The Williams Tower (originally named the Transco Tower) is a 64-story, class A

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

office tower located in the Uptown District of

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

. The building was designed by New York-based John Burgee Architects with

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the po ...

in association with Houston-based Morris-Aubry Architects (now known as Morris Architects). Construction began in August 1981, and the building was opened in 1983. The tower is among Houston's most visible buildings as the 4th-tallest in

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, and the 44th-tallest in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The Williams Tower is the tallest building in Houston outside of

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, Interstate 45, and Interstate 69. The ...

, and is the tallest skyscraper in the United States outside of a city's central business district. It has been referred to as the "Empire State Building of the south".

History

Real estate developer Gerald D. Hines hired New York-based John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson to design the building, in association with Houston-based Morris-Aubry Architects (now known as Morris Architects). Construction was completed in 1983, with an open house held in April. The building was named the Transco Tower after its first major tenant, Transco Energy Co. Transco Energy Co. merged with the

Williams Companies The Williams Companies, Inc., is an American energy company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Its core business is natural gas processing and transportation, with additional petroleum and electricity generation assets. A Fortune 500 company, its commo ...

in 1995 and in 1999 the name of the building was changed to the Williams Tower. In December 2002, Ryan John Hartley climbed the tower and jumped from about halfway up, resulting in his death, which was ruled a suicide. In 2008, Hines REIT Properties LP, an affiliate of Hines Real Estate Investment Trust Inc., purchased the Williams Tower for $271.5 million from Transco Tower Ltd., a partnership consisting of Kuwaiti investors represented by Atlanta-based Fosterlane Management Corp. The building was offered along with a parking garage, a tract across the street from the Williams Tower, and a 48% stake in the

Williams Waterwall The Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park, formerly the Williams Waterwall and the Transco Waterwall, is a multi-story sculptural fountain that sits opposite the south face of Williams Tower in the Uptown District of Houston. The fountain and its sur ...

(now named the Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park) and the surrounding park; prior to this transaction Hines had already owned the other 52% of the waterwall.Project Sale: Williams 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 New ...

''. Friday, April 10, 2009. Modified on Saturday, April 11, 2009. Retrieved on November 15, 2009. On the morning of September 13, 2008, during

Hurricane Ike Hurricane Ike () was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. Ike took a sim ...

, the top of the tower was damaged near the rotating beacon and many windows were blown out. The skyscraper suffered over $3.5 million in wind damages. Twelve of the 49 elevators were damaged, most by water damage due to roof failures and others due to extreme building sway. Hines Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. put the Williams Tower up for sale in August 2012, selling it to Invesco Ltd. subsidiary Invesco Advisers Inc. for $412 million in March 2013.

Major tenants

The building was originally named for its major tenant, Transco Energy corporation, now part of the

, the tower's current namesake. Other major tenants include

Quanta Services Quanta Services is an American corporation that provides infrastructure services for electric power, pipeline, industrial and communications industries. Capabilities include the planning, design, installation, program management, maintenance and ...

, and the Consulate General of Denmark. The tower also served as the headquarters for the Hines companies until mid-2022

Significance

At 64 stories and above the ground level, the Williams Tower is the tallest building in Houston outside of

. When it was constructed in 1983, it was also the world's tallest skyscraper outside of a city's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

. The building was built to function as two separate towers stacked directly on top of one another, one comprising the first forty floors and the other the forty-first to sixty-fourth. The building has separate banks of elevators and lobbies for each of the two building sections. A majority of the bottom 40 floors are occupied by Williams. The remainder of the building is occupied by a variety of tenants. Williams Tower was named "Skyscraper of the Century" in the December 1999 issue of ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. ''Texas Monthly'' was founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy and has been published by Emmis Publishing, L.P. since 1998 and is ...

'' magazine.

Paul Gapp Paul Gapp (1928 – July 30, 1992) was an architecture critic for the ''Chicago Tribune''. He won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1979. Early life and education Born in Cleveland, Gapp graduated from Ohio University in 1950 with a bachelo ...

of the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' said that the building became an "instant classic" when it opened. Paul Goldberger of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' said that the tower gave Post Oak Boulevard "a center, an anchor, which most out-towns lack".

Features

There are six elevators that take tenants to the 51st floor, where they can transfer to other elevators to get to the 49th through 64th floor of the building. There is no public observation deck. During the nighttime hours, the building is defined by a 7,000

watt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...

beacon A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location. A common example is the lighthouse, which draws attention to a fixed point that can be used to navigate around obstacles or into port. More mode ...

that sweeps across the sky and can be seen up to 40 miles (65 km) away on a clear night. Topped by such a beacon, the tower hearkens back to the Palmolive Building in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...

. The building, along with its beacon, is a Houston landmark that identifies the

Uptown Houston Uptown (more commonly called The Galleria Area) is a business district in Houston, located west of Downtown and is centered along Post Oak Boulevard and Westheimer Road ( Farm to Market Road 1093). The Uptown District is roughly bounded by ...

district. The building is connected to a 10 level, 3,208 car parking garage by a sky bridge. The bridge also connects the building to retail outlets, like The Galleria, and two

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

-licensed helipads. In a grass field adjacent to the Williams Tower is the

Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park The Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park, formerly the Williams Waterwall and the Transco Waterwall, is a multi-story sculptural fountain that sits opposite the south face of Williams Tower in the Uptown Houston, Uptown District of Houston. The fountai ...

. Formerly privately owned in common with the tower, the waterwall and park has been owned by the Uptown Houston Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, a non-profit local government corporation since 2008. Williams Tower Front

The ''

'' said that the tower was "designed to be energy efficient". The building received the

Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale ...

's Energy Star label for each year since 2000 in which the building was eligible to receive the award. As of 2009, the building managers are seeking to gain

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating systems for the design, constructio ...

(LEED) certification from the

United States Green Building Council The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), co-founded by Mike Italiano, David Gottfried and Rick Fedrizzi in 1993, is a private 501(c)3, membership-based non-profit organization that promotes sustainability in building design, construction, and op ...

. The top four angles of the building form cat-like shapes with tails that run down all the way to street level. Williams Tower Spotlight

References

External links

Williams Tower
on

CTBUH The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States ...