The Sam Houston Hall was a building in Houston, Texas . It was located at 801 Bagby Street in the Fourth Ward, though now considered a part of downtown. It was designed as a temporary structure for the 1928 Democratic National Convention . It served as the venue for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo from 1932 to 1936, after which it was demolished.
7-429: The Sam Houston Hall was a wooden structure covering a length of three football fields erected for the 1928 Democratic National Convention. It was designed by Kenneth Franzheim and Alfred C. Finn under contract with Jesse H. Jones , who insisted on a venue that would accommodate the conventioneers and thousands of spectators. The building was optimized for air flow and equipped with heavy duty "typhoon fans." However, it
14-793: Is the development of Fairlington in Arlington, VA. Franzheim was the primary architect of this WW2-era housing development a few miles south of the Pentagon, which is today a high-end, private housing development. The Houston Main Building ( HMB ) formerly the Prudential Building , was a skyscraper in the Texas Medical Center , Houston , Texas . It originally housed offices of the Prudential Insurance Company , before becoming
21-582: The Prudential Building (Houston) , Texas National Bank building (Houston) and Bank of the Southwest (Houston) building. His best-known building was the Foley’s Department Store downtown location (demolished). It had six floors before it was expanded to nine in 1957, and included windowless retail space suspended at street level above a first-floor window-wall and canopy with a streamlined interior by famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy . In 1950
28-590: The building received an Award of Merit from the AIA. Franzheim also designed 275 Madison Avenue and several other buildings in New York City. John Zemanek and Eugene Werlin worked at the firm early in their careers. There are plans to add oral interviews with both Zemanek and Werlin in which they discuss Franzheim’s influence to the digital library at the University of Houston. One of Franzheim's most enduring legacies
35-716: The middle of the Great Depression , drew 2,000 people. The show was held annually at the hall through 1936. The Sam Houston Hall was torn down after the 1936 Livestock Show and Rodeo, then replaced by the Sam Houston Coliseum . The site is now occupied by the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts . 29°45′42.70″N 95°22′11.95″W / 29.7618611°N 95.3699861°W / 29.7618611; -95.3699861 Kenneth Franzheim Kenneth Franzheim
42-471: Was also designed as a racially-segregated facility: a substandard area fenced off by chicken wire was designated for African Americans. The hall was completed within four months. Sam Houston Hall hosted the first Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in the spring of 1932. A streetcar system made the hall accessible to many Houstonians. It was also located close to the Houston Farmers' Market. The first show, in
49-504: Was an architect in Chicago and Boston in the early 1920s with C. Howard Crane . He started an independent practice in New York in 1925 and specialized in the design of large commercial buildings and airports. Franzheim became a major commercial architect in mid-century Houston after moving his offices to the city in 1937. Franzheim was one of the architects involved designing Humble Tower ,
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