caudill Rowlett Scott was an architecture firm in Houston, Texas.In 2005, it was named "Firm of the Century" by Texas A&M University College of Architecture ....
, and 3D/International.
Spandrel
A spandrel, less often spandril or splaundrel, is the space between two arches or between an arch and a rectangular enclosure....
panels and aluminum framed windows with insulated glazing. The spandrel panels are polished granite supported by a steel truss
Truss
In architecture and structural engineering, a truss is a structure comprising one or more triangular units constructed with straight members whose ends are connected at joints referred to as nodes. External forces and reactions to those forces are considered to act only at the nodes and result in...
system. The interior wall surfaces are constructed of Italian flame cut Rosa Beta granite, quarried in Sardinia
Sardinia
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea . It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[],...
, mixed with Makore wood and stainless steel trim.
In 1983, the Wells Fargo Bank Plaza was completed, which became the second-tallest building in Houston and in Texas, and the 11th-tallest in the country. It was designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Lloyd Jones Brewer and Associates and supposedly resembles an abstracted dollar sign in plan. From street level, the building is 71 stories tall, or 296 m (972 ft) tall. It also extends four more stories below street level.
The Bank of America Center
Bank of America Center, Houston
The Bank of America Center is a highrise representing one of the first significant examples of postmodern architecture construction in downtown Houston, Texas...
is one of the first significant examples of postmodern architecture
Postmodern architecture
Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...
built in downtown Houston. The building, completed in 1984 and designed by Phillip Johnson
Phillip Johnson
Phillip Johnson, Philip Johnson, or Phil Johnson may refer to:*Philip Johnson , American architect*Philip Johnson , U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania*Philip Johnson , retired American tennis player...
and partner John Burgee
John Burgee
__notoc__John Burgee is an American architect noted for his contributions to Postmodern architecture. He was a partner of Philip Johnson from 1967 to 1991, creating together the partnership firm Johnson/Burgee Architects. Their landmark collaborations together included Pennzoil Place in Houston...
, is reminiscent of the Dutch Gothic architecture of canal houses that were once common in The Netherlands. The first section is twenty-one-stories tall, while the whole building reaches a height of 56 stories.
Heritage Plaza (building)
Heritage Plaza is a skyscraper located in the Skyline District of downtown Houston, Texas. Standing at 762 feet , the tower is the 5th tallest building in Houston, the 8th tallest in Texas, and the 60th tallest in the United States. The building, designed by Houston-based M...
is a 53 story, 232 m, tower in downtown. The building, designed by M. Nasar & Partners P.C., was completed in 1986. The building is known for the granite Mayan
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
temple design on the top, which was inspired by the architect's visit to the Mexican Yucatán
Yucatán
Yucatán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Yucatán is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 106 municipalities and its capital city is Mérida....
. Recently renovated at the cost of six million US dollars, the building was the last major office building completed in downtown Houston prior to the collapse of the Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
real estate, banking, and oil industries in the 1980s.
Houston's building boom of the 1970s and 1980s ceased in the mid-1980s, due to the 1980s oil glut
1980s oil glut
The 1980s oil glut was a serious surplus of crude oil caused by falling demand following the 1970s Energy Crisis. The world price of oil, which had peaked in 1980 at over US$35 per barrel , fell in 1986 from $27 to below $10...
. Building of skyscrapers resumed by 2003, but the new buildings were more modest and not as tall. During that year George Lancaster, a spokesperson for the Hines company, said "I predict the J.P. Morgan Chase Tower
JPMorgan Chase Tower (Houston)
JPMorgan Chase Tower, formerly Texas Commerce Tower, is a , 75-story skyscraper in Houston, Texas. It is currently the tallest building in the city, the tallest building in Texas, the tallest five-sided building in the world, 12th tallest building in the United States, and the 54th tallest building...
will be the tallest building in Houston for quite some time."
In the early 1990s many older office buildings throughout Houston remained unoccupied. At the same time newer office buildings for major corporations opened.
In 1999, the Houston-based Enron Corporation began construction of a 40-floor skyscraper. Designed by Cesar Pelli & Associates and Kendall/Heaton Associates, and completed in 2002, the building was originally known as the Enron Center. The company collapsed in a well-publicized manner in 2001, and the building became officially known by its address, 1500 Louisiana Street
1500 Louisiana Street
1500 Louisiana Street, formerly Enron Center South, is a 600 ft tall Post-Modern skyscraper in Houston, Texas. It was completed in 2002 and has 40 floors. It is the 17th tallest building in the city and the tallest completed in the 2000s....
