The architecture of Houston includes a wide variety of award-winning and historic examples located in various areas of the city of Houston. From early in its history to current times, the city inspired innovative and challenging building design and construction, as it quickly grew into an internationally recognized commercial and industrial hub of Texas and the United States.
Some of Houston's oldest and most distinctive architecture is found downtown, as the city grew around Allen's Landing and the Market Square historic district. During the middle and late century, Downtown Houston was a modest collection of mid-rise office structures, but has since grown into the third largest skyline in the United States. The Uptown District 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, César Pelli and Philip Johnson.
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. Homes in the Heights have varied architectural styles, including Victorian, Craftsman and Colonial Revival. Post-war housing constructed throughout Houston reflects many architectural styles.
Read more about Architecture Of Houston: Skyscrapers, Landmarks and Monuments, Residential Architecture
Famous quotes containing the words architecture and/or houston:
“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)
“When your dreams tire, they go underground
and out of kindness that’s where they stay.”
—Libby Houston (b. 1941)