TC Energy Center

The TC Energy Center is a Postmodernist skyscraper designed by Johnson/Burgee Architects, with Philip Johnson as lead architect, in association with Kendall/Heaton Studio, and built between 1981 and 1983 in Houston, TX.

TC Energy Center is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The building has changed names several times over the years, and is also known as:

• Republic Bank Center between 1983 and 1988.
• NCNB Center between 1988 and 1991.
• NationsBank Center between 1991 and 1998.
• Bank of America Center between 1998 and 2020.
• TC Energy Center from 2020 until this day.

Its precise street address is 700 Louisiana Street, Houston, TX. You can also find it on the map here.

The TC Energy Center has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 1983. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• BOMA Award in 1987
• Associated Landscape Contractors of America Awards in 1991

The building is connected to Houston's downtown tunnel system .

The building underwent a major restoration in 2021. The architect commissioned to undertake this restoration was Hines.

Johnson/Burgee Architects, with Philip Johnson as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Kendall/Heaton Studio.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the TC Energy Center a reality:

• CBM Engineers in charge of Structural Engineering
• Otis Elevator Company as the company in charge of the elevators system
• Hines Interests Limited Partnership as the Main Developer
• Gensler in charge of Interior Design

The TC Energy Center can be categorized as a Postmodernist building.

The TC Energy Center was completed in 1983. At that time Postmodernism was the prevailing style. Fresh, bold and daring, architects were exploring the freedom of designing without having to follow the strict, sometimes arbitrary rules of a specific architectural movement (which ironically became a movement itself). The TC Energy Center was therefore every much in line with what the architecture community, and the people liked and wanted at the time.

The TC Energy Center uses a frame structure made of steel columns and concrete and steel slabs.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade of the building however, is load bearing. This doesn't imply that it is a traditional load-bearing wall. Rather, it means that the structure's exterior pillars have been pushed to the very edges, becoming integrated with the facade, and therefore, technically, a part of it.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features red Swedish granite and reflective glass organized in narrow bays that obey to the separation between the perimeter structural columns. The same granite is used for interior cladding and on the sidewalks surrounding the building.

From a volumetric point of view, the building is made of three bodies that rise in a stepped, tower-like formation. Each culminates in a steeply pitched gabled roofline made of lead and coated with copper, as the top floors progressively retract.

Another material found at the TC Energy Center is Birdseye maple, Macassar Ebony, Italian Willow, Chamois, and Kevazingo woods, used in panels to cover the interior of the elevator cabins.