Hobby Center

The Hobby Center for the Performing Arts opened in 2002 on the edge of Houston's Theater District, on a downtown site that had held the Houston Music Hall and Sam Houston Coliseum. Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Morris Architects designed it, with 60-foot glass walls looking out on the skyline, Tranquility Park and Houston City Hall. It holds two theatres: Sarofim Hall, a 2,650-seat house built acoustically for touring Broadway and home to Theatre Under the Stars, with a Celestial Dome ceiling of fibre-optic stars; and Zilkha Hall, a 500-seat room for the smaller companies of the Uniquely Houston series. It is named for the former Texas lieutenant governor William P. Hobby, Jr.