POST Houston

Once the hub of the city’s U.S. mail system, the long-abandoned USPS headquarters in Houston is being transformed by Lovett Commercial into a dynamic mixed-use complex expanding the city’s vibrant downtown. Built in 1934, POST was first established as a depot adjacent to Houston’s Grand Central Station, the city’s gateway for travelers and freight. Grand Central Station was purchased by the US Government in the late 1950’s and demolished. Originally designed by Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson, the same architects that designed the Astrodome, the present building swallowed the remaining portion of the original 1930’s depot structure in its brick walls. We made the decision to establish and preserve the building as a historic landmark because of several key features that made the structure emblematic of its period. When the USPS building opened to the public in 1961, the United States was locked in a cultural, military, and technological contest with the USSR. As a result, the building was designed to FBI security standards with an ultra robust structure that included multiple nuclear bomb shelters. Moreover, the architects designed the building to showcase American industrial prowess and to be a machine that would streamline the sorting and distribution of mail.