Architecture

Taken either by iPhone or camera by yours truly: 


The Usonion style William L. Thaxton Jr. House, Memorial area, Houston. It is one of only four Frank Lloyd Wright (born 148 years ago today) designed buildings in Texas. The term Usonion was coined in the 19th century by James Duff Law who said, "We of the United States, in justice to Canadians and Mexicans, have no right to use the title 'Americans' when referring to matters pertaining exclusively to ourselves." Wright wanted to make sure that his aesthetic was seen as distinctly national in nature. 

Side note: I took this picture three years ago when the house was empty. I swung by recently, but with the house obviously occupied, I didn't want to tempt fate so my wife and I just kept driving. 




Detail of the cupola atop the Esperson Buildings (it's plural because the structure is actually two connected buildings: the Neils Esperson Building and the Mellie Esperson Building), Houston. The buildings were finished in 1927 and 1941, respectively. The original building was the tallest in the city from 1927 to 1929. Designed by John Eberson.

Side note: The buildings are, in fact, haunted. 


Wells Fargo Plaza, Houston. Second tallest building in the city and the tallest all glass building in the Western Hemisphere. Opened in 1983 and designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. 

Side note: Although I was on rooftop a couple of blocks away, I was half expecting the paranoid security guards of this building to march themselves over to tell me I wasn't allowed to take pictures. 


The Art Deco JP Morgan Chase Building (Gulf Building), Houston. Built in 1929, it was a realization of Eliel Saarinen's design for Chicago's Tribune Tower. 

Side note: Taking pictures while being on a sanctioned tour is, BY FAR, the best way to take pictures of buildings.




The interior of the Art Deco Guardian Building, Detroit. Designed by Wirt C. Rowland and finished in 1929. The three-story vaulted ceiling consists of Aztec motifs and Italian marble columns. Since the blood red Numidian marble needed for the interior was no longer available, Rowland had a closed African mine reopened to get some. 


The post-modern Williams Tower (formerly the Transco Tower), Houston. Designed by Phillip Johnson and John Burgee. Third tallest building in the city, it was built to have 64 stories to match the highest price Transco stock had reached up to that time (the waterwall next door is 64ft tall). 


The Neoclassic Gerald D. Hines Waterwall (formerly the Williams Waterwall formerly the Transco Waterwall), Uptown Houston. Designed by Phillip Johnson and John Burgee, finished in 1985. 


The Spanish Renaissance Julia Ideson Library, Houston. Finished in 1928. To quote the Chronicle, 'the library drip[s] with detail: cast-iron light fixtures, columns, pilasters, balconies, terra-cotta medallions and cherubs.' Once derelict it is now an example of preservation (and restoration) at its best. 

Side note: this picture doesn't do the building justice. However after trying three separate times to get a good shot, I decided the guards might think I was up to no good. 



Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Dallas. Designed by Pritzker and AIA winning Thom Mayne. 
The location was obviously picked by the planners to make it as hard as humanly possible to get a good shot.


The International-style ExxonMobil Building (formerly the Humble Oil Building), Houston. When finished in 1963, it was the tallest building west of the Mississippi. Although not the most loved building in Houston, there is something eye-catching about the repetitive shades that protrude from each floor. Pictures of the planned remodel can be found here

Side note: Faye and I crossed the street to take this picture. There were two fat police officers nearby talking about YouTube videos they had seen. As Faye was throwing away some trash and I was about to take a picture, one of the cops says, "You know, before you just waltz over here, you should find out why we are here and ask if you can use the trash can. If you want your phone to blow up, then fine." What he said sounded so stupid, I didn't even what to say. His partner then rolls his eyes at him and simply say, "Look, we just need to keep the bus stop clear of people." 


The late-modernist Fountain Place, Dallas. Completed in 1986 and designed by Henry N. Cobb. Because of its design it has a completely different profile depending on where you are standing. The building gets its name from the 172 fountains at its base. 

Side note: In 2009, a man was accused of planning to bomb the building. Needless to say I wore the preppiest thing I owned and made sure my very American wife was with me while taking this picture. 


The stunning Beaux-Arts Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans. The oldest parts of the hotel date from 1886. One of the few hotels in the nation that is still family owned. 


