| Formerly: |
Transco
Tower |
| Built: |
1983 |
| Designed
by: |
Johnson/Burgee
Architects and Morris Aubry Architects |
| Type: |
Skyscraper
»» Click here to see
other skyscrapers. |
| Observation
deck: |
Closed |
| Location: |
2800
Post Oak Boulevard |
Architecturally
simple, but culturally significant to the people of
Houston. The Williams Tower rises 64 stories over
the Galleria Area and has become an icon of the city.
Had it been cast in stone, rather than glass it would
be easily mistaken for any of the skyscrapers that
went up before the Great Depression. Now it is a memorial
to those buildings that went before it, and still
in-line with the other glass blocks that share its
zip code. The structure at the bottom of the tower
isn't a lobby, it's a fountain. A great horseshoe
water wall that lights up at night. However, in this
photo, the water is not flowing. The Williams Tower
is actually constructed as two 32-story buildings
stacked on top of each other. The first floor lobby
services the Williams Corporation and its offices
on floors three through 32. The second floor lobby
services a number of other companies on floors 33-64.
There is a sky lobby that also serves as an observation
deck on the 51st floor.. Unfortunately, it faces out
over dull suburbia, rather than towards downtown,
or any of Houston's other six skylines. Still, if
you want to see it, you can only get there from the
first floor lobby. Ask the guards stationed under
the giant "Williams" logo, and they'll show
you the way. Tenants boast that this is the tallest
office building outside an urban core in America.
Unlike most buildings in the Bayou City, the Williams
Tower is impressive at night. Even though it has the
same light-dimming skyline-ruining glass that the
other towers in the city do, the Williams Tower makes
up for it by having a rotating beacon on top. It's
similar to an aircraft beacon, but much more visible.
It is said that its rotation is synchronized with
a similar beacon on a skyscraper in Chicago,
but there is little proof. The light show is enhanced
in December when the top 20 floors light up with the
outline of a Christmas tree.
- 1985
- The Houston Chronicle reports that a man has been
arrested for climbing the outside of the Transco Tower.
Donald Treste was wearing a gorilla costume and using
suction cups to inch his way up the building's glass
facade.
-
16
December, 2002 - A man described by his family as
mentally ill took his own life by leaping from the
Williams Tower. Ryan Hartley stopped rush hour traffic
and caused a spectacle when he started
climbing the outside of the glass building at 7:45am
local time. Hartley, a skilled rock climber and
University of Houston student, used only a hook
and a small bag of chalk to make it to the 26th
floor where he slipped, but then re-gained control.
Witnesses say he paused for a few minutes, smiled,
then leapt from the tower to his death while local
television helicopters whirled overhead. Though
Hartley appeared be a loyal Christian, and regularly
attended services and activities at his church,
local television station KHOU-TV/DT (11/31) reported
that he left behind a suicide note denouncing American
military involvement in Muslim countries, and warning
that the country was getting itself into another
Vietnam-style conflict. When Hartley jumped, Belo-owned
CBS affiliate KHOU was on a close-up of the man,
but froze the picture as he pushed off of the building.
Fox station KRIV-TV/DT (26/27) showed nearly all
of Hartley's gruesome suicide. All the local television
stations in Houston publically bray about having
a policy against televising suicides. But only NBC
affiliate KPRC-TV/DT (2/35), ABC's KTRK-TV/DT (13/32),
Univision's KXLN-TV/DT (45/46), NBC's KTMD-TV/DT(47/48),
and Belo's News24Houston chose to abide by their
public policy.
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