JPMorgan Chase Tower, formerly
Texas Commerce Tower, is a 305.41 m (1,002 ft), 75-story skyscraper in Houston,
TexasTexas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
. It is currently the tallest building in the city, the
tallest building in TexasThis list of tallest buildings in Texas ranks skyscrapers in the U.S. state of Texas by height. The tallest structure in the state, excluding radio towers, is the JPMorgan Chase Tower, which rises and was completed in 1982. The second-tallest building in Texas is the Wells Fargo Plaza, which...
, the tallest five-sided building in the world, 12th tallest building in the United States, and the
54th tallest building in the world.
Overview
The tower was built in
downtown HoustonDowntown Houston is the largest business district of Houston, Texas, United States. Downtown Houston, the city's central business district, contains the headquarters of many prominent companies. There is an extensive network of pedestrian tunnels and skywalks connecting the buildings of the district...
at 600 Travis Street in 1981 as
Texas Commerce Tower. It was designed by noted architects
I. M. PeiIeoh Ming Pei , commonly known as I. M. Pei, is a Chinese American architect, often called a master of modern architecture. Born in Canton, China and raised in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Pei drew inspiration at an early age from the gardens at Suzhou...
& Partners. In some early plans, the building reached up to 80 stories; however, the
FAAThe Federal Aviation Administration is the national aviation authority of the United States. An agency of the United States Department of Transportation, it has authority to regulate and oversee all aspects of civil aviation in the U.S...
expressed concern that additional height was a risk for aircraft going into and out of nearby
William P. Hobby AirportWilliam P. Hobby Airport is a public airport in Houston, Texas, located from Downtown Houston. The airport covers and has four runways. Hobby Airport is Houston's oldest commercial airport and was the city's primary air terminal until the opening of Houston Intercontinental Airport in 1969...
. Nonetheless, when it was completed, it was the eighth tallest building in the world. The building was developed as part of a partnership between
Texas Commerce BankThe Texas Commerce Bank was a Texas-based bank acquired by Chemical Banking Corporation of New York in May 1987...
and
Khalid bin MahfouzKhalid bin Mahfouz was a wealthy Saudi Arabian businessman residing in Ireland. He was accused of supporting al-Qaeda.As of 2002, he was believed to be confined in a hospital in Taif by Saudi authorities...
.
Upon its completion, the building surpassed
Aon CenterAon Center is a 62-story, Modernist office skyscraper located at 707 Wilshire Boulevard in downtown Los Angeles, California. Designed by Charles Luckman, and completed in 1973, the rectangular black building with white trim is remarkably slender for a skyscraper in a seismically active area. It is...
in
Los AngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to become the tallest building in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
west of the
Mississippi RiverThe Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
, a title it held until Los Angeles's Library Tower, now known as the U.S. Bank Tower, was built in 1990.
JPMorgan Chase Tower is also connected to the
Houston Downtown Tunnel SystemThe Houston tunnel system is a system of tunnels below Houston's downtown street system. The system comprises approximately of tunnels and forms a network of subterranean, climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways that link 95 full city blocks...
. This system forms a network of subterranean, climate-controlled, pedestrian walkways that link twenty-five full city blocks. The lobby of JPMorgan Chase Tower has been designed to harmonize not only with the height of the structure but also with the portico of Jones Hall, home of the
Houston Symphony OrchestraThe Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. Since 1966, it has performed at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston....
, and which occupies the city block immediately to the west. For that reason, a five-story glass wall supported by a stainless steel space frame spans the entire 85 foot width of the front entrance, making the lobby area light and airy, and opening up the space to the plaza outside.
The sky lobby observation deck is located on the 60th floor. The sky lobby acts as a transfer point for persons traveling to the upper (61-75) floors, but also as an observation deck for the public during the working hours of 8:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m. Monday–Friday, free of charge. One can take the express elevator, providing a panoramic view of the city of Houston thanks to the use of wide glass spans and thirteen-foot ceilings. In the large plaza area at the entrance of the building is a multi-colored sculpture entitled "Personage with Birds", which was designed by painter and sculptor
Joan MiróJoan Miró i Ferrà was a Spanish Catalan painter, sculptor, and ceramicist born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride...
, and which was installed in the plaza in early 1982.
While the tower's name reflects the bank JPMorgan Chase, the only space designated to Chase is a single branch office on the bottom floor. The tower is owned by Prime Asset Management and managed by its original owner,
Hines InterestsHines Interests Limited Partnership is privately held international commercial real estate concern with its headquarters located in the Williams Tower in Uptown Houston, Texas...
.
Hurricane Ike
On September 13, 2008, many of the tower's windows were blown out as
Hurricane IkeHurricane Ike was the second-costliest hurricane ever to make landfall in the United States, the costliest hurricane ever to impact Cuba and the second most active hurricane to reach the Canadian mainland in the Great Lakes Region after Hurricane Hazel in 1954...
moved through the area leaving desks exposed, metal blinds hanging in a twisted heap and smoky black glass covering the streets below. Police were forced to cordon off the area due to the amount of debris lying in the streets.
At first, it was speculated that the glass came off the building due to impact from debris or due to high-speed winds in the confined spaces. However, flying glass debris must be entirely governed by drag and lift forces that overcome gravity for a considerable time period. Also, the high speed in confined spaces theory is not entirely justified since the height of damage seen in the tower exceed too significantly the height of the Chase Center parking garage next to the tower. This theory was proposed because an increase in wind speed produce a drop in external pressure in the side and leeward walls and the pressure inside the building remained normal (high) thus resulting in a force that would overcome design pressures. Other interesting observations include those of ABS Consulting engineers who suggest that glazing damage may have been produced by "organized" vortices produced by the upwind Calpine Center and steady vortices between the Tower and the Chase Center parking garage. The NatHaz Modeling Laboratory at the
University of Notre DameThe University of Notre Dame du Lac is a Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, an unincorporated community north of the city of South Bend, in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States...
is currently conducting an investigation of the flow field around the structure, modeling the tower and the immediate area surrounding it using
Computational fluid dynamicsComputational fluid dynamics, usually abbreviated as CFD, is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyze problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate the interaction of liquids and gases with...
(CFD). Preliminary findings suggest that the localized damage is the result of a confluence of multiple mechanisms arising from the arrangement of nearby buildings, critical flow directionality and the possible entrapment of debris within evolving flow structures.
See also
External links