The Uptown District
Uptown Houston
The Uptown District of Houston is located 6.2 miles west of downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard, Westheimer Road , and the Galleria...
, located on Interstate 610
Interstate 610 (Texas)
Interstate 610 is a freeway that forms a forty-two-mile loop around the downtown sector of city of Houston, Texas. Interstate 610, colloquially known as "The Loop", "Loop 610", "The 610 Loop", or just "610", traditionally marks the border between the inner city of Houston and its surrounding areas...
West (referred to locally as the "West Loop") between U.S. Highway 59 and Interstate 10, boomed along with Houston during the 1970s and early 1980s. During that time the area grew from farm land in the late 1960s to a collection of high-rise office buildings, residential properties, and retail establishments, including the Houston Galleria
Houston Galleria
The Galleria, stylized theGalleria, is an upscale mixed-use urban development centrally located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas, United States. The development consists of a retail complex, as well as the Galleria Office Towers complex, two Westin hotels, and a private health club...
. The area is an example of what architectural theorists call the edge city
Edge city
"Edge city" is an American term for a concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment outside a traditional urban area in what had recently been a residential suburb or semi-rural community...
. In the late 1990s Uptown Houston saw construction of many mid- and high-rise residential buildings of the tallest being about 30 stories.
The tallest structure in Uptown Houston is the 901 feet (274.6 m) tall, Philip Johnson-designed, landmark Williams Tower
Williams Tower
The Williams Tower is a skyscraper located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas. It was designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, in association with Houston-based Morris Architects , and erected in 1983. The tower is among Houston's most visible buildings...
(formerly "Transco Tower"), which was constructed in 1983. At the time, it was to be the world's tallest skyscraper outside of a city's central business district
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
. The building is topped with a rotating spot light
Searchlight
A searchlight is an apparatus that combines a bright light source with some form of curved reflector or other optics to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direction, usually constructed so that it can be swiveled about.-Military use:The Royal Navy used...
that constantly searches the horizon. Williams Tower was named "Skyscraper of the Century" in the December 1999 issue of Texas Monthly magazine.
Landmarks and monuments
The Merchants and Manufacturers BuildingMerchants and Manufacturers Building
The One Main Building, formerly the Merchants and Manufacturers Building , is a building on the campus of the University of Houston–Downtown...
(M&M Building) was built in 1930 and was the largest building in Houston at the time. It featured 14 miles (22.5 km) of floor space and could accommodate one-third of the city's population. The Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
–style building is recognized as part of the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark
Texas Historical Commission
The Texas Historical Commission is an agency dedicated to historic preservation within the state of Texas. It administers the National Register of Historic Places for sites in Texas....
, and considered a Contributing Building in Downtown Houston's Main Street/Market Square Historic District
Main Street/Market Square Historic District
Main Street/Market Square Historic District is a historic district in Houston that includes the Market Square Park. It includes buildings nearby, as well as the square itself. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983....
. Since 1974, the M&M Building has been part of the University of Houston–Downtown
University of Houston–Downtown
The University of Houston–Downtown is a four-year state university, and is a distinct component institution of the University of Houston System. Its campus spans 20-acre in Downtown Houston, with a satellite location in northwestern Harris County...
and was given an official designation as "One Main Building" by the university.
The historic Trinity Church
Trinity Church, Houston
Trinity Church, in Midtown Houston, Texas, is a parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.-History:Trinity was founded in 1893 as a mission from Christ Church in a part of Houston then called the "Fairground Addition", now known as Midtown. It is the second-oldest Episcopal parish in Houston....
in Midtown on Main Street, which dates from 1919, is a neo-Gothic structure, designed by the architectural
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
firm, Cram and Ferguson
HDB/Cram and Ferguson
HDB/Cram and Ferguson is an architectural firm operating in Boston, Massachusetts since the late 19th century. The original partnership was founded in 1889 by Ralph Adams Cram and Charles Francis Wentworth...
, whose Houston work also includes several buildings at Rice University
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University or Rice, is a private research university located on a heavily wooded campus in Houston, Texas, United States...
and the Julia Ideson Building of the Houston Public Library
Houston Public Library
Houston Public Library is the public library system serving Houston, Texas, United States. The library system has its headquarters in the Marston Building in Neartown Houston.-History:It can trace its founding to the Houston Lyceum in 1854...
. The church's Morrow Chapel was renovated in 2002 and features stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
, artwork, and liturgical furnishings by artists such as Kim Clark Renteria, Kermit Oliver, Troy Woods, Shazia Sikander, and Selven O’Keef Jarmon.
The Uptown District is home to structures designed by architects such as I. M. Pei
I. M. Pei
Ieoh Ming Pei , commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese American architect, often called a master of modern architecture. Born in Canton, China and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the gardens at Suzhou...
