Work in Progress
Cullen Center
Domed Sports Stadium
Manned Spacecraft Center
Jetero Airport
Natural Science Museum, Planetarium
Five important Houston building projects, in various stages of development late in 1962, totaled a minimum completion cost of $347,500,000. Construction of a sixth, a new City Auditorium to be built on the site of the old one, which was opened in 1910, will begin in 1963 or 1964; money for the new auditorium was given by Houston Endowment, Inc., a foundation created by Jesse H. Jones.
The eventual cost of Cullen Center, which is being built on a six-block site downtown, will be more than $100,000,000. The first two buildings, which were nearing completion late in 1962, are a twenty-five-story office building and the Hotel America. Cullen Center eventually will include an office building of fifty stories or more, two high-rise apartment towers, and other structures.
The other projects, and their estimated final costs, are an air conditioned domed stadium for baseball and football games, $20,000,000; the Houston Intercontinental Airport, called Jetero, $125,000,000; the Manned Spacecraft Center, $100,000,000; and the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Planetarium, $2,500,000.