Downtown Skyscraper Lighting

[Metro Matt]

I haev noticed that the Continental Airlines building lighting is back on this month, which is good.

With the white or blue floodlights?

[mfastx]

With the white or blue floodlights?

White. Haven't seen the blue lights in years.

[Jax]

I just thought I'd revive this discussion by posting a photo I took of the current state of Downtown Houston's lighting.

Edited December 9, 2011 by Jax

[Daniepwils]

Why would Houston have a building do that? Baylor is in Waco.

Just sayin.

Wells Fargo Plaza will light up in different colors for holidays & special events only. During the rest of the year they'll probably just keep it white like it used to be is what I'm guessing.

Wells has always had a band of white neon around the top ever since it was first built, but on two occasions it hasn't been on. Shortly after the collapse of Enron because their building also had a similar band of white neon around the very top & Wells Fargo didn't want to have that kind of bad image. The second time several years later after people finally got over the whole Enron thing they started lighting Wells Fargo Plaza again then Hurricane Rita came & wrecked havoc on the fragile glass neon lighting up there. I'm sure with that insurance money they used part of it to get their new color changing LED setup.

Thanks for the info! I noticed the lights were pink awhile back for the Komen run.

[samagon]

I just thought I'd revive this discussion by posting a photo I took of the current state of Downtown Houston's lighting.

yep, it always looks really nice between thanksgiving and NY. too bad only WF lights up normally.

[Montrose1100]

I noticed that Hess tower has some kind of light show going up on the top of it this evening also reliant energy plaza was having a raver disco theme last night and Memorial Hermann tower in the TMC is stuck on Rainbow. And then you have the Fulbright Tower with its Christmas lights on.

Is there a game I don't know about?

[jjreyes75]

I think it's great that they have the lights on like that. Its cool to see the east part of downtown lit up. Makes up for all the other towers with no lights on at all. TMC is very cool looking at night lit up.

[nativehoustonion]

They should install lights on all of our tall towers.  In Dallas they have there whole downtown lighted.  They are installing new blue LEED lights on the Bank of America tower.    

[infinite_jim]

1000 Main (Reliant Plaza) has been raving since the NFL pre-season started. If you get a chance to watch the whole pattern it's got a cool liquid-like, back and forth fade with the reds/oranges and blues/greens.

[cloud713]

1000 Main (Reliant Plaza) has been raving since the NFL pre-season started. If you get a chance to watch the whole pattern it's got a cool liquid-like, back and forth fade with the reds/oranges and blues/greens.

Ah so that's the building with the rectangular led rows at the top.. I never noticed that that building lit up until recently. IMO downtown needs all the help it can get with lighting and I think all the towers with lights should keep them on. If International Tower gets built (knock on wood), it will be really cool looking with the led strip down the side. I'm hoping the top of 609 main is illuminated. It would be nice if Chevron tower had some lighting in the sunken portions of the walls that span the height of the building on the north and south sides. Or heck even just a row at the top like Wells Fargo. Something.. Lol

1000 Main (Reliant Plaza) has been raving since the NFL pre-season started. If you get a chance to watch the whole pattern it's got a cool liquid-like, back and forth fade with the reds/oranges and blues/greens.

Ah so that's the building with the rectangular led rows at the top.. I never noticed that that building lit up until recently. IMO downtown needs all the help it can get with lighting and I think all the towers with lights should keep them on. If International Tower gets built (knock on wood), it will be really cool looking with the led strip down the side. I'm hoping the top of 609 main is illuminated. It would be nice if Chevron tower had some lighting in the sunken portions of the walls that span the height of the building on the north and south sides. Or heck even just a row at the top like Wells Fargo. Something.. Lol

[Urbannizer]

Here's a photo of Hess Tower with orange lighting from a few days ago.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/coogie/9877677236

[fatesdisastr]

Has anyone noticed the projected Jack in the Box advertisement at night on the side of the Binz building the past few weeks?

[mlyoung83]

Has anyone noticed the projected Jack in the Box advertisement at night on the side of the Binz building the past few weeks?

 

They have a mobile projector on street level 1-2 blocks to the north.  Really fascinating as the projector is massive.  You would know it if you ever ran into them and the guys running it. 

[fatesdisastr]

They have a mobile projector on street level 1-2 blocks to the north.  Really fascinating as the projector is massive.  You would know it if you ever ran into them and the guys running it. 

 

It looks awful. I wonder what it takes from the city to be able to project an image onto a building from a few blocks away like that.

 

Jack and the Box of all things 

[Naviguessor]

Awful. Not just the Way oversized and out of place advertising. But Jack in the Box itself.

[mlyoung83]

I noticed last night that several towers now have lights on top of them that I've never seen before: Allen Center Towers, Bank of America Tower, and the Chevron Tower, they all have lights on top now.  Does anyone know if these lights are now permanent or just for some seasonal or special occasion?    I looked through my downtown pics for the past 7-8 years, never seen these lights on before.

[Houston19514]

I noticed last night that several towers now have lights on top of them that I've never seen before: Allen Center Towers, Bank of America Tower, and the Chevron Tower, they all have lights on top now.  Does anyone know if these lights are now permanent or just for some seasonal or special occasion?    I looked through my downtown pics for the past 7-8 years, never seen these lights on before.

