Offcite Blog | Design. Houston. Architecure.

Strategies for Changing Houston

A model of a taco truck by Donna Kacmar’s design studio at the Initiatives for Houston exhibition.

The conversion of the Architecture Center Houston (ArCH) into a think tank of what Houston is, could be, and should be is worth the visit. The curated exhibition of Rice Design Alliance’s Initiatives for Houston Grant Program captures ten [...]

Revisiting Cite 74: Sacred Space

Cite 74, published in the Spring of 2008, looked at some of Houston’s sacred architecture and sites including the Seminarian and Student Chapels at the University of St. Thomas, Lakewood Church, and the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.
Table of Contents

Revisiting Cite 73: Houston Traditions

This issue, published in the winter of 2008, could not sit still. It looked forward, it looked back, and then forward again. It considered the reshaping of Houston institutions including the University of St. Thomas and Texas Southern University. The Rurban Horseshoe examined the historically black neighborhoods on the periphery of the city. Rafael Longoria [...]

Sisters in Struggle: Karachi & Houston

Karachi headquarters office of Emaar, a Dubai-based real estate company [Photos Sehba Sarwar]

At a March 2009 ceremony in Houston, Mayor Bill White and Syed Mustafa Kamal, the mayor of Karachi, Pakistan, declared the two cities sisters. The connection between the two cities was not new to me. Back in 1992, when I followed my then-boyfriend-now-husband [...]

Revisiting Cite 72: Who Owns the Street?

Originally published in Fall 2007, Cite 72 is now available free online in pdf format. Click on the titles below to download.
Letter from the Guest Editor
By 2035, the Houston Area will grow by 3.5 million people. That’s the forecast from the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGAC), and while there may be argument about the numbers, there’s [...]

Signs of Desperation in Houston

Coming from a lower-middle class family in a small town in the Texas Hill Country, I was awed by the sheer opulence of everyone and everything around when I came to the “big city” to study at Rice University. Despite news reports and rumors of there being another, grittier side to Houston, the only one I experienced was where everyone had more than enough to get by—until the summer of 2009.

A Place Along A Path: International Coffee Building Renovation

International Coffee Building design by Lake/Flato Architects and BNIM [Renderings and historic photos courtesy Buffalo Bayou Partnership, current photos by Jesse Hager]

At the time of the completion of the International Coffee Building in 1910, Commerce and Main Street were bustling with the activities that the street names imply. The International Coffee Building served as [...]

A Building Worth Saving: Houston Light Guard Armory

Houston Light Guard Armory Entrance [Photo by Jesse Hager]

Behind a corner gas station and in the shadow of luxury apartments sits one of the finest buildings in Houston, falling into disrepair. Designed by Alfred C. Finn and completed in 1925, the Houston Light Guard Armory building has been abandoned for quite some time. Vagrants and [...]

A Mosaic of Interests: MOCAH and Buckboard Park

MOCAH students make art. Photo by Reginald Adams

During the summer of 1999, when my wife, Rhonda Radford-Adams, and I stepped out on a limb and decided to both quit our jobs to begin on an incredible journey now known as the Museum of Cultural Arts Houston (MOCAH), we had no idea what impact our [...]