Although the Downtown Houston Tunnel System is one of Houston’s best-kept secrets, most of downtown's 150,000-person workforce – and hundreds of visitors – use it every day, particularly when it’s raining or close to 100 degrees aboveground. This system of air-conditioned skywalks and subterranean walkways has been given many different names – mall, concourse, connection, underground, promenade – but Houstonians continue to call it simply “the Tunnel.”
What IS the Tunnel?
Depending on who is defining the Tunnel, it is as old as the 1930s or as young as the 1960s.
I define the Tunnel as a venue for tourists, a place for shopping, eating, and enjoyment. With that definition in mind, I consider that the Tunnel began with a movie theater that was located on the site of today's JPMorgan Chase Tower .
It all began with
the vision of three men: Wyatt C. Hedrick, Ross Sterling, and Will Horwitz.
1920s. Tunnel systems first appeared in the United States in the 1920s as part
of subway construction on the East Coast. They soon spread to every major city
across the nation and can be found under rivers and railroad lines for
automobile access and under streets for pedestrian access.[1] The first tunnel under a Houston city street was built in the late 1920s to
connect two office buildings.
It Was All in the Family. Fort Worth architect Wyatt C. Hedrick (1888-1964) “had an active practice in many cities...across the nation from the 1920s to the 1950s, and at one time his was the
third-largest architectural firm in the country.”[2] He would have
been aware of the tunneling trend when he proposed connecting two buildings
under Fannin Street to his father-in-law, future Texas governor Ross
Shaw Sterling (1875-1949).
In
1903, Sterling became an oil operator and in 1910 bought two wells, which
evolved into the Humble Oil and Refining Company. The company was chartered in
1917, with Sterling as president. The company then acquired a small pipeline,
giving Humble “a volume large enough to command a respectable place in the
market.” Humble sent the oil to Magnolia’s refinery in Beaumont, but they
needed “a refinery of the first magnitude” to process their own production and
that of other independents. To meet this need, Sterling purchased 2,600 acres
of land at Goose Creek for a refinery.
As
Sterling reported in his autobiography,
This mushroom growth and expansion, plus the preliminary costs
of the mammoth refinery and the cost of a handsome new office building under
construction in Houston, were spreading our finances pretty thin. It was
apparent that a large loan would be necessary to complete the Goose Creek
refinery on the scale planned and to tide us over until the new developments
began paying off....In the summer of 1918, we decided that [William Stamps
Farish, a member of Humble’s board,] should go to New York and seek a loan of
$5 million....He called on every trust company in the big city, and each
one...eased him down....Farish was about to despair of getting the loan
when he ran into Walter Teagle, president of the Standard Oil Company of New
Jersey, at a meeting of oilmen....Farish told Teagle he was in New York
looking for money to construct a big refinery and pipeline, and to drill some
new wells. ‘Well, why didn’t you come to us?’ Teagle asked. ‘We’ve got plenty
of money, and we might make a trade with you.’...Standard of New Jersey had
emerged from the war long on cash and short on oil and refineries to supply its
worldwide marketing system....Texas offered the best available source of
supply.[3]
Long
story short: Standard put $17 million into Humble’s treasury and became Humble’s
banker. In exchange, Standard became half-owner of Humble.[4]
By
becoming partners with Standard Oil of New Jersey, Sterling would have had occasion
to meet John D. Rockefeller, Jr. By 1921, John D. Rockefeller, Sr., had
transferred the bulk of his fortune, including stock in Standard Oil of New
Jersey, to Junior, close to $500 million. And Sterling, like the rest of the
world, paid attention to what Junior did.
So, it
would make sense that, in the 1920s, when Rockefeller proposed building what
became Rockefeller Center, connecting seven city blocks with an underground
concourse, Sterling would agree with his architect son-in-law that building a
tiny tunnel under one Houston city street to keep the heat at bay was a good
idea.
The two connected buildings were the Post-Dispatch
Building (1926), now the Magnolia Hotel, and the Sterling Building (1931). Ross
Sterling owned both buildings
In
1925, Sterling sold his Humble interests and started developing real estate in Houston.
He bought the Houston Dispatch and the Houston Post in 1925 and 1926 and subsequently combined
them as the Houston Post-Dispatch, which
later became the Houston Post. “The first issue of the hybrid Houston Post-Dispatch greeted the world
on August 1, 1924.”[5] In 1926, Sterling’s son-in-law, Wyatt C. Hedrick, with his
partners Sanguinet, Staats, and Gottlieb, completed the new Post-Dispatch
Building at 1100 Texas Avenue, on the corner of Texas and Fannin streets.[6]
Sterling was elected governor of Texas
in 1930. On
January 20, 1931, he was inaugurated, serving, as Texas governors did then, for
two years. “During those weeks before I became governor, I took time out
from making preparations for my administration to dedicate the twenty-one story
Sterling Building, across the street from my Post-Dispatch office building on Fannin Street in Houston....After the stock market crash, I now found that by erecting those buildings I
had overextended myself financially....Members of my business organization
watched the gathering economic storm with grave foreboding[,]...but I was
too busy with public affairs. By the fall of 1930, the Depression had hit Texas
hard. Everyone was alarmed at the rapidly increasing unemployment. In Houston,
a city of approximately 300,000 people, the army of jobless numbered 5,000 by
December 1930.”[7]
The third person responsible for the
Downtown Houston Tunnel System is Will Horwitz (1886-1941). “Born in
Benton, Arkansas, he graduated from the University of Michigan with a Master of
Arts degree and came to Houston as early as 1917. One of his jobs was showing
movies at Camp Logan and it was to set his course in life. With a borrowed
stake of $150 he bought his first theatre in 1919, the Travis, a rundown burlesque theatre at 612 Travis where the JP
Morgan Chase Tower now stands. As the story goes, lacking the funds to buy a
new sign, he improvised. He blocked out the ‘a’ and the ‘v,’ knocked the top
off of the ‘t,’ and so was born the Iris. It happened to be his daughter’s
name. He established prices of 5 and 15 cents for his theatres, angering movie
producers who threatened to withhold their films from him if he didn’t raise
prices, but Horwitz refused and the movie producers backed down." His Homefolks Theatres chain thus introduced to Houston modest, reasonably priced movie houses for ordinary people with second-run, family-oriented entertainment [1].
