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Enron Tower At 1200 Smith St. And 1400 Louisiana St.


sttombiz

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When the first Enron building was constructed, I jokingly called it the "Bic Building", because it resembled the disposable lighter of that name. I used to draw cartoons of the Houston skyline and show a butane flame on one end of it.

The great thing about the Pelli adjunct is that it makes the original look like an afterthought. Even better, when you're on Smith Street, the 'fins' on the 1963 Exxon Building match up so neatly with the new Enron building. In itself it's a lovely building; that it compliments its setting, and respects its elders, is genius.

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I also heard it referred to as "Tupperware Tower" because of the shape.

I agree on the second Enron building. It echoes the original without exactly copying it, and it works well with the Exxon building also. I like the way the tower section is set at the same angle as the original building, while the bottom section (trading floors) is aligned with the downtown street grid. To me it is one of the best buildings downtown. Interestingly, they solicited ideas from a lot of firms on the design, although I don't know if it was a formal competition. They had an exhibit of the proposals in the lobby once. Compared to the proposals by other architects, the Pelli one really seeemed the best.

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  • 11 months later...
I've been up there before. You'd think that it'd be amazing standing along the open balcony, thirty stories high, but I was a little disappointed. That photo is great, but it was all about timing the shot.

So is there a ceratin way that one can get up there?

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So is there a ceratin way that one can get up there?

Always, if you know the right people. In my case, the building's brokers were hosting an event to allow commercial real estate developers, brokers, architects, service providers, politicians, and reporters to take a close look at the structure.

I'll bet most folks don't realize that Ken Lay had a party shower in his 7th floor office...a big one too. Now, what could he possibly have used that for? Hmm, I wonder...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Really cool shot.

Niche, this building is 40 stories high, not 30.

And Subdude, I don't think that's Enron I in the background. The building in the background appears to have corners, and appears to be about the same height as Enron II. (Enron I is significantly taller than Enron II.) Which raises the question: is this really a view of west Houston? I think not. I think the shot is taken looking east and the building in the background is ExxonMobil.

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Really cool shot.

Niche, this building is 40 stories high, not 30.

And Subdude, I don't think that's Enron I in the background. The building in the background appears to have corners, and appears to be about the same height as Enron II. (Enron I is significantly taller than Enron II.) Which raises the question: is this really a view of west Houston? I think not. I think the shot is taken looking east and the building in the background is ExxonMobil.

Ahh you're right. I think I see the Maxwell house in the background and I was trying to find out what freeway that was. :P Makes sense now.

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  • 8 years later...

Enron, what a black eye the Lay's and their band of merry money makers were on our city.......... I still can't believe they were allowed to post what they forecasted their profits would be on all of their big "energy deals and cutting edge ideas" Is it just me or did the SEC and all the banks involved seem to have been in on the real truth which was drive the worthless stock up and sell off the paper you had on the company before the truth hit the fan? They call it day trading, I call it a simple ponzi, junk stock pyramid scheme where the people on top got away with simple fraud......people that included the Weingarten married to Fastow, the Martin lady who is an attorney and had the nerve to praise Ken as a CEO who she painted as smart and innovative.......question, for all who were interviewed for their documentary, are all of you who cashed out that stupid to think any of what Enron did was ethical, innovative or even providing a service that was needed in the market, since the pipelines and electric companies went on without any help from their former parent company Enron...........buying companies and adding on your companies "mother may I costs" well in East Texas we call that fraud, not helping the market adjust by selling energy futures and over estimated hopeful profits...........  Enron taught us we all need to ask more questions of our government and also we need more people in government desk jobs keeping eyes on these and all public interest industry to assure the public's best interests are number one, especially since energy is being taken from public owned assets like hydro-electric dams, oil from under our public lands and also many other assets we own as citizens........so there is no reason gas should be 3 dollars or electric running short anywhere............you paid for the majority of the structures and technology with your tax dollars, so it is time to stand up and ask What The heck? 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think the second Chevron building is an example of how successful architects could accent preexisting towers. I soooooo hope Chevron 3 is built and follows the same trend. I think of NYs World Financial Centre. Although built at the same time, I can almost see how this could have been a complex that was built one building at a time over a number of years. I was informed a few weeks ago, that the Williams Tower was suppose to be part of a complex surrounded by shorter towers. I think it's time those towers were built as well. Anyway, back to the topic. A third tower added with some sort of stellar skybridge would be another jewel on Htown's crown.

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