FireFlyter

^{_{My Ex-Wife called it the "RAID" building, reminding her of the old, (1970's) "Raid Pest Spray" commercial showing an animated, tall can sweeping out a "dose of poison gas" from his "cap", no disrespect intended, it has always been one of my favorites as well, and is one of the few things I can smile about when I think of our marriage gone wrong...}}

[quote name='DaTrain' date='Saturday, January 15th, 2005 @ 6:54pm' post='12158']

Williams Tower - formerly known as Transco Tower

Height: 901 feet

64 stories

Circa: 1983

Architects: Johnson Burgee and Morris Aubry

Facts

- Then Transco Tower became Williams Tower when Transco Energy was bought out by Williams Energy Corp. in 1999

- Tallest building outside of any CBD

- Rotating beacon at night on roof every 15 seconds

- Williams Tower functions as two 32-floor towers stacked on top of each other, complete with separate lobbies, elevators, and garages.

- South of the building is a 3-acre park with a large fountain called the "Waterwall" (aka Transco Fountain), designed by the building's architects with Richard Fitzgerald & Partners. The fountain is a stunning work of hydraulic engineering.

- The top of the building features a beacon that sweeps the night sky over the Galleria area.

- Construction took only 16 months, a remarkably short time for a tower of such height.

2 Pics by Patrick Benders

Next four Pics by Mancuso

Former "TRANSCO" inscription

Waterwall

From Soul of America

Where I Live Will Be a Mute Point After I Get My Jet-Pac...[quote name='danax' post='142373' date='Saturday, January 20th, 2007 @ 7:29pm']I've been pondering the whole "peak oil" scenario and how we'll be affected if radically expensive oil prices happen. Here's one person's idea of what we might be in store for;

Should residents of Houston, a city built on cheap energy and that generates 140 million miles of vehicle traffic daily, using 4.5 million gallons of gasoline, be concerned? Absolutely, says Jim Kunstler, author of The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century.

"Well, this may not be a happy thought," Kunstler says, "but the folks in Houston may have to lower their expectations about what kind of life will be possible in Houston. Houston has become what it is because of cheap car travel and cheap air conditioning. These are two things that may not be with us much longer