Heritage Plaza (Houston, Texas)
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Raven
N 29° 45.535 W 095° 22.249
15R E 270755 N 3294427
Heritage Plaza is a 53-story, 762 ft (232 m) tall postmodern style skyscraper in downtown Houston, Texas. Built in 1987, it features a unique stepped granite crown on its top floors which resembles a Mayan pyramid.
Waymark Code: WMH13H
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 05/04/2013
Views: 6
Heritage Plaza is a 53-story, 762 ft (232 m) tall postmodern style skyscraper in downtown Houston, Texas. It was completed in 1987 by the architectural firm M. Nasr & Partners. A landmark office tower in Houston's downtown district, the building's broad shoulders and perfect location put it at the center of the best views of the city skyline: in many photographs and videotapes, the shape of an eagle is outlined in white neon at the top of the building's Mayan pyramid-like crown.
The odd stepped formation at the top was inspired by the architect's trip to the jungles of Mexico. A similar, less elaborate, form of the same steps exists at the bottom of the building, not as much to complement the top but as to provide structural reinforcement since there is a 16-story parking garage resting above the tower's lobby.
Below is a brief history of the building, per Wikipedia: (
visit link)
"Heritage Plaza completed construction around 1986 in early 1987. It was the last major office building completed in downtown Houston in the midst of the collapse of the Texas real estate, banking, and oil industries in the 1980s. The building stood as the most recently completed major skyscraper in Houston for over 10 years, until the completion of 1500 Louisiana Street in 2002.
The building has 1,150,000 square feet (107,000 m2) of lease-able space, of which a vast majority sat vacant until Texaco leased 550,000 square feet (51,000 m2) in 1989. The building went on to serve as the US headquarters of Texaco for 12 years. In 2001, Heritage Plaza became the US headquarters of the ChevronTexaco corporation.
In 2005 Goddard Investment Group acquired the building. During that year over 700,000 square feet (65,000 m2) in the building was unoccupied. In 2006 EOG Resources announced that it will move from 3 Allen Center to Heritage Plaza. The firm had signed a 15-year lease for 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) and planned to move around 400 employees. The firm, scheduled to move in early 2007, became the largest tenant in the building at the time.
In early 2007, Deloitte & Touche USA L.L.P. executed a lease to occupy 300,000 square feet (28,000 m2) as part of a 12-year, 10-floor lease with options to increase that space, if needed. The new lease consolidated staff from three Houston sites to one downtown location, making Deloitte the largest tenant in Heritage Plaza."