, César Pelli
César Pelli
César Pelli is an Argentine architect known for designing some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. In 1991, the American Institute of Architects listed Pelli among the ten most influential living American architects...
and Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
, including Saint Martin's Episcopal Church
St. Martin's Episcopal Church (Houston, Texas)
St. Martin's is an Episcopal church in the Episcopal Diocese of Texas. It is where former president George H.W. Bush and first lady Barbara Bush are members. It is also the second largest parish, and the largest in terms of average weekly attendance. About 10% of those confirmed in the Episcopal...
(with spires and antennae reaching 188 feet (57.3 m) into the sky), which was designed by Jackson & Ryan Architects and completed in 2004. St. Martin's was featured on the covers of three national magazines: Civil Engineering (April 2005), Modern Steel Construction (May 2005) and Structure (December 2005).
The San Jacinto Monument
San Jacinto Monument
The San Jacinto Monument is a high column located on the Houston Ship Channel in unincorporated Harris County, Texas near the city of La Porte. The monument is topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution...
is a 570 foot (173.7 m)-high column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
topped with a 220-ton star that commemorates the site of the Battle of San Jacinto
Battle of San Jacinto
The Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. Led by General Sam Houston, the Texian Army engaged and defeated General Antonio López de Santa Anna's Mexican forces in a fight that lasted just eighteen...
, the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution
Texas Revolution
The Texas Revolution or Texas War of Independence was an armed conflict between Mexico and settlers in the Texas portion of the Mexican state Coahuila y Tejas. The war lasted from October 2, 1835 to April 21, 1836...
. The monument
Monument
A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture...
, dedicated on April 21, 1939, is the world's tallest monument tower and masonry
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units laid in and bound together by mortar; the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of masonry construction are brick, stone, marble, granite, travertine, limestone; concrete block, glass block, stucco, and...
tower, and is located along the Houston Ship Channel
Houston Ship Channel
The Houston Ship Channel, located in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston—one of the United States's busiest seaports. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between the Houston-area shipyards and the Gulf of Mexico.-Overview:...
. The column is an octagonal shaft faced with Cordova shellstone. It is the second tallest monument in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The monument was designated a National Historic Landmark
National Historic Landmark
A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...
on December 19, 1960, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. It was also designated an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1992.
The Williams Waterwall
Williams Waterwall
The Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park, also known as the Williams Waterwall, is a multi-story sculptural fountain which sits at the south end of Williams Tower in the Uptown District of Houston. It and its surrounding park were built as an architectural amenity to the adjacent tower. Both the fountain...
is a multi-story sculptural
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
fountain
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
which sits at the south end of Williams Tower
Williams Tower
The Williams Tower is a skyscraper located in the Uptown District of Houston, Texas. It was designed by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee, in association with Houston-based Morris Architects , and erected in 1983. The tower is among Houston's most visible buildings...
in Uptown
Uptown Houston
The Uptown District of Houston is located 6.2 miles west of downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard, Westheimer Road , and the Galleria...
. It and its surrounding park were built as an architectural amenity to the adjacent tower. Both the fountain and tower were designed by Pritzker Prize
Pritzker Prize
The Pritzker Architecture Prize is awarded annually by the Hyatt Foundation to honour "a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built...
winning architect Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
. Completed in 1983, the semi-circular fountain is 64 feet (19.5 m) tall and sits among 118 Texas Live Oak trees. Approximately 11,000 gallons of water per minute cascades down vast channeled sheets on both sides from the narrower top rim of the circle to the wider base below.
Theater District
Houston Symphony Orchestra
The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. Since 1966, it has performed at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston....
and the Houston Society for the Performing Arts. Completed in October 1966 at the cost of $7.4 million, it was designed by the Houston-based architectural firm Caudill Rowlett Scott
Caudill Rowlett Scott
Caudill Rowlett Scott was an architecture firm in Houston, Texas.In 2005, it was named "Firm of the Century" by Texas A&M University College of Architecture ....
. The hall, which takes up a city block, has a white Italian marble exterior with eight-story tall columns. The lobby is dominated by a 60 feet (18.3 m) high ceiling with a massive hanging bronze sculpture by Richard Lippold
Richard Lippold
Richard Lippold was an American sculptor, known for his geometric constructions using wire as a medium....
entitled "Gemini II." The ceiling of the concert hall consists of 800 hexagonal segments that can be raised or lowered to change the acoustics of the hall. The building won the 1967 American Institute of Architects
American Institute of Architects
The American Institute of Architects is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to support the architecture profession and improve its public image...
