The city of Houston covers a land area of 539.6 sq mi. The Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area includes the counties of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller. In addition to Houston, the area includes Pasadena, Texas City, Galveston, Brazoria, and many other cities and communities.

Houston has sprawled into nearby counties, growing primarily to the north and west. The city is the largest in the country without zoning laws, so businesses are allowed to operate within residential neighborhoods. Despite the lack of zoning laws, the industrial and residential regions are generally separated from one another because the primary industrial section developed and remains along the ship canal, while residential neighborhoods developed mostly outside this area. However, some overlap does occur.

Interstate 610, known as the Loop Freeway, forms a belt around all of central Houston. At its core is the central business area, located just south of Buffalo Bayou, enclosed by Interstate 45 and U.S. Highway 59. The area is known for its distinctive contemporary architecture and includes buildings such as the Chase Tower (1982), designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei; and the Bank of America Center (1984) and Pennzoil Place (1976), designed by American architect Philip C. Johnson. The Market Square Historic District on Main Street, the site of the city’s original downtown, contains a number of important buildings and was entered on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. The Antioch Missionary Baptist Church was built in 1879 for one of the city’s oldest black congregations and marks the Old Fourth Ward, Houston’s first predominantly black neighborhood.

Houston’s lower-income neighborhoods lie to the south and southeast of the downtown, along the railroad lines and the ship channel. The affluent neighborhoods are to the west and southwest, and include Tanglewood, the home of former U.S. President George Bush (1989-1993). Outside the Loop Freeway is The Galleria, a shopping mall with an ice-skating rink. The focal point of the Galleria area, as it is known, is the Williams Tower (1985), designed by Philip C. Johnson and one of the tallest suburban office buildings in the country.

Houston has an extensive park system that includes Hermann Park, the home of the Houston Zoo; Memorial Park; the Armand Bayou Nature Center; and the Houston Arboretum and Nature Center. In 2000 the Houston Astros of major league baseball left their longtime home in the Astrodome and began play at a new outdoor stadium, Enron Field. The Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association play at the Compaq Center sports and entertainment complex. Among the city’s many annual events are the River Oaks Garden Club’s Azalea Trail, a tour of azalea gardens at Bayou Bend and homes in River Oaks; Houston International Festival, a ten-day downtown celebration of the city’s different cultures; and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Houston metropolitan region leads the nation in petrochemical manufacturing and refining, and consequently ranks first in the manufacture of agricultural chemicals, fertilizers, and pesticides. Houston is the world’s primary producer of oil-field equipment. Companies based in Houston and other Texas cities have traditionally supplied technology and expertise to the petroleum companies of the Middle East and have made similar connections to governments involved in exploration and drilling in Southeast Asia. Other important manufactures in Houston include paper products, electrical and electronic machinery, and iron and steel. Other local facilities are the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center, administered by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

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