Travis Place: Office Building At 1010 Travis St.

[Highrise Tower]

Went for a walk today and noticed this unusual building named Travis Place. 

[editor]

I think that used to be the Americana. It was a hotel or a club, or something on top of the parking garage. 
 

my memory of the building is a bit sketchy, but I remember Americana as a hotel brand when I was young. 

[Brooklyn173]

According to the Platinum Parking website...

"The Art of Maintaining a Building Filled with History

Since 2013, Platinum Parking has managed Kinder Morgan’s parking facility in downtown Houston, known as the Travis Place Garage located at 1010 Travis Street. With 1,264 spaces, we’ve ensured smooth operations and exceptional service for both tenants and visitors.

The Travis Place Garage is a unique property with a long history in downtown Houston:

• Originally opened in 1956, offering over 1,500 parking spaces
• Houston’s inaugural rooftop heliport
• Expanded in 1962 with three additional parking levels
• In 1980, floors 8 and 9 were added for meeting rooms, dining, and fitness facilities and were renovated in 2000, converting them into additional office space 
• Currently spans 679,000 square feet and serves various purposes
• Accessible through the extensive downtown tunnel system 
• Features seven levels of parking and two floors of office space
• Tenant entry to the office space is available through the tunnel or street level, while visitors must enter at street level and await permission for entry..."

https://platinumparking.com/news/2024/04/location-spotlight-travis-place-garage/

[editor]

I think I was wrong about the Americana.  I see on Apple Maps that there's an Americana logo on the parking garage across the street still:

I think the top of that building would be too small for a hotel, and even if it was an Americana, why would the hotel have a parking garage across the street when there was one under its feet?

The top floors of the building in question appear to be occupied by a gym now.

I wish @sevfiv was still around.  She was great about digging up stuff like this.

[Houston19514]

This was part of the Tenneco headquarters facilities.  The top floors included employee amenity space, including a pretty amazing fitness center and a beautiful and large atrium-like dining space. (Tenneco’s headquarters was in what is now the Kinder Morgan building.) 

Edited Wednesday at 01:47 PM by Houston19514

[mollusk]

The Americana Building was an office building on the south 1/2 of the 1200 block of Travis; the office portion was taken down right around the time that Hilcorp was built on the former Foley's / Macy's site across Travis.  The Americana parking garage remains in place, although the Americana sign is now on what was built as Foley's parking garage.  The two garages have been somewhat accessible from one another for as long as I can remember, but the ramps allowing movement between the two weren't consistently in the same place, IIRC.