The Beaux Arts Louisiana Supreme Court Building, New Orleans. Completed in 1910. When it was built, it was seen as an eye sore (a literal white elephant) that was an affront to the city's Creole architectural heritage. Architect Charles Harris Whitaker commented that it was, “one of the worst examples of a public building to be found in all America.”
Ironically, I took a picture of this building (not knowing what it was) because I thought it was one the most impressive buildings I had seen in the city.


The Art Deco S. H. Kress & Co Building, New Orleans. Finished in 1913, it is unique among Kress stores in that it was designed by a local, Emile Weil. As always, however, the goal was to contribute to the cityscape. 


Immaculate Conception Church, New Orleans. Completed in 1930, it was designed in a combination Moorish Revival, Byzantine Revival, and Gothic Revival style. The church was built to look exactly at a previous building built in the 1850s.


New Orleans is obviously one of the most architecturally unique cities in the US. The city is more like Havana and Bahia (part of the so-called Creole Atlantic) than its Southern counterparts. 


Streamline Moderne architecture on Canal Street (no canal was ever located here), New Orleans. This building dates from 1938. Canal Street used to be the divide between the French speaking Creole elite (the most powerful group in the city until the end of the Civil War) and the English speaking Americans. 


The Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans. Completed in 1971, it is home to the New Orleans Saints. Original design was by Curtis and Davis of New Orleans. Louisiana governor, John McKeithen, visited other stadiums to get an idea of what to build in New Orleans. When he saw the Houston Astrodome, he stated, "I want one of these, only bigger." The stadium became famous worldwide when it was used as the shelter of last resort during Hurricane Katrina (ironically, the people housed there were later moved to the smaller Astrodome). 


The Royal Sonesta, New Orleans. Although the building itself dates to only 1969, it is a prime example of a city staying true to its architectural heritage. The building sits on the site of an old winery that was first opened in 1890. 

Side-note: a second after taking this picture a woman with only silver paint as clothing and small pasties (for modesty?) passed by the front of the building.


The French Quarter, New Orleans. The architecture in this area of town is not actually French. The area acquired its current look during the time New Orleans belonged to the Spanish. The colors of the buildings, the intricate iron fences, and the stucco material were all Spanish-influenced.

Side-note: although New Orleans is architecturally stunning, it is DIRTY. After taking this picture we found a condom next to a beer bottle.


The post-modern One Detroit Center (formerly the Comerica Tower), completed in 1993. Designed by Pritzker-winner Phillip Johnson and John Burgee (same guys who designed Pennzoil Place, the Williams Tower, and the Bank of America Building in Houston).




The Art Deco Saarinen House, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, designed in the late 1920s. It served as the home and studio of the Finnish-American designer Eliel Saarinen from 1930 through 1950. 

Side note: I am deathly afraid of heights...there is a sort of free standing bridge that allowed me to take this picture. It took longer to gather my wits to get on said bridge, than it took to take twenty or so pictures of this house. 


Detroit's Art Deco David Stott Building designed by the architectural firm of Donaldson and Meier and completed in 1929.


The Albert Kahn-designed Art Deco Argonaut Building, Detroit, finished in 1930. Originally General Motors' research laboratory, every GM car was designed and styled in this building (including the world's first concept car: the Buick Y-Job). It now houses the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Design Education and the Shinola Watch Company. Shinola's watch-dial factory in this building is the only one in the United States. The building's resuscitation has been hailed by the Brookings Institute as the preeminent example of Detroit's revival.   



The Albert Kahn-designed Art Deco Fisher Building, finished in 1928. When Kahn was commissioned by the Fisher Brothers he was simply told to build the most beautiful building the world. He didn't disappoint.  The brothers didn't intend to profit from the building; they viewed it as a gift to the city of Detroit. The CFO of the company that currently owns the building is a great-nephew of Kahn's. 

Side note: The security guards at this building were the nicest I have encountered in four cities. 


The Brutalist GM Renaissance Center, a group of seven interconnected skyscrapers, Detroit. Completed in 1977. The central tower, housing a Marriott (the third tallest all hotel building the western hemisphere), is still the tallest building in Michigan. 

Side-note: I didn't like the picture I took this time around, so I used one taken five years ago...my architecture love is nothing new. 


The Henry Ford House, Detroit. Finished in 1908 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. 

Side note: this wasn't on the original schedule, but my father-in-law added it as a bonus! 



