Houston is so much more than the concrete jungle many might imagine it to be. The city, the fourth most populous in the nation, especially has a lot to offer in the realm of arts, history and culture. When I visited last May, I barely scratched the surface in this arena and was pleasantly surprised by how many cultural institutions call Houston home.
Mariauna Hernandez, corporate communications manager for the city’s DMO, Houston First, concurred and called Houston the “surprise that keeps on giving.”
“You’ll find something and be like, ‘Oh my goodness, I didn’t know this was here,’ and then another thing and another,” she said. “There’s so much more to Houston than just concrete and buildings.”
Planners have a plethora of venue options that will surround attendees in art, as well as the area’s natural beauty and storied history. We highlight a few standouts below.
Houston Botanic Garden
Houston has a relatively new outdoor destination that might not be on planners’ radars yet: the Houston Botanic Garden, which opened to the public September 2020. The garden, located on what was once a public golf course, comprises 132 acres of themed gardens, all surrounded by Sims Bayou. And there are plenty of walking trails to enjoy the exotic and native plants, birds, butterflies and other wildlife.
“I think people might not think of nature when they think of Houston, but we actually do have a lot of greenspace here, as far as nice parks as well,” Hernandez said.
The garden is equipped to host private events like luncheons, retreats, conferences and receptions. It offers a number of spaces to rent, including a climate-controlled tent with large panels that allow for views of the Global Collection Garden. Other outdoor options include a covered walkway with beautiful planter boxes, making it ideal for lunches or cocktail events, and the Woodland Glade, a partially secluded area that can seat up to 200 and features magnolia trees and sculpted hedges.
Freedmen’s Town
After enslaved people were finally emancipated in Texas in 1865, many traveled from Galveston to Houston and settled in the city’s fourth ward, which is the site of historic Freedmen’s Town. Black-owned businesses flourished, giving people the opportunity to start a new life—by 1930, Freedmen’s Town housed one-third of Houston’s 36,000 Black residents. Last year, Freedmen’s Town became the City of Houston’s first official Heritage District. The nonprofit Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy now works to protect and preserve the history there through tourism and re-education.
A cornerstone of the town was Bethel Church, which still stands today—after multiple fires and redevelopment—as a historic site in Freedmen’s Town.
“It’s a beautiful space,” Hernandez said, adding that planners can work with the conservancy if interested in hosting an event there.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
If your attendees are art lovers—or can just appreciate a stunning event backdrop—there’s no more elegant space for a program than at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Its largest space, accommodating up to 350 seated and 750 reception-style, is the Caroline Wiess Law Building, home to Cullinan Hall. The space is ideal for large corporate dinners and holiday parties.
Gallery spaces abound at the Audrey Jones Beck Building, which houses the museum’s collections of antiquities, Old Masters, Impressionism and American art. Planners can look to it for cocktail hours or intimate dinners.
And attendees and visitors alike on the MFAH campus would be remiss not to explore the museum’s latest addition: the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, which opened in November 2020 and houses the museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art.
[Related: What to Do and Where to Meet in Houston]
Museum of Natural Science
Mingling among dinosaurs—when’s the last time an attendee could say they did that at a meeting? It’s possible in Houston, specifically at the Museum of Natural Science. A standout exhibit at this popular attraction is the sprawling Morian Hall of Paleontology, filled with towering skeletons of prehistoric beasts (many of them in positions of action to give visitors a true feel of what life was like millions of years ago). Planners can host cocktail hours in this impressive space, as well as many others throughout the museum.
“Of course, they have atrium areas and balcony areas within the museum that also offer some spectacular views of the venue,” Hernandez said. “I think that is always a great option and certainly a conversation starter when it comes to everything that’s on display.”
POST Houston
A huge new attraction—that packs plenty of history—in the northern end of Houston’s downtown is POST, a redevelopment of the Barbara Jones Post Office building into a hub for food, retail, technology and live concerts. POST is opening in phases and debuted in late 2021 with its food hall and Skylawn, a massive six-acre rooftop greenspace with impressive views of the downtown skyline. It also houses an urban farm and recreation areas, and the space is available to planners for corporate events and receptions.
“There’s an area where you could do some covered seating or just be outdoors in general and appreciate the view of downtown,” Hernandez said. “And the cool thing about it is that also on the rooftop, they’re working on a community garden where they’re growing herbs, spices and vegetables that the restaurants [below] can source ingredients from.”
Eventually, POST will unveil 713 Music Hall, a state-of-the-art, 5,000-person capacity concert venue, as well as expansive office spaces. Show-stopping design features of the project include three distinct staircases that are “designed to encourage interaction,” with paths that are doubled and intertwined.
Its site was first established as a depot adjacent to Houston’s Grand Central Station before it was purchased by the U.S. government in the late ’50s and demolished. The present building was Houston’s main center for the United States Postal Service and was built in 1962 by the same architects who built the Astrodome. The building housed 2,000 mail sorters, who were under watch by their supervisors via lookout galleries, which POST has preserved. Visitors to the new site will see more similar historical touchstones.
Sawyer Yards
The art appreciation in Houston can continue at Sawyer Yards, one of the largest creative communities in the U.S. and where former warehouses have been transformed into hundreds of creative studios, extending over several city blocks. The complex also rents out a number of venues for corporate events, holidays parties and galas, with its largest able to accommodate up to 1,000 seated guests.
Sawyer Yards is also home to a number of restaurants and breweries, including Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co., which Hernandez said offers a top-notch rooftop patio with wow-worthy views.
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Houston First | (713) 853-8100
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