Summary Statement of Significance
The Farnsworth & Chambers building, completed in 1956 by the eponymous company, was designed by MacKie & Kamrath, Houston's leading modemist followers of Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural principles. The most significant part of the building's history is its use as the headquarters for NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston while the Clear Lake campus — later named Johnson Space Center — was being designed and constructed...
West Elevation
The building entrance is recessed under the porte cochere. There is a set of low concrete steps with limestone treads leading to a limestone-floored landing. The splayed concrete motif is repeated in the low, stylized porch stoops on either side of the steps. Beyond each stoop, the splayed concrete base of the building surrounds planter boxes. The entrance is composed of floor-to-ceiling aluminum-framed window walls and a paired entry door, a modernist interpretation of the entry door and sidelights. The entrance is offset with three of the floor-to-ceiling window walls to the left of the double doors and a narrower floor-to-ceiling window on the right. The pattern is A-A-A-B-B-C. A Texas Red (pink) granite cornerstone dated 1956 to the left of the entrance is original to the building.