Convention center

A convention center (American English; conference centre outside the USA) is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees. Very large venues, suitable for major trade shows, are sometimes known as exhibition centres. Convention centers typically have at least one auditorium and may also contain concert halls, lecture halls, meeting rooms, and conference rooms. Some large resort area hotels include a convention center.

Historic centers

19th-century exhibition halls

LDS Conference Center

The Conference Center, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, is the premier meeting hall for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Substantially completed in spring 2000 in time for the church's April 2000 general conference, the 21,000-seat Conference Center replaced the traditional use of the nearby Salt Lake Tabernacle, built in 1868, for semi-annual LDS Church general conferences and major church gatherings, devotionals, and other events. It is believed to be the largest theater-style auditorium ever built.

Features

The 1.4 million square foot (130,000 m²) Conference Center seats 21,200 people in its main auditorium. This includes the rostrum behind the pulpit facing the audience, which provides seating at general conference for 158 general authorities and general officers of the church and the 360-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The auditorium is large enough to hold two Boeing 747s side by side. All seats in the audience have an unobstructed view of the pulpit because the balcony is held up by radial trusses. This construction method allows the balcony to sink ⁵⁄₈ inch (16 mm) under full capacity. Behind the podium is a 7,667-pipe and 130-rank Schoenstein pipe organ. Underground is a parking garage that can hold 1,400 cars. A modernist, three-story chandelier hangs in a skylight in the interior of the building. A waterfall descends from the spire. The waterfall utilizes water from a natural spring found underneath the building during construction. City Creek flows in a rough-hewn riverbed, complementing the Conference Center.

Houston

Houston (ⁱ/ˈhjuːstən/ HYOO-stən) is the most populous city in Texas and the fourth most populous city in the United States. With a census-estimated 2014 population of 2.239 million people, within a land area of 599.6 square miles (1,553 km²), it also is the largest city in the Southern United States, as well as the seat of Harris County. It is the principal city of Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land, which is the fifth most populated metropolitan area in the United States.

Houston was founded in 1836 on land near the banks of Buffalo Bayou (now known as Allen's Landing) and incorporated as a city on June 5, 1837. The city was named after former General Sam Houston, who was president of the Republic of Texas and had commanded and won at the Battle of San Jacinto 25 miles (40 km) east of where the city was established. The burgeoning port and railroad industry, combined with oil discovery in 1901, has induced continual surges in the city's population. In the mid-twentieth century, Houston became the home of the Texas Medical Center—the world's largest concentration of healthcare and research institutions—and NASA's Johnson Space Center, where the Mission Control Center is located.

Houston station (Texas)

Houston is an Amtrak intercity train station in Houston

History

The present Houston station, which opened on October 26, 1959, was built by the Southern Pacific Railroad to replace Grand Central Station, which was just east of the present station. That station operated from September 1, 1934 until the property was sold to the U.S. Government in 1959 to become the site of the Houston main post office. Grand Central Station had replaced the original Houston & Texas Central depot of 1886. When Amtrak was created it was one of two stations in Houston that served Amtrak trains, the other being Union Station, now part of Minute Maid Park. All Amtrak trains moved to Southern Pacific Station by the end of July 1974, and all trains were canceled or rerouted out of Houston except the Sunset Limited. This station continued to be owned and operated by the Southern Pacific Railroad after the creation of Amtrak, and has been owned and operated by the Union Pacific Railroad since the merger of Southern Pacific and Union Pacific.

Houston (Means I'm One Day Closer to You)

"Houston (Means I'm One Day Closer to You)" is a song written by Larry Gatlin and recorded by American country music group Larry Gatlin & the Gatlin Brothers Band. It was released in September 1983 as the first single from the album "Greatest Hits Vol. II" then included to first track of "Not