The Art Deco Penobscot Building, Detroit. When finished in 1928, it was the tallest building in the world outside New York and Chicago. Designed by Wirt C. Rowland, it is known for the intricate American Indian motifs that decorate the building (the swastika is an old Hopi and Navajo symbol and the ones on the Penobscot have NOTHING to do with Nazi Germany). 

Side note: although the Art Deco buildings of my hometown of El Paso will always be my favorite, Detroit's Art Deco buildings are on another level entirely. 

The Saarinen-designed Kingswood School Cranbrook for girls, opened in 1931. The building was strongly inspired by the Art and Crafts Movement. It was initially intended to be a sort of finishing school along the lines of Miss Porters. They boys school and the girls school merged in 1985. 


The quad of the Arts and Crafts inspired Cranbrook Schools. As mentioned before, the school's architecture is considered some of the best in the country. It is one of the most selective high schools in the nation. However, and more importantly, Eminem mentioned the school in the hit movie 8 Mile.


The tower on the Elial Saarinen-designed campus of the Cranbrook Schools, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The original campus, finished in 1931, was his first commission in the United States It was designated a national historic landmark in 1989. The archer sculpture, designed by Carl Milles, is a model of the school's symbol. 

Side note: I was so scared of getting in trouble for taking pictures, I mastered the get-on-the-floor-and-take-a-pic-in-less-than-thirty-seconds move. 





The Elial Saarinen-designed campus of the Cranbrook Schools, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. A leader of the Art and Crafts movement, his work at Cranbrook has been hailed by the New York Times as one of the masterworks of American architecture. 


Side-note: There is a silly superstition that horrible things will happen if you step on a certain stone seal on campus...my wife literally side tackled me so I wouldn't step on it...



The Edificio Sauer, Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. Finished in 1923, it is the only commercial building in the city designed by El Paso's Trost & Trost. When it was finished, the top floor housed the American Consulate-General.


The Beaux Art Influenced former Hotel Paso del Norte, finished in 1912. Designed by Trost & Trost, the rooftop terrace was used by El Pasoans to watch the Battle of Juarez during the Mexican Revolution. A favorite of Pancho Villa.


The Prairie Style Henry C. Trost House, El Paso. The designers own home, it was clearly influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright (they were in the same social circles back in Chicago). The house has been hailed by Texas Monthly as one of the ten best buildings in Texas.

Side note: I do wonder what the people inside must have thought of me randomly taking pictures of their home. 



The Neoclassic El Paso High School. Designed by Trost & Trost, it is affectionately nicknamed the Lady on the Hill because it overlooks both El Paso and Ciudad Juarez. It is the oldest high school in the city. The high school is on many "most haunted" lists.

Side note: although I didn't see any ghosts when I took this picture, lets just say I have seen weird things while driving by at night.



El Paso's Congregation B'Nai Zion, designed by Trost & Trost and finished in 1912. The building was the first Jewish synagogue in the city. The structure combines classical and Gothic revival elements.

Side note: I may have gotten honked at a couple times because I took this picture in the middle of the road. 



The Spanish Colonial Revival Style former Hotel Cortez, El Paso. Finished in 1926, it was while staying here that President Kennedy and his advisers decided to add a stop in Dallas before going back to Washington. The bar located inside the building was a favorite of the Chagra Brothers (famous for hiring Woody Harrelson's father to murder a federal judge.) 


The University of Texas at El Paso. Built in the Dzong style. It's the only example of this style outside of the Kingdom of Bhutan. The wife of the first dean saw a picture of Buddhist monasteries in the Himalayas and was reminded of El Paso. Because of that, Trost & Trost was instructed to replicate them for the schools campus in 1917. 

Side note: 49 years ago, Don Haskins' Miners won the NCAA Championship...for the first time in history with an all-black starting lineup.



I have decided that the tallest building in Texas, the I.M. Pei-designed JPMorgan Chase Tower, does not get its due respect. It is the tallest five sided building in the world, is 75 stories high. and was finished in 1982. Originally designed to be 80-stories, the FAA decided it was a hazard to air traffic out of Hobby. One of the many buildings in Houston built with Saudi petrodollars. The colorful sculpture in the front, Personage and Birds, is the largest Miró ever commissioned. It was chosen personally by I.M. Pei. 


