- Neighborhood
- Downtown
- Year built
- 1966
- Style
- Mid-Century Modern
- Era
- Mid-Century
- Architect
- Caudill Rowlett Scott
- Designations
Significance
In June 1962 Houston Endowment, the foundation established by Jesse H. Jones and Mary Gibbs Jones, offered to pay for a performing arts hall to give the Houston Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, and Houston Ballet a permanent home. Ground was broken in January 1964, and the building, designed by Caudill Rowlett Scott, was dedicated and given to the City of Houston on October 2, 1966. It stands on the block once occupied by the 1910 City Auditorium. The hall cost $7.4 million and fills a full city block. Its grand lobby features sculpture by Richard Lippold, and the main hall seated 2,911, with a movable counterweighted ceiling that could reduce capacity to about 2,300. Renowned for its acoustics, it received an American Institute of Architects Honor Award in 1967 and remains home to the Houston Symphony and the Society for the Performing Arts.
Climate risks tracked
Click a risk to see what it means for this building.
Jones Hall is in the downtown Theater District, where Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 flooded below grade spaces and parking garages and severely damaged neighboring performance venues. Protecting the hall's basement level stage machinery, electrical systems, and storage with floodgates, pumps, and raised equipment is its most important resilience step. The tall glass lobby and travertine clad exterior are central to the mid-century design. Hurricane resistant laminated glass can be installed to match the original look, and anchorage of stone panels should be checked periodically. The large interior volume takes considerable energy to cool, so mechanical upgrades and efficient controls help with summer heat without changing the building's appearance.
Use the preservation assistant to talk through retrofit strategies for these specific threats.
Location
Nearby landmarks
Preservation Assistant
Grounded in Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts
Suggested questions
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