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| Title | Essex-Houck Building, "A Facade of Separated, Bricked-in Services" |
| Publisher | Architectural Forum |
| Date | June 1962 |
| Description | Clipping of "A Facade of Separated, Bricked-in Services," Architectural Forum, June 1962, 134-135. |
| Donor | Burdette Keeland, Jr. |
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| Language | English |
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| Original Item Location | ID 2002-005, Box 10, Folder 9 |
| Original Collection | Burdette Keeland Architectural Papers |
| Original Collection URL | http://archon.lib.uh.edu/index.php?p=collections/findingaid&id=214 |
| Digital Collection | Burdette Keeland Architectural Drawings & Photographs |
| Digital Collection URL | http://digital.lib.uh.edu/collection/2002_005 |
| Repository | Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries |
| Repository URL | http://info.lib.uh.edu/about/campus-libraries-collections/special-collections |
| Use and Reproduction | Educational use only, no other permissions given. Copyright to this resource is held by the content creator, author, artist or other entity, and is provided here for educational purposes only. It may not be reproduced or distributed in any format without written permission of the copyright owner. For more information please see UH Digital Library Fair Use policy on the UH Digital Library About page. |
| File Name | index.cpd |
| Title | Page 1 |
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| File Name | uhlib_2002_005_b010_f009_001.jpg |
| Transcript | IWiPIiffllf A FACADE OF SEPARATED, BRICKED IN SERVICES The usual rental office building is sleeping space waiting for a tenant to come along and awaken it. But most of the time the only awakening is a bare one—the turning on of lights behind the glazed curtain wall. The owner, H. R. Houck, however, sensed something else might be possible when he decided to build 16,000 square feet of rental office space in a typical commercial neighborhood of Houston, Texas. He asked Architect Burdette Keeland to design a small office building which would have a memorable face of its own, rather than the usual cosmetic skin job— though he also cautioned Keeland not to sacrifice flexibility (with a resultant decline in rent ability). Keeland immediately acted on the opportunity and came up with this impressive design. His rental space is, if anything, even more fluid than the usual anonymous floor area; he achieved this flexibility by extracting almost all the services from the office areas proper. These services—mechanical equipment, elevators, stairs, coffee bar, and toilets—were pulled out in front of the package of rental space, and then dramatically gift wrapped in a handsome gray brick for the passerby's eye. At the ends of the fagade the second-story office space does become visible (above), cantilevered out and protected by sun shields. Both the service package and the actual office structure are 134 |