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Downtown Houston is Houston 's largest Business District . It is the seventh largest in the United States and has the third most concentrated skyline after New York City and Chicago . Downtown Houston contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. The streets are not as full in downtown compared to other cities, as there is an extensive network of tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district. Houstonians in general are reluctant to live in downtown. Few large high-rises exist for those looking for a downtown living alternative. Many who want to live in the area like to live from often-stylish townhouses in Midtown . Realtors and developers had noticed this trend over the years, and started the trend of converting older buildings into more modern and luxurious loft spaces. A number are located around the performance halls of the theatre district and near Main Street. A noticeable trend is that Houston is becoming more "downtown-centric". The baseball, basketball, and hockey teams have moved into downtown facilities. January 1, 2004 marked the opening of the "new" Main Street, a plaza with many eateries, bars and nightclubs, which brings many visitors to a newly renovated locale. To complete the scene, Main Street Square offers dancing fountains throughout the day and offers a dramatic scene as one of the METRORail trains pass under. Along the Main Street corridor is the original Foley's department store. ARCHITECTURE ]] In the 1960 s, Downtown Houston comprised of a modest collection of mid-rise office structures, but has since grown into one of the largest Skyline s in the United States. In 1960, the Central Business District had 10 million square feet (1,000,000 m&2) of office space, increasing to about 16 million square feet (1,600,000 m&2) in 1970 . Downtown Houston was on the threshold of a boom in 1970 with 8.7 million square feet (800,000 m&2) of office space planned or under construction and huge projects being launched by Real Estate Developer s. The largest proposed development was the 32 block Houston Center. Only a small part of the original proposal was ultimately constructed. Other large projects included the Cullen Center, Allen Center, and towers for Shell Oil Company . The surge of skyscrapers mirrored the skyscraper booms in other cities, such as Los Angeles and Dallas . Houston experienced another downtown construction spurt in the 1970 s with the energy industry boom. ]] The first major Skyscraper to be constructed in Houston was the 50-floor, 714-foot-tall (218 m) One Shell Plaza in 1971 . A succession of skyscrapers were built throughout the 1970s, culminating with Houston's tallest skyscraper, the 75-floor, 1,002-foot-tall (305 m) JPMorgan Chase Tower (formerly the Texas Commerce Tower), which was completed in 1982 . In 2002 , it was the tallest structure in Texas, ninth-tallest building in the United States and the 23rd tallest skyscaper in the World . In 1983 , the 71-floor, 970-foot-tall (296 m) Wells Fargo Bank Plaza was completed, which became the second-tallest building in Houston and Texas, and 11th tallest in the country. Skyscraper construction in downtown Houston came to an end in the mid- 1980 s with the collapse of Houston's energy industry and the resulting severe Economic Recession . When the 53-floor Texaco Heritage Plaza was completed in 1987 , it appeared that no more skyscrapers would be constructed for a while. However, in 2002, the Houston-based Enron Corporation began construction of a 40-floor skyscraper which was about to be completed in 2001 , the year the company collapsed in one of the most dramatic corporate failures in the history of the United States. Other smaller office structures were built in the 2000-2003 period. As of December 2001 , downtown Houston had about 40 million square feet (4,000,000 m&2) of office space, including 28 million square feet (2,800,000 m&2) of class A office space. Many downtown buildings are linked by a System Of Tunnels And Skywalks . Notable buildings Notable buildings that form Houston's downtown skyline:
OTHER VENUES Downtown Houston has two major league sports venues. Minute Maid Park (formerly Enron Field), which opened in 2000, is home to the MLB Astros and the Toyota Center home to the NBA Rockets and AHL Aeros opened in 2003. The Downtown Theater District is ranked second, behind New York City, for the number of theater seats. Houston is one of only five cities in the United States with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing art disciplines of opera, ballet, music, and theater. Venues in the theater distict include the Wortham Center (opera and ballet), the Alley Theater (theater), the Hobby Center (resident and traveling musical theater, concerts, events), the Verizon Wireless Theater (concerts and events) and Jones Hall (symphony). The George R. Brown Convention Center, with its 1.2 million square feet of flexible exhibit, meeting and registration space and adjacent hotel, is frequently used for conventions, trade shows and community meetings. In comparison to other major cities, Houston has relatively few hotel rooms downtown, partly because downtown Houston is not a large leisure travel market. Major hotels in downtown Houston are the Hilton Americas Convention Center Hotel with 1,203 rooms , the Four Seasons Houston Hotel and Residences, the Doubletree Hotel Downtown Houston and the Hyatt Regency Houston. Of note, the Hyatt Regency Houston has a Revolving Restaurant , the Spindletop, located on the hotel's 30th floor. In addition there are a number of upscale, boutique hotels in the CBD such as the Landcaster, Hotel Icon, Inn at the Ballpark and the Alden Hotel. There are approximately 5,000 hotel rooms in downtown Houston. RETAIL AND TRANSPORTATION train approaching Preston Station in Downtown Houston]] Downtown Houston is home to the flagship Foley's Department Store (founded in 1900), which moved to its current location in 1947. In 2006 this store, along with all other Foley's stores, will be renamed Macy's . The Shops In Houston Center is an enclosed Shopping Mall . It houses ninety stores and the building itself straddles two city blocks. Downtown Houston is served by five Light Rail stations on METRORail 's Red Line. They are the Downtown Transit Center , Bell Station , Main Street Square Station , Preston Station , and University Of Houston-Downtown Station . Part of the shops and restaurants that make up Houston's central Chinatown extends into the CBD. EDUCATION Downtown is served by Houston Independent School District . Very few children live in Downtown; according to the 2000 U.S. census, there were only 550 inhabitants under the age of 18 in the Downtown Super Neighborhood, which also has a strip of land east of Downtown. Of those children, any well-off children usually attend either other public schools or attend independent schools. Five elementary schools have zoning boundaries that extend to Downtown; they are Crawford, Crockett, Gregory-Lincoln Education Center (in the Fourth Ward ), Anson Jones (will close after fall 2006 - students will be rezoned to Bruce Elementary School), J. Will Jones (in Midtown ), and Sherman. E.O. Smith Education Center (in the Fifth Ward ) and Marshall Middle School (in Northside Village ) take students at the middle school level, and Davis High School (in Northside Village) and Reagan High School (in the Houston Heights ) take students in the high school level. Incarnate Word Academy , a Catholic all-girls' school founded in 1873, is the only high school actually located Downtown. The academy is operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese Of Galveston-Houston . EXTERNAL LINKS |
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