' Honor Award, which is bestowed on only one building annually.
Alley Theatre
The Alley Theatre is a Tony Award-winning indoor theatre in Downtown Houston, Texas, and hosts two stages. The "Hubbard" is the main stage with seating for 824; the more intimate "Neuhaus" seats 310. Nine towers and open-air terraces give the Alley Theatre a castle-like quality. Inside, a staircase...
building opened in November 1968 and contains two stages. The main stage has 824 seats and is called the "Hubbard"; the more intimate, 310-seat stage, is the "Neuhaus." Outside, there are nine tower
Tower
A tower is a tall structure, usually taller than it is wide, often by a significant margin. Towers are distinguished from masts by their lack of guy-wires....
s and open-air terraces
Terrace (building)
A terrace is an outdoor, occupiable extension of a building above ground level. Although its physical characteristics may vary to a great degree, a terrace will generally be larger than a balcony and will have an "open-top" facing the sky...
. Inside, a staircase spirals from the entrance vestibule
Vestibule (architecture)
A vestibule is a lobby, entrance hall, or passage between the entrance and the interior of a building.The same term can apply to structures in modern or ancient roman architecture. In modern architecture vestibule typically refers to a small room or hall between an entrance and the interior of...
to the second-floor lobby. The theatre was constructed in a large part by a $1.4 million grant from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
to support innovative theater architecture, and the prime architect on the project was Ulrich Franzen.
Wortham Theater Center
The Wortham Theater Center is a performing arts center located in downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The Wortham was designed by Eugene Aubrey of Morris Architects and built entirely with $66 million in private funds...
is a performing arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
center that officially opened in Houston on May 9, 1987. The Center was designed by Eugene Aubry of Morris-Aubry Architects and built entirely with $66 million in private funds. The Brown Theater, with 2,423 seats, is named for donors Alice and George Brown. It is used primarily for opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
and large ballet
Ballet
Ballet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
productions. The Cullen Theater, with 1,100 seats, is named for donors Lillie and Roy Cullen. It is used for smaller ballet productions and other events. The Wortham's signature arching entryway is made of glass and stands 88 feet (26.8 m) tall. The grand staircase (which is actually a bank of escalators) is surrounded by a site-specific art piece created by New York sculptor Albert Paley.
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
outside Huntsville, Texas
Huntsville, Texas
Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas, United States. The population was 35,508 at the 2010 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area....
.
Hobby Center for the Performing Arts
The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts is a theater in Houston, Texas, USA. Opened to the public in 2002, the theater is located downtown on the edge of the Houston Theater District. Hobby Center features 60-foot-high glass walls with views of Houston's skyscrapers, Tranquility Park and Houston...
is a relatively new addition to the Theatre District. It was designed by architect Robert A. M. Stern
Robert A. M. Stern
Robert Arthur Morton Stern, usually credited as Robert A. M. Stern, is an American architect and Dean of the Yale University School of Architecture....
and completed in 2002, providing two theaters specifically for theater and musical performances. Sarofim Hall, a 2,600-seat theater acoustically designed for touring Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
productions, is home to "Theatre Under the Stars." Zilkha Hall, an intimate 500-seat venue with full orchestra pit, showcases smaller touring groups.
Museum District
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and the third in the South. The museum building has continue to evolve throughout the years. Cullinan Hall, designed by Mies van der Rohe in the International style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
, opened in 1958. In the 1970s, that addition received an addition, also designed by van der Rohe. Both additions were statements of modern architecture using an abundance of glass and steel.
In 1968, the present Miller Outdoor Theatre
Miller Outdoor Theatre
The Miller Outdoor Theatre is the premier outdoor theater for the performing arts in Houston, Texas. It is located on approximately of land in Hermann Park, at 6000 Hermann Park Drive, Houston, Texas 77030...
building, designed by Eugene Werlin and Associates, won several awards, including the American Iron and Steel Institute’s Biannual Award (1969), the American Institute of Steel Construction’s Award of Excellence, and the James E. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation Award. The 1968 theatre building was refurbished starting in 1996, adding a small stage to the east end of the facility that plays to a newly incorporated open plaza area.
Rothko Chapel
The Rothko Chapel is a non-denominational chapel in Houston, Texas founded by John and Dominique de Menil. The interior serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art. On its walls are fourteen black but color hued paintings by Mark Rothko...
, founded by John and Dominique de Menil
Dominique de Menil
Dominique de Menil was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune...
