Event

Around Downtown

Advance paid reservations are required for all tours.

Meet your guide inside the Visitors Center at City Hall. Learn about the Art Deco design of the Visitors Center and the 1939 City Hall. Restrooms are available.

On Tuesdays, your guide will take you to Houston's Central Library, home to Claes Oldenburg's Geometric Mouse X (think Mickey Mouse); to the Heritage Society's Museum in Sam Houston Park (Houston's oldest park, dating to 1899); Heritage Plaza, where lobby sculptures fly through the air; then across a sky bridge into Allen Center, an office complex connected on the second floor, overlooking a multi-block garden complete with Paul Kittleson's Disappearing Gnomes (think the seven dwarfs from Snow White). End your tour with a ride back to City Hall on the free, air-conditioned Greenlink Connector.

On Wednesdays, the tour will go to the 1926 Julia Ideson Building, a breathtaking example of Spanish-Mediterranean architecture filled with amazing murals and sculptures. Then, you'll hop aboard the free Greenlink Connector and ride with your guide to view a spectacular sky-ring, designed by Cesar Pelli and Louise Nevelson's Frozen Laces I. Ride the Greenlink Connector back to City Hall.

On Thursdays, you hop aboard the Greenlink Connector for a ride to Discovery Green, Houston's east-side, 12-acre park, filled with Doug Hollis's Listening Vessels, where you can hear someone speaking several feet away; Margo Sawyer's Synchronicity of Color, resembling Rubik's Cubes, covering the entrances to the park's underground garage; the Dancing Waters and Kinder Lake; a playground; Doug Hollis's Mist Tree; a fun Dubuffet sculpture sitting across from the George R. Brown Convention Center; and the Lake House, where you can pause for a snack and a drink.

Other stops may include Phoenicia, an international grocery store and café (Tuesdays); Cullen Center, an office complex filled with art and snack shops (Wednesdays); GreenStreet, three blocks of shopping, dining, entertainment and events (Wednesdays); the Shops at Houston Center, downtown's only interior, three-story shopping mall with a huge food court (Thursdays); and MetroRail's Main Street Square fountains (Thursdays).