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28-527: Real estate developer Gerald D. Hines hired New York–based John Burgee Architects with Philip Johnson to design the building, in association with Houston-based Morris-Aubry Architects (now known as Morris Architects). Construction was completed in 1983, with an open house held in April. The building was named the Transco Tower after its first major tenant, Transco Energy Co. Transco Energy Co. merged with

56-483: A subscription business model . The bizjournals.com website, using the overarching online title The Business Journal , contains local business news from various cities in the United States, along with an archive that contains more than 5 million business news articles published since 1996. As of August 2021, it receives over 3.6 million readers each week. The company was founded in 1982 by Mike Russell with

84-540: A nephew of the founders, together with his brother Charles Williams and David's son David Williams Jr., bought the business from the founders; John H. Williams remained as president of the company until 1971 and CEO until 1979. The company went public in 1957 under the Williams Brothers name. As it diversified in the 1970s, it was renamed The Williams Companies, Inc. Since 1997, their brand identity has been simplified to "Williams". In 1966, Williams bought

112-600: A partnership consisting of Kuwaiti investors represented by Atlanta-based Fosterlane Management Corp. The building was offered along with a parking garage, a 2.3-acre (0.93 ha) tract across the street from the Williams Tower, and a 48% stake in the Williams Waterwall (now named the Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park) and the surrounding park; prior to this transaction Hines had already owned the other 52% of

140-576: A tax-free spinoff to Williams shareholders of its remaining interest. The company's former exploration and production business, WPX Energy Inc., began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Jan. 3, 2011. The spinoff was completed with the Dec. 31, 2011, distribution of one share of WPX Energy common stock for every three shares of Williams common stock. Williams became an infrastructure company, and many of its pipeline assets are held through

168-557: Is natural gas processing and transportation, with additional petroleum and electricity generation assets. A Fortune 500 company, its common stock is a component of the S&;P 500 . It was founded as Williams Brothers in 1908 by Miller and David Williams in Fort Smith, Arkansas , and soon expanded to building nationwide pipelines for natural gas and petroleum. The company relocated to Tulsa in 1919. In 1949, John H. Williams,

196-538: Is a Houston landmark that identifies the Uptown Houston district. The building is connected to a 10 level, 3,208 car parking garage by a sky bridge. The bridge also connects the building to retail outlets, like The Galleria , and two Federal Aviation Administration -licensed helipads. In a grass field adjacent to the Williams Tower is the Gerald D. Hines Waterwall Park . Formerly privately owned in common with

224-565: Is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina . ACBJ publishes The Business Journals , which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market's edition named for that market, and also publishes Hemmings Motor News and Inside Lacrosse . The company is owned by Advance Publications . The company receives revenue from display advertising and classified advertising in its weekly newspaper and online advertising on its website and from

252-480: The Williams Companies in 1995 and in 1999 the name of the building was changed to the Williams Tower. In December 2002, Ryan John Hartley climbed the tower and jumped from about halfway up, resulting in his death, which was ruled a suicide. In 2008, Hines REIT Properties LP, an affiliate of Hines Real Estate Investment Trust Inc., purchased the Williams Tower for $ 271.5 million from Transco Tower Ltd.,

280-588: The 51st floor, where they can transfer to other elevators to get to the 49th through 64th floor of the building. There is no public observation deck. During the nighttime hours, the building is defined by a 7,000 watt beacon that sweeps across the sky and can be seen up to 40 miles (65 km) away on a clear night. Topped by such a beacon, the tower hearkens back to the Palmolive Building in Chicago , Illinois . The building, along with its beacon,

308-529: The Williams Companies were fined $ 2.4 million for 18 incidents that took place between 2006 and 2013. These incidents included one where they failed to monitor corrosion and another, where they waited to repair a natural gas line showing metal loss in Kentucky. On March 1, 1999, Jack D. McCarthy, chief financial officer, said the company's additional review and its annual audit process resulted in

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336-691: The award. As of 2009, the building managers are seeking to gain Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification from the United States Green Building Council . The top four angles of the building form cat-like shapes with tails that run down all the way to street level. Williams Companies The Williams Companies, Inc. , is an American energy company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma . Its core business

364-689: The bottom 40 floors are occupied by Williams. The remainder of the building is occupied by a variety of tenants. Williams Tower was named "Skyscraper of the Century" in the December 1999 issue of Texas Monthly magazine. Paul Gapp of the Chicago Tribune said that the building became an "instant classic" when it opened. Paul Goldberger of The New York Times said that the tower gave Post Oak Boulevard "a center, an anchor, which most out-towns lack". There are six elevators that take tenants to

392-441: The company found itself in financial distress due to changed market conditions, its competition with Enron Corp. and the large debt of its subsidiary Williams Communications Group. The company obtained and paid off an emergency high interest loan from Warren Buffett to stay out of bankruptcy , and redirected its focus toward natural gas production, processing, and transportation as well as increasing its resource holdings. One of

