The Star Houston | |
Texas Company Building | |
The Texaco Building | |
 1915 building  1959 expansion | |
    | |
| Location | 1111 Rusk Street, 780 San Jacinto Street,Houston,Texas |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 29°45′40″N95°21′42″W / 29.76111°N 95.36167°W /29.76111; -95.36167 |
| Area | less than one acre |
| Built | 1915 (1915) |
| Architect | Warren and Wetmore; Franzheim, Kenneth, et al. |
| Architectural style | Renaissance Revival,Beaux-Arts |
| Restored | 2017[2] |
| Restored by | HBG Design[2] |
| Website | The Star Houston |
| NRHP reference No. | 03000185[1] |
| Added to NRHP | April 2, 2003 |
The Star Houston apartments, formerly theTexas Company Building, located at 1111 Rusk Street and 720 Jacinto Street inHouston,Texas, was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places on April 2, 2003.[3]
The original thirteen story, three-bay building opened in 1915 on the corner of Rusk and San Jacinto Street, as headquarters of theTexas Company.[4] The New York firm ofWarren and Wetmore designed the building in theRenaissance Revival style withBeaux-Arts accents. The exterior is faced with brick, terra cotta andBedford limestone and features vaulted arcades supported by Tuscan columns along its Rusk and San Jacinto Street façades. A distinguishing feature of the building is its vaulted arcade with a balcony.[4] The arcade was designed by theGuastavino tile Company.[4]
To accommodate growth, the company expanded the structure three times between 1936 and 1975.[5]
In 1936, Warren and Wetmore designed a three bay addition to the east (San Jacinto Street) façade, designed in a slightly less elaborate style.[4]
In 1959 an additional a ten-by-eight bay, sixteen story addition designed byKenneth Franzheim was added to the west elevation of the original building.[4] This extends along Rusk Street to the other side of the block at Fannin Street.[4] This huge addition is similar to the original building but in an Art Moderne style, and also includes a Guastavino designed arcade.[4]
The Texas Company becameTexaco in 1959 and continued to occupy the building until 1989 when it moved to another facility.[5]
The building became vacant in 1989.[2]
Since the building became vacant, developers proposed several plans to reuse it, however none were successful. In 2011, a development consortium created a plan for approximately 300 apartments with retail space and parking. They began work in 2013 and have demolished part of the structure but kept the 13-story section, the 1936 annex and the 16-story expansion added in 1958. Eventual plans call for a 38-story tower behind the historic structure.[6][7]
The restored building was converted to apartments and re-opened in February 2017 as "The Star", a reference to Texaco's start-shaped logo.[2] The luxury building holds 286 one- and two-bedroom apartments, ranging from 730 to 1,730 square feet, and 21,000 square feet of street-front retail space.[2]
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