Environment: Downtown Is Looking Up

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Even when the city's private developers build, they follow the same thinking. Recent additions to the largely residential Back Bay section include two fine works by Architects I.M. Pei & Partners. One is the much maligned John Hancock tower, most famous for its history of falling windowpanes (which have now been completely replaced by stronger glass at a cost of $7 million). The other is the Christian Science Center, which consists of starkly sculptural buildings grouped around Mary Baker Eddy's domed Beaux-Arts Mother Church. Both projects are especially noteworthy for their careful blending of the new into old surroundings.

In the past two years, Boston's plans, like those of most cities, have been slowed by inflation, recession and the gradual drying up of federal urban renewal funds. Even so, two new projects are almost ready to go. On the southern edge of downtown, an old railroad terminal will be improved to serve as a transportation center that should anchor other developments in the area. In the very heart of the downtown retail area, demolition has begun on the site for a $220 million shopping project like no other in the U.S. Called Lafayette Place, it will include department stores, boutiques and European-style arcades, all arranged along internal streets and cul-de-sacs. The point: to compete directly with suburban shopping malls by creating a distinctive urban shopping environment. In many ways (see box), Boston is still pioneering.

Houston's Gusher. Perhaps the most exciting city in the U.S. today—unplanned, individualistic, a roaring gusher of construction—is Houston. It is the energy capital of America, with more than 50 oil and natural-gas companies headquartered downtown. This clustering keeps the central city healthy, because service firms want to be near the energy giants. Since times are so good for the oil companies, everybody is prospering. Indeed, competition from the suburbs is welcomed. As Real Estate Executive Perry Waughtal puts it, "There's enough business to go around."

Houston has always had a go-go tradition. The city started as a real estate promotion in 1836 and, says Louie Welch, a five-term Houston mayor who now heads the local Chamber of Commerce, "it still is." Since 1970, 14 major buildings have gone up downtown. What is surprising, though, is that these buildings display true design quality, while those in Dallas and Fort Worth by and large do not. The explanation is not wealth, but a lively competition between builders, plus the sophistication of Houston office-space renters.

The best new structure in Houston is also the least conventional. Pennzoil Place, with its trapezoidal, 38-story twin towers rising out of a huge glass-roofed court, is powerful architecture, the dynamic element in Houston's silhouette. The looks also guarantee a good return on Developer Gerald Hines' $45 million investment in the building. He asked Architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee for a striking design, confident that it would attract tenants who wanted to be associated with a noble building. Hines knew his market; Pennzoil Place is booked solid.