The Houston tunnel system is a network of subterranean, climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways that links 95 full city blocks below

Houston Houston (; ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in Texas, the Southern United States#Major cities, most populous city in the Southern United States, the List of United States cities by population, fourth-most pop ...

downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ...

streets. It is approximately long. There are similar systems in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Dallas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

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, and

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. Architectural historian Stephen Fox has stated that the idea for the tunnel system came when the Bank of the Southwest Building was "linked by tunnel to the 1010 Garage and the Mellie Esperson Building" in 1961.

Description

The Tunnel is a series of underground passageways that, with above-ground

skywalk A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of encl ...

s, link office towers to hotels, banks, corporate and government offices, restaurants, retail stores, and the

Houston Theater District The Houston Theater District, a 17-block area in the heart of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States, is home to Houston's nine professional performing arts organizations, the Bayou Place entertainment complex, restaurants, movies, plazas, an ...

. Portions of the tunnel contain gift shops, newsstands, banks, technology centers, flower shops, copy centers, dry cleaners, and

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. ...

s similar to a major shopping mall. They are widely and heavily used by office workers and tourists. Only two buildings, Wells Fargo Plaza and McKinney Garage on Main, offer direct access from the street to the Tunnel; other entry points are from street-level stairs, escalators, and elevators inside buildings that are connected to the tunnel. Access is allowed to the general public into these buildings with few restrictions, during normal operating hours, in order to reach the Tunnel. Most of the retail areas of the Tunnel are in the basements of these buildings, connected by passageways. While walking through, one can determine which building one is in by the unique signage and/or architectural design of that building, as well as the wayfinding system and Houston Tunnel maps. Most of the Tunnel is in the western half of downtown Houston. The tunnel is generally open during weekday business hours only. The Tunnel has been criticized for its numerous stairways, especially in the northern portion, which make wheelchair use impractical in some locations. Bob Eury director of the Houston Downtown District, stated that, "These areas haven't been made ADA-compliant because it would be difficult or impossible to put in ramps and still leave enough headroom for pedestrians."

Discontinuous portions

The Harris County tunnel at the far north side of downtown is not connected to the rest of the system by either tunnels or skywalks. It connects Harris County courts, jails, and associated buildings totaling 10 blocks. Six blocks of the St. Joseph Medical Center are connected via skywalks at the southeast corner of downtown near the Pierce elevated. The ''

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 ...

'' complex, at 801 North Texas, was connected to the Tunnel until those buildings were imploded in 2017; the newspaper's operations relocated to the former ''

Houston Post The ''Houston Post'' was a newspaper that had its headquarters in Houston, Texas, United States. In 1995, the newspaper shut down, and its assets were purchased by the ''Houston Chronicle''. History Gail Borden Johnson founded the ''Houston Po ...

'' complex (off the Southwest Freeway) in 2014. Other parts not connected to the main Tunnel are the skywalk connections between the Hilton-Americas Hotel and George R. Brown Convention Center, the skywalk connections at the

Toyota Center Toyota Center is an indoor arena located in Houston. It is named after the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The arena is home to the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and it was once the home of the Houston ...

, and at the

Houston Public Library Houston Public Library is the public library system serving Houston, Texas, United States. History Houston Lyceum and the Carnegie Library The Houston Public Library system traces its founding to the creation of the second Houston Lyceum in 18 ...

Buildings connected

This is a partial listing. * 1001 McKinney * 1600 Smith * 1400 Smith * 1100 Louisiana * 1111 Travis * 1500 Louisiana * Esperson - 808 Travis/815 Walker * Commerce Towers * Calpine Center * JPMorgan Chase Tower * Bank of America Center *

Pennzoil Place Pennzoil Place is a set of two 36-story towers in Downtown Houston, United States. designed by Philip Johnson/John Burgee Architects from a concept by Eli Attia, a staff architect with the firm. Completed in 1976, it is Houston's most award-winni ...

One Shell Plaza One Shell Plaza (OSP) is a 50-story, skyscraper at 910 Louisiana Street in Downtown Houston, Texas. Perched atop the building is an antenna that brings the overall height of the building to . At its completion in 1971, the tower was the talles ...

* The Esperson buildings * Wells Fargo Bank Plaza *

Centerpoint Energy Plaza Centerpoint (alternatively spelled centrepoint) may refer to: * Centerpoint (geometry), a generalization of the median to two or more dimensions Organizations * CenterPoint Energy, an electric and natural gas utility in the U.S.A. * CenterPoint Pr ...

* Kinder Morgan Building * Total Plaza * One Houston Center *

First City Tower First City Tower, located at 1001 Fannin, is a skyscraper in downtown Houston, Texas. 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 archite ...

* One Allen Center * Wedge International Tower * BG Group Place * 1111 Fannin

Flooding

The tunnels, being underground, are prone to flooding. They serve as channels for floodwater, allowing it to move through the tunnels from flooded buildings to unflooded buildings, flooding buildings that would not have been flooded otherwise. After

Tropical Storm Allison Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical storm that devastated southeast Texas in June of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season. An arguable example of the "brown ocean effect", Allison lasted unusually long for a June storm, remaining tropical or s ...

, some of the buildings installed floodgates to prevent another occurrence of tunnel flooding.

References

External links

Map in PDF formatDetailed Houston Tunnel map in Adobe FlashMobile applications providing offline maps of Houston Tunnels
{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston Tunnel System Underground cities Tunnels in Texas Transportation buildings and structures in Houston Downtown Houston Pedestrian tunnels in the United States