The Ezekiel W. Cullen Building, usually shortened in pronunciation as the E. Cullen Building, is a building that serves as the administrative headquarters of the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the university in Texas with over 47,000 students. Its campus, which is primarily in s ...

and the

University of Houston System The University of Houston System is a public university system in Texas, comprising four separate and distinct universities. It also owns and holds broadcasting licenses to a public television station (KUHT) and a public radio station (KUHF). Th ...

. It is named in honor of Ezekiel Wimberly Cullen, a former congressman of the Republic of Texas, and grandfather of building financier

Hugh Roy Cullen Hugh Roy Cullen (July 3, 1881 – July 4, 1957) was an American industrialist and philanthropist. Cullen was heavily involved in the petroleum industry having struck oil near Texas in 1928. He was a large supporter of multiple educational institu ...

. The building was designed by Texas architect

Alfred C. Finn Alfred Charles Finn (July 2, 1883 – June 26, 1964) was an American architect. He started in the profession with no formal training in 1904 as an apprentice for Sanguinet & Staats. He worked in their offices in Dallas, Fort Worth, and Houston. H ...

in the

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 Unite ...

style, and opened in 1950. It is located in the Cullen Family Plaza of the University of Houston campus in

Houston 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 ...

, and is iconic to the image of the university. The east portion of the E. Cullen Building constitutes the

Cullen Performance Hall Cullen Performance Hall is a concert hall located on the campus of the University of Houston in Houston, Texas. The hall, comprising the eastern half of the E. Cullen Building, was named in honor of Ezekiel W. Cullen, a former congressman f ...

, while the west portion houses the office of the President of the University of Houston as well as other administrative offices.

History

The construction of the Ezekiel W. Cullen Building was announced by the university on March 21, 1945. The construction of the E. Cullen Building was part of a large expansion to the University of Houston's permanent buildings on campus that took place starting on May 10, 1948, and the official groundbreaking ceremony occurred on May 14, 1948. The main donor to the project was philanthropist and university chairman

, who requested that the building be named after his grandfather Ezekiel Wimberly Cullen. The elder Cullen had served as a leader of the Republic of Texas as a congressman and also as a justice of the Supreme Court of the Republic. While in the Third Congress of the republic as chairman of the education committee, he also sponsored the "Cullen Act", which started land endowments for schools and universities. The act effectively lay the basis for an eventual state public school system. The university hired native Houston architect

to design the building. In order to give the building a classical look, Finn designed the building with long wings and regularly spaced

pilaster In classical architecture, a pilaster is an architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column and to articulate an extent of wall, with only an ornamental function. It consists of a flat surface raised from the main wal ...

s. The building officially opened on Halloween of 1950. The building includes "Three portrait reliefs in gilded bronze of the Cullen family" by sculptor

Mario Korbel Mario Joseph Korbel (March 22, 1882 – March 31, 1954) was a Czech-American sculptor. Biography He was born in Osík, Bohemia (now Czech Republic) on March 22, 1882 to a clergyman, Joseph Korbel and his wife Katherina Dolezal Korbel. He began ...

dedicated in 1952. Several years later, the building became home to the first

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

station,

KUHT KUHT (channel 8) is a PBS member television station in Houston, Texas, United States. Owned by the University of Houston System, it is sister to NPR member station KUHF (88.7 FM). The two stations share studios and offices in the Melcher Ce ...

. The station commenced broadcasting on May 25, 1953, from the fifth floor of the E. Cullen Building. KUHT moved to studios on Cullen Boulevard in 1964. In 1959, a fire broke out in the E. Cullen Building, which caused severe interior and exterior damage to the building. The damage was repaired.

Gallery

File:EWCullen1.jpg, Ezekiel W. Cullen File:Cullenbldg.jpg, Aerial View of the Cullen Plaza File:Ezekiel_W._Cullen_Building,_University_of_Houston_in_2012.JPG,

entrance

References

External links

University of Houston building profile
{{University of Houston University of Houston campus Buildings and structures in Houston University and college academic buildings in the United States Art Deco architecture in Texas School buildings completed in 1950 Alfred C. Finn buildings 1950 establishments in Texas