This key block in downtown Houston was the subject of an intense design competition in which we participated a number of years ago, but remains an open parking lot in the middle of the city.  Then as now, it is expected that this location can be the site of a very dramatic building central to the city’s skyline as well as pedestrian circulation at the tunnel level. 

This 87-story tower is made up of two hotels at the base, an office building and topped by a pair of housing towers.

Due to the nearby buildings at the lower level, the 770 hotel rooms achieve a longer view by being placed diagonally on the site. This also creates two plazas for the tower. The office-building lobby faces Louisiana Street where a major opening in the landscaped plaza also engages the pedestrian entry and the all important tunnel system.  On the Milam Street side is a motor court and automobile drop off for the hotels and the residences.  Vehicular and service access is a one-way ramp system that parallels Walker and McKinney Streets.

The office component respects the flexibility and efficiency of a modern rectilinear floor plate of 28,000 square feet.  Because of the truss at the upper sky lobby above the office building, the edge of the office floor plates can be supported by a series of tension members, which will, in turn, create open views all the way along the façade. 

The twin housing towers accommodate 500 units with extraordinary views over the Texas landscape.  From this height, not only is the vista of the dramatic sweep of the horizon an important view, but also the ship channel, the San Jacinto monument, Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

The elevators to the hotels dispatch from a common lobby at the street level, while the elevators to the housing and the office floors are reached by a system of shuttle cabs and a sky lobby for each function.  Of course, freight elevators extend from the bottom to the top.  In that a number of people approach the building from the tunnel level, the shuttles for the office users can be stacked into pairs and deliver office users to a conferencing and service space at the lower of the two sky lobbies.  The upper sky lobby is for the residences and their communal needs of services, dining and recreation. 

The structural system is not unlike a large I beam with stiff flanges along the long sides of the triangles and the elevator cores acting like the web in the center.  The character of the stiff flanges is expressed by a diagrid enclosure that can also provide a system of fresh air intake and accommodate flexible movement in the tower