But how did the Iris Theatre inaugurate the Downtown Houston Tunnel System?
In 1925, Horwitz expanded his Homefolks
Theatres with the Texan, located at 814 Capitol, on the site of the Houston
Club Building. “The Texan... was one of the first true air-conditioned
theatres in the city.” Its basement “featured a nursery and playground for the
kiddies. This included rocking horses and swings, as well as a merry-go-round
in the middle of the room. The carousel could hold a dozen kids at a time. Maids,
dressed in white aprons, were on hand to look after the children.”[8]
1930s. While excavating to install air conditioning for the Texan
Theatre in the 30s, Horwitz had the idea of connecting his theatres with an underground
tunnel, so his patrons could go back and forth between them.[9]
Horwitz began
construction on the Uptown Theatre at 805 Capitol, across the street from the
Texan, but on the same block as the Iris. He “envisioned not a single theatre,
but a minicity [Uptown Center] that included the Uptown Arcade – an enclosed
set of shops and restaurants, all built into a tunnel system connected to the
Uptown Theatre – a 500-car-capacity parking garage (and bicycle-checking area),
and the newly renovated Iris Theatre [on Travis].”[10] He
“installed an electronic organ in his Uptown Avenue...and dubbed it the
Radio Mystery Organ because the sounds were created by radio tubes.”
[11]
“Other attractions [included] a flower
shop, a post office, and a curio shop. In the heart of the basement, patrons
could relax in the Old English-style decor of the Uptown Lounge, also known as
the Blue Room, and the Texas Fountain Room. The underground walkway connected
the Texan lobby, the Fountain Room, and the Uptown Tavern, then joined a set of
stairs to the Uptown....The temperature of the whole facility was
maintained by a massive air conditioning system, from the auditorium on down to
the individually cooled telephone booths." [12]
Perhaps he got the idea
from Wyatt C. Hedrick, the Sterling Building, and Rockefeller Center.
Rockefeller
Center was completed in 1932. It boasts a sunken plaza, an “open space in
the heart of the city’s concrete ravines” – world-famous Rockefeller Plaza,
complete with an ice-skating rink and huge, lighted Christmas tree in the
winter. The plaza is ringed with shops connected to an underground concourse,
which itself is connected to the city’s Sixth Avenue subway on the west and
pedestrian tunnels emanating from Grand Central Station on the east.
Anticipating downtown Houston’s roof gardens at Tranquillity Park and
Discovery Green, Rockefeller Plaza is a four-story structure, sixty feet wide,
whose “ceiling” is a welded steel platform topped with a layer of asphalt. It
rests atop three stories of underground corridors that are used, from top to
bottom, for shops, maintenance, and storage. Spreading like capillaries
sixty-eight feet below street level under all seven blocks of Rockefeller
Center is a sub-subbasement that carries utilities and a network of wires and
pipes.[13]
Radio. There was another
connection between Sterling and Horwitz – radio. Fascinated by the power and
lure of the medium even before the age of broadcasting, Horwitz was the owner
of Houston’s third broadcasting station, WEAY.[14]
He began broadcasting
on June 9, 1922. The Post Building,[15]
(1910), home of the Houston Post, was
on the southwest corner of Travis and Texas streets and Horwitz’s WEAY antenna was
stretched between its studios at the Iris Theatre at 612 Travis and the
Post Building. In the meantime, the Post
was building a studio of its own on the fourth floor.
“The front page story in the Post the next morning called WEAY the
‘Iris-Post Signal’ and said it had been received in El Paso, Cleveland, Atlanta
and Dallas. The Post soon began printing front page schedules for [Houston’s
first] three stations on the air, listing WEAY as the ‘Iris-Post’ station for a
while but eventually just as ‘the Iris Theatre Station.’”[16]
According to U. S.
Department of Commerce records, there never was a legal relationship between
the Post and WEAY. “One possible explanation for the Post calling WEAY the
‘Iris-Post’ signal was that it was a promotional tie-in. The Post had
obviously caught radio fever...and treated radio developments as exciting
and very important. In its stories on radio the Post repeatedly
referred to its readers as the ‘Post radio family.’ By contrast, the Chronicle
seems to have considered radio unnewsworthy and seldom mentioned it at all,
much less on the front page like the Post. The Post was already sponsoring
concerts on the two earliest stations; the tie-in with WEAY was a
little closer with some of the programming originating from the studio on the
fourth floor of the Post building down the street from the Iris, and with the
flattop antenna stretched between the two buildings.... [T]he Post had
a close relationship with Horwitz over the years, serving as co-sponsor of his
annual Children’s Christmas Party at the City Auditorium.”[17]
Sterling writes in his autobiography,
In 1924 I became involved in another business
enterprise that would have a major public impact: commercial radio. Just as in
the case of my involvement with the Dispatch, a radio station came into my
possession through a whimsy of fate. My son, Ross Sterling, Jr., was a
schoolmate and playmate of Howard Hughes, Jr....As a youth, Howard
Junior spent many after-school hours with Ross Junior. Even then, Howard
Junior's inventive genius was evident, as he incessantly devised one kind of contraption
after another....When radio came along in the early 1920s,
Howard and Ross were among its earliest enthusiasts in Houston. They visited an
amateur broadcasting station, the pioneer ham operator in these parts. Little
Ross, as we called him, went completely overboard for radio. He mounted a
campaign to persuade me to establish a regular broadcasting station. Alfred P.
