402 Main Designed by: James Bailey Construction Completed: 1925 Area: Downtown Post Code: 77002 City: Houston, Texas
402 Main is a plucky relic from a time when Houston's Main Street was the Bayou City's bustling center of commerce. A number of similar buildings were erected in the neighborhood; a collect...read more >>
Alley Theatre Center Designed by: Morris*Aubry Architects Construction Completed: 1984 Area: Downtown Post Code: 77002 City: Houston, Texas
This building’s lofty name ties it with the Alley Theatre, and many people make the mistake of assuming the two are one. In fact, the Alley Theatre Center was built 15 years later and for the most par...read more >>
Campanile, The Designed by: William Ward Watkin Construction Completed: 1940 Area: Montrose Post Code: 77006 City: Houston, Texas
Libraries are considered temples of knowledge. In this case, it's absolutely true. The complex that now houses the Freed-Montrose branch of the Houston Public Library used to be the Central Churc...read more >>
Congress Plaza Construction Completed: 1987 Area: Downtown Post Code: 77002 City: Houston, Texas
This is one of those great buildings that looks so different from so many angles that it's hard sometimes to reconcile one view of it with another. Seen from the Main Street Bridge over Buffalo B...read more >>
Erie City Iron Works Construction Completed: 1909 Area: Downtown Post Code: 77002 City: Houston, Texas
This is the building where Houston began. When the city first made the transition from masonry to iron and steel construction, the materials came through this building. They came in on the rail lines ...read more >>
Houston Cotton Exchange Designed by: Eugene Heiner Construction Completed: 1884 Area: Downtown Post Code: 77002 City: Houston, Texas
This classic building was once the heart of the fledgeling city of Houston, but accidents of topography and changing fashions left it behind. Today, downtown Houston is once again a fashionable addres...read more >>
Pillot Building Construction Completed: 1869 Area: Downtown Post Code: 77002 City: Houston, Texas
What could a fast food joint possibly do to be worthy of inclusion among Houston’s greatest structures? It has to do with the nature of the city. Houston doesn’t like to preserve its historic architec...read more >>
Purse Building Construction Completed: 1920 Area: Downtown Post Code: 77002 City: Houston, Texas
A former furniture warehouse that has found new life as artists studios and exhibition space. In a 1998 interview with the Houston Chronicle, the owners took the surprisingly nice attitude that it is ...read more >>
Wagon Works Building Area: Downtown Post Code: 77002 City: Houston, Texas
Nothing says history like a giant anachronism painted across the top of your building. Wagons are no longer manufactured here. But crafts are being practiced here: Photography, design, and painting. T...read more >>