Organized by AAC Hamburg and Charles Renfro, B.Arch. ’89
800 Bell Street: From Midcentury Monument to Shared Civic Stage, a workshop organized by the
Academy for Architectural Culture (aac) in Hamburg, brought together young architects from nine
countries to examine the transformation of vacant office buildings in response to changing patterns of
work, housing, and urban life. Framed by questions of reuse, sustainability, density, and social interaction,
the workshop approached the crisis of the contemporary downtown as an opportunity to imagine new
forms of living, working, and cohabitation.
The workshop focused on 800 Bell Street, the former Humble Oil and ExxonMobil headquarters in
Downtown Houston. Designed by Welton Becket and Associates and completed in 1963, the forty-four-
story tower was conceived as a monument to Houston’s expanding oil economy. Following ExxonMobil’s
relocation of its offices, the building has stood vacant since 2015. Situated near Main Street and the
MetroRail, and surrounded by vacant lots and parking areas, it occupies a strategic position within a
changing downtown.
Participants were asked to transform the tower into a mixed-use urban building, combining diverse forms
of housing and residential offices with public and semi-public programs. Proposals sought to reconnect
the building to its surroundings, activate its ground and public realms, strengthen relationships among
residents, and integrate adjacent vacant sites.
The resulting exhibition presents these speculative projects as a collection of visions for 800 Bell
Street—not simply as a building to be reused, but as a catalyst for a more open, connected, and inclusive
Downtown Houston.