The post-modern Wells Fargo Bank Plaza finished in 1983, Houston. Designed by Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, it the tallest all glass building in the western hemisphere. Appropriately, the building's footprint forms an abstracted dollar sign. 

Conversation with building security guard: Guard: Sir, you are going to have to stop taking pictures, you can take them from the sidewalk. Me: Okay, may I ask why? Guard: Yea, we've been watching you from our cameras. Since the terrorist attacks...you know. So, yea you can't take pictures from here, but you can from the sidewalk. You know, safety concerns....Me: oh...


The Italianate J.L. Buaas Building (better known today as the Library Bar), Austin, Texas. Built in 1875. One of the many historic buildings that line 6th Street (formerly Pecan Street) dating back to when it was the city's major thoroughfare. 

Side note: I am pretty sure every childhood friend I ever had has at least one story where they did a little too much "studying" in this building. Also, the homeless man was very puzzled by me getting on the floor to take this pic. 


Formerly the S. H. Kress and Company Building, this Art Deco/Neo-Renaissance hybrid was designed by the company's staff architect, Seymour Burrell, in 1913. All Kress department stores were built by the company with the express purpose of adding to the city skyline (many across the country are listed on the National Register for Historic Places).
Side note: the best part of taking this was getting a message from a law school friend letting me know she saw me on a street corner snapping this picture.



The modernist One Shell Plaza. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merril (the people who brought us Chicago's Willis Tower) in 1971. Although not the most unique of buildings, it was actually the tallest building in Houston from its completion to 1980. Clad with 27 tons of Italian travertine marble, it is considered one of the safest buildings in town. Oh, and it's the headquarters of Shell Oil (subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell).

Side note: taking this picture while laying on the floor in my work clothes was not the best idea I have ever had.



The Four Leaf Towers, Houston. Designed by Cesar Pelli in 1982. Pelli is famous for designing what were then the tallest buildings in the world: the Petranos Towers, Kuala Lumpur.


Side note: while taking this picture on a public sidewalk, the buildings elderly rent-a-cop ran to tell me I was not allowed to take pictures of the building and to, "GET OUT, GO!"




The 19th Century former City Hall (Presidencia Municipal), Ciudad Juarez. Saw cut lava rock covers the adobe walls. The American flag flew over the building in 1846-47 when Colonel Alexander Doniphan's army occupied the city during the Mexcan-American War. 

Side note: The Juarez police officers (who were out in force b/c of the fire next door) were a lot nicer than the rent-a-cops I have come across in Houston. 


Former Customs House, Ciudad Juárez. Finished in 1889, it is one of the last Victorian-style buildings left in the city. Site of an historic meeting between President Porfirio Díaz and President William H. Taft (the first time any sitting US president set foot on foreign soil).

Side note: taking this picture was harder than expected b/c of the huge fire up the street


The Gothic Revival Episcopalian Christ Church Cathedral. Built in 1893 by Silas McBee. Seat of the Episcopalian Church in Texas since 1949


The Art Deco style O.T. Bassett Tower, El Paso. When built in 1930, the tallest building in the city. Designed by the architecture firm of Trost & Trost.

Side note: about two seconds after taking this pic some dude on a bike decided to use the sidewalk as a street, 
almost killed me.




Wells Fargo Plaza. Built in the much derided Brutalist style (itself an offshoot of the International Style), it nonetheless deserves mention because it is the tallest building in the city. 


The historic Romanesque Revival Driskill Hotel in downtown Austin, built in 1886. A favorite of President Lyndon Johnson ever since he and his wife had their first date there. The El Paso architecture firm of Trost & Trost added the thirteen story tower and refurbished the entire hotel in the 1930s. 



The French Legation Building, Austin, Texas. Back in the days when Texas was an independent Republic this building served as the home of the French envoy to the Republic. Built in 1841, it is one of the oldest buildings in the state capital. More info here



The Austonian, designed by the architecture firm of Ziegler Cooper Architects. When finished in 2010, it not only became the tallest building in Austin, it became the tallest all-residential building west of the Mississippi. 



The Littlefield House, built in the Victorian style. Designed by James Wahrenberger in 1893. 



The Spanish Renaissance Revival Battle Hall, University of Texas at Austin. Designed by Cass Gilbert (the same man who designed the Supreme Court Building in DC) in 1910. It was the first building  of this style and served as the model for all future university buildings, including the iconic Tower. 



