Allen Center (Houston, Texas)
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Raven
N 29° 45.449 W 095° 22.266
15R E 270725 N 3294268
The Allen Center is a business office park in downtown Houston, Texas. Built between 1972 and 1983, it consists of 4 separate office buildings plus a hotel with a network of glass skywalks connecting its lobbies to each other.
Waymark Code: WMGZKB
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 04/28/2013
Views: 6
The Allen Center is a business office park in downtown Houston, Texas. Built between 1972 and 1983, it consists of 5 buildings with a network of glass skywalks connecting its lobbies to each other.
Three of the office buildings are appropriately called "One", "Two" and "Three Allen Center": One Allen Center (500 Dallas Street), is a 34-story, 452 ft (138 m) rectangular office high rise originally built in 1972. A similar yet slightly longer high rise, Two Allen Center (1200 Smith Street) is located just North of One Allen. Three Allen Center (333 Clay Street) was built much later, in 1980, and is and octagonal 50-story, 685-foot (209 m) tall skyscraper.
The fourth building -- 1400 Smith Street -- is located further from the main complex and is simply referred to by its street address. It was the former headquarters of Enron, one of America's largest commodities trading companies during the 1990s and later infamous for its financial scandal in 2001. The fifth, a DoubleTree hotel, is located at 400 Dallas Street and is adjacent to One Allen Center. A public courtyard displaying a few interspersed art pieces surrounds the entire building complex.
Below is a brief history of the Allen Center from its inception up to the late 90's, per wikipedia: (
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"The area that became the Allen Center was originally considered to be an eastern portion of the Fourth Ward. The opening of Interstate 45 in the 1950s separated the eastern portion from the rest of the Fourth Ward; that portion became the Allen Center and is now considered to be a part of Downtown Houston.
In 1996 TrizecHahn Properties acquired the Allen Center. Trizec defeated 16 other real estate companies so it could purchase the center for an amount reported by Tanya Rutledge of the Houston Business Journal as $270 million.
When Trizec acquired the Allen Center in November 1996, the complex had a 76 percent occupancy rate. By 1997, Trizec had convinced several tenants of the Cullen Center, also owned by Trizec, to relocate to the Allen Center. Paul Layne, a vice president of the office division of Trizec, said that the shifting of tenants would lead to Allen Center having an occupancy rate of 92 percent in 1998."