Daniel, who had the amateur station, joined in the offensive, as did Howard
Hughes. I capitulated. I could hardly refuse my boy anything halfway within
reason. Besides, Little Ross's sales talk had aroused my mild interest in the
commercial possibilities of radio. I paid $25,000 for the equipment for a class
B broadcasting operation....I purchased the equipment shortly before the
merger of the Post and the Dispatch. It was left uncrated pending completion of
our new publishing plant. It was still uncrated when Little Ross suddenly fell
ill and died after an operation. I was stunned by this tragedy....For a time, I took no interest in my own
enterprises and plans, except for one. I resolved that the radio station would
be a living monument to the memory of my son. The responsibility of setting up
the broadcasting operation fell to the lot of Ray Dudley as general manager of
the paper. He was dismayed to learn that the cost of operating the station
properly would run up to $30,000 or $35,000 a year. That was before radio
stations thought of stooping to the mercenary practice of accepting pay for
radio time....There wasn't time to erect a new building to
house the radio station, so a hole was cut in the roof of the three-story
newspaper plant and a penthouse was constructed atop it to house the radio
mechanical works and a studio. On May 9, 1925, radio station KPRC ("Kotton
Port Rail Center") went on the air as Houston's first commercial
broadcasting station....But these aims could not be achieved without
listeners, and few Houstonians had radio sets with which to enjoy its programs.
So the Post-Dispatch management bought up a large stock of the little
old-fashioned crystal sets with the ear phones, and offered them free as
newspaper subscription premiums. More than 12,000 sets were distributed in this
way. Thus, we killed two birds with one stone. We built a listening audience
and the newspaper's circulation by the same instrumentality. Station KPRC grew
and expanded with the Post-Dispatch. As paying commercial programs came into
vogue, the station belied Dudley's apprehension by turning a profit. Later on,
during the depression in the early 1930s, the radio station earned more money
than the newspaper of which it was a subsidiary....I had initially seen radio as a plaything. I
had never dreamed that it would play an important role in my political career. I
would be the first Texan to go on the air in a political race, and the first to
take a sound truck along on a campaign tour to amplify my speeches.[18]
1940s.
Will Horwitz died on
Christmas Day, 1941. One by one, his theaters also died. The Texan was razed in
1953 for construction of the Houston Club Building (1956), which fell for a new building by Skanska.
By 1968 Horwitz's tunnel was filled with
debris. His daughter, Ruth Iris Horwitz, married Fred Gibbons, who played the
organs and pianos at several downtown movie houses. Fred’s son, by a later
marriage, is Billy Gibbons, who formed Houston’s famous rock group, ZZ Top.[19]
Ross Sterling suffered a stroke on September 18, 1948, while “visiting
his daughter and son-in-law, the Wyatt C. Hedricks, on their ranch near Fort
Worth. He was taken to a hospital there, paralyzed and semiconscious. For six
months, he lay helpless, in a shadowy twilight zone between life and death....[O]n March 25, 1949, a month and three days after his seventy-fourth
birthday, the tired gray eyes closed....Two days later [March 27, 1949], on
a bright Sunday afternoon, his mortal remains were laid to rest in the
bluebonnet-covered family lot in Houston’s sylvan Glenwood Cemetery, beside the
grave of Ross Sterling, Jr. After twenty-five years, Big Ross and Little Ross
were together again.”[20]
Stephen Fox, Houston's pre-eminent architectural historian, defines the Tunnel System as office towers connected, not only to each other, but also to parking garages. According to that definition, the Tunnel dates back to the 1960s.
1960s. Legend has it that the tunnel connections between 919 Milam, Travis Place, and the El Paso Building were inspired by businessman Henry Gardiner Symonds (1903-1971). A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1943, Symonds became president of the newly-established Tennessee Gas Transmission Company in Houston. Under Symonds’ leadership, the company grew to become an industrial complex with diversified interests reporting assets of over $4 billion shortly before his death in 1971.
Apparently, it annoyed Symonds after his move to Houston that he had to sometimes walk in the rain as he crossed from his downtown office building to the company’s Ten Ten Parking Garage (now Travis Place) a block away. Symonds conferred with his friend, Colonel William B. Bates, board chairman of the Bank of the Southwest and a partner in the law firm Fulbright, Crooker, Freeman, Bates & Jaworski. They decided there was a simple solution: construct a tunnel under Travis Street linking the basement of Symonds’ building (now the Kinder Morgan Building) to the parking garage’s basement. And, while they were at it, Bates decided to connect his building, now known as 919 Milam, which had no parking garage at the time, to the other side of the Travis Place Garage, resulting in two new tunnels.
This proved to be more complicated than hiring a construction company to dig the tunnels. Under Texas law the land under downtown streets belongs to adjacent property owners. But because the public uses the streets, the law empowers the city to maintain "full beneficial use" of the thoroughfares. J. Wiley Caldwell, then a young attorney working for Bates’s law firm, discovered, however, that tunnels carrying utility lines had been installed underground for many years and thus might set a precedent for pedestrian tunnels. He reasoned that if the adjoining property owners agreed and the city agreed, the desired tunnels could go in.
