Kevin Daly and Productora’s Houston Endowment Headquarters Takes Cues from the City’s Shaded Oak Canopies | Architectural Record
Throughout Houston, live oak trees extend their gnarly branches and evergreen leaves over sidewalks and lawns, providing welcome shade in a hot, humid climate. Having gone to graduate school at Rice University in Houston, Kevin Daly was familiar with the trees and the protective canopy they provide. So when his Los Angeles–based firm kdA and collaborators at Mexico City–based Productora entered an international competition for a new headquarters of Houston Endowment, they immediately saw the horizontally spreading branches of the trees as an inspiration. “From day one, we saw a canopy as a critical part of our design, an autonomous element hovering above the building,” says Daly.
