High Plains Drifter - Houston, Texas
Posted by: 
Raven
N 29° 45.406 W 095° 22.273
15R E 270712 N 3294189
Designed by Peter Reginato and welded by Bob Walcott, this steel abstract sculpture can be found on the public grounds of the Allen Center business office complex in downtown Houston, Texas.
Waymark Code: WMGZFX
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/28/2013
Views: 5
Per the "Houston Architecture" website: (
visit link)
"Another piece of public art in Houston that the Houston public rarely gets to see. Not because it's being kept away from them, but because it's hidden behind an earthen berm around the side of a skyscraper near an entrance used only by employees. Still, High Plains Drifter is an impressive work. In the 1970's the developers of the Allen Center asked the Museum of Fine Arts Houston to find someone who could suggest a young artist to create a sculpture for their property. Art critic Clement Greenberg was the name the MFA/H came up with. He put together a panel of six artists: Peter Reginato, Michael Steiner, James Wolfe, Isaac Witkin, Ken Greenleaf, and Roger Williams. Each was given $1,000 to produce a model of their intended sculpture. Reginato won, but the scale of the work was beyond the capacity of his studio space. So the project was actually built [in two pieces] in Bennington, Vermont by Bob Walcott and trucked down to Houston [at which point the final two pieces were welded together in front of the Allen Center Tower complex in early 1974]."