"Mayor Oscar Holcombe told Caldwell he would go along with the tunneling if property owners would pay the city an annual fee of one cent per cubic foot for the space under the streets occupied by the tunnels. Caldwell drafted an ordinance to that effect, and the mayor and City Council approved it." The City of Houston’s 1968 Code of Ordinances addresses tunnel construction and inspection in Chapter 40, Article VII, Sections 40-192-199.[5]
1970s. In 1971, tunnels from One and Two Shell to the Esperson Buildings were built. Also that year, a tunnel connected the Tenneco Building with 1100 Milam, the Entex Building, and the Hyatt Regency Hotel and its garage. In 1976, Pennzoil Place was joined with the Houston Club. In 1977, Tranquillity Underground garage opened with tunnels to the Coliseum, City Hall, and to the Civic Center and garage.
1980s. Problems with Tunnel Signage. In the 1980s, the Tunnel had grown sufficiently that property managers decided that it needed to be organized. "Officially titled ‘The Connection’ – a name no one, not even the Chamber of Commerce, uses – the tunnel system is not a downtown version of The Galleria. . . . [It exists] strictly to serve the needs of office workers. The tunnel was not built for full service mall shopping, as hotel visitors discover rather quickly. Developers know the tunnel offers the perfect enticement to lure big name tenants into their buildings, and that being hooked into the system is almost as important to closing a lease agreement as the terms of the lease itself....The biggest advantage is that as taxpayers we don’t have to pay to use it....[In 1985, the Tunnel System was only four miles long.] According to Efraim Garcia, [former] director of the city department of planning and development, it is the downtown property owners who retain ownership of property to the center of the street. The city is granted an easement for streets and utilities purposes by the developers. In return, subject to city permit approval, the developer is free to use the property under his building for a tunnel. The city merely requires the developer to file the permit, obey city fire and building codes, and pay an annual inspection fee. From a construction point of view, tunnels must compete with space necessary for utility lines. Beneath downtown streets are miles of storm sewers, water mains, telephone cables, gas and electrical lines, and street signal lines, some of which have to be moved to connect two buildings....Local architects say they want to see street level stairways into the tunnel system, marked above ground by colorful newsstands and kiosks....Houston tunnel shop owners and building managers, however, argue that their security would be seriously threatened....[In 1981], former Hyatt Regency manager Bob Williamson . . . got lost in the tunnels, and assumed that if he got lost, then his visiting hotel guests were even more confused by the lack of signs. Williamson called a meeting of major building representatives to see if they could develop a unified system of signs and maps. According to Glenda Wandling, vice-president and edvertising-promotion manager for MBank Houston, 28 representatives came to that first meeting. The attendance dwindled to six at the second, and that group formed the Ad Hoc Tunnel Committee, placing Wandling at the helm....[By 1985, the group had changed its name to] ‘The Connection Group.’ Many meetings later the committee agreed to accept a name, a logo design, and a kiosk map designed by 3D International. Each of the original 28 building developers was asked to contribute $1,000 toward artwork design costs. They were told that if they wished to purchase a kiosk map in their tunnel area, it would cost $5,000. The voluntary donations totaled $24,000, enough to cover all design and prototype expenses and hold a press conference to announce the program. [In 1985], 25 of the vandal-resistant, black aluminum kiosks [were still] installed throughout the tunnel system....[However,] the maps [were] very difficult to follow. Unlike The Galleria, where the luxury of space allows the maps to be mounted horizontally, the kiosk maps in the tunnels are mounted vertically. This means a lost person must translate this vertical information to horizontal tunnels. The map may say up is north, but that doesn’t help much when you’re standing at the busy, four-way intersection under the Esperson Buildings and there are four tunnel entrances and no identifying signs. Another problem with the tunnel concerns those portions owned by the City of Houston, where there [was] a drastic change from the tunnels operated by private enterprise. In contrast to the well-maintained private tunnels, the walkways under City Hall, City Hall Annex, Albert Thomas Convention Center, Tranquility Parkings, Civic Center Parking, the Music Hall, and the Coliseum are noteworthy because of their poor, slum-like maintenance and lack of signs.... Adequate signs...have never existed....Unfortunately, the tunnel’s privately owned conduits cannot be judged as one would The Galleria. Their utilitarian purpose has been masked by the shops that line their corridors. Building security would be impossible to maintain if strollers could wander through a building’s lobby and then to the offices above....A November 1983 survey by Central Houston, Inc., and Metro, indicated that 78 percent use the tunnel in good weather; an additional 5 percent use it in rainy weather; 56.9 percent say they know the tunnel system and use it; 45.8 percent shop in the tunnel; most shopping trips are made to The Park or Foley’s, with Foley’s accounting for nearly 11 percent of all trips made downtown....The most recent extension to the system is from Pennzoil Place through Republic Bank Center and the Alley Theatre garage. In 1983 the Houston Chronicle extended the northward movement of the tunnel with its connection to Texas Commerce Bank Tower."
The 80-foot tunnel between 919 Milam and the Esperson Buildings was completed in 1971, when the Tunnel System connected only 13 buildings. Twenty years later a survey conducted between 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on a Monday in June when it was not raining outside recorded 4,014 people passing through this intersection. And that was before there was a Tunnel Loop. The period of greatest growth was the Sixties, when Tenneco built a tunnel under Milam to the Ten-Ten Garage and another tunnel to Bank of the Southwest in 1961. The Bank of the Southwest and the Southwest Tower were connected in 1964. In 1967, the Alley Theatre and Jones Hall were connected with the Civic Center and parking garage. That same year, Houston Natural Gas joined its parking garage with Foley’s garage, and One and Two Shell Plaza were connected shortly after, in 1969
1990s. In 1993, five years after I began offering tours of the Tunnel System, I was contacted by Jack Byers, then a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. Byers was researching tunnel/skywalk systems around the world in order to choose three to compare in his dissertation. He sent me the history of tunnels and other systems and I sent him information about the Houston Tunnel System. Byers was so impressed with the uniqueness of Houston’s system that he came here and made a presentation to architects and engineers in the summer of 1993.
