George R. Brown Convention Center
| George R. Brown Convention Center | |
|---|---|
| Address | 1001 Avenida de las Americas |
| Location | Houston, Texas |
| Coordinates | 29°45′8″N 95°21′28″W / 29.75222°N 95.35778°WCoordinates: 29°45′8″N 95°21′28″W / 29.75222°N 95.35778°W |
| Owner | City of Houston |
| Operator | Houston First Corporation |
| Opened | September 26, 1987 |
| Renovated | July 28, 2001 (completed December 3, 2003) and November 2014 (estimated completion Fall 2016) |
| Enclosed space | |
| • Total space | 1,900,000 sq ft (180,000 m2) |
| Parking | 4000 spaces |
| Public transit access | Convention District station |
| Website | |
| www |
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The George R. Brown Convention Center, opened on September 26, 1987, is located on the east side of Downtown Houston, Texas, United States.
The center was named for internationally recognized entrepreneur, engineer, civic leader, philanthropist and Houstonian George Rufus Brown (1898-1983). George and his brother, Herman, turned Brown & Root into the world's largest construction and engineering company. Later, he and investors founded, Texas Eastern Transmission Company, which donated six of the 11 blocks required to build the GRB. The center is owned by the City of Houston and managed by the Houston First Corporation. The facility was completed with a price tag of $104.9 million, requiring 30 months and more than 1,200 workers. The 100-foot (30 m) high red-white-and-blue building replaced the obsolete Albert Thomas Convention Center, which was later redeveloped into the Bayou Place entertainment complex in the downtown Houston Theater District. It is the first convention center in the world to have a permanent Bitcoin ATM.
The convention center is served by METRORail light rail service at Convention District station.
The center sits where the Pillot House, a house owned by the family of one of the founders of the Henke & Pillot supermarket chain, used to be. The Pillot House was moved to Sam Houston Park in 1965.
The first convention held in the George R. Brown Convention Center began on October 11, 1987, for the American Society of Travel Agents. A renovation project began on July 28, 2001 to expand the convention center and build an adjacent 1,200-room convention headquarters hotel at a cost of $165 million and requiring 27 months of construction. The adjacent hotel is the Hilton Americas-Houston, which is connected to the convention center via two skywalks. The hotel and convention center are not connected to the Houston downtown tunnel system. The project expanded the center from 1,150,000 square feet (107,000 m2) to 1,800,000 square feet (107,000 to 167,000 m²). Three exhibit halls were added to increase exhibition space from 451,500 square feet (41,950 m2) to 853,500 square feet (42,000 to 79,000 m²) and sixty-two meeting rooms were added for a total of 105. Completion of the project concluded in November 2003, a few months before Super Bowl XXXVIII. There is also a 3,600-seat General Assembly Theater which can be used for concerts, Broadway shows, conferences, meetings and other events, while Exhibit Hall B3 can be converted into a 6,500-seat indoor arena for concerts and sports using telescopic seating.
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