ArCH Walking and Bicycle Tour Fall/Winter 2022-2023 Dates Announced

Architecture Center Houston’s Fall Walking/Bicycle Tour Season is here! Visit the AIA Houston Events Calendar for a listing of all upcoming ArCH events. ArCH offers special group tours for corporations, community groups, students, and conferences. Please contact Jennifer Ward at 713-520-0155 or jennifer@aiahouston.org for more information.

Tour Times

ArCH Walking/Bicycle Tours take place Saturday mornings 9am–11am. Tours depart promptly on the hour. Guests should arrive early to allow time for check-in and parking. Tours will take place in moderate rain. We love pets, but they are strongly discouraged on tours and are not allowed inside buildings.

Fees & Registration Info

$15 general admission; $10 for AIA members and Architecture Students with a valid ID
Reservations and credit card payments can be made online at aiahouston.org/tours.
Registration is required.

2022-2023 Fall/Winter Tour Schedule

(chronological order – all are walking tours unless otherwise indicated)

October 22 – Texas Medical Center
October 29 – 3rd Ward Bicycle Tour
November 5 – Plant It Forward Walking Tour
November 19 – Heights Bicycle Tour
December 3 – Rice University
December 10 – Montrose
December 17 – UH Art & Architecture
January 7 – Towers and Trees
January 14 – Museum District
January 21 – Buffalo Bayou

Tour Details

BUFFALO BAYOU WALKING TOUR
Explore the city from a vantage point most people don’t see: the waterway that gave Houston life and has been its backbone for 182 years. Architecture Center Houston (ArCH), with the cooperation of Buffalo Bayou Partnership, invite you to a stroll along Buffalo Bayou Parkway for an overview of downtown Houston’s history and architecture from its beginnings in 1836 to the efforts to revitalize the central city today. The tour showcases the innovative bayou reclamation efforts of the City of Houston, Harris County, and Buffalo Bayou Partnership, while topically discussing history and preservation, contemporary architecture, the bayou, and adjacent parkland.

Tour will meet at Architecture Center Houston, 902 Commerce St, 77002
Street parking available.

HEIGHTS BICYCLE TOUR
This tour explores the original foot print of the Heights, Texas’ and Houston’s first mixed-use community and home to 121 of the 279 National Register of Historic Places listed in Houston. We will look at a wide variety of building types that are historic and original to the area as well as more recent contemporary architecture and discuss how these fit into the context of the neighborhood.Attendees need to bring their own bicycle. We encourage everyone to wear a helmet. If you do not have your own bicycle, you can rent a bike from Houston B-Cycle. The closest B-Cycle station is in Stude Park.

Tour will meet at Milroy Park, 1205 Yale St, 77008.
Street parking available.

MONTROSE WALKING TOUR
Montrose is one of the most diverse and interesting neighborhoods in Houston with some of the city’s best architecture including spectacular mansions, charming bungalows, the campus of the University of St. Thomas, Rothko Chapel, and the Menil Collection. ArCH tour guides will present an overview of the architectural and social history of the area and offer guests a look inside of the Fondren Mansion (now La Colombe d’Or), Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Chapel of St. Basil, Rothko Chapel, Cy Twombly Gallery, and the Menil Collection.

Meets on the Menil Collection Bookstore side porch across from Bistro Menil at 1520 Sul Ross, 77006.
Street and lot parking available.

MUSEUM DISTRICT WALKING TOUR
The Houston Museum District is one of the few areas in the country with such a dense population of museums, public art, contemporary architecture, and landscape design. Guests will experience the quintessential Modernism of Mies van der Rohe, the structuralist view point of Gunnar Birkerts, and the simplicity and craft of Isamu Noguchi, and the first free standing American structure designed by Yoshio Taniguchi. The tour traces the chronology of significant cultural shifts from the early twentieth century through today.

Tour meets at the entrance of the Cullen Sculpture Garden, which faces Bissonnet St. and directly across from the MFAH.
Street, lot and garage parking available.

PLANT IT FORWARD WALKING TOUR:

A behind-the-scenes, urban farm experience and tour.
Plant It Forward is an innovative, not-for-profit organization, empowering refugees to develop sustainable urban farming businesses throughout Houston that produce fresh, healthy food for the entire community. The organization secures land, trains and mentors farmers, and facilitates sales to local markets. Located throughout Houston, the farms are cultivated with sustainable practices that enrich the land and support the surrounding community. Plant It Forward works hand-in-hand with forward-thinking Houstonians who share our ambition to create a more inclusive, green, and healthy community.

