Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this walking tour. Scroll down or click here to register.
The University of St. Thomas broke with tradition when it hired the modernist architect Philip Johnson to design its new campus in 1956. And though Johnson took inspiration for his buildings at UST from the contemporary designs of Mies van der Rohe, his campus plan was influenced by something much older: Thomas Jefferson's 1818 design for the University of Virginia.
Our 90-minute, docent-guided walking tour focuses on the development of the university's campus and the buildings of the adjacent Menil campus, which include Eugene Aubry's recently restored Rothko Chapel and Renzo Piano's Menil Collection and Twombly Gallery. We'll also visit Hughes House, the boyhood home of Howard Hughes Jr., and Johnson's Chapel of St. Basil at the University of St. Thomas, one of the most distinctive worship spaces in Houston.
This is an exterior architecture tour only. The tour will not go inside any buildings. There are no public restrooms along the tour route.
About the tour
Admission is $10 per person for the general public ($7 for Preservation Houston members and students.) Children 11 years old and under are admitted free.
Advance ticket purchase is required. Reservations are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. We are not able to accommodate walk-ups the day of the tour. There are no refunds for tour reservations.
Registrants will receive parking and check-in information via e-mail.
Face masks are optional for all fully vaccinated individuals, including docents. We require that tourgoers who are not fully vaccinated remain masked at all times during the tour, including at check in. This policy may change based on recommendations from the CDC and local health officials.
In the event of inclement weather that prevents the tour from being offered as planned, we will notify registrants as far in advance as possible about their options to attend a rescheduled tour or transfer their reservations to another Preservation Houston tour.
Reserve your tickets now
Do you have an Architecture Walks pass?
If you have joined Preservation Houston and received a pass for a free Architecture Walk since February 2020, you may redeem the pass for admission to this tour. E-mail us and we'll be happy to help.
Passes are redeemable subject to ticket availability.
This program is made possible with funding from Humanities Texas and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the federal ARP Act.
Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.