 

Christmas.  Every year about this time.  ;-)

[Triton]

Christmas.  Every year about this time.  ;-)

 

Exactly. And they'll be going away in a few days.

[Purdueenginerd]

I wish they were up all year.

 

But it's a christmas thing... I dont know who or how it's coordinated. It's done on many of the highrises throughout the city. 

[HoustonIsHome]

Downtown skyline has a haunting look at night. It is dinner but at the sane time respectable. A little embellishments would not hurt but I think light shows life shine cities do would change the character too much.

A relit Wedge would be nice.

[barracuda]

It looks great driving south on 45 north of town. The BoA Center adds a bit of a Christmas tree look with the perimeter lights. 

[scarface]

Bank of america would be cool to be lit as well as the lights coming back for Wedge, but all the rest of the buildings with the beige/white christmas rooftops got to go. They used to have the skyline lit with Christmas lights year round sometime early to mid last decade. I'm glad that stopped because it was quite tacky to have christmas lights on top of state of the art office buildings year round. Lighting the skyline is something I've always thought Houston could take notes from Dallas on.

[H-Town Man]

My wife who is from Dallas commented the other night that Houston's skyline is so dark compared to Dallas's. I gave a long, boring explanation of how Houston being a city of wholesale businesses rather than retail never learned to market itself the way Dallas knows how to, and that difference still shows itself in things like our poorly lit skyline. Driving back into Dallas last night I noticed that its lighting really only comes from a few buildings, including the BoA tower, the one with the X's, the Reunion Tower/Hyatt Regency hotel, and the new convention center hotel. The rest of their buildings are just as dim as Houston's. Only other difference is the lit up corporate logos on their buildings, which we don't have because we banned them.

 

[cloud713]

My wife who is from Dallas commented the other night that Houston's skyline is so dark compared to Dallas's. I gave a long, boring explanation of how Houston being a city of wholesale businesses rather than retail never learned to market itself the way Dallas knows how to, and that difference still shows itself in things like our poorly lit skyline. Driving back into Dallas last night I noticed that its lighting really only comes from a few buildings, including the BoA tower, the one with the X's, the Reunion Tower/Hyatt Regency hotel, and the new convention center hotel. The rest of their buildings are just as dim as Houston's. Only other difference is the lit up corporate logos on their buildings, which we don't have because we banned them.

Wtf, why did they ban lit up corporate logos on the towers?

[Naviguessor]

Don't think it's a ban...more a gentleman's agreement. And let's hope that they all remain gentlemen. Otherwise we'd look more like Dallas...and I, for one, don't want that.

[H-Town Man]

Nope, it's a ban. Continental Airlines had to go through lengthy City Council hearings to get permission to illuminate their globe logo at the top of their building, just the globe not the name. The reason for the ban has to do with a giant 40 foot neon orange rotating Gulf sign that basically held our entire city hostage to its tackiness for about a decade in the 60's-70's.

 

Subdude should have a picture of it.  Actually, there's a thread on it in Historic Houston.

 

Edited December 31, 2013 by H-Town Man

[cloud713]

Nope, it's a ban. Continental Airlines had to go through lengthy City Council hearings to get permission to illuminate their globe logo at the top of their building, just the globe not the name. The reason for the ban has to do with a giant 40 foot neon orange rotating Gulf sign that basically held our entire city hostage to its tackiness for about a decade in the 60's-70's.

Subdude should have a picture of it. Actually, there's a thread on it in Historic Houston.

Ah, so we can thank the gulf sign for that.. Interesting that while we hated the gulf sign, Dallas embraced their Pegasus sign.

I definitely don't want our city looking like Las Veg- err, Dallas.. But I wouldn't mind if it looked a little more vibrant. Fortunately were getting some new lighting with the towers planned/going up.

[HoustonIsHome]

I am tacky in this area cause I like pictures of that old gulf sign and Pegasus.

I guess it is because it's solitary. I guess if they were packed in I would think it was too much. But a solitary giant glowing gulf sign seems cheesily delicious to me.

[fatesdisastr]

Nope, it's a ban. Continental Airlines had to go through lengthy City Council hearings to get permission to illuminate their globe logo at the top of their building, just the globe not the name. The reason for the ban has to do with a giant 40 foot neon orange rotating Gulf sign that basically held our entire city hostage to its tackiness for about a decade in the 60's-70's.

 

Subdude should have a picture of it.  Actually, there's a thread on it in Historic Houston.

 

Instead of outright banning, why wouldn't they just need to go through an approval process since the Gulf sign was obnoxious and tacky? I think signs can be done tastefully if they are corporate logo's near the top of buildings.

 

I'd be more for taking down billboards that purposefully block the beautiful skyline with their tackiness than a corporate logo on a building which can show pride for a company and strength for our local economy.

[LarryDierker]

Houston sign code

 

http://documents.publicworks.houstontx.gov/documents/divisions/planning/enforcement/signcode20110902.pdf

 

Section 4609 (E)(1)and(2)

 

Starts on page 38 of the document.

 

No signs over 42.5 feet unless:

 the building is the company's headquarters and they occupy more than 45% of the floorspace of a building that is at least 750000 sqare feet, then you can put your logo on the building. but it has to be a continous image,no blinking or animation.