Tour meets at the Westbury Community Garden, 12581 Dunlap St., Houston, TX 77035
Street and lot parking available.

RICE UNIVERSITY WALKING TOUR: QUADS, COURTS & AXES:

A treasure trove of architecture and large scale artworks, the timeless campus features designs by Cram, Goodhue, & Ferguson; John Staub; William Ward Watkin; Michael Graves; Kieran Timberlake; Ricardo Bofill; Cesar Pelli; Lake/Flato Architects; and many other local and internationally renowned architects; James Turrell and Michael Heizer. This tour explores the context surrounding each building, the quads, courts and axes, how these elements work together to shape collegiate space.

Tour meets on the front lawn of Lovett Hall, building 48 on the Rice University map, 6100 Main.
Recommended parking in Rice University Visitor Parking Lot L or Founder’s Court Visitor’s Lot. Credit card is required to access parking.

TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER WALKING TOUR

The Texas Medical Center is the largest medical center in the world. Equivalent to the 8th largest business district in the United States, TMC has 50 million square feet of patient care, education, and research space. The 1000+ acres is approximately the size of Chicago inside the “Loop” with 162 buildings on the main campus alone. Sites on our tour will include Baylor College of Medicine, the new Texas Children’s Hospital Maternity Center, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Methodist Research Center, and a short ride on Houston’s Metro Rail.

Meet in the ground floor lobby of the John P McGovern Commons Building, 6550 Bertner Ave, 77030. Texas Medical Center Entrance 4.
$10 parking available in the TMC Commons parking garage.

THIRD WARD BICYCLE TOUR
This bicycle tour explores the Historic Third Ward and surrounding areas including Houston Community College, Emancipation Park, Project Row Houses, Dowling Street, the Negro Hospital, later Riverside General Hospital, and Texas Southern University. The tour is a dynamic discussion of the neighborhood’s character, history and future in the center of Houston featuring notable local architects such as John Chase and Caudill Rowlett Scott (CRS).

Reservations are required for this tour as attendance is limited.
Attendees need to bring their own bicycle. We encourage everyone to wear a helmet. If you do not have your own bicycle, you can rent one from Houston B-Cycle
Meets on the HCC Central Plaza at 1300 Holman

TOWERS AND TREES DOWNTOWN WALKING TOUR
Towers and Trees explores the magnificent architecture between Hermann Square and Discovery Green as well as the changing dynamics of our downtown. We’ll look at the partially realized civic center plan surrounding Hermann Square, the historic backbone of Main Street, the ambitious 1970 proposal that would become Houston Center, the internationally recognized icons from the skyscraper boom of the 70’s and 80’s, and Discovery Green, the newest catalyst for downtown development in Houston.

Meets outside One Shell Plaza at 901 Smith Street on the NE Corner of McKinney and Smith Street across the street from City Hall and the reflecting pool in Hermann Square.

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON ART & ARCHITECTURE TOUR
An exploration of art, architecture and campus design on the University of Houston’s main campus. Works by Frank Stella, Jim Love, William King and The Art Guys are found within the context of a campus and buildings designed by notable architects such as Philip Johnson, Alfred C. Finn, Gensler, Lake|Flato, BNIM and Cesar Pelli.

Tour will meet in the courtyard in front of the Moores School of Music by the Winged Woman sculpture.
Parking available in adjacent campus visitor’s lot. Parking fees not included in tour registration.

About Architecture Center Houston
Architecture Center Houston (ArCH) cultivates public appreciation for architecture and its effect on the human experience through design-focused programming. ArCH offers architectural tours, K-12 educational programs, community events, lectures, a film program & festival, and exhibitions. The programs address a wide range of audiences and celebrate Houston’s architecture. Each year, ArCH programs benefit over 4,000 individuals. ArCH serves as a public venue for experiencing and understanding architecture and design in Greater Houston. The transformative work of ArCH is possible due to prolific collaborations with industry partners and local nonprofits. ArCH was established in 2006 as a public-facing component of Houston Architecture Foundation.

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