Situated in the former Main Street Sears building in the heart of Houston’s Ion District, the Ion building is a beautifully designed oasis of steel and glass marking the start of the city’s 12-block innovation corridor.

The 266,000-square-foot building – originally constructed in 1939 – underwent a $76-million renovation after client Rice Management Company (RMC) bought out Sears’ 99-year lease in 2017.

The renovation involved expanding the building both vertically through two additional steel-framed stories, and horizontally, including new steel framing to support the added floors and an atrium extending from the basement up to the building’s new skylights.

The centerpiece of the newly renovated building is the bright natural light that now floods the open interior via a massive curtain wall and brand-new 26’ x 92’ center lightwell and skylight system. These additions weren’t without challenges: The new curtain walls required significant demolitions of the original concrete walls, while the lightwell required the removal of four of the building’s original middle columns.

Unicel Architectural provided 81 Vision Control® units – each weighing more than 500 lbs. – to be used in our aluminum skylight system above the new lightwell, equivalent to approximately 3,000 square feet of glazing in total.

Entrepreneurs, innovators, and other members of the public can now collaborate within the Ion building’s nearly 100-year-old walls while enjoying a bite to eat on the building’s restaurant-dotted first floor and reaping the benefits of abundant natural light.

Rice Management Company (RMC)

Client

Houston, TX, USA

Location

2021

Year

Exterior

Application

Commercial

Type of Project

SHoP, Gensler

Architectual Firm

Resources

Browse Project Resources

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