Formation

POST

Overview

Houston, Texas
550,000 ft² renovation

Brief

Reimagine the historic Barbara Jordan Post Office in downtown Houston as a mixed-use complex featuring an arts and music venue, workspaces, and one of the world’s largest rooftop parks and farms. In cooperation with OMA, MTWTF, Powers Brown, Hoerr Schaudt, and Dot Dash. The POST visual identity system was developed by MTWTF.

Services

Design and documentation, testing, vehicular and pedestrian wayfinding

Site Analysis

  • Site offers a cultural terminus to the Bagby Street corridor in north downtown
  • Opportunity to reuse and feature architectural artifacts from the existing site (flag pole, column identification), preserving the historic significance of the original post office
  • Wayfinding program must be distinguishable but also align with the character of the existing structure and new architecture

Updates
09/07/23
POST
Roof Portal

Suspended POST MARKET neon for the Skylawn
09/13/22
POST
POST in Cite
1/7

Write-up by Drake Flood with a premium design by MG&Co.; edited by Jack Murphy. 

It's a good idea to join Rice Design Alliance and subscribe to Cite: The Architecture and Design Review of Houston.
02/11/22
POST
The Spirit of the Place
1/17

Thanks to Kirby, Salome, and Jason. 

Photographs by Leonid Furmansky.
01/28/22
POST
Project Documentation Part 2
1/10

Photographs by Mickey Aloisio.
01/28/22
POST
Project Documentation Part 1
1/9
01/11/22
POST
Site Identification Installation

Size: Maximum Allowed
01/07/22
POST
Project Features

🔗 OMA
🔗 The Architect's Newspaper
🔗 designboom
🔗 Houston Chronicle
🔗 Arch20
🔗 ArchDaily
12/23/21
POST
Sign structure models
1/3
09/22/21
POST
Skylawn Signage Install
1/8

Rooftop signage
09/09/21
POST
Fabrication
1/6

Shop visit to GraphTec, Inc.
07/15/21
POST
Interior Install
1/3

Phase one installation
02/01/21
POST
Skylawn Surveys
1/5

Rooftop signage planning
01/20/21
POST
Site Walks / Construction
1/12

Sign location planning, construction process documentation
01/04/21
POST
Bayou Sight Line Study
1/3

Pedestrian path view
12/23/20
POST
Design Team Site Walk
1/8

Mockup reviews and sign location planning
11/02/20
POST
Scale Model: Site Identification Part 1
1/3

Philip built a wood model of the site identification sign structure
11/02/20
POST
Scale Model: Site Identification Part 2
1/2

Internal illumination simulated with electroluminescent wire and printed vellum
09/25/20
POST
Site Identification part 2
1/10

Development of form and structure
09/25/20
POST
Site Identification part 1
1/6

Material and Illumination studies
07/25/20
POST
Unused: path lamps
1/2

Landscape lighting studies
07/19/20
POST
Under Construction
1/3

Scenes from a site visit
04/20/20
POST
Studying: material transparency, flexibility, shadow color
1/3

Clamp lamp and flexible PVC
08/13/19
POST
Barbara Jordan Statement, 1974
0.1mb
Barbara-Jordan-Statement-on-Impeachment-Articles.pdf
08/12/19
POST
Installation
1/2

Kronberg's Flags
08/12/19
POST
Field Test Part 4

1:1 mockup of sign type 406
08/12/19
POST
Field Test Part 3

1:1 mockup of sign type 405
08/12/19
POST
Field Test Part 2
1/5

Fabricating scale mockup of sign type 405 in Philip's wood shop
06/27/19
POST
Houston Chronicle Article

Coverage of the POST public announcement and ground breaking ceremony
06/26/19
POST
Field Test Part 1
1/4

Using an augmented reality iPhone application to answer questions of scale for planned scaffolding installation.
06/21/19
POST
Featured on OMA

Announcement of OMA's involvement in the design of POST Houston
06/14/18
POST
Workshop × MTWTF

Initial planning and charrette at the office of MTWTF, New York
04/30/18
POST
Site Visit, Workshop
1/9

Site tour and project workshop with OMA, Powers Brown, Hoerr Schaudt, MTWTF
03/01/18
POST
Announcement of Work
1/2

FORMATION is pleased to be part of the design team reimagining the former US Postal Service distribution center at 401 Franklin in Downtown Houston. 

This important structure was originally designed by Wilson Morris Crain & Anderson and named in honor of Barbara Jordan, civil rights activist and the first Southern African-American woman elected to the US House of Representatives.

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