Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
With a two-thirds majority, Houston-area voters approved a $3.5 billion bond issue to pay for transit projects. This is the first time since 2003 that METRO has asked voters to borrow more money through bonds.
METRO’s plans include a bus rapid transit line to Bush Intercontinental Airport along with a light rail line to Hobby Airport. The transit agency also wants to build new park and ride facilities and make enhancements to the current bus network.
— Houston Public Media
The plan will help to expand Houston's fledgling transportation system, which currently includes a trio of interlocking light rail lines as well as a traditional bus network. Houston has over 120 mies of HOV lane. METRONext uses that for a two-way, all-day regional express bus network. City... View full entry
Refuge, one of Houston's leading developers, in conjunction with architecture firms Brett Zamore Design and Gibson Design, Inc., have created the mini-development of one- and two-bedroom homes, each between about 600 and 800 square feet, packed with amenities for modern living. — Culture Map Houston
According to Culture Map, the homes feature open floor plans, plenty of patio space and are "far from being crammed or crowded." One of the homes is currently valued at $249,900, Culture Map reports. View full entry
Texas Central, the private company developing the Texas Bullet Train, announced it had signed a deal with Salini Impregilo, the Italian construction giant, and its American subsidiary, Lane Construction, to design, construct and install the 240-mile high-speed rail line using Japan’s Shinkansen trains. — The Houston Chronicle
The plan to build a 90-minute bullet train between Dallas and Houston still requires a number of local, state, and federal approvals before it can move forward. Nonetheless, backers of the project are raising funding for the initiative and setting out to complete early design work. Texas... View full entry
The University of Houston's Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design is set to debut a new media and technology lab that aims to "develop the next generation of structural materials, digital fabrication, and sensor technologies." The school's Advanced Media Technology... View full entry
Archinect's Architecture School Lecture Guide for Fall 2019 With a new school year upon us yet again, it's time for Archinect's latest edition of Get Lectured, an ongoing series where we feature a school's lecture series—and their snazzy posters—for the current term. Check... View full entry
When the so-called House of the Century rose from the swampy earth back in the early 1970s, it arrived as a vision of the future, a biomorphic experiment in modern living. Back then it was a bright white jumble on the shoreline, and depending on your angle of approach, it looked like either a man's erect genitalia or a giant schnoz.
Today, this futuristic house is a decaying relic of the past, and its future is a subject of concern and conjecture.
— Dallas News
Though Ant Farm, the experimental architecture firm founded by Doug Michels and Chip Lord in 1968, is not among the most well known firms of that era, they produced a number of projects both famous and deserving of fame. They are perhaps best known for their early experiments with inflatable... View full entry
The Office of Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) and developers Lovett Commercial have unveiled plans to transform the 55,000-square-foot Barbara Jordan Post Office in Houston into a mixed-use cultural center and park for the city. Rendering of proposed atrium located within the renovated post... View full entry
The Rothko Chapel in Houston, founded in 1971 by the art patrons John and Dominique de Menil as an ecumenical site for both reflection and activism, will be closing on Monday for the rest of the year for the first phase of a $30 million restoration and campus expansion by Architecture Research Office. — The New York Times
New York-based firm Architecture Research Office (ARO) was selected in 2016 to be in charge of the restoration work. "During the closure, work inside the Chapel will include modifications to the entryway and vestibule, enhanced audio, security and fire systems, replacement of the existing skylight... View full entry
Texas, one of the gems of the Southwest, offers beautiful landscapes and a one of a kind history. As far as notable buildings are concerned, Texas is home to Renzo Piano's Menil Collection, I.M. Pei's Dallas City Hall, and Tadao Ando's The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. With structures as... View full entry
Placed at the heart of the historic Menil Collection in Houston, Johnston Marklee's long-anticipated Menil Drawing Institute opened to the public last Saturday. As the fifth art building to be constructed on the iconic 30-acre campus, the approximately 30,000 square-foot Menil Drawing Institute... View full entry
Slated to open next month, Houston's new Menil Drawing Institute will become the country's first art institution dedicated solely to drawing. “For many artists, historically, drawing was an end in and of itself. To have an entire building devoted to [drawing] says something to the general... View full entry
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will celebrate the inauguration of the Glassell School of Art this Sunday, May 20, marking the completion of the first phase of the museum's 14-acre redevelopment. The first phase also includes the BBVA Compass Roof Garden designed by Steven Holl Architects and... View full entry
The Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology merges two fields not often associated with one another, supporting experimental work at the intersection of art and anthropology. Previously a nomadic space, the multidisciplinary institution recently found a permanent home in Houston, Texas, in a... View full entry
Though Harris County Judge Ed Emmett is the public official most closely tied to the salvation of the Astrodome, many private citizens have played important roles, too.
Without their many letters, petitions, documents and road trips – the tools of architectural preservation – Houston might have lost its most iconic building.
— Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle editor Allyn West retells the long and twisting tale of how the Astrodome went from designated wrecking-ball fodder to National Historic Landmark and the activism behind it. View full entry
Looks like Houston has a giant, shiny bean-shaped sculpture of its own now. Completing its two-day installation today, “Cloud Column” by Anish Kapoor — the same artist who created Chicago's infamous “Cloud Gate” — is the first of two sculptures on the Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza at... View full entry