420-532: The company partnered with Microsoft to provide content for bcentral.com. In 2007, the company acquired Inside Lacrosse . In 2012, sister company Condé Nast redirected Portfolio.com to the startups page of ACBJ. In 2020, the company launched a book publishing partnership. The publication publishes the following annual awards for each city: As of 2023 , American City Business Journals (ACBJ) publishes print copies of 44 different newspapers, addressing business news in 44 different cities, generally under

448-423: The company's chairman and chief executive officer for 20 years until his death in 2009. Under Shaw's leadership, the company moved its headquarters from Kansas City, Missouri , to Charlotte, North Carolina , and greatly increased the number of its publications. In 1995, the company was acquired by Advance Publications for US$ 258.8   million (equivalent to $ 472.8   million in 2023). In 2001,

476-570: The end of the year. The board of directors at Williams said it had elected Alan Armstrong to succeed Malcolm as CEO effective January 3, 2011. Armstrong had served as senior vice president of Williams since 2002. On February 16, 2011, Williams' board of directors had approved pursuing a plan to separate the company's businesses into two stand-alone, publicly traded corporations. The plan calls for Williams to separate its exploration and production business via an initial public offering in third-quarter 2011 of up to 20 percent of its interest and, in 2012,

504-465: The following year, adopted the name WilTel Communications, and ultimately was acquired by and consolidated into Level 3 Communications . In 2002, Williams Communications Group was sued because company officials did not properly disclose the failing company's true financial condition, the officials' public statements belied the firm's plummeting fiscal picture. In 2007, the Williams Companies agreed to pay $ 290 million. Boardwalk Pipeline Partners and

532-598: The launch of the Kansas City Business Journal . In 1985, the company became a public company via an initial public offering and was traded as an over the counter stock . In 1986, the company acquired the full complement of publications from Business Journal Publications, including the St. Louis Business Journal , and several other business journals and legal publications. In 1986, Mike Russel acquired ten city business newspapers, in six states and

560-469: The master limited partnership Williams Partners LP. The company helped to get the modern telecommunications industry off the ground by running fiber optic cable through its decommissioned pipelines. It built two nationwide networks, which subsequently spun off into separate companies. The first was sold in 1995 to LDDS , which would become WorldCom & then MCI ). The second was spun off in 2001 as Williams Communications , filed for bankruptcy

588-536: The moves it made around that time (2004) was the sale of two of Canada's largest natural gas straddle plants, and its interest in another to Inter Pipeline Fund for US$ 540 million. In 2010, the company underwent a major restructuring that included a reorganization of its extensive pipeline holdings in Williams Partners LP. In October 2010, Williams and Williams Partners LP announced that chairman and chief executive officer Steve Malcolm would retire at

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616-489: The national capital, from the Scripps-Howard Business Journals division of Scripps-Howard Newspapers : Phoenix (Arizona); Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco (California); Atlanta (Georgia); Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston (Texas); Seattle (Washington); as well as Washington, D.C. and a South Florida edition combining Miami/Fort Lauderdale. Ray Shaw joined the company in 1989 and served as

644-471: The previously announced 1998 pre-tax income being adjusted downward by $ 21.2 million. On September 16, 2004, Williams Cos. said it amended its fiscal 2003 and first-quarter 2004 filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission to show a reclassification to its discontinued operations and a segment reporting change. Houston Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. ( ACBJ )

672-634: The then-largest petroleum products pipeline in America, known as the Great Lakes Pipe Line Company, for about $ 287 million. In 1982, it expanded into natural gas transportation with the purchase of Northwest Energy Company, and extended their reach to the East Coast with the 1995 purchase of Transco Energy Company. In 2001, Williams acquired Barrett Resources, which provided them with additional national gas reserves. In 2002,

700-597: The tower, the waterwall and park has been owned by the Uptown Houston Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, a non-profit local government corporation since 2008. The Houston Business Journal said that the tower was "designed to be energy efficient". The building received the Environmental Protection Agency 's Energy Star label for each year since 2000 in which the building was eligible to receive

728-657: The waterwall. On the morning of September 13, 2008, during Hurricane Ike , the top of the tower was damaged near the rotating beacon and many windows were blown out. The skyscraper suffered over $ 3.5 million in wind damages. Twelve of the 49 elevators were damaged, most by water damage due to roof failures and others due to extreme building sway. Hines Real Estate Investment Trust Inc. put the Williams Tower up for sale in August 2012, selling it to Invesco Ltd. subsidiary Invesco Advisers Inc. for $ 412 million in March 2013. The building

756-411: Was constructed in 1983, it was also the world's tallest skyscraper outside of a city's central business district . The building was built to function as two separate towers stacked directly on top of one another, one comprising the first forty floors and the other the forty-first to sixty-fourth. The building has separate banks of elevators and lobbies for each of the two building sections. A majority of

784-640: Was originally named for its major tenant, Transco Energy corporation, now part of the Williams Companies , the tower's current namesake. Other major tenants include Quanta Services , and the Consulate General of Denmark . The tower also served as the headquarters for the Hines companies until mid-2022. At 64 stories and 909 feet (277 m) above the ground level, the Williams Tower is the tallest building in Houston outside of Downtown Houston . When it

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