Developer ‘put Houston on the map’ with architecture
Gerald D. Hines, an engineer from Indiana who became a towering figure in real estate development by collaborating with world-renowned architects on projects from Barcelona to Beijing and in his adopted hometown of Houston, died peacefully at a family home in Connecticut on Sunday. He was 95.
Hines, who launched his property company as a oneman shop in Houston in 1957, developed billions of dollars’ worth of real estate across the globe, influencing generations of builders and leaving a lasting mark on the world’s top cities.
The founder and chairman of the Hines firm was one of the first developers to hire sought-after architects, proving that tenants would flock to top-quality buildings, even in a down market. He raised the bar for commercial real estate by showing that quality and financial success could be mutually attainable.
“Gerald Hines was one of the great patrons of American architecture of the 20th century,” said architectural historian Stephen Fox, putting him in a category with John and Dominique de Menil, Ima Hogg and her brother William, and Edgar Odell Lovett, the first president of Rice University.
“He put Houston on the map in terms of architecture by his imaginativeness and his business discipline in understanding how he could work with the best architects of the world within the economic constraints of real estate development and construction,” said Fox, a lecturer at the architecture schools at Rice and University of Houston.
A pivotal point in his career that allowed him access to new markets and deeppocketed investors came in the mid-1960s when his firm simultaneously developed Houston’s 50-story One
Shell Plaza and the Galleria mall.
His son, Jeffrey Hines, who took the helm of the business in 1990, said his father was a brilliant salesman who operated with an understated approach. He used his vast knowledge of real estate and stressed the importance of quality to win over customers.
When Shell was considering becoming a tenant in Hines’ first major downtown building, the developer met with the company and brought with him actual pieces of hardware to demonstrate the level of finishes the building would have, his son recalled.
“It was incredibly effective. It was all about information and imparting confidence to who he was dealing with,” said the younger Hines, who has been running the firm as president and now assumes the role of chairman and CEO.
Hines went on to shape downtown’s skyline with a series of notable towers: Pennzoil Place, the former Bank of America building and 600 Travis (also known as JPMorgan Chase Tower), Houston’s tallest building at 75 stories.
Hines didn’t cut corners and focused on developing imaginative buildings that benefited its occupants as well as its greater surroundings, said architect and longtime Hines collaborator Jon Pickard
of Pickard Chilton in New Haven, Conn.
“He does that over and over. He sets the tone,” Pickard said. “He’s guided his team to know how to achieve the right result and he does it in a very collegial way. He’s not dogmatic.”
Downtown’s Pennzoil Place represented a breakthrough for Hines from a design and development standpoint. The twin 36-story trapezoidal towers of darkly tinted glass was named “Building of the Decade” by New York Times architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable when it was completed in 1975.
Hines collaborated on the project with architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee who turned away from the boxy modern design of the era exemplified in One Shell Plaza just up the street.
“In so doing they demonstrated that if you make a building that is distinctive there are tenants that will pay extra to have their offices there,” Fox said. “That was kind of the Hines breakthrough — to understand and respect the power of architecture to create structures potential clients would want to identify with.”
Hines worked with Johnson and Burgee on multiple projects, including the so-called Lipstick Building at 53rd and Third in midtown Manhattan, a 34-story elliptical-shaped office tower completed in 1986, and San Francisco’s 101 California, completed in 1982, a cylindrical
48-story tower of glass and granite and glass, featuring a seven-story, glass-enclosed lobby.
Hines developed friendships with many of the architects who designed his buildings. For his 90th birthday, he was joined by seven of them to discuss design and development in a public architecture forum at Houston’s Hobby Center. Hines sat alongside Burgee, Pickard, A. Eugene Kohn, Henry Cobb, Cesar Pelli, Robert A.M. Stern and Art Gensler who talked of Hines’ outsize influence on commercial real estate. The event drew an audience of more than 2,000.
“Our best work was for Gerry Hines,” said Burgee, who along with Johnson designed several buildings for Hines.
Hines also had extraordinary will and self-discipline, his son said.
When told he would need heart bypass surgery in his 50s, Hines adopted a strict diet and exercise program and was able to reverse his coronary heart disease without surgery.
“I know of no one else who could stick to that sort of regimen,” said Hines, who recalled his father joining breakfast meetings with a full plate of steamed broccoli.
Born on Aug. 15, 1925, in Gary, Ind., Hines graduated from Purdue University with a degree in mechanical engineering. He took a job with American Blower Corp. and
was later transferred to Houston. A couple of years later, he joined Texas Engineering.
Hines bought his first Houston building on Anita Street in Midtown, long ago replaced by town homes. In the 1960s, he developed about a dozen buildings on Richmond Avenue.
He was known for an obsession with small details and big challenges. He sought out difficult developments, knowing that others would avoid them.
One Shell Plaza was the world’s tallest reinforced concrete structure when it was completed. The Galleria, built on what was then a prairie, was modeled after Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. The ice-skating rink was added to increase lease rentals on the basement floor by drawing traffic to it.
Under Jeffrey Hines, the firm expanded globally, venturing into Europe after the Berlin wall fell, developing projects in Germany, Spain, Italy, Germany, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
The Hines firm has built a portfolio of $144 billion of assets under management in 25 countries, including $75.5 billion for which Hines serves as an investment manager. The company has more than 4,800 employees.
Hines’ philanthropic contributions included a $7 million donation in 1997 to the University of Houston’s architecture school that now bears his name.
When he spoke to students, there was an immediate connection and mutual respect, said Patricia Belton Oliver, dean of the architecture school.
“I never saw him light up quite the way he did when he was surrounded by students,” she said. “For someone who made his career in such a tough business, it was so gratifying to see the joy he experienced when he had the opportunity to share his legacy.”
In his second marriage, Hines wed Barbara Fritzsche in 1981. The couple have two children, Serena and Trevor. Hines and his first wife, Dorothy Schwartz, had two children, Jeffrey and Jennifer, before divorcing.
Hines is survived by his wife, Barbara, his four children, 15 grandchildren and one greatgrandson. He will be laid to rest in a private family ceremony in Aspen, Colo. A celebration of his life will be held at a future date when it is safe to congregate.
The University of Houston Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture was planning to honor Hines at its 75th anniversary this year when the event had to be postponed until next year due to the pandemic.
“Sadly he won’t be here to see it,” Oliver said, “but we plan to do it anyway in his honor.”