, designed by Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko, born Marcus Rothkowitz , was a Russian-born American painter. He is classified as an abstract expressionist, although he himself rejected this label, and even resisted classification as an "abstract painter".- Childhood :Mark Rothko was born in Dvinsk, Vitebsk Province, Russian...
and Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
and completed in 1971. The interior serves not only as a chapel, but also as a major work of modern art. On its walls are 14 black but color hued paintings by Mark Rothko, who greatly influenced the shape and design of the chapel. Rothko was given creative control, and he clashed with Philip Johnson over the plans. Rothko continued to work first with Howard Barnstone and then with Eugene Aubry, but he did not live to see the chapel's completion. In September 2000, the Rothko Chapel was placed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
The Contemporary Arts Museum – Houston is a not-for-profit institution in Houston, Texas, dedicated to presenting the contemporary art of our time to the public....
occupies a stainless-steel building in a prominent site on the corner of Montrose and Bissonnet—the heart of Houston's Museum District
Houston Museum District
The Houston Museum District commonly known as, “The Museum District,” is an association of museums, galleries, cultural centers and community organizations located in Houston, Texas, dedicated to promoting the arts, sciences, and cultural amenities of the area.The Houston Museum District currently...
. The highly recognizable building was designed for the Museum by Gunnar Birkerts
Gunnar Birkerts
Gunnar Birkerts is a prominent American architect who, for most of his career, was based in the metropolitan area of Detroit, Michigan. Some of his designs include the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, New York, Marquette Plaza in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in...
and opened its doors in 1972. In 1997, the Museum went through its first major facility renovation in 25 years.
In addition, the Chapel of St. Basil
Chapel of St. Basil
The Chapel of St. Basil is a chapel on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX, designed by Philip Johnson.-Location:The Chapel of St. Basil is located at the North end of the University's Academic Mall. The mall itself is a series of buildings representing various academic...
, on the nearby campus of the University of St. Thomas
University of St. Thomas (Houston)
The University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, United States is a comprehensive Catholic university, grounded in the liberal arts...
, is a work of art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
designed by Philip Johnson that has won many awards for its architecture. The Chapel, which was built in 1997, contrasts with all of the other buildings on campus, as it is made of white stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
and black granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, rather than rose-colored brick. It is also composed of three geometric forms: the cube
Cube
In geometry, a cube is a three-dimensional solid object bounded by six square faces, facets or sides, with three meeting at each vertex. The cube can also be called a regular hexahedron and is one of the five Platonic solids. It is a special kind of square prism, of rectangular parallelepiped and...
, the sphere
Sphere
A sphere is a perfectly round geometrical object in three-dimensional space, such as the shape of a round ball. Like a circle in two dimensions, a perfect sphere is completely symmetrical around its center, with all points on the surface lying the same distance r from the center point...
, and the plane
Plane (mathematics)
In mathematics, a plane is a flat, two-dimensional surface. A plane is the two dimensional analogue of a point , a line and a space...
. The cube makes up the majority of the building, including the main seating area, while a golden semi-sphere dome covered with 23.5 karat gold leaf rises high above the cube. The granite plane bisects the cube and opens the chapel to light. The cube and plane interplay with the dome, creating a sense that the dome is not a cover for the Chapel, but rather an opening to the heavens.
Designed by Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano is an Italian architect. He is the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, AIA Gold Medal, Kyoto Prize and the Sonning Prize...
, the Menil Collection
Menil Collection
The Menil Collection, located in Houston refers either to a museum that houses the private art collection of founders John de Menil and Dominique de Menil, or to the collection itself...
is a contemporary art museum known for its simplicity, flexibility, open spaces and illumination with natural light located in a small park surrounded by residential housing. Opening in 1986, the 402 feet (122.5 m)-long, two-story-high box of steel, wood and glass contains the artwork collection of John and Dominique de Menil
Dominique de Menil
Dominique de Menil was a French-American art collector, philanthropist, founder of the Menil Collection and an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune...
.
Residential architecture
Sam Houston Park
Sam Houston Park is a park located in downtown Houston, Texas, and is dedicated to the buildings and culture of Houston's historic past. The park, which was the first to be established in the city, was developed on land purchased by former Mayor Sam Brashier in 1900.-History:Mayor Brashear...
, including the Kellum-Noble House, which was built in 1847 and is Houston's oldest brick dwelling. During the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Kellum-Noble House served as a public office for the City of Houston's Park Department, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places listings in Harris County, Texas
List of Registered Historic Places in Harris County, TexasThis is intended to be a complete list of properties and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Harris County, Texas...
.
Homes in the Heights have varied architectural styles, including Victorian
Victorian architecture
The term Victorian architecture refers collectively to several architectural styles employed predominantly during the middle and late 19th century. The period that it indicates may slightly overlap the actual reign, 20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901, of Queen Victoria. This represents the British and...