1990s. In 1993, five years after I began offering tours of the Tunnel System, I was contacted by Jack Byers, then a graduate student at the University of Minnesota. Byers was researching tunnel/skywalk systems around the world in order to choose three to compare in his dissertation. He sent me the history of tunnels and other systems and I sent him information about the Houston Tunnel System. Byers was so impressed with the uniqueness of Houston’s system that he came here and made a presentation to architects and engineers in the summer of 1993.
But Byers wasn't the only person interested in Houston's Tunnel System. Even before Byers’ visit to Houston, I was contacted by Don Sinclair, who was with the City of Toronto's Planning & Development Department. Toronto was designing a new wayfinding system for the Toronto Underground and wanted to know more about Houston’s system. Again, we shared information.
And in April of 1993, then Houston City Councilmember Sheila Jackson Lee stated, during the Council session on April 20-21, that "she sought to delay for a week by tag the item that had to do with the tunnel proposed between the Shell Building and 1000 Louisiana [Wells Fargo Plaza], and she appreciated the opportunity to discuss the issue with individuals involved, and she raised the issue of whether or not the tunnel could be more integrated between the street surface and the downtown surface; and was pleased to note that there was some discussion going on with a group established by the Downtown Management Association [Tunnel Task Force, Houston Downtown Management District] in which she hoped her issues would be referred to, particularly how the tunnel could be accessed; and even though it was a private system she would like to know [if] the city had a record in place of the tunnel system, she would also like the group to explore all logical connections and mix the access, as she said, with the inside and outside; and in talking with Jordy Tollett about the George Brown Convention Center it was noted that the system under jurisdiction of the City of Houston had not always been the most attractive system as it related to the area near the Alley Theatre and Jones Hall, and they were in the process of improving it; and her concern was that if Council had an asset like the tunnel, it should be an asset for all citizens, and that they look into the possibility as it impacts tourism; that she would support the item, but the discussion along with the good works done by Council Member [Ben] Reyes as part of his district, and the efforts going on, that they remember the individuals who were not particularly part of the community that now used the tunnel." [p. 17, Council Minutes, No. 93-868-1; 4-20/21-93.]
No. 54 on the Agenda for City Council on April 20/21, 1993, an "ORDINANCE granting a permit to BLOCK 144 JOINT VENTURE, A TEXAS JOINT VENTURE; BLOCK 145 LIMITED, A TEXAS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP; 910 LOUISIANA LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, A TEXAS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP; AND AV AMERICA . . ., A German Limited Liability Company; for constructing, maintaining, operating and repairing an underground pedestrian tunnel connecting 910 Louisiana [One Shell Plaza] with 1000 Louisiana [Wells Fargo Plaza] underneath portions of McKinney Avenue and Louisiana Street being street rights-of-way of the City of Houston, Texas; containing findings and prescribing the conditions and provisions under which said permit is granted, -- (This was Item 43 on Agenda of April 14, 1993, TAGGED BY COUNCIL MEMBER LEE) -- was presented. Council member Tinsley stated she wanted to speak strongly in favor of the item, the tunnel system was started years ago and was a great boost to the city; and Council Member Hartung had always wanted City Hall connected [it now is] and at one time it was a disadvantage to do so. Council Member Lee absent. Council Member Reyes stated he represented the Downtown area the whole time he had been on Council, and had tried very hard to make the tunnel system, and all of Downtown, viable, but there was a problem; that the tunnel system was great but if you walk the tunnel system and the streets of Downtown, you saw that somehow society had been segregated; that blue collar working people were on the street and the opposite in the tunnel system, and the system needed to be made public; that he was supporting the proposition, but if the city could not get franchise funding from the people making the profits in the tunnels, then they should at least have public access. Council members Ryan and Lee absent. Council Member McGowen stated he would like to echo those sentiments, he was thinking the same thing, the people who were getting the advantage of the tunnels and services should be in some way obligated to participate in the cost, some money should be coming in so they could revitalize the Downtown area. Council Members Ryan and Lee absent. Council Member Hartung stated she had been an advocate of the tunnel system, in fact, initiated the last phase of it, and she had always wanted City Hall connected; and she was hoping in the next few years they could work toward that goal. Council Members Ryan and Lee absent. Mayor Lanier stated he supported the item because he felt it made the tunnel system better, and he was not at all negative to suggestions of looking at ways to make the service better; that he would ask the Administration to make a report back to Council on whether or not, the capital cost would be high for public access and the advisability of connecting City Hall to the tunnel system; that he could not see hardly any argument at all in connecting City Hall to the system; and on public access, the only question he had was on keeping the tunnel open when all the shops were closed; that he did not think it would take a fortune to do, or very long. Council Members Ryan and Lee absent. Item 54 was again before Council. All voting aye. Nays none. Council Members Ryan and Lee absent. Council Member Calloway out of the city on city business. ORDINANCE #93-470 ADOPTED."
Adoption of this ordinance allowed the tunnel under McKinney Street to be built. Mayor Lanier asked the HDMC to form a Tunnel Task Force. I prepared the draft report. Guy Hagstette prepared the final report, which was sent to the Mayor. To my knowledge, nothing was ever done after that. But there is now a tunnel connecting City Hall to Two Shell Plaza.
The Tunnel Task Force's meetings -- and the information shared with Minneapolis-St. Paul and with Toronto -- led to today’s excellent wayfinding system of color-coded directional signage and the four-color maps you will find spread out underground. What is unique about these maps is that they are each oriented toward you, the tourist, so that you can determine correctly which way to turn.
