Once flooded by Harvey, the new home of AIA Houston and the Architecture Center is almost open – Laredo Morning Times

Rusty Bienvenue, executive director of both the AIA Houston and the Architecture Center Houston, poses at the reception desk in the newly renovated center, which is home to AIA Houston. Renovations on the site -- a historic downtown building -- were nearly complete in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey flooded it. They had to start completely over, including installing more flood mitigation.

Rusty Bienvenue, executive director of both the AIA Houston and the Architecture Center Houston, poses at the reception desk in the newly renovated center, which is home to AIA Houston. Renovations on the site

Photo: Gary Fountain, Houston Chronicle / Contributor

Rusty Bienvenue, executive director of both the AIA Houston and the Architecture Center Houston, poses at the reception desk in the newly renovated center, which is home to AIA Houston. Renovations on the site -- a historic downtown building -- were nearly complete in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey flooded it. They had to start completely over, including installing more flood mitigation.

Rusty Bienvenue, executive director of both the AIA Houston and the Architecture Center Houston, poses at the reception desk in the newly renovated center, which is home to AIA Houston. Renovations on the site

Once flooded by Harvey, the new home of AIA Houston and the Architecture Center is almost open

For seven years now, Rusty Bienvenue has been steeped in issues of construction, engineering, raw materials, fund raising, insurance and grant applications. He never imagined hed have to seek advice on flood mitigation, navigate intricate insurance channels or search for the best acoustician he could find.

Late in the summer of 2017, Bienvenue, executive director of both the Architecture Center Houston and the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and his staff were just a few weeks away from moving into their new home in the historical B.A. Reasoner Building after a lengthy and intricate buildout.

What: virtual home tour using videos of 15 home projects by Houston architects

When: Oct. 24

Where: AIAHoustonhometour.org

Cost: free

Like much of downtown, the building was flooded by Hurricane Harveys relentless rain that left 4 feet of water in what was to be the centers new home at 900 Commerce. Originally known as the B.A. Reasoner Building, it went up in 1906, just a block from the historical marker that recognizes Allens Landing, where the Allen brothers founded the city of Houston.

AIA Houston and the Architecture Center are separate organizations but are intricately linked, as AIA Houston makes its home in the center. For a decade, they had saved money from programs and galas to pay for their $1.3 million building and its initial $950,000 renovation.

Hurricane Harvey sent them back to the drawing board, having to start over and incorporate more flood mitigation, all of which cost $1.6 million. Though they had flood insurance, their settlement with FEMA was a mere $248,000, leaving them on the hunt for grants including some from the Brown and Elkins Foundations and the Downtown Management District and other donations.

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AIA Houston had its own competition to determine which local architecture firm would reimagine the space, and Murphy Mears Architects won; Cardno and Walter P Moore handled engineering.

Bienvenue and his staff will move in at the end of October, and on Nov. 9 the 5,400-square-foot center will debut its first exhibit by reservation only and in very small groups Houston 2020 Visions, an exhibit about flooding, resiliency and the citys future. Already it is online at Houston2020Visions.org.

We own it and feel like it could be a model of resilience strategy for how you live in a floodplain, Bienvenue said of the new Architecture Center Houston. We think its unethical and immoral to abandon old buildings if you can figure out how to save them.

On Oct. 24, the groups annual home tour will be conducted virtually online at AIAHoustonhometour.org. The tour is one of the citys most prestigious, a juried collection of homes designed by local architects and open to the public.

This years tour, however, is virtual and includes videos of 15 homes, most of which are local. There are a few country homes and one in Australia, but they all represent the work of Houston architects.

They include a tiny home, others on the small side and some that are considerably larger and more luxurious. A video of New Hope Housing, an award-winning apartment building for those with very low income, is included.

Bienvenues tour of the new Architecture Center still shows some work to be done, but its mostly cleanup. The concrete floors will be sealed and polished, but speckles of darker aggregate in the mix show through.

Most of the cast-in-place concrete walls will remain bare, though some have plaster and a couple have drywall. One of those is a panel with drywall front and back installed on a track that moves through the main exhibit space.

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The new Architecture Center Houston, home of AIA Houston, is in the B.A. Reasoner Building, built in 1909.

The new Architecture Center Houston, home of AIA Houston, is in the...

Flood mitigation measures installed beyond their first buildout include exterior steel panels with caulking, round plugs in the floor that would pop up to relieve hydrostatic pressure should floodwater come from underneath the building and a protective bathtub in the center of the main space.

Its meant to withstand 8 or 9 feet of water, allowing some to go in to protect the buildings structure. Bienvenue explained that the pressure of floodwater on a water-tight building would cause the walls to collapse. Allowing some water in causes damage but prevents destruction, he said.

That bathtub or submarine, as Bienvenue calls it, is a watertight, bunker-like cube in the center, with flood doors to keep its contents dry and safe. Its where the computers and equipment are located, so they wouldnt be ruined in flooding.

The main part of the centers space is for exhibits a big open room with concrete floors and walls and smaller tracks in the ceiling from which exhibit panels could hang.

A reception desk near the center bathtub was pushed back to be more welcoming, inviting people in instead of stopping them at the door. Its a work of art on its own, a Murphy Mears design with a Corten steel envelope fabricated by artist George Sacaris on a wooden base created by Brochsteins, a Houston firm known for its fine woodwork and cabinet making.

Meeting space on the side has panels that can open or close to allow one large space or two smaller rooms; its furniture is on wheels and modular so it can be reshaped to any groups need.

One of the biggest visual changes is the lack of drywall. The Harvey flooding caused the architects to rip out drywall everywhere. In their second go-around, drywall was kept to a minimum for easier cleanup in case of future flooding.

There are also interesting panels on the ceiling, with beveled holes cut in what looks like a celestial pattern. Theyre simply plywood panels painted white, with the holes cut both to allow light to come through and to maximize acoustics. Bienvenue said the panels manage sound so well that events wont even require microphones.

The Houston 2020 Visions exhibit will be the next event held here, and when the coronavirus pandemic has waned enough, Bienvenue said that AIA and the Architecture Center hope this can be a venue for other groups.

Its built for architecture and design, and well define that broadly. We dont mind if parties and weddings are held here, Bienvenue said. We want the space to be activated.

diane.cowen@chron.com

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Once flooded by Harvey, the new home of AIA Houston and the Architecture Center is almost open - Laredo Morning Times