1600 Smith Street -- formerly known as Continental Center I, also as Cullen Center Plaza -- is a 51-story, 732 ft (223 m) tall office tower in downtown Houston, Texas. Built in 1984 and encompassing 1,098,400 square feet (102,045 m2) of office space, the postmodern-style building once served as the headquarters for Continental Airlines prior to its merger with United Airlines. The office tower still houses the local regional offices of United as of today, along with other tenants such as Chevron.
One of the skyscraper's most distinctive features is its asymmetrical shape, allowing it to look different from different angles -- leaving its final geometry subject to interpretation.
Below is a brief history of the building, per Wikipedia: (
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"Bruce Nichols of The Dallas Morning News said that in early 1984 1600 Smith Street "was so vacant it became a symbol for overexpansion in Houston." By 1987 the Canadian company Trizec Group bought debentures carrying an option to buy portions of the Cullen Center, including 1600 Smith Street. [...]
In September 1997 Continental Airlines announced that it would consolidate its Houston headquarters in what would become Continental Center I. The airline scheduled to move around 3,200 employees in stages beginning in July 1998 and ending in January 1999. The airline consolidated the headquarters operation at the America Tower in Neartown and three other local operations into Continental Center I and Continental Center II in the Cullen Center. Continental anticipated taking 15 floors at Continental Center I. In addition it planned to add a company store, a credit union, and an employee service center in the street-level lobby of Continental Center I. The airline agreed to lease 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) of space in the Cullen Center for 11 years initially and 20 years if it took renewal options. [...]
After the September 11 attacks and by September 2004 Continental laid off 24% of its clerical and management workers. Despite the reduction of the workforce, Continental did not announce any plans to sublease any of its space in Continental Center I and Continental Center II. [...]
In 2004 three new lease agreements to occupy space in Continental Center I were signed. [...] Southwest Bank of Texas (now Amegy Bank) agreed to occupy 23,271 square feet (2,161.9 m2). Tana Exploration Co. LLC agreed to occupy 11,347 square feet (1,054.2 m2). Stinnett Thiebaud & Remington LLP agreed to occupy 8,974 square feet (833.7 m2).
In February 2006 Chevron U.S.A. Inc. signed a lease for 465,000 square feet (43,200 m2) of space. The lease deal filled the building to full occupancy and removed a large portion of available space from the Downtown Houston submarket. [...]
In 2008 Continental renewed its lease for around 450,000 square feet (42,000 m2) in Continental Center I. Before the lease renewal, rumors spread stating that the airline would relocate its headquarters to office space around George Bush Intercontinental Airport due to high fuel costs affecting the airline industry; the rumors stated that the airline was studying possibilities of less expensive alternatives to Continental Center I. If the airline had left Continental Center I, 40% of the space in the building would have been unoccupied. [...] In 2008 Continental Center I was 98% leased.
In 2010, Continental Airlines and United Airlines announced that they would merge and that the headquarters of the combined company would be in the Chicago Loop in Chicago. The airline did not state how much of the 480,000 square feet (45,000 m2) of space that it leases in Continental Center I would be vacated. As of 2010 Continental had around 3,000 clerical and management workers in its Downtown Houston offices, and still leased 450,000 square feet (42,000 m2) in Continental Center I, about 40% of the tower's office space.
In 2011 Chevron renewed a lease for 311,000 square feet (28,900 m2) of space for seven years."