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Architecture Walks

Wortham Theater Center (1987, Morris*Aubry Architects) / by Jim Parsons

Next tour: Civic Center and Theater District, 2 p.m. January 12

Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

When landscape architects Hare & Hare drew up plans for Houston's civic center in the late 1920s, they envisioned a group of stylistically similar Spanish-influenced buildings arranged around a public square. However, those plans were derailed by the Depression, and the city's governmental and cultural center ended up developing over the next 50 years in a variety of styles with few overall planning efforts. Today, structures in the Civic Center and the adjacent Theater District reflect not only the evolution of Houston's municipal and cultural institutions, but also changing architectural tastes.

This 90-minute, docent-guided tour will visit architectural highlights of the neighborhood, including Ralph Adams Cram's Julia Ideson Building of the Houston Public Library; Joseph Finger's Houston City Hall; Tranquillity Park, built to commemorate the 1969 moon landing; and Ulrich Franzen's 1968 Alley Theatre. Along the way, the tour will discuss the changing styles and shifting civic priorities that helped shape this section of downtown Houston.

Learn more about this tour or reserve your tickets now:

About Architecture Walks

Explore Houston's architecturally and historically significant neighborhoods, buildings and institutions with Preservation Houston's monthly docent-guided walking tours. The tours are offered on the second or third Sunday of the month from January to November; tickets go on sale at 1:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. June through September). Tours are open to the public. The cost is $15 per person ($10 for Preservation Houston members, students and children 11 and under). Advance ticket purchase is required for all tours.

We also offer quarterly walking tours of Glenwood Cemetery (reservations are required; see our schedule of upcoming tours) as well as private tours for groups of nearly any size.

Digital Architecture Walks

PH’s Digital Architecture Walks include videos, self-guided tours and other content that will help you explore historic neighborhoods, buildings and sites. These digital tours are offered in conjunction with our guided in-person Architecture Walks.