Architectural Landmark #3: The Museum of Fine Arts Houston Caroline Weiss Law Building

This is it ladies and gentlemen, our final stop before downtown. The Caroline Weiss Law Building at the internationally renowned Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The building is one of only 2 museums designed by legendary architect Mies van der Rohe and contains the only theater he designed.

The museum's original building was designed in 1924 by William Ward Watkin in the popular Neoclassical style. In 1953, the MFAH commissioned Mies van der Rohe to create a master plan for the institution. He designed two additions to the building—Cullinan Hall, completed in 1958, and the Brown Pavilion, completed in 1974. A renowned example of the International Style, the Caroline Wiess Law Building is one of only two Mies-designed museums, and includes the only Mies-designed movie theater, in the world.

The grand, open galleries of the Law Building provide an ideal space to exhibit the museum's collection of 20th- and 21st-century artworks. The Law Building is also a multicultural showcase, housing dazzling installations of Oceanic art, Asian art, Indonesian gold artifacts, and Pre-Columbian and sub-Saharan African artworks. Of special interest is the Glassell Collection of African Gold, the greatest assemblage of gold objects in the world.

Events of the past week

Here we go

Pride Fest 2011 draws estimated 150,000 attendees

SWAT Team finds man, passed out with a machete, in a Houston hotel. Family of passed out man claim he's suicidal

Officer that tossed tear gas into grill station of rival barbeque chef during contest at Houston Rodeo gets fired

Outgoing MD Anderson president to join the Baker institute where he'll work closely with Rice University and the Texas Medical Center to help shape its Health Policy Research Programs

Famous Houstonian #2: Becca Cason Thrash

Becca Cason Thrash is a Houston based socialite and philanthropist that worked as a publicist for River Oaks Boutique Tootsies before marrying eCorp Chairman and CEO John Thrash. Her mansion is legendary for hosting parties organized with more precision than the Iraqi invasion back in 2003, during which the overweight are excluded, the fussy are fussed about, and someone always falls into her massive indoor pool, an intentional accident of course.

She is considered one of the world's great fashion icons, being called a "card carrying young Turk" by Vogue magazine, and is rumored to be next in line to the title of "top dog of Houston's upper crust," few in Houston having greater influence and power then she.

 

 discussing business with Frederic Mitterand and Prince Albert at AFL Gala

 with Ambassador Charles Rivkin, Susan Tolson, and Prince Albert of Monaco at AFL Gala

 with designer Christian Lacroix

 with Frederic Mitterand, Prince Albert of Monaco, and Diane Kruger

Becca with Milton Townsend at 2010 AFL Gala in Houston

society news

following pride fest on saturday and with the AFL Gala behind us, there is no major society news to report

The Weekend Ahead

If you are completetly totally 100% offended by LGBT people, don't read this post.  If you're not offended, go right ahead.

Saturday, 25 June 2011, is the 33rd Annual Pride Parade and Festival in Montrose. The largest lgbt event in the southern US, an estimated 150,000 people will watch as it goes through the Montrose district down Westheimer with a festival featuring over 200 vendors, multiple stages of performances, and plenty of places to eat, with restrooms easily accessible.

With the groundbreaking 2009 election of Annise Parker as mayor, a shockingly progressive move for a conservative southern city, Houston became the largest city in the world with an openly gay mayor, making international headlines and nearly every major American newspaper from the Seattle Post-Inteligencer and Houston Chronicle, to the St Louis Post Dispatch and even the locally owned Advocate right here in Baton Rouge. Since then, the city has constantly made headlines around the world, which when considering its goals of eventually hosting the summer olympic games is a very good thing, and has seen a boost in its economy, helping to drive the local unemployment rate below 8% and making it yet again the nation's wealthiest city home to its strongest economy, and the nation's number one city for college graduates.

Whatever your moral stance on gay rights is, you must admit electing a gay mayor was arguably the smartest decision the city ever made, increasing tourism to levels never before yet seen in Houston. Not in a long time has the city shined as much as it does right now. Oil, Gas, and Energy companies are making record profits as oil slowly but surely surpasses $100 a barrel, tourism is at an all time high, the museums are doing well, the performing arts scene is great as always, and its public schools are outperforming all others. If the rumors of governor Rick Perry running for president are true, we may be witnessing the birth of America's next great cultural mecca as Houston finally reaches its full potential.

Society News

There isn't any for today people. Its the summer. Aside from the annual AFL Gala (see 20 June 2011) and Pride Fest this coming saturday, not much else happens. I know it sounds strange that nothing major could be going on in a dynamic and hip town like Houston right now, but its true. Wait until mid-october. Thats when it picks up.

Architectural Landmark #2: The Galleria

Signage

Nieman Marcus Store#2

The Galleria, aka theGalleria, is an upscale mixed-use urban development centrally located in the Uptown District of Houston. Anchored by Neiman Marcus, the first outside Dallas, it was modeled after the famed Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan, borrowing, as its most distinctive architectural feature, a glazed barrel vault spanning the central axis of the mall. The Galleria was a trendsetter.

The development consists of a retail complex, two Westin hotels, and a private health club. The office towers and hotels are separately owned and managed from the shopping center.

With 3 million total square feet of space that includes 2.4 million of gross leasable area with over 375 high end retailers, the Galleria is the largest mall in Texas and seventh-largest in the United States. It is currently anchored by Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue, and two separate, full-line Macy's.