Houston City Hall building and square built in a simple, but regal elegance and is regularly used for festivals, protests and concerts
General Information
Head southwest on Bagby St toward McKinney St. Turn left onto McKinney St. Use the left lane to turn left onto Louisiana St. Turn left onto Walker St. Turn left at the 1st cross street onto Smith St.
Overview
Houston City Hall has served as the seat of Houston's municipal government since it was completed in 1939. Located on Bagby Street on the western edge of Downtown Houston, between Tranquility Park and the Houston Public Library, the building is a classic example of 1930s civic architecture designed by Austrian-born Houston architect Joseph Finger. Its Texas Cordova limestone facade, cast-aluminum doors, and marble-lined lobby have made it a recognizable architectural landmark worth a stop even for visitors with no city business to conduct.
Above the main entrances, grillwork medallions depict "great lawgivers" from Moses and Julius Caesar to Thomas Jefferson, and a stone sculpture over the lobby entrance — created by Beaumont artist Herring Coe and co-designer Raoul Josset — shows two men taming a wild horse, symbolizing a community coming together to form a government.
Hermann Square
The front of City Hall steps down to George and Martha Hermann Square, a plaza centered on a reflecting pool. Once the homestead of George H. Hermann, for whom Hermann Park is named, the square regularly hosts festivals, concerts, and public gatherings; for larger events, the pool is planked over to create an open-air venue.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.