The Italian Renaissance Revival capitol building, Austin, Texas. The distinctive red granite façade of the building was provided, free of charge, by owners of a small mountain in Marble Falls. Finished in 1888 and designed by the Detroit-based Elijah Myers (he was actually fired two years before completion of the building because he was too difficult to work with).
  


The forty-four story 360 Condominiums Building, downtown Austin. When finished in 2008, it was the tallest building in Austin (it is now the second).  



The Second Empire style (a form of Victorian architecture) John Bremond Home in an area of downtown Austin that was once the upper class area of town. Built in 1886 by George Fliegel. More information can be found here. 




The iconic Spanish Renaissance Revival Main Building tower of the University of Texas at Austin (colloquially referred to as “the Tower”). When finished in 1937, it was the second tallest building in Austin. Designed by Philadelphia-based Paul Cret. All that remains of the building that once stood on this site are the ‘Burleson Bells.’

Side-note: the pictures were taken at two different times because a large group of cowboy dressed gentlemen were filming some sort of commercial in front of  the Tower yelling “this is a hold up!” 



The former headquarters of Enron (they now belong to Chevron). Designed by Lloyd Brewer. After the scandal, the shorter building remained empty for over a year. 

Side note: The waiter kept laughing because I had to smoosh the camera against the window so there would be no glare.



The former Houston Heights combination city hall, jail, and fire station, when it was still its own city. Built in 1914.  For more information click here

Side note: Almost got the cops called on us when an over zealous security guard felt we might be disrupting the wedding inside. 



Heritage Plaza, designed by Mohammad Nasr. The distinctive top of the building was inspired by the Mayan ruins of the Mexican Yucatán Peninsula. 



The Williams Tower (formerly the Transco Tower) built in 1982, it is the tallest building in the world outside a city center. 



The Esperson Buildings. The only example of Italianate architecture in downtown Houston.





The AIA winning post-modern Pennzoil Building designed by Phillip Johnson. More information on the Pennzoil click here

Side note: shout out to my wife who helped me move construction barrels (we put them back) so I could lay on the ground and take this picture. 





The newest skyscraper in Houston: BG Group Place. For more information click here




Side note: the conversations I had with a couple of homeless gentlemen while taking this were priceless.



River Oaks Theatre. Built in 1939 in the streamline moderne style (an offshoot of Art Deco). 




Side note: this was taken with my iPhone on top of the Barnes and Noble parking lot. 



The Neoclassic Link-Lee Mansion, built in 1912 when Montrose was the outskirts of town. One of the few neoclassic homes in Houston and one of the only ones with a basement.

Side note: while taking this picture, a St. Thomas security guard befriended us, took us on an impromptu tour, showed us Howard Hughes' childhood home and imparted the two versions of how Montrose got it's name.



The I.M. Pei designed (he designed the Louvre Pyramid) JP Morgan Chase Tower. Tallest building in Texas. One of the many buildings in town built by Saudi petrodollars (it's main backer, Khalid bin Mahfouz, may or may not have financed terrorism). For more information click here




 The former Gulf Building. One of the finest examples of Art Deco in Houston, it was the city's tallest building from 1929 until 1963. For more information click here



The Neoclassic Watkin Wing, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Built in 1924 it is the largest art museum in the Southwest. For more information click here.

Side note: this picture came IN SPITE of being repeatedly attacked by the biggest mosquitos I have ever seen. 
  


Although not the most stunning of buildings, when built as the HQ for the Houston Post (it's now owned by the Chronicle) it was considered a masterpiece of the Brutalist style.

Side note: amazingly no one told me anything while I walked around the building taking these pictures. 



 
The Art Deco former Rice Hotel built on the site of the first Capitol building of the Republic of Texas. Site of the first air conditioned public room in the state. For more information click here

Side note: I know this looks like an advertisement for the Rice Lofts...it's not, the picture just came out that way. 





The now abandoned Astrodome. Opened on April 9, 1965. The worlds first domed sports stadium, it was billed the 8th wonder of the world. Former home of the Astros (until they moved in known as the Colt .45s) and the then Oilers.

Side note: the amount of times I had to drive around the building because I kept missing the random parking lots was ridiculous. 




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