Generic Architecture and Abstract Beauty in Downtown Houston

A well known German filmmaker once said that the beauty of Downtown Houston is that every building there is like a Haiku, a free verse that needs not refer to the past but rather strives to become an expression of the architectural possibilities of the day. Indeed, when looking at this part of the city today we can identify a complex set of heterogeneous factors at work that have resulted in an exceptional urban character, which is there for us to experience and analyze. A peculiar block size, combined with the economies of scale of real estate speculation have resulted in a complicated fit between the scale of the towers and that of the street pattern, with the generic tall buildings sitting alone in blocks that remain under defined and prevent the formation of urban facades. Additionally, the lack of planning, the low ratio of housing and the absolute dependence on the car and air conditioning have resulted in an uneven density and a rather Martian absence of human life in the streets. Whether we decide to praise or condemn Houston for all of the above, it will probably be more productive for us to try to understand it through its individual components than to linger in elaborating a reductive moral argument in favor or against the phenomenon as a whole.