El Paso Corporation Headquarters At 1001 Louisiana St.

[RWReagen]

This past year the El Paso Corp has begun renovation work on its downtown Houston headquarters. The building was completed in 1963 and was the first of the many steel highrises and skyscrapers to come along later. Until recently, it was known as the Tenneco building. EP companies are the sole tenant. The building has not been remodeled or had a major upgrade since it's completion and it was decided that a renovation was needed. The building's utilities are being replaced and upgraded floor by floor and special attention is being made to make the new renovation "green" and LEED compliant. Fire sprinklers are being added after so many years.

So far several newly renovated floors have opened and they are very impressive. Perimeter enclosed offices have been done away with and moved in and replaced with glass walls leaving an open aisle all around the perimeter of the floor. The new space is bright and airy with natural light. All new offices and cubicles have been brought in with wood accents and frosted glass. Office doors are glass and slide on tracks. Many people comment that the overall look is reminiscent of IKEA style.

Each floor has its own new common area in the central elevator lobby now featuring a coffee and kitchen area with stainless steel appliances, refrigerators and large flat screen monitors. Restaraunt style seating areas and pub height tables give workers a casual place to meet and have lunch. At each elevator lobby a large floor to ceiling size blow up of a black and white photo from the company's history makes an interesting detail and gives workers a sense of history and appreciation of the hard work from before the modern computer age. In two opposite corners of each new floor are casual seeting and meeting lounge style areas with whiteboard walls and comfortable chairs. These areas look out on the downtown view. Several new conference rooms have also been included in the new floor plans.

This renovation will take place over the course of the next several years and tentative plans include a remodeling of the tunnel area and the ground floor, exterior and 1st floor lobby. The large two story windows on the second floor that were damaged during Hurricane Ike were temporarily repaired and will be replaced later. They are very expensive and take several months to get. Hopefully the renovations will be completed and EP will have a new headquarters that will be the envy of downtown.

[lockmat]

paragraphs next time please? Killed my eyes...or maybe that's from staring at the screen all day in a completely silent office.

[kylejack]

The tunnel level is nice. I pass through it sometimes.

[plumber2]

My dad was the plumbing superintendent on the original construction. Charles G Heyne Co. was the mechanical contractor.

I remember going to the building with my dad when it was being constructed. I had a picture of myself, at age 8, looking out over the red railing on the top floor (level 35, I think) that is the mechanical floor. (I hope to find the pictue again someday).

The flooring, similar to the Humble Building's, is constructed with inner conduits that carry electrical and plumbing lines out from the column locations. This allowed for efficient furniture placement, and for the modular walls to be moved around without much need for disruptions below floor. Sanitary piping still needed to be routed below floor and this was a challenge. The building engineer would have to examine were you intended to core a hole beforehand. Pipe hangers were hung off of clips that attached to the underside of the engineered floor. (no drilling was allowed)

They did conduct a major remodel on floor 5 back in the mid 80's when Tenneco shut down it's computer systems building out on the West Loop and combined it into their system downtown. Tenneco was a massive conglomorate back in those days. They not only produced natural gas, but had a retail gasoline network, built ships and nuclear submarines and produced "Case" branded heavy machinery.

I'm glad to see El Paso re-investing in this building instead of selling it off.

[LTAWACS]

I'm surprised it's stil a go...

[Subdude]

This past year the El Paso Corp has begun renovation work on its downtown Houston headquarters. The building was completed in 1963 and was the first of the many steel highrises and skyscrapers to come along later. Until recently, it was known as the Tenneco building. EP companies are the sole tenant. The building has not been remodeled or had a major upgrade since it's completion and it was decided that a renovation was needed. The building's utilities are being replaced and upgraded floor by floor and special attention is being made to make the new renovation "green" and LEED compliant. Fire sprinklers are being added after so many years.

So far several newly renovated floors have opened and they are very impressive. Perimeter enclosed offices have been done away with and moved in and replaced with glass walls leaving an open aisle all around the perimeter of the floor. The new space is bright and airy with natural light. All new offices and cubicles have been brought in with wood accents and frosted glass. Office doors are glass and slide on tracks. Many people comment that the overall look is reminiscent of IKEA style.

