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Any trip into Houston should start at the Houston Visitors Center, located in City Hall. Reasonably priced parking is available in the garage beneath City Hall, entered from Rusk Street. The Center has a wealth of information, a helpful staff and museum-like displays on local attractions. It even sells Houston souvenirs.
From the Visitors Center, you can walk into the Art Deco lobby of Houston City Hall
, with its murals and plaster reliefs. The building was designed in 1939 by local architect Joseph Finger as a Public Works Project of the Roosevelt administration. It’s sheathed in Texas Cordova Shell limestone with carved relief panels and windows set in vertical channels. Intricate aluminum grilles frame the doorways and windows. Outside the building is Hermann Square, with a reflecting basin, lined by live oaks, leading to the outdoor terraces of City Hall.
Part of the original plan for the Civic Center is the 1926 Julia Ideson Library. The building is Spanish Renaissance in style, detailed with interesting carvings and reliefs depicting Houston history. Inside are eight murals painted by three female artists, as well as the Houston Public Library’s local history collection.
Sam Houston Park is the city’s oldest park, acquired in 1899. The Heritage Society
relocated eight houses and a church, all built between 1823 and 1905, to the park. The structures were originally located in various parts of Harris County, and were restored to represent Houston’s residential architectural history. The society offers docent-led tours of the homes, as well as a small history museum.
Tranquility Park, named for the moon’s Sea of Tranquility, commemorates America's landing on the moon. Houston takes a strange pride in the fact that ‘Houston’ was the first word spoken on the moon, as in ‘Houston, the Eagle has landed.’ The park’s design evokes the moon, with round portal windows, cylindrical fountains, and Neil Armstrong’s footprint (if you can find it). Along the bayou, between the theaters and the Downtown Aquarium, runs Sesquicentennial Park. The park, built in 1986, celebrates 150 years of Houston history. It’s a quiet-type of riverwalk. Tree-shaded, paved paths line the bayou’s steep banks with interpretive plaques detailing 150 years of Houston history, from 1836 to 1986. The south side of the bayou, to the side of the Wortham Center, is lined with seven towers, each composed of 150 sheet metal cut-outs based on drawings made by Houston school children who were born in 1986. The north side of the bayou is dominated by a monument to one of the city’s most famous current residents, George H.W. Bush. The statue of the 41st president is on a hillock overlooking his adopted hometown.
Of course, the area is called the Theater District for a reason. Houston’s major theater, ballet and opera companies are all housed within a few blocks of City Hall: the Houston Symphony Orchestra plays in Jones Hall; the bunker-like Alley Theatre
hosts contemporary plays; both the Houston Grand Opera and the Houston Ballet make their home in Wortham Theater Center; and musicals fill the halls of Hobby Center for the Perofrming Arts, presented by both Theatre under the Stars (TUTS) and Broadway across America.
Between the theaters is Jones Plaza, a block-sized venue for free concerts underneath the skyscrapers of downtown; and Bayou Place, the remodeled Albert Thomas Convention Center. Bayou Place now holds several restaurants and clubs, including the Hard Rock, Verizon Theater, and the Angelika Film Center. Across Buffalo Bayou is the gaudy-neon (but fun) Downtown Aquarium, with its fish, tigers, birds, snakes, sharks, Ferris Wheel, dancing fountains, carousel and restaurant.
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Hogg Building
Hard Rock Cafe
Virtuoso
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