One of the world's foremost collections of 20C art, with an emphasis on Surrealism, is presented here. Established in 1987 for the collection of John and Dominique de Menil, the museum exhibits only a small part of more than 15,000 paintings, sculptu..

This outstanding four-floor museum requires two days to see properly. On the main floor are a planetarium and IMAX theater. The Paleontology Hall exhibits over 450 fossil specimens chronicled by time and location. Adjacent to the Welch Chemistry Hall..

Founded in 1900 as the first municipal art museum in Texas, this is now one of the largest museums in the US. A wide-ranging permanent collection of more than 40,000 works is exhibited in the new Audrey Jones Beck Building (José Rafael Moneo, 2000), ..

A half-dozen important art museums, various science and history museums and Houston's children's museum are found here. Although the district extends 1.5mi north-south from the Menil Collection to the Houston Zoo, most facilities are within four bloc..

A division of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this spectacular collection showcases 17-19C American decorative arts with 5,000 objects of furniture, ceramics, silver, paper, glass, textiles and paintings. It is located in Bayou Bend (1927, John F. ..

Buffalo Bayou, the original corridor of settlement, runs along the north side of downtown. Sam Houston Park recalls this first community; above it rises a web of freeways. The commercial district runs east 14 blocks to the George R. Brown Convention ..

Both the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet perform at the Wortham Theater Center, noted for its six-story grand foyer. The Houston Symphony Orchestra is home in the block-sized Jones Hall for the Performing Arts, identified by its facade of trav..

Seven restored and furnished 19C-early-20C homes, and an 1891 German Lutheran church, have been relocated to this 19-acre park. Oldest is an 1823 pioneer home; most elaborate, a 17-room house built by oil pioneer Henry T. Staiti in 1905. The Heritage..

Maintained by the Menil, The Rothko Chapel is an all-faith ecumenical center. The octagonal Chapel (1971, Philip Johnson), holds 14 paintings (1965-66)-variations on a theme of black-by Mark Rothko. Outside in a reflecting pool stands Broken Obelisk,..

The Menil's Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum holds the only intact Byzantine frescoes in the Western Hemisphere, rescued from thieves attempting to smuggle the 13C artwork out of Turkish-controlled Cyprus. The frescoes underwent restoration that took t..

This somber museum (1996, Ralph Appelbaum and Mark Mucasey), designed as an education center and a memorial to victims and survivors of the Holocaust, is unmistakable for the broad, dark, brick cylinder-reminiscent of a Nazi death-camp smokestack-tha..

Occupying a distinctive metal parallelogram (1972, Gunnar Barkers), this cutting-edge museum offers frequently changing exhibits of modern international art in spacious upstairs and downstairs galleries. Rotating every six weeks, major exhibitions in..

Hands-on exhibits in the Technikids Gallery show everyday applications of science through experimentation. The Investigations Gallery teaches where food comes from, beginning with a farm exhibit and continuing through nutrition, shopping and money ma..

As home to the world's largest medical center, Houston makes a natural location for this educational center. In the Amazing Body Pavilion, visitors take a walking tour of the human body, including a 10ft brain, a giant eyeball, a 22ft backbone, and m..

Spanning 55 acres at Hermann Park, the zoo is home to 5,000 animals of 700 species. The Wortham World of Primates is a 2.2-acre rain-forest habitat for apes and monkeys. The Tropical Bird House is a walk-through jungle aviary for more than 200 free-f..

Immediately south of The Galleria, the 64-story Williams Tower offers a vast view from its top floors. The energy-company headquarters is one of architect Philip Johnson's best-known neo-Deco designs, a soaring, glistening, cathedral-like spire. The ..

Several major department stores, two large hotels and an ice rink (beneath an arched glass ceiling) anchor Houston's largest shopping complex. Designed after a plaza in Milan, Italy, the center dominates the Uptown Houston district, west of Loop 610 ..