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Located at the confluence of the Buffalo and White Oak bayous, across from Downtown Houston, is a 500,000-square-foot concrete warehouse and office building.

Formerly Houston’s primary node for the United States Postal Service (USPS), OMA/Jason Long has reimagined the structure as a hub for culture, food, and work that functions as a seamless extension of Downtown.

To maintain the building’s character while transforming its fortress-like disposition toward the city, our scheme involved surgical interventions. Like farmers working concrete soil, we raked a series of thoroughfares toward Downtown through the existing structure. These arteries each correspond to a different programmatic zone—cultural and retail, food market, and collaborative workspace.

Within each of these bands, we carved out a three-story atrium to bring light deep into the structure and provide space for diverse users to mingle. Each void contains a monumental staircase of distinct form and materiality that was designed to facilitate such unplanned encounters and leads to the new 6-acre rooftop park.

On the eastern wing of the warehouse, we excavated a fourth void for the 713 Music Hall, a 5,500-capacity music venue. This venue, the complex’s cultural anchor, features a large, flat general assembly like those in more nimble dance halls, over which a tribune of tiered seating is suspended. The hall’s flat floor allows for diverse arrangements, and the tribune offers both traditional seating and a sheltered space where visitors can gather away from the performance.

The 95-foot column-free span over the general assembly enables the project’s roof to support a “Texas-sized” urban farm. When including this amenity, an additional zone for large performance, a shaded garden, recreation areas, and two restaurant pavilions, POST Houston provides downtown Houston with 170,000 square feet of new public realm.