How did Houston end up with so many skyscrapers? (The Woodlands: 2013, how much)

[SonoranDesert]

I was impressed when I found out how many skyscrapers Houston has. I noticed that a lot of them were built in the 80s and just wondering where all the demand for office space came from. Considering how much land Houston has I'm surprised they didn't built out instead of up, kind of like Phoenix. I hope to visit one day and see all those supertalls.

[chris_ut]

80s oil boom

[Weatherguy]

It has built out as well as up. For the U.S., it is quite a highrise city, with highrises located in several nodes around the city, most notably Downtown, Uptown, Med Center, Greenway, and Energy Corridor. Even The Woodlands, about 30 miles from Downtown, has significant highrises.

Although there are many highrises, it's extremely sprawling like Phoenix or L.A.. Population of the metro is approaching 7 million.

Yes, the 80s oil boom created an associated skyscraper boom, mostly Downtown. Petrochemicals is still a big driver, but the economy has diversified so a lot of skyscrapers are related to other industries. The Med Center alone has as much square footage as some fairly large cities. Same for Uptown, which is just an amazing district if you like highrises.

[gwarnecke]

New skyscrapers are becoming less popular in Houston, at least outside of downtown and for high-end multifamily residential.

Midrises are more popular, at least in O&G (I suppose a reflection of construction vs land costs and of the increasing decentralization of business districts in the Houston area?). For example, the new Exxon campus and the updated Shell Energy Corridor campus are both midrises.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

New skyscrapers are becoming less popular in Houston, at least outside of downtown and for high-end multifamily residential.

Midrises are more popular, at least in O&G (I suppose a reflection of construction vs land costs and of the increasing decentralization of business districts in the Houston area?). For example, the new Exxon campus and the updated Shell Energy Corridor campus are both midrises.

From the potential renderings that I've seen, I'd say it's the opposite. Inside the loop and plus the galleria, it's becoming more popular. Look how many have been build the last 5 years.

[gwarnecke]

I didn't word it that well...but in my original post, I meant that high-end residental highrises are still very popular. Maybe more popular than ever.

And yes, the recent building boom did yield a few high-rise office buildings downtown (although a tiny fraction of the # of skyscrapers that were built downtown in the 1970s and 1980s).

But there's a strong trend away from skyscrapers for big corporate campuses. Exxon left downtown, and Shell is about to leave downtown, for midrise campuses in outlying business districts. Most of the new office buildings constructed in the Energy Corridor from the 2013-2016 boom years would also be considered midrise, rather than true highrise.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by SonoranDesert

I was impressed when I found out how many skyscrapers Houston has. I noticed that a lot of them were built in the 80s and just wondering where all the demand for office space came from. Considering how much land Houston has I'm surprised they didn't built out instead of up, kind of like Phoenix. I hope to visit one day and see all those supertalls.

Along with the answers already given, Houston is the 4th largest city in America... home to many major energy and oil companies.

[LocalPlanner]

Back in the 1970s-80s, many high rise office buildings were constructed that were not justified by the market or financial returns. Lending was too loose, and some were built more as tax shelters than to house growing office employment. Houston really ended up with more high rises than it should have had by the mid-1980s.

Now fewer high rises are built on each up-cycle. Plus, it's harder to financially justify office buildings over 30 stories, the construction costs get really high. You have to be sure that tenants will be willing to pay the elevated rents you have to get to make the numbers work.

[Houston parent]

IMO, by far the best buildings in our skyline were built in the 80's - frequently Philip Johnson designed and Hines developed towers. Some of the great local buildings designed by Johnson include Pennzoil Place, Transco Tower & adjacent water wall (Williams Tower), Republic Bank Building (Bank of America). I also like the Texaco Heritage Plaza (not a Johnson design) with its Aztec temple on top.


If you want to see some wild (but sadly un-built) plans, look up the crazy designs for the aborted Bank of the Southwest Tower to be built downtown in the early 80's. They had a design competition that yielded some crazy submittals from several big-name architectural firms. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-te...photo-10668980


To me, Houston's economic and architectural glory years were in the 70's and 80's. I doubt we'll ever see anything like it again. All the crazy new buildings seem to be going up in Asia these days.

[SonoranDesert]

Originally Posted by Weatherguy

It has built out as well as up. For the U.S., it is quite a highrise city, with highrises located in several nodes around the city, most notably Downtown, Uptown, Med Center, Greenway, and Energy Corridor. Even The Woodlands, about 30 miles from Downtown, has significant highrises.

Although there are many highrises, it's extremely sprawling like Phoenix or L.A.. Population of the metro is approaching 7 million.

Yes, the 80s oil boom created an associated skyscraper boom, mostly Downtown. Petrochemicals is still a big driver, but the economy has diversified so a lot of skyscrapers are related to other industries. The Med Center alone has as much square footage as some fairly large cities. Same for Uptown, which is just an amazing district if you like highrises.

Downtown alone is massive, but then when you include all the other high rise clusters it's impressive. I'd be very happy living there among the skyscrapers.

It sprawls out like crazy. I overlayed the urbanized area of Houston with Salt Lake's, and it's amazing how huge Houston is and how small SLC is.