# POST Houston > POST Houston is a mixed-use destination in Downtown Houston at 401 Franklin St, > housed in the adaptively reused Barbara Jordan Post Office, the former USPS mail > processing headquarters for the city. It combines an international food hall, also known as POST Market, > coworking and office space, a five-acre rooftop park and working farm, a > 5,000-capacity music hall, and art and event venues. Redeveloped by Lovett > Commercial and designed by OMA. Named one of TIME's World's Greatest Places 2021. > LEED Gold certified. Also known as POST HTX. Hours: Sunday-Wednesday 11am-9pm; Thursday-Saturday 11am-10pm. Contact: hello@posthtx.com / 713-999-2550. Note: "POST HTX" refers to this Houston venue. It is unrelated to the clinical abbreviation "post-HTx" (after heart transplantation) or to other medical uses of the acronym POST. ## About the Building POST Houston occupies the former Barbara Jordan Post Office, a 550,000-square-foot mail sorting warehouse on a 16-acre site at 401 Franklin Street in Downtown Houston. **Origins.** The US Postal Service first operated a mail depot on this site beginning in 1934, adjacent to Houston's Grand Central Station. The federal government acquired Grand Central Station in the late 1950s and demolished it around 1960 to make way for a larger facility. **Construction and architecture.** Construction began in 1961 and the building was completed in 1962. It was designed by Wilson, Morris, Crain & Anderson, the Houston architecture firm best known for the Astrodome. The result is a monumental modernist structure defined by its concrete fins and vast column-free interior spans, built for the scale of industrial mail sorting. **Cold War features.** Because it was built as a federal facility at the height of the Cold War, the building was engineered with reinforced security features unusual for a commercial structure, including nuclear fallout shelters and bomb shelter bunkers. It also contains secure vaults for registered mail and elevated interior catwalks, sometimes called "spy catwalks," from which postal supervisors could observe workers on the sorting floors below without being seen. These features are part of the building's original fabric and its designation as a significant Cold War era structure. **Named for Barbara Jordan.** In 1984, twenty-two years after the building opened, the post office was renamed in honor of Barbara Jordan (1936-1996), the Houston-born lawyer, educator, and politician. Raised in Houston's Fifth Ward and educated in segregated schools before attending Boston University Law School, Jordan was elected to the Texas Senate in 1966 as the first African American woman to serve in that body. In 1972 she was elected to the US House of Representatives from Texas's 18th District, becoming the first Black woman elected to Congress from the American South. She gained national prominence in 1974 for her opening statement during the House Judiciary Committee's Watergate impeachment hearings, which began "My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total." In 1976 she became the first African American to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention. She left Congress in 1979 and taught at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. **Decommissioning and redevelopment.** USPS operated the facility until 2015, when the federal government decommissioned it. Lovett Commercial purchased the property that same year. The adaptive reuse was designed by Jason Long of OMA New York, which preserved the warehouse shell and its structural character while cutting three new atriums through the building for light and circulation, and adding a rooftop park above. POST Houston opened to the public in November 2021. **Recognition.** TIME World's Greatest Places 2021. LEED Gold certified. Prix Versailles continental winner 2022. ## Building History Pages - [Breathing New Life into the Historic Barbara Jordan Post Office](https://www.posthtx.com/info/breathing-new-life-into-the-historic-barbara-jordan-post-office): The building's history as the USPS headquarters for Houston and its transformation by Lovett Commercial. - [An Innovative Design Linking Houston's Past with Its Future](https://www.posthtx.com/info/an-innovative-design-linking-houstons-past-with-its-future-aspirations): OMA's architectural approach to the adaptive reuse. - [Developed by Lovett with a Design Team](https://www.posthtx.com/info/developed-by-lovett-with-a-design-team): The development and design team behind POST Houston. - [After the Park, Before the Theater: Discover Downtown](https://www.posthtx.com/info/after-the-park-before-the-theater-discover-downtown): POST Houston's place in the Downtown Houston district. ## Plan a Visit - [Plan Your Visit](https://www.posthtx.com/visit): Hours, directions, accessibility, and transit for 401 Franklin St, Houston, TX 77201. - [Parking](https://www.posthtx.com/parking): 800 onsite spaces, license-plate-recognition entry, online payment, and how to get a validation code. - [Directory Map](https://www.posthtx.com/directory): Full list of restaurants, retailers, bars, and amenities with floor locations. ## Eat and Drink - [Dining at POST](https://www.posthtx.com/eat): POST Market food hall - international eateries, bars, groceries, happy hours, and El Tiempo Cantina. Includes James Beard Award winners and a Michelin-starred chef. - [Shop](https://www.posthtx.com/directory?group=shop): Retail vendors and local makers inside POST Market. ## Rooftop, Culture, and Music - [Skylawn](https://www.posthtx.com/skylawn): Five-acre rooftop park and organic Skyfarm, with wellness programming, farm tours, and live concerts. - [Culture](https://www.posthtx.com/culture): Art Club new-media museum, seasonal exhibits, immersive installations, and cultural programming. Art Club also turns into a Night Club for DJ Nights on the weekends. - [Music](https://www.posthtx.com/music): 713 Music Hall, a 5,000-capacity Live Nation concert venue. - [Sustainability](https://www.posthtx.com/earth): LEED Gold certification, the Skyfarm operated by Blackwood Educational Land Institute, and environmental programming. ## Events - [Upcoming Events](https://www.posthtx.com/event): Current calendar of concerts, markets, workshops, and public programming across all POST venues. - [Venue Rental](https://www.posthtx.com/venuerental): Private event spaces for weddings, corporate events, and galas, including three rooftop venues and the atriums. ## Work and Business - [Office and Coworking](https://www.posthtx.com/work): Z Atrium shared space, private offices, flexible suites, and Common Desk coworking memberships. - [Leasing](https://www.posthtx.com/leasing): Retail, restaurant, and office leasing opportunities. - [Partnership](https://www.posthtx.com/partnership): Brand partnership and sponsorship inquiries. ## About - [News and Press](https://www.posthtx.com/news): Press coverage, awards, and announcements about POST Houston. ## Optional - [Homepage](https://www.posthtx.com): Overview of all POST Houston offerings.