, Craftsman
American Craftsman
The American Craftsman Style, or the American Arts and Crafts Movement, is an American domestic architectural, interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts style and lifestyle philosophy that began in the last years of the 19th century. As a comprehensive design and art...
and Colonial Revival. The neighborhood is composed of several large homes and many smaller cottages and bungalows, many built in the late 19th and early 20th century. After 1905, Victorian cottages tended to be replaced by bungalow
Bungalow
A bungalow is a type of house, with varying meanings across the world. Common features to many of these definitions include being detached, low-rise , and the use of verandahs...
s.
While there are a few examples in the Heights of the columned Colonial Revival, the most popular "elite" house type in the 1910 era, other upscale houses were adapted from specific historical models popular in the 1920s, such as the Shefer House with its Dutch Colonial
Dutch Colonial
Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house...
gambrel
Gambrel
A gambrel is a usually-symmetrical two-sided roof with two slopes on each side. The upper slope is positioned at a shallow angle, while the lower slope is steep. This design provides the advantages of a sloped roof while maximizing headroom on the building's upper level...
roof and the stucco
Stucco
Stucco or render is a material made of an aggregate, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as decorative coating for walls and ceilings and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture...
-surfaced, Mediterranean villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
-type Tibbott House on Harvard Street, with French doors opening the interior of the house to its site and an east side loggia
Loggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
replacing the old-fashioned front porch. Since deed-restriction enforcement is mandated in the Heights area, a majority of the houses built during the turn of the century and early 20th century still retain the old Heights character.
Eastwood, Houston, Texas
Eastwood is a historic neighborhood in the East End area of Houston, Texas, United States.-History:Eastwood is one of Houston’s first master-planned subdivisions. It was designed and developed in 1913 by William A. Wilson, who also developed, Woodland Heights...
neighborhood represent Craftsman, Arts and Crafts
American Craftsman
The American Craftsman Style, or the American Arts and Crafts Movement, is an American domestic architectural, interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts style and lifestyle philosophy that began in the last years of the 19th century. As a comprehensive design and art...
, Foursquare
American Foursquare
The American Foursquare or American Four Square is an American house style popular from the mid-1890s to the late 1930s. A reaction to the ornate and mass produced elements of the Victorian and other Revival styles popular throughout the last half of the 19th century, the American Foursquare was...
and Mission Revival
Mission Revival Style architecture
The Mission Revival Style was an architectural movement that began in the late 19th century for a colonial style's revivalism and reinterpretation, which drew inspiration from the late 18th and early 19th century Spanish missions in California....
architectural styles. Eastwood was one of Houston’s first master-planned subdivisions. Developed in 1913 by William A. Wilson, who also developed its sister neighborhood, Woodland Heights
Woodland Heights, Houston, Texas
The Woodland Heights neighborhood is one of the oldest and most historic in Houston, Texas. It encompasses approximately 2000 homes in the 77009 ZIP code and is bounded on the north by Pecore Street, on the west by Studewood Street, on the east by I-45, and on the south by I-10.When platted in 1907...
, Eastwood has one of Houston’s largest collections of homes designed in these early-20th-century styles. In the newer section of Eastwood (built from the 1920s and 1930s), there are bungalows, prairie
Prairie School
Prairie School was a late 19th and early 20th century architectural style, most common to the Midwestern United States.The works of the Prairie School architects are usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped in horizontal bands,...
, colonial and federal styles.
Post-war housing constructed throughout Houston reflects many architectural styles. Although most houses built for the "baby boomers" reflect designs that had been around for decades, a number of homes were designed in the mid-century modern
Mid-century modern
Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965...
style, featuring flat or butterfly roofs, open floor plans, walls of glass, atriums and patios. A good example of this style is the Thaxton House, located in Bunker Hill Village, which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
and built in 1954.
Memorial Bend
Memorial Bend, Houston, Texas
Memorial Bend is a historic neighborhood on the west side of Houston, Texas.It is made up of 1950s and early 1960s homes built in the modern , ranch, and traditional styles. Memorial Bend is considered to have the highest concentration of mid-century modern homes in Houston. Modern architects who...
is made up of 1950s and early 1960s homes built in the modern (contemporary), ranch, and traditional styles. The neighborhood is considered to have the highest concentration of mid-century modern homes in Houston. Architects who designed homes in this neighborhood include William Norman Floyd, William R. Jenkins, William F. Wortham and Lars Bang. Many of the homes in Memorial Bend were featured in national architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
and design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
magazines like American Builder, House & Home, Practical Builder, Better Homes & Gardens and House Beautiful.
