Houston Center - LyondellBasell Tower

LyondellBasell Tower

Opened in 1978, this building, originally called 1 Houston Center, has 46 floors with Class A office space and is located at 1200 block of McKinney Street. The building is 678 feet (207 m) tall. It was designed by Caudill Rowlett Scott and built by W.S. Bellows Construction. LyondellBasell has its Houston offices in 1 Houston Center. When Lyondell was an independent company, its headquarters were in 1 Houston Center. As of January 2012, the Lyondell/LyondellBasell operation has been at 1 Houston Center for 25 years.

In 1999 Merrill Lynch Capital Markets expanded its lease to 23,520 square feet (2,185 m2) in 1999. In 2000 Ernst & Young occupied 140,000 square feet (13,000 m2) of space on five floors in 1 Houston Center. When 5 Houston Center opened in 2003, Ernst & Young pulled its operations from 1 Houston Center and moved them into 5 Houston Center, leaving 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of space in 1 Houston Center vacant. Two of the five floors that Ernst & Young left behind were leased to other firms by July 2003. Cozen O'Connor opened an office in 1 Houston Center in 2004. On November 22, 2005, Alain Robert, a French rock and urban climber nicknamed "Spider-Man", was arrested attempting to climb the building. In 2008 the law firm Fish & Richardson opened an office in 1 Houston Center on October 1, 2008. As of 2010 Haynes and Boone has an office in 1 Houston Center.

As of January 2012, the tower was given its current name, the LyondellBasell Tower. Around that time, the company renewed its lease for 358,138 square feet (33,272.1 m2) of space in 1 Houston Center.