Westin Houston Medical Center Hotel

Pearl Hospitality redeveloped and revitalized the Houston Medical Towers building into the Westin Houston Medical Center and dining promenade that serves the Texas Medical Center and surrounding community. The repurposing of the building created a 273-room hotel with 18,000 square feet of meeting space, 24,000 square feet of street level dining and outdoor cafes, and a 400+ car garage. A new addition rooftop terrace and pool, designed to meet NPS standards, overlooks Rice University and the Museum District. The overall project came to fruition as a thoughtful collaboration between preservationists, architects, designers, and hotelier. Ryan’s Historic Tax Credits team consulted on preservation work and $10 million in federal historic tax credits and $13 million in state historic tax credits that made the large-scale rehabilitation a financial reality.

Medical Towers was designed by Gordon Bunshaft of the acclaimed architecture firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) and served as their introduction to Houston’s architectural landscape. SOM partnered with Houston architecture firm Goleman & Rolfe. Pritzker Architecture Prize-winner Gordon Bunshaft drew inspiration from his famed Lever House in New York City. Construction began in 1954 when the Texas Medical Center (TMC), founded in 1945, was a suburban area of largely open prairie south of downtown near Hermann Park and the Rice Institute (now Rice University). Medical Towers marked the post-WWII expansion of the TMC and development of new commercial office and retail spaces to accommodate this growth. Today, the TMC is the largest medical center in the world, employing more than 110,000 people with more than 15 million visitors a year.