1996, Cho Design Force and Cisneros Design Studio. 3695 Overture Dr.
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(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Matthew Aungst) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt) -
(Photograph by Chris Dewitt)
The headquarters and worship center of the T'ien Tao Association, a Chinese syncretic religious tradition of twentieth-century origin, was characterized in February 1996 by Houston Press reporter Steve McVicker as a “stairway to heaven.” The white building escalates from three to five stories in height to frame a centered, freestanding geodesic sphere, eighty feet in diameter, with its facets of gold anodized aluminum. External stairs rise along each edge of the third-floor terrace to symmetrically bracket the extraordinary gold globe. The T'ien Tao temple signals modern Asian identity with science fiction intensity.