The Esperson Buildings’ part of the Tunnel looked very different in 1991. What is today a large, bright food court with seating for 250 people was storage space hidden behind narrow, dimly-lit hallways lined with thick, dark maroon carpet paneling. It really looked like a tunnel.
No. 54 on the Agenda for City Council on April 20/21, 1993, an "ORDINANCE granting a permit to BLOCK 144 JOINT VENTURE, A TEXAS JOINT VENTURE; BLOCK 145 LIMITED, A TEXAS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP; 910 LOUISIANA LIMITED PARTNERSHIP, A TEXAS LIMITED PARTNERSHIP; AND AV AMERICA . . ., A German Limited Liability Company; for constructing, maintaining, operating and repairing an underground pedestrian tunnel connecting 910 Louisiana [One Shell Plaza] with 1000 Louisiana [Wells Fargo Plaza] underneath portions of McKinney Avenue and Louisiana Street being street rights-of-way of the City of Houston, Texas; containing findings and prescribing the conditions and provisions under which said permit is granted, -- (This was Item 43 on Agenda of April 14, 1993, TAGGED BY COUNCIL MEMBER LEE) -- was presented. Council member Tinsley stated she wanted to speak strongly in favor of the item, the tunnel system was started years ago and was a great boost to the city; and Council Member Hartung had always wanted City Hall connected [it now is] and at one time it was a disadvantage to do so. Council Member Lee absent. Council Member Reyes stated he represented the Downtown area the whole time he had been on Council, and had tried very hard to make the tunnel system, and all of Downtown, viable, but there was a problem; that the tunnel system was great but if you walk the tunnel system and the streets of Downtown, you saw that somehow society had been segregated; that blue collar working people were on the street and the opposite in the tunnel system, and the system needed to be made public; that he was supporting the proposition, but if the city could not get franchise funding from the people making the profits in the tunnels, then they should at least have public access. Council members Ryan and Lee absent. Council Member McGowen stated he would like to echo those sentiments, he was thinking the same thing, the people who were getting the advantage of the tunnels and services should be in some way obligated to participate in the cost, some money should be coming in so they could revitalize the Downtown area. Council Members Ryan and Lee absent. Council Member Hartung stated she had been an advocate of the tunnel system, in fact, initiated the last phase of it, and she had always wanted City Hall connected; and she was hoping in the next few years they could work toward that goal. Council Members Ryan and Lee absent. Mayor Lanier stated he supported the item because he felt it made the tunnel system better, and he was not at all negative to suggestions of looking at ways to make the service better; that he would ask the Administration to make a report back to Council on whether or not, the capital cost would be high for public access and the advisability of connecting City Hall to the tunnel system; that he could not see hardly any argument at all in connecting City Hall to the system; and on public access, the only question he had was on keeping the tunnel open when all the shops were closed; that he did not think it would take a fortune to do, or very long. Council Members Ryan and Lee absent. Item 54 was again before Council. All voting aye. Nays none. Council Members Ryan and Lee absent. Council Member Calloway out of the city on city business. ORDINANCE #93-470 ADOPTED."
Adoption of this ordinance allowed the tunnel under McKinney Street to be built. Mayor Lanier asked the HDMC to form a Tunnel Task Force. I prepared the draft report. Guy Hagstette prepared the final report, which was sent to the Mayor. To my knowledge, nothing was ever done after that. But there is now a tunnel connecting City Hall to Two Shell Plaza.
The Tunnel Task Force's meetings -- and the information shared with Minneapolis-St. Paul and with Toronto -- led to today’s excellent wayfinding system of color-coded directional signage and the four-color maps you will find spread out underground. What is unique about these maps is that they are each oriented toward you, the tourist, so that you can determine correctly which way to turn.
The Esperson Buildings’ part of the Tunnel looked very different in 1991. What is today a large, bright food court with seating for 250 people was storage space hidden behind narrow, dimly-lit hallways lined with thick, dark maroon carpet paneling. It really looked like a tunnel.
In 1996, the Esperson Buildings’ tunnel was totally transformed. Gone were the maroon carpet paneling and many of the walls they covered. The floors were paved in green, coral, and beige terrazzo to match the Walker Street lobby of the Mellie Esperson Buildings. The elevator lobby was paneled in Portuguese Rose marble with Rosa Antiqua marble bases. And, to identify the entrances from 919 Milam, Two Shell Plaza, and the Houston Club Buiding, a design representation of the cupola on top of the Niels Esperson Building was sandblasted into the marble, then gold-leafed. The drab caterpillar became the colorful butterfly you see today.
The Lanier Public Works Building was originally known as the Electric Tower (Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson with Robert O. Biering, 1968), headquarters of Houston Lighting & Power Co. In 1996, the City of Houston purchased the 27-story building and connected it underground to the Theater District Garage, City Hall, the City Hall Annex on the west and to One and Two Shell Plaza on the east. Because the funds to purchase the building came from the city’s water and sewer construction bond funds, which are restricted for use on utility-related projects, it was an easy decision to consolidate several departments then leasing space around Houston into this building, with 65 percent occupied by the Public Works & Engineering Department. Upon completion, it was named for Robert (Bob) Lanier, the mayor whose administration made the $42-million conversion possible.
Kirksey & Associates, designers of the new tunnel connection, completed in 1998, took advantage of the location of the original underground Japanese rock garden designed by Fred Buxton & Associates along Walker Street. Because the garden was located 30 feet below street level, they covered the space between the sidewalk and the building with a glass box within a box so that the tunnel and building escalator are easily viewed from the street and water from leakage and condensation is pumped out.
In the mid-1990s, the former 1100 Milam Building was remodeled as the new headquarters for Houston Industries. Its tunnel included a food court and shopping area where there had formerly been a cafeteria.