Starting in the late twentieth century, many traditional homes, townhomes and high-rise condominium
Condominium
A condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
s were constructed (or converted) for residents wishing to live in the downtown and inner-loop area, spurred by a focused revitalization effort after years of suburban exodus. These emerging urban dwellings can be found in an eclectic array of styles.
The Commerce Towers, originally developed as an office building in 1928 by Houston businessman Jesse H. Jones, has been converted into condominiums. In addition, many old office buildings and warehouses surrounding downtown have been recently converted to lofts. The Humble Towers Lofts, built in 1921, was originally the headquarters for Humble Oil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
. The Beaconsfield Lofts are registered with the US Interior Department's National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
.
City and county government
Houston City Hall
The Houston City Hall building is the headquarters of the City of Houston government. It was constructed in 1938-1939, and is located in Downtown Houston. It is surrounded by skyscrapers and very similar to dozens of other city halls built in the southwest United States during the same time...
building, constructed in 1938-1939, is an example of Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
architecture. The simply designed structure featured many construction details that have helped to make this building an architectural classic. The design on the lobby floor depicts the protective role of government. The doors feature historical figures including Thomas Jefferson, Julius Caesar, and Moses. Above the lobby entrance is a stone sculpture depicting two men taming a wild horse. The sculpture meant to symbolize a community coming together to form a government to tame the world around them. The plaster cast for this sculpture, and twenty-seven casts for frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
s around the building, were done by Beaumont artist Herring Coe and co-designer Raoul Jassett.
The George R. Brown Convention Center
George R. Brown Convention Center
The George R. Brown Convention Center opened on September 26, 1987 on the east side of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States.The center was named for the prominent Houstonian George R. Brown, an entrepreneur, civic leader and philanthropist. Brown’s Texas Eastern Corporation donated six of the 11...
was opened on September 26, 1987 on the east side of downtown Houston. The sleek 100 foot (30 m) high red-white-and-blue building replaced the obsolete Albert Thomas Convention Center, which was later redeveloped into the Bayou Place
Bayou Place
Bayou Place is an 130,000 square foot entertainment complex that houses multiple theaters, bars and restaurants located in Downtown Houston, Texas, United States. The complex was the former Albert Thomas convention center located in the Houston Theater District at 500 Texas Street...
entertainment complex in the downtown Houston Theater District
Houston Theater District
The Houston Theater District, a 17-block area in the heart of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States, is home to Houston's nine performing arts organizations, the Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas and parks...
. The George R. Brown contains nearly a half-million square feet of exhibit space, 41 meeting rooms, a 3,600-seat theater area and a 31,000 square foot (2,900 m²) grand ballroom.
The new Harris County Civil Courthouse, which was completed in early 2006, is 17-stories tall plus a basement. The 660,000 square foot (61,000 m²) building is filled with state-of-the-art technology and has 37 typical courtrooms, 1 tax courtroom, 1 ceremonial courtroom and 6 expansion courtrooms. It also has a three-story atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
lobby with thirteen elevators and two escalators. The courthouse is flood protected to an elevation of 41 feet (12.5 m) and is accessible via tunnel from the existing downtown tunnel system
Houston Downtown Tunnel System
The Houston tunnel system is a system of tunnels below Houston's downtown street system. The system comprises approximately of tunnels and forms a network of subterranean, climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways that link 95 full city blocks...
. Interior finishes include limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
, granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
, wood veneer
Wood veneer
In woodworking, veneer refers to thin slices of wood, usually thinner than 3 mm , that are typically glued onto core panels to produce flat panels such as doors, tops and panels for cabinets, parquet floors and parts of furniture. They are also used in marquetry...
s, terrazzo
Terrazzo
Terrazzo is a composite material poured in place or precast, which is used for floor and wall treatments. It consists of marble, quartz, granite, glass or other suitable chips, sprinkled or unsprinkled, and poured with a binder that is cementitious, chemical or a combination of both...
and stainless steel
Stainless steel
In metallurgy, stainless steel, also known as inox steel or inox from French "inoxydable", is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass....
.
Movie theaters
River Oaks Theatre
The River Oaks Theatre is a historic movie theater located at 2009 West Gray Street in the Neartown community in Houston, Texas, United States, east of the River Oaks community. The theater has three projection screens; one large screen, downstairs, and two smaller screens, upstairs.-History:The...
was built in 1939. It is among only a handful of currently viable retail buildings of its age and historic style in Houston. It was the last of the deluxe neighborhood movie theaters built by Interstate Theatre Corporation and the only one of its kind still operating as a movie theater.
