First City Tower, located at 1001 Fannin, is a

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

downtown Houston Downtown is the largest central business district in the city of Houston and the largest in the state of Texas, located near the geographic center of the metropolitan area at the confluence of Interstate 10 in Texas, Interstate 10, Interstate 45, ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. The building rises in height. Completed in 1981, it contains 49 floors. First City Tower currently stands as the 14th-tallest building in the city. The architectural firm who designed the building was Morris-Aubry, and was built b
W. S. Bellows Construction Corporation
The structure is an example of late-modernist architecture. The tower, which formerly housed the headquarters of the now-defunct First City National Bank, now serves as the global headquarters of

Waste Management, Inc Waste Management, Inc., doing business as WM, is a waste management, comprehensive waste, and environmental services company operating in North America. Founded in 1968, the company is headquartered in the Bank of America Tower in Houston, Texa ...

, and the headquarters of

Vinson & Elkins Vinson & Elkins LLP (or V&E) is an international law firm with approximately 700 lawyers worldwide headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. The firm has offices in major energy, financial, and political centers worldwide, including Austin, Dalla ...

. It also houses the U.S. headquarters of

Campus Living Villages Campus Living Villages (CLV) is a global student accommodation provider with services in finance, design, development, project management and operation of student housing.Campus Living Villages." Campus Living Villages'. Retrieved on 15 March 201 ...

. The building, with Class A office space, has of office space.Chicago firm purchases First City Tower
" ''

Houston Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes The Business Journals, which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States, Hemmings Motor News ...

''. Tuesday July 8, 2003. Retrieved on May 5, 2010. The building is noted for its distinctive "staircase cuts" on the north and south facades, and is composed mostly of

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...

and green-tinted glass. These designs were designed to represent the letter " F" for the building's developer and first major tenant, First City Bank, which was itself founded by attorneys of the international law firm

. First City Tower was constructed in a diagonal rotation away from Houston's main north–south

street grid In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogona ...

, which gives the impression that the structure has a larger footprint than it actually does.

History

Morris Architects designed First City Tower, which opened in 1981.Sarnoff, Nancy.
Renovations under way at First City
" ''

''. Monday February 23, 2004. Retrieved on May 5, 2010.

JMB Realty JMB Realty was a real estate investment company based in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes ...

owned one third of First City Tower since the late 1980s. In 2002,

Waste Management, Inc. Waste Management, Inc., doing business as WM, is a waste management, comprehensive waste, and environmental services company operating in North America. Founded in 1968, the company is headquartered in the Bank of America Tower in Houston, Tex ...

, and

, and Ocean Energy Inc. were the major tenants and Insignia/ESG, the managing agent, was also a tenant. In October 2002, the building became the first in Houston to implement an in-house

courier A courier is a person or organisation that delivers a message, package or letter from one place or person to another place or person. Typically, a courier provides their courier service on a commercial contract basis; however, some couriers are ...

intercept center in order to provide a central collection point for all inbound and outbound deliveries serving its several tenants. In 2003, JMB Realty bought the First City Tower and a 10-story parking garage, which houses the Houston Club, for an amount reported by the ''

'' as $114 million. As of 2003, the largest tenant is

, which by that year had renewed its lease until 2020. By 2004, Ocean Energy, after being acquired by

Devon Energy Devon Energy Corporation is an energy company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration in the United States. It is organized in Delaware and its corporate operative headquarters are in the 50-story Devon Energy Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Its ...

, vacated of space in the First City Tower. In the same year, renovations to the tower began. FC Tower Property Partners, the owner and a limited partnership operated by an affiliate of JMB Realty, selected Morris Architects to design the public spaces in the tower.

CB Richard Ellis CBRE Group, Inc. is an American commercial real estate services and investment firm. The abbreviation CBRE stands for Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis. It is the world's largest commercial real estate services and investment firm (based on 2021 reven ...

, the property manager, oversaw the construction management.

Granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

pavers and landscaped planters were placed in the north and south plazas. The entrance columns were re-clad in stainless steel. A

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

monument, displaying the address and tenants of the First City Tower, was erected at the intersection of Fannin and Lamar. A private garden, used by tenants to host performances and receptions, was added. In November 2010, SSY Chemicals leased space in the building. By January 2011, Black Stone Minerals renewed its lease for its headquarters in the First City Tower and expanded its space by , giving it a total of .Real estate transactions
" ''

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With it ...

''. January 2, 2010. Retrieved on January 3, 2010.

References

External links

Official Site
{{Houston skyscrapers Bank company headquarters in the United States Skyscraper office buildings in Houston Headquarters in the United States Buildings and structures in Houston 1981 establishments in Texas Office buildings completed in 1981

History

See also

References

External links