Business & Economy
How the development of Houston Center revitalized downtown.
Editor’s note: This story first ran on Oct. 11, 1970. It has been edited for length.
The boldest, biggest and most imaginative downtown redevelopment project ever attempted will be carried out by Texas Eastern Transmission Corp. on 33 blocks in the central business district converting urban Houston into the “city of tomorrow.”
Plans for the $1.5 billion development that will convert the long-stagnant east-of-Main St. area into the most revolutionary downtown project ever undertaken were unveiled Saturday.
The project includes these concepts:
• Four levels of parking over the entire 33-block area, providing for 35,000 to 40,000 cars and a vehicular system “that tames the automobile.”
• Two circular-designed high-rise hotels and four smaller hotels or motor hotels.
• At least 12 high-rise office towers and as many medium-rise office structures of up to 10 stories.
• Building for major department stores, smaller stores and specialty shops.
• Entertainment and cultural facilities.
• Apartments and large open landscaped plazas.
Lobbies at least 4 floors up
The most unusual feature of the development is that architect and land planner William L. Pereira has so designed the project that all buildings will have their lobbies at least four floors above ground level — starting at the top level of the parking area.
Here, too, will be plazas and green areas, with apartments, office buildings and the other structures in the development, looking over one or more of these fourstory-high parks.
In the development, to be known as Houston Center, extensive use will be made for the first time here of “people movers” — moving sidewalks and above-ground conveyors that will include electric vehicles.
The development has been planned so that movement from one building to another in Houston Center is by way of people movers, or through open plazas without interference from auto traffic.
The 33 contiguous blocks for the project were acquired by Texas Eastern earlier this year and are bounded by Fannin, Rusk, Hamilton and Dallas. Texas Eastern has acquired, or holds contract to purchase, more than 95 percent of the area which covers about 74 acres. The land purchase alone amounted to about $55 million.
First phase to start in 1971
When the development is completed, it will provide more than 23 million square feet of new buildings, said George R. Brown, chairman of the board of Texas Eastern, and the company’s president, Baxter D. Goodrich.
The initial phase will include a major hotel of 1,000 rooms, three high-rise office towers clustered around a great enclosed plaza, retail stores and lowrise office blocks
flanking pedestrian open spaces, and cascading garden apartments along the eastern perimeter.
A total of 5 million square feet of buildings will be included in the first phase of the project on the nine blocks, scheduled for completion in four to six years.
Cost of the first phase of the development was not disclosed, but other sources estimated it would be $350 million.
The second and third phase of the development will include additional office space, retail shopping facilities, hotels and motels, additional entertainment and cultural facilities and garden apartments.
Loop road above street level
The unique plan, developed by Pereira’s firm and the project managers Brown & Root, Inc. creates a total environment by extending the development above the existing street system. The multi-level parking structure will span the existing street system, but with the roof penetrated by regular openings to admit light and air to the streets below.
Each of the existing streets will have ramps leading into the parking structure. Elevators or escalators will carry people from parking levels to the open plaza areas where people movers will take them to their building destination. Or they can walk through the landscaped plazas.
Goodrich said that ultimate plans are to connect the people mover system in Houston Center to the central business district.
To provide direct access to the center from the freeway (the development extends to the Eastex Freeway) a high-capacity loop road is proposed. The loop will surround the project and leave the existing street grid system undisturbed, Goodrich said.
Officials of Texas Eastern were reluctant to say how tall the largest office tower in the development might be, but at least two in the model on display were designed with more than 55 floors. Tallest building in Houston now is the 50-story One Shell Plaza building, scheduled for completion in January 1971.
Flexible for expansion
Pereira, whose firm, William L. Pereira & Associates, is world renowned for master planning complete cities, said the overall plan of the Houston Center development is sufficiently flexible to permit future inclusion of a host of facilities not presently available in Houston.
He said the center could be a prime location for a merchandise mart which would gather under one roof functions now scattered across the city.
A financial center, with giant electronic quote board; an expanded World Trade Center; a Petroleum Center that could double as a museum of the petroleum industry; a transportation center and other installations would be compatible with the design of the project.
Goodrich said the Houston Center development lies within the inner freeway loop girdling the central business district. In addition, he said, the center will have its own high-capacity access loop around the periphery of the development, except the nine blocks in Phase One.
He added that the loop will be connected by circular ramps to the existing street grid and will feed directly into Houston Center’s multilevel parking structures.
The plan allows for possible future extension of the major east-west pedestrian movement system further to the west, crossing Main and eventually connecting with such cultural facilities as Jones Hall and the Alley Theatre, Goodrich said.
As bold as the development plan may seem, Texas Eastern officials left no doubt that it would be carried out.
“It is a 15-year or so plan and it will be done,” said Brown and Goodrich.
That the Houston development will have an effect on all future urban development was reflected in Pereira’s prediction:
“This will be the prototype for future metropolitan city downtown development.”