As Houston and the rest of the country recovered from the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, art-deco style theaters of the late 1930s were built in many residential neighborhoods across the city. In addition to the River Oaks, neighborhood movie theaters like the Alabama
Alabama Theatre (Houston)
The Alabama Theatre is a historic movie theater located at the intersection of Alabama Street and Shepherd Drive in the Upper Kirby district of Houston, Texas...
, Tower, Capitan, and Ritz-Majestic Metro were several of the venues where Houstonians sought entertainment.
The Majestic Theater, designed by John Eberson
John Eberson
John Eberson was an American architect best known for his movie palace designs in the atmospheric theatre fashion.Born in Czernowitz, Austro-Hungarian Empire , Eberson went to highschool in Dresden and studied electrical engineering in Vienna. He arrived in the United States in 1901 and at first...
and constructed downtown in 1923, is considered to be the most notable movie theatre built in the city. The design was not of a standard theatre interior, but an outdoor plaza and garden of with a starlit sky overhead. The Mediterranean blue ceiling, inset with twinkling lights, featured clouds that floated over the heads of the audience during screenings. The Majestic was the world’s first “atmospheric
Atmospheric theatre
An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace which has an auditorium ceiling that is intended to give the illusion of an open sky as its defining feature...
” movie theatre.
Airports
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
airport architecture from the 1940s. The terminal served as the primary commercial air terminal for Houston until 1954. The terminal, located at William P. Hobby Airport
William P. Hobby Airport
William P. Hobby Airport is a public airport in Houston, Texas, located from Downtown Houston. The airport covers and has four runways. Hobby Airport is Houston's oldest commercial airport and was the city's primary air terminal until the opening of Houston Intercontinental Airport in 1969...
, houses the 1940 Air Terminal Museum
1940 Air Terminal Museum
The 1940 Air Terminal Museum is a museum located in Houston, Texas, United States at William P. Hobby Airport. Collections are housed in the original art deco building which served as the first terminal for passenger flight in Houston...
which currently exhibits several collections focusing on Houston's aviation
Aviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
history.
Stadia
The 70,000-seat Rice StadiumRice Stadium
Rice Stadium is a football stadium located on the Rice University campus in Houston, Texas. It has been the home of the Rice University football team since its completion in 1950 and hosted Super Bowl VIII in 1974....
, designed in 1950 by Hermon Lloyd & W.B. Morgan and Milton McGinty, is of reinforced concrete with 30 inches (762 mm) diameter columns supporting the upper decks. Architecturally, the stadium is an example of modernism
Modernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, with simple lines and an unadorned, functional design. The entire lower seating bowl is located below the surrounding ground level. Intended solely for football games, the stadium has excellent sightlines from almost every seat.
Roy Hofheinz
Roy Mark Hofheinz , popularly known as Judge Hofheinz or "The Judge", was State Representative from 1934 to 1936, County Judge of Harris County, Texas from 1936 to 1944, and mayor of the city of Houston, Texas from 1953 to 1955.-Biography:A flamboyant and successful orator, broadcaster, developer...
and designed by architects Hermon Lloyd & W.B. Morgan, and Wilson, Morris, Crain and Anderson. Structural engineering and structural design was performed by Walter P Moore Engineers and Consultants of Houston. It stands 18 stories tall, covering 9½ acres. The stadium is 710 feet (216.4 m) in diameter and the ceiling is 208 feet (63.4 m) above the playing surface, which itself sits 25 feet (7.6 m) below street level. Despite innovations necessitated by the novelty of the design (including the modest flattening of the supposed "hemispherical roof" to deal with environmentally induced structural deformation and the use of a new paving process called "lime stabilization" to deal with soil consistency issues and facilitate paving) the Astrodome was completed in November 1964, six months ahead of schedule.
Reliant Stadium
Reliant Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium, in Houston, Texas, USA. Reliant Stadium has a seating capacity of 71,500, a total square footage of with of natural grass playing surface....
is a wonder of modern sports facility design and engineering. The 69,500-seat stadium has a natural grass playing field and a retractable roof—a first for the NFL. There are also 165 private suites, 8,200 club seats, and more than 400 concession and novelty stands. The playing field is palletized and removable, allowing for the addition of a significant layer of dirt to accommodate the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, also called RodeoHouston, is the world's largest live entertainment and livestock exhibition. It also includes the richest regular-season rodeo event. It has been held at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, since 2003...
, or use the concrete floor for concerts, trade shows, and conventions.
See also
- List of Architectural Styles
- List of tallest buildings in Texas
- SkyscraperSkyscraperA skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
- Urban planningUrban planningUrban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....