FOURTH ESTATE
Architectural firm transformed former Post building into a modern workplace
Newspapers have come and gone, but the Houston Chronicle remains as the scribe and watchdog of the city.
One of the virtues of an architect is the ability to persuade a client when there’s a difference of opinion.
During the recent renovation of the Houston Chronicle building in southwest Houston, that notion was tested when the design firm suggested cutting out windows in the “turrets” on the building’s north side where conference rooms were planned.
“I told them ‘no’ at first,” said Michael Sacks, vice president of operations for the Houston Chronicle Media Group. “I said it’s going to be too expensive.”
But the firm pushed back, Sacks said, “And they were right. Those windows were gorgeous.”
The Chronicle’s move into 4747 Southwest Freeway and out of the downtown home it was in for more than a century was part of a larger consolidation plan called “Project 3-2-1.”
The name signified a project that would take the Chronicle’s three main facilities down to just one.
The newspaper’s primary operations were housed in its downtown office building, a manufacturing facility in northwest Houston, and the Southwest Freeway property.
“Our goal was to run the company more efficiently,” Sacks said.
By early 2014, the manufacturing facility had been sold and production operations were consolidated into the southwest campus, a property near the Galleria that Hearst, the Chronicle’s parent company, had owned since its acquisition of the Houston Post in 1995.
Some departments were spread out in the two remaining buildings, yet neither facility was full.
In addition, the company was paying two sets of operating expenses and real estate taxes.
The downtown building was in need of improvements, so the Hearst board voted in favor of selling it and moving everyone to the southwest campus where the presses had been moved many years earlier.
Another argument for mov- ing to the southwest facility was the layout of the main building. Its four 27,000-square-foot floors were wide open, ideal for designing a collaborative workplace.
The concrete structure was built in 1970 and designed by Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson in the so-called New Brutalist style of architecture.
Local historian and Rice University lecturer Stephen Fox describes the hulking white building as a “rectangular box around which concrete silos have been picturesquely arrayed,” in his guide to Houston architecture.
Known for its often fortresslike aesthetics, Brutalist architecture was popular in the mid 1900s, especially with government and institutional users.
In Houston there were three buildings that fit the Brutalist mold: the Alley Theater downtown; the Houston Independent School District’s administration complex on Richmond, which was demolished in 2006; and the old Houston Post building.
While not always admired by observers, “Brutalism has a place in the history of modern architecture,” said Jim Furr, managing principal emeritus of the Gensler architecture firm in Houston, which designed the Chronicle’s new offices.
The Brutalist style, he said, was influenced by Swiss-born Le Corbusier, one of the founders of modern architecture who died in 1965 at age 77.
Nancy Barnes had already accepted the job as the Chronicle’s top editor in 2013 when she learned about the plan to relocate the newspaper’s downtown headquarters.
About a year later, with the plan approved by the Hearst board, Barnes was asked to join an internal team of executives who would go on to make highlevel design decisions about the paper’s new home.
Ultimately, the team was involved in helping decide everything from the layout of the offices and desks to which furniture and light fixtures would be selected for the new space.
It was familiar territory for Barnes, who had helped design another newsroom before she came to Houston.
“The irony is I had worked on a very similar project in Minneapolis and left before it was done,” she said from behind her desk in a glass-enclosed office in the new space.
The goal for the new space was to create a newsroom for the 21st century. It would have a modern look and feel and a technology-rich environment where the layout of workstations, offices and common areas would result in increased collaboration.
Former employees of the Houston Post recall the building’s low ceilings and dingy carpets, which were torn out long ago and the space stripped to its shell. There were remnants of an apartment on the third floor once used by Oveta Culp Hobby, a member of the Hobby family, which owned the Houston Post for several decades.
Now the floors are polished concrete. The soaring ceilings are a modern canvas of exposed air ducts and red metal pipes. Journalists work on the fourth floor in desks separated by low red partitions, and the top editors sit in glass-walled offices. The teams that run and write for the Chronicle’s websites are seated in a horseshoe-shaped “news hub” under oversized televisions broadcasting local and national news.
A wood and iron staircase connects the fourth floor with the third, which houses consumer marketing and expansion space for editorial. Finance, advertising and human resources are on the second floor, and the ground floor holds the editorial board, information technology and the Amuse digital marketing agency.
Instead of meeting in conference rooms, of which there are plenty, groups often gather near coffee bars at long wooden dining tables or in spaces that are set up like living rooms with leather couches, comfortable chairs and coffee tables.
All told, the company invested $26 million in the project.
Finding a general contractor to handle construction wasn’t easy .
When the company began looking for a contractor, oil was more than $100 a barrel and the city was teeming with development.
“Everybody’s dance card was really full,” Sacks said.
Only a handful of companies responded to a request for proposals, and the Chronicle chose a relatively small firm, Stone Construction, in part because the Chronicle knew it would get to deal with the owner directly.
After the work had gotten underway, the downtown building found a buyer. Hearst agreed to sell the property to the Hines real estate firm.
All Chronicle employees had to be out by March 31.
“(Stone) got us in on time, which was really important,” Sacks said.
The feedback from the employees has been largely positive, though some have requested changes. Lights are being adjusted and the space carved out for the editorial photography department is being reworked. A cafeteria and auditorium have just opened.
For many, the biggest change has been finding new spots for lunch, and having to drive there.
Unlike downtown, “you have to get into your car to go anywhere,” Barnes said. “If you want to get lunch, you have to plan it and not just walk outside and wander.”
Otherwise, the new location offers an equally compelling home for the city’s 115-year-old newspaper and digital media institution.
“This is as much a part of the development of Houston as downtown,” Barnes said, while making note of the striking views from the new space. The vistas, she said, “are stunning, and they give you a great sense of place, too.”