UH: History & Architecture

The University of Houston grew from a junior college into a major research campus, and its buildings record each stage of that climb. This walk begins at the postmodern Architecture Building on the north edge of campus and works south past a Pelli-designed research complex, the rebuilt Student Center and a 1960s interfaith chapel. It closes with a park honoring a student who changed UH in 1968 and the hotel where hospitality students learn on the job. Pair it with the general Campus Tour for the original 1939 buildings.

The University of Houston began as Houston Junior College in 1927 and grew into a major public research campus, and its buildings record each stage of that climb. This walk focuses on the architecture and the people behind it, from a postmodern landmark to a small park that honors a turning point in student life.

The showpiece is the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design building, designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee and finished in 1986. It is based on an unbuilt 18th-century design by French visionary Claude-Nicolas Ledoux, wrapping a skylit atrium in rose brick, granite and limestone beneath a small colonnaded pavilion on the roof. Nearby, a research and classroom complex by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects shows the campus's turn toward interdisciplinary science.

The A.D. Bruce Religion Center, dedicated in 1965, was championed by Lt. Gen. Andrew Davis Bruce as a place where students of any faith could worship, with nonsectarian stained glass and a chapel that can be rearranged for different traditions. Lynn Eusan Park remembers the student who in 1968 became the first Black woman crowned homecoming queen at a predominantly white university in the South.

Pair it with the general campus walk for the original 1939 buildings, or enjoy it on its own as a lively, story-rich introduction to one of Houston's biggest institutions.