Sights in Houston
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Johnson Space Center
While manned US space missions such as the Apollo and shuttle programs have their high-profile launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the planning and most of the training happens at NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC), just outside of Houston.
The glory, guts and cigarette butts of the NASA experience have been theme-park packaged as Space Center Houston, the tourist gateway to the JSC. Heavy commercial sponsorship has led to exhibits featuring Saturn automobiles with 'space age plastic components' and a collection of Lego rockets (with kits for making them available at the giftstore).
Despite all the hype, however, you can find some actual evidence that the sp…
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Orange Show Center for Visionary Art
Beer cans, welded-steel oranges and plastic flowers as folk art? Conservative Houston has a wacky art streak. The late Jeff McKissack molded his house into a junk-art tribute to his favorite fruit until his passing. Today it's the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, off I-45 S, which fosters the folk-art vision by offering tours and keeping up the 50,000-can exterior of the Beer Can House (222 Malone St), off Memorial Dr. The center can give directions to other arty houses around town.
The Foundation also keeps up the Beer Can House (222 Malone St, off Memorial Dr), a house, or is it a sculpture, covered with more than 50,000 aluminum cans.
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Discovery Green
Houston’s latest and greatest downtown park is a legitimately cool, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)–certified attraction for all ages. What looks bizarre from a distance – a vast swath of grass raked on a steep diagonal over a parking lot – is impressive from within, with oak-shaded walkways, sculptures, gardens blooming with native Texas plants, and a small lake which transforms into a skating rink in winter. There are plenty of diversions for kids yet adults won’t feel left out: there’s even a swanky restaurant, Grove.
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Holocaust Museum Houston
This superbly curated museum strikes the delicate balance of providing a sobering yet poignant homage to the casualties of the 20th century’s greatest tragedy. The permanent exhibit offers an in-depth education on the context, history and aftermaths of not only the Holocaust itself but of Nazi Germany’s terrifying rise to power. Other exhibits trace the lives of European Jews from before WWII through the post-Nazi era, as survivors tried to rebuild their lives.
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Museum of Printing History
This carefully curated museum is an often-missed gem that has rare and unusual printed works such as the Dharani Scroll, which dates from AD 764 and is one of the oldest printed works in existence. The vast collection of daily papers printed on historical dates – the Titanic disaster, JFK’s assassination and the invasion of Pearl Harbor – are as poignant as they are historically fascinating.
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Rothko Chapel
A temple of contemplation, a really empty yoga studio, a church or a nuclear bunker? All places you might pray, and at first glance it could be any of the above. The point is, the one and only Rothko Chapel is whatever you want it to be. With 14 large paintings by American abstract expressionist Mark Rothko, it’s a perfect place to sit and do something radical: just be.
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Houston Museum of Natural Science
The tactile pleasures of this museum entertain the kids; the educational and aesthetic experiences woo the adults. If you’re over 16 and you find yourself thinking, ‘Science museums are actually sorta cool!’ you’re not alone. Full-grown adults have been known to audibly ooh and aah their way from the giant diplodocus skeleton to the Gemstones and Minerals Hall.
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Menil Collection
Abstract- and modern-art haters, be warned: we dare you to hate this museum. Local philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil’s massive private collection form the core of this adventurous whirl through the medieval to the surreal, with whole rooms devoted to mind-bending René Magritte and Max Ernst.
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Contemporary Arts Museum
An hour spent fully immersing yourself in the works of just one or two artists is one of the chief satisfactions of this modern museum, whose strength lies in its lack of permanent collection. Check what’s on the schedule: this is one of Houston’s epicenters of cool, new and seriously cutting edge.
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Museum of Fine Arts
French impressionism and post-1945 European and American painting shine in this nationally renowned palace of art, which includes major works by Picasso and Rembrandt. Check out its Latin American and Photography collections, two strong areas often overlooked by institutions of this size.
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‘Village’
One of the few parts of town best explored on foot, the ‘Village’ buzzes with a hip student energy. There’s free two-hour parking. The surrounding homes (how much do these Rice professors make, anyway?) run the gamut from gorgeous to stunning, and the locals aren’t too shabby either.
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Cy Twombly Gallery
Love it or loathe it: the Cy Twombly Gallery annex contains seriously abstract art. Some call it pretentious, some call it crazy, some call it beautiful: you can’t walk out without an opinion one way or another, and isn’t that the point of art in the first place?
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Byzantine Fresco Museum
This museum contains stunning 13th-century frescoes that came to Houston from their home in Cyprus early in the 20th century in a manner not unlike the travels of the Maltese Falcon. A tiny museum with an evocative spiritual energy, it packs a visceral punch.
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Sky Lobby
Get your bearings with a bird’s-eye view (or at least 1002ft of it) by climbing the elevator of the JPMorgan Chase Tower to the Sky Lobby. Barring smog, you can see for 20 miles – which is only a fraction of this massive city.
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Art Car Museum
The best thing is to view the amazingly decorated vehicles at the warehouselike Art Car Museum. It contains more than 15 vehicles that have been tricked out into psychedelic and Mad Max–esque wonders.
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Discovery Green
Young ’uns gettin’ restless? Since mid-2008, there’s been a new place to play – right downtown at Discovery Green. Think playgrounds, play fountains, art and a kid-friendly restaurant.
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Rice University
While some locals roll their eyes at the reputation of elite Rice University as ‘the Harvard of Texas, ’ as more than one Texan told us, ‘It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true.’
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Heritage Society
The Heritage Society has relocated several of Houston’s most historic buildings to the oldest park in town (amid the roar of traffic, naturally).
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Children’s Museum of Houston
At the high-octane stupendously fun Children’s Museum of Houston little ones can make tortillas in a Mexican village, or draw in an open-air art studio.
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University of Houston
One of the largest universities in Texas, the commuter-heavy University of Houston is the major local university and boasts strong programs in the arts.
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Market Square Park
You’ll notice how 19th-century buildings sharply contrast with their modern surroundings in Market Square Park, the historical center of downtown.
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Houston Zoo
In the museum district, Hermann Park is home to 4500 animals at the tropical, 55-acre Houston Zoo.
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Health Museum
Future brain surgeons will like checking out the huge organs on display in the interactive Health Museum.
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Cullen Sculpture Garden
Admire the talents of luminaries such as Rodin and Matisse in the tranquil Cullen Sculpture Garden.
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