In 1993, new building owners completed a dramatic exterior and interior renovation of the 919 Milam Building (then known as Bank One Center), adding seven brightly colored "Jetson" pillars to the food court. The pillars boasted automotive finishes in colors popular in the 1950s. Other flashbacks to the fifties included neon circles above each pillar, three hula hoops around each pillar, and brushed stainless steel walls. Several decorative neon "Mid City" signs indicated that 919 Milam was located at the hub of the Tunnel System. The three main sections of the Tunnel intersect here.
At about the same time, the newly-formed Theater District Association began discussing ways the tunnels connecting its four performance halls could be integrated into plans for bringing more Houstonians and tourists into Downtown's cultural heart.
Another part of Hines Interests’ upgrading of One Shell Plaza between 1991 and 1994 was building the tunnel connecting it to Wells Fargo Plaza underneath McKinney Street. Construction began on May 8, 1993, and was completed in June 1994.
Before then, there was no Tunnel Loop.
You had to either go outside to the street level and cross McKinney Street (not fun in high heat or rain) or walk underground in a long semicircle from One Shell Plaza’s tunnel through the tunnels under Two Shell Plaza, the Esperson Buildings, 919 Milam, Travis Place Garage, and the El Paso Building to Wells Fargo Plaza and then back again. Makes me tired just writing about it!
The cost to Hines was about $10,000 per linear foot, but I think the cost was worth it.
Tunnel Flood of 2001. Early Saturday morning, June 9, 2001, water from Buffalo Bayou broke through a retaining wall and entered the basement of Bayou Place. It then flowed into the Theater District Garage under Bayou Place, overwhelming the ability of the sump pump to pump water back out. The water came in fast enough to fill up all four levels of the garage, then broke into tunnels under the Wortham Theater Center, Alley Theatre, Jones Hall, and Bank of America Center.
Tunnel Flood of 2001. Early Saturday morning, June 9, 2001, water from Buffalo Bayou broke through a retaining wall and entered the basement of Bayou Place. It then flowed into the Theater District Garage under Bayou Place, overwhelming the ability of the sump pump to pump water back out. The water came in fast enough to fill up all four levels of the garage, then broke into tunnels under the Wortham Theater Center, Alley Theatre, Jones Hall, and Bank of America Center.
In Bank of America Center, water broke through a tunnel-level wall, filling up the Tunnel to several feet inside its upper tunnel level. From there the water flowed into the tunnel leading to Pennzoil Place, breaking down walls and flowing into the Pennzoil Place food court. Four inches of water ran into the Houston Club Building’s tunnel and into Two Shell Plaza’s and One Shell Plaza’s tunnels.
At the same time, storm waters streamed into a parking ramp off Texas Avenue leading underneath the Wortham Theater Center and entered 17 Theater District staircases going from the street into the underground Theater District Garage. Some of the water from the Theater District Garage flowed into the tunnel of the Lanier Public Works Building, and from there into One Shell Plaza, which got water from two sides. Because the water level was so low at this point, it did not go any further, and 919 Milam (formerly Bank One Center) and Wells Fargo Plaza had no water at all in their tunnels.
Although you would never know it from local media reports, the majority of the seven-mile Downtown Houston Tunnel System was up and running, with its restaurants, shops, and services open to the public, by June 15, 2001. Over Labor Day weekend, the Houston Symphony held its first concert in Jones Hall, and on September 4, the Theater District garages started opening to the public. The Tunnel System was fully operational by March 2002.
At the same time, storm waters streamed into a parking ramp off Texas Avenue leading underneath the Wortham Theater Center and entered 17 Theater District staircases going from the street into the underground Theater District Garage. Some of the water from the Theater District Garage flowed into the tunnel of the Lanier Public Works Building, and from there into One Shell Plaza, which got water from two sides. Because the water level was so low at this point, it did not go any further, and 919 Milam (formerly Bank One Center) and Wells Fargo Plaza had no water at all in their tunnels.
Although you would never know it from local media reports, the majority of the seven-mile Downtown Houston Tunnel System was up and running, with its restaurants, shops, and services open to the public, by June 15, 2001. Over Labor Day weekend, the Houston Symphony held its first concert in Jones Hall, and on September 4, the Theater District garages started opening to the public. The Tunnel System was fully operational by March 2002.
In 1947, Foleys built a tunnel connecting its new building and parking garage. This tunnel was separate from other parts of the Tunnel System until April 2003 when it was connected under Dallas Street to a new tunnel under the 1000 Main Street Building.
2005. JPMorgan Chase Bank acquired Bank One and removed all traces of the "Bank One" name. In 2006, Chase transformed the first five floors of 919 Milam into a parking garage.
Estimated cost per square foot today would be $5,000-$15,000.
Utilities: Tunnel floors are never flat because of existing or abandoned utilities underneath.
Water: In new tunnels, the soil is manufactured – Select Fill – to allow water to drain. When designing a new tunnel, engineers need to consider soil retention, traffic above. Walls hold back soil, roof provides support, foundation: weight/load, accessibility, finish, joints, signage, construction shut-downs, legal issues (city permits), security, floods, sump pumps, studies, gravity, ventilation.
2008. BG Group Place, 46 stories, completed 2010, open 2011. Sold by Hines in 2013 for $480. Connects 806 Main to Battlestein's and Hines Garage (San Jacinto Building/Bender Hotel).
2013. 609 Main Street. Demolition of Sterling Building. Construction of new building similar to BG. 47 stories. same architect. Tunnel under Main Street to 600 Main (Chase Center). This activity by Hines on the east side of Main Street allowed the purchase of the Texaco Buildings by a company that planned to build apartments, which will be connected to the Tunnel System at BG Group Place and 609 Main.