Each floor has its own new common area in the central elevator lobby now featuring a coffee and kitchen area with stainless steel appliances, refrigerators and large flat screen monitors. Restaraunt style seating areas and pub height tables give workers a casual place to meet and have lunch. At each elevator lobby a large floor to ceiling size blow up of a black and white photo from the company's history makes an interesting detail and gives workers a sense of history and appreciation of the hard work from before the modern computer age. In two opposite corners of each new floor are casual seeting and meeting lounge style areas with whiteboard walls and comfortable chairs. These areas look out on the downtown view. Several new conference rooms have also been included in the new floor plans.

This renovation will take place over the course of the next several years and tentative plans include a remodeling of the tunnel area and the ground floor, exterior and 1st floor lobby. The large two story windows on the second floor that were damaged during Hurricane Ike were temporarily repaired and will be replaced later. They are very expensive and take several months to get. Hopefully the renovations will be completed and EP will have a new headquarters that will be the envy of downtown.

Thanks for the story. This has always been one of my favorite Houston skyscrapers. Although it was built in 1963 it still looks fresh today. The one part I don't like is remodeling of the tunnel level. I always thought the paneling in that tunnel section was a great period touch. Any chance they would keep it?

[cottonmather0]

I worked in that building for a few months 10 years ago when I was employed by a contractor to El Paso. The 1960's Skidmore vibe was kind of cool right at first, but at that point it was almost 40 years old and really worn out. The building certainly needed the upgrade and I'm glad to see it's finally on the way. One can only take so much wood paneling and low ceilings.

[RWReagen]

The wood panels are from Germany and are a prominent feature throughout the public areas of the building. I would like to see some kind of ambitious tunnel level presence along the lines of the CenterPoint and Reliant Energy Buildings with a large food court or open hotel lobby style public area. Of course future work in these areas may be put on the back burner but the fact that EP is going ahead with the current work is a positive sign to its people and the community.

[HedwigTramp]

A tidbit about the Tenneco / EP building. It was built to be self reliant.

There is an old working water well in the basement. Not exactly spring water quality, but you can flush toilets with it. It also has backup generators for electrical power.

The old well and generators were integrated into their Y2K contingency planning .... in case the doomsday scenario occured.

They also built an underground bunker system at Hockley for their Gas Control center. It was built during the cold war with A-bombs in mind.

[RWReagen]

And their getting the tunnel's first and only soft serve ice cream machine!

[The Gipper]

I am the OP for this topic.

I used to work at the El Paso bldg this past year and I took some photos of our new floor and the new lunch area on the 10th floor.

I think it was pretty cool but a tad too IKEA-ish. Some of the colors in the new lunch room were a little ponderous also.

All in all good so far. I hope to visit after the 2nd floor lobby and tunnel areas are remodeled. Should be nice.

My Picasa Web Album El Paso Bldg Renovation Photos

Edited October 2, 2009 by The Gipper

[Urbannizer]

Verry Nicce, thanks for the pics of the interior.

[longcat]

Some pics of the building pedestal work going on. They are building a 4 story curved glass wall that will encircle the lower 4 floors of the building. Should give the building a more modern look at the ground level.

[editor]

Thanks for the pics. Didn't this building get its lower levels and sidewalk renovated back in the late 90's, too?

[longcat]

Thanks for the pics. Didn't this building get its lower levels and sidewalk renovated back in the late 90's, too?

I wasn't at El Paso back then, but I thought it was only the sidewalk and redoing the fountain and such. They are also redoing the tunnel space below the building - it's all beign done behind temporary walls though so I don't really have any idea what it will look like down there when done.

[Subdude]

I wasn't at El Paso back then, but I thought it was only the sidewalk and redoing the fountain and such. They are also redoing the tunnel space below the building - it's all beign done behind temporary walls though so I don't really have any idea what it will look like down there when done.

That's too bad. I kind of liked the tunnel section with the vintage 1960s wood paneling.

[Ross]

That's too bad. I kind of liked the tunnel section with the vintage 1960s wood paneling.

Even better were the days when Tenneco had a store in the tunnel that sold almonds and such from the Kern County Land Company subsidiary.

[infinite_jim]

[infinite_jim]