Great Architecture In Houston? No Such Address

[editor]

This spring the Postal Service will issue a series of stamps honoring great achievements in modern American architecture. Conspicuously absent from the 12-stamp set are any structures in Texas or the Southwest. This, of course, means that any chance of seeing the JPmorgan Chase Tower, the Esperson Buildings, or even the Alamo are right out. The stamp series delivers well for the Northeast and Midwest. It's hard to argue that Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York doesn't deserve its own stamp. Same for "Big John" -- Chicago's John Hancock Center. But what about the Bayou City's beloved Williams Tower? Especially considering the recent death of Philip Johnson. After all, the former Transco Tower is considered his greatest skyscraper. Instead, architecture fans will have to be satisfied with Johnson's glass house in Connecticut, and will have to pretend that the Postal Service is correct in selecting 860-880 Lake Shore Drive, a building that is unknown even to its neighbors in the Windy City's Gold Coast.

The Williams Tower is a landmark not just to people of Houston, but to people across the Southwest and into Mexico. Imagine the excitement of a tourist from south of the border putting a fresh Williams Tower stamp on a Houston post card and mailing it back home from the Galleria postal station. If the 64-story glass monument is good enough to be used in upcoming state-wide tests for school children, surely it's good enough to be shown to the rest of the country.

Alas, this is just another case of the "outside world" neglecting, underestimating, and ignoring one of America's architectural capitals. If the rest of the country wants to understand why Houstonians seem to look inward so much, they should look at the decisions they make and how they affect this city.