HOUSTON – The historic Medical Towers building in the Texas Medical Center has been transformed into the 273-room Westin Houston Medical Center.
The hotel recently opened in a mid-century modernist structure located across from Houston Methodist and Texas Children’s Hospital. Demand for lodging is strong in the Texas Medical Center, which contains 9,200 patient beds and handles approximately 180,000 surgeries annually.
Houston-based Pearl Hospitality redeveloped the 18-story building at 1709 Dryden Road, between Main and Fannin streets. The property originally opened in 1954 as a medical professional building.
The Medical Towers was one of the Texas Medical Center’s earliest medical office buildings. It was originally designed by the architectural firm Goleman & Rolfe with consulting input from Pritzker Prize–winning architect Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
For the Westin conversion, the project team included BRR Architects as project architect; Baskervill as interior design architect; MBCM Incorporated as design consultant; Collaborative Engineering Group as project engineer; Henderson Rogers as structural engineer; and Texas HRE Construction as general contractor.
“This ambitious 1954 tower was built at a time when the similarly ambitious vision of the Texas Medical Center was launching,” said William R. Franks, a member of Pearl Hospitality’s development team. “As the area continues to grow and reach new heights, preserving this building as part of that story brings tremendous value to the city.”
Jan. 29, 2020 Realty News Report Copyright 2020
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