Southern Pacific Building, Houston, Texas
Posted by: 
JimmyEv
N 29° 45.812 W 095° 21.647
15R E 271737 N 3294918
Jarvis Hunt, a Chicago architect, designed this building for the Southern Pacific Railroad’s Houston offices in 1911. The building has been renovated into the Bayou Lofts.
Waymark Code: WM1MW5
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 06/03/2007
Views: 218
After acquiring the Houston to New Orleans route of the Texas and New Orleans Railway and the Houston to San Antonio route of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway, Southern Pacific built their regional offices in Houston.
The building that housed those offices shows the verticality of the Chicago School of architecture – it is built with the traditional base, shaft and crown. But the abstract ornamentation - the buff brick scored with red mortar patterned around blue tile - shows a strong Southwestern Indian pattern making the building more Art Deco than Beaux-Arts. Jarvis Hunt, who also built Union Station in Dallas, based the design loosely on a Renaissance palazzo.
Main Street/Market Square Historic District
Next:
Magnolia Brewery
| Previous:
Old Cotton Exchange
Source:
Texas Historical Commission, "Main Street/Market Square Historic District," available at Texas Historical Atlas