Demolition of Macy's and closing of Tunnel under Lamar connecting 1000 Main Street to Macy's. Thus, Macy's Garage is also cut off from the Tunnel System. New building by Jeff Hildebrandt, owner of Hilcorp in 1201 Louisiana Building.
2008. BG Group Place, 46 stories, completed 2010, open 2011. Sold by Hines in 2013 for $480. Connects 806 Main to Battlestein's and Hines Garage (San Jacinto Building/Bender Hotel).
2013. 609 Main Street. Demolition of Sterling Building. Construction of new building similar to BG. 47 stories. same architect. Tunnel under Main Street to 600 Main (Chase Center). This activity by Hines on the east side of Main Street allowed the purchase of the Texaco Buildings by a company that planned to build apartments, which will be connected to the Tunnel System at BG Group Place and 609 Main.
Demolition of Macy's and closing of Tunnel under Lamar connecting 1000 Main Street to Macy's. Thus, Macy's Garage is also cut off from the Tunnel System. New building by Jeff Hildebrandt, owner of Hilcorp in 1201 Louisiana Building.
Where Is the Tunnel?
Set about twenty feet below Houston’s downtown street system, today’s seven-mile Tunnel is a series of underground passageways which, with aboveground skywalks, link over 77 buildings to hotels, banks, corporations, government offices, restaurants, retail stores, and the Theater District. Only one building, Wells Fargo Plaza, offers direct access from the street to the Tunnel; otherwise, you must enter the Tunnel from street-level stairs, escalators, or elevators located inside a building connected to the Tunnel.
While the City of Houston’s portion of the Tunnel links the Theater District’s parking garages to Bayou Place, performance halls, City Hall, and the Lanier Public Works Building, the majority of buildings connected to the Tunnel are privately owned.These private owners execute legal agreements to connect to each other, forming a “system.” Each private building owner then leases space in its lower level (basement) to retailers and services. Costing from $1,000 to $10,000 per linear foot, links to the Tunnel are an enormous advantage when leasing office space. Many property owners decorate their sections of the Tunnel with unique recessed lighting, display windows, and art, so you usually can tell when you are leaving one building for another just by noticing the change in Tunnel decor.
What’s In the Tunnel?
Just about every service – with the exception of a major supermarket – is available via the Tunnel. In addition to several major food courts, you will find shoe repair shops, sandwich shops, quality restaurants, snack bars, gift shops, specialty shops, clothing boutiques, copy and printing services, post offices, express mail services, banks, travel agencies, flower shops, dentists, doctors, clinics, drug stores, optometrists, eyeglass centers, beauty salons, and barber shops.
The Tunnel is also connected to the Theater District’s performance halls and Bayou Place’s Verizon WirelessTheater, and the Hard Rock Café, as well as to downtown’s only shopping mall, the Shops at Houston Center.
How Safe Is the Tunnel?
Building property owners maintain security by placing guards at strategic locations throughout the Tunnel and by installing cameras to monitor pedestrian traffic. Building owners ask that you not take photographs in banking lobbies. Wells Fargo Plaza requests that no photos be taken inside or from the building.
When Is the Tunnel Open?
The Tunnel is open during regular business hours, Monday through Friday. It is closed at night, on weekends, and national holidays.
***
[1] Information about Will Horwitz and his theaters was obtained from David Welling’s award-winning book, Cinema Houston, published by the University of Texas Press in Austin, Texas, in 2007. I highly recommend this book, not only to learn about the history of Houston cinema, but also to learn about the city itself.
[2] Sanguinet and Staats-Hedrick Collection, Architecture and Planning Library, University of Texas at Austin, accessed October 1, 2013.
[3] Ross S. Sterling and Ed Kilman, Ross Sterling, Texan: A Memoir by the founder of Humble Oil and Refining Company, edited and revised by Don Carleton, Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007, 36-41.
[4] Ross Sterling, Texan, 36-41.
[5] Ross Sterling, Texan, 63.
[6] The Sterling Building postcard is part of the Texas Postcards collection at the Boston Public Library, http://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6816359324/in/set-72157626587059111, accessed November 2, 2013.
[7] Ross Sterling, Texan, 127-128.
[8] Cinema Houston.
[9] “Will Horwitz and XED, Reynosa,” Houston Radio History Bog, http://houstonradiohistory.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html, accessed July 12, 2012.
[10] Cinema Houston
[11] “Will Horwitz and XED, Reynosa.”
[12] Cinema Houston.
[13] Information about Rockefeller Center is taken from Daniel Okrent’s outstanding and very readable history of this groundbreaking urban center, Great Fortune: The Epic of Rockefeller Center, New York: Viking Press & Last Laugh, Inc., 2003.
[14] “Will Horwitz and XED, Reynosa.”
[15] George Fuermann Collection of Houston Post Cards at the University of Houston Libraries, Copyright 2000 by the University of Houston Libraries. The Houston Post occupied this building on the southwest corner of Texas and Travis streets from 1904 to 1925 and built a radio studio on the fourth floor in 1922 to originate some programming for WEAY in the Iris Theater just down the street at 612 Travis. A mast was erected on top of the building and the antenna stretched between that mast and one atop the Iris.
[16] http://houstonradiohistory.blogspot.com/2007/04/1922-part-3-weay-iris-theater-station.html, accessed November 2, 2013.
[17] http://houstonradiohistory.blogspot.com/2007/04/1922-part-3-weay-iris-theater-station.html, accessed November 2, 2013.
[18] Ross Sterling, Texan, 60-70.
[19] Cinema Houston.
[20] Ross Sterling, Texan, 236.
