Architecture of Houston - Skyscrapers

Skyscrapers

Further information: List of tallest buildings in Houston

Some of Houston's oldest and most distinctive architecture are found in the northern sections of downtown, as the city grew around Allen's Landing 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.

The Rice Hotel, built in 1912 on the former site of the old Capitol building of the Republic of Texas, 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, the founder of Rice University, 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 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 detailing on the façade, it has been returned to active use.

The Gulf Building, now called the JPMorgan Chase building, is an Art Deco skyscrapers. Completed in 1929, it remained the tallest building in Houston until 1963, when the Exxon Building surpassed it in height. Designed by architects Alfred C. Finn (designer of the San Jacinto Monument), Kenneth Franzheim, and J.E.R. Carpenter, the building is seen as a realization of Eliel Saarinen's acclaimed (but unsuccessful) entry to the Chicago Tribune Tower 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.

The Niels and Mellie Esperson buildings are examples of Italian Renaissance architecture in downtown Houston. 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 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, the Shamrock Hotel 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 Glenn McCarthy 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 25,000-square-foot (2,300 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 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. Despite protests by local preservationists, the Shamrock was demolished June 1, 1987. The Institute of Biosciences and Technology now stands in its former location.

The 18-story Prudential Building, designed by Kenneth Franzheim, was constructed in 1952 in the Texas Medical Center. The ground level walls of the Prudential Building were clad with deep red polished Texas granite; the upper floors on the northwest and northeast sides were clad in Texas limestone. 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. The Prudential Building was demolished January 8, 2012.

In the 1960s, Downtown Houston was a modest collection of mid-rise office structures, but has since grown into the third largest skyline in the United States. In 1960, the central business district 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.

The largest proposed development was Houston Center, 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, Allen Center, and towers for Shell Oil Company. The surge of skyscrapers mirrored the skyscraper booms in other sunbelt cities, such as Los Angeles and Dallas. Houston had experienced another downtown construction spurt in the 1970s with the energy industry boom.

The first major skyscraper to be constructed in Houston was the 50-floor, 714-foot (218 m) tall One Shell Plaza in 1971. A succession of skyscrapers were built throughout the 1970s, culminating with Houston's tallest, the 75-floor, 1,002-foot (305 m) tall JPMorgan Chase Tower (formerly the Texas Commerce Tower), designed by I. M. Pei 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, designed by Philip Johnson 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, and 3D/International.

The Fulbright Tower, built in 1982 and designed by Caudill Rowlett & Scott Architects, is a 52-story tower constructed of steel with suspended concrete on metal deck floor slabs. The exterior wall consists of a ribbon window wall with granite spandrel panels and aluminum framed windows with insulated glazing. The spandrel panels are polished granite supported by a steel truss system. The interior wall surfaces are constructed of Italian flame cut Rosa Beta granite, quarried in Sardinia, 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 is one of the first significant examples of postmodern architecture built in downtown Houston. The building, completed in 1984 and designed by Phillip Johnson and partner John Burgee, 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 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 temple design on the top, which was inspired by the architect's visit to the Mexican Yucatán. 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 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. 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 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

One of Houston's most recent downtown landmarks is Discovery Green, a large public park designed by Page Southerland Page with Hargreaves Associates.

The Uptown District, located on Interstate 610 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. The area is an example of what architectural theorists call the edge city. 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-foot (275 m) tall, Philip Johnson-designed, landmark Williams Tower (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. The building is topped with a rotating spot light that constantly searches the horizon. Williams Tower was named "Skyscraper of the Century" in the December 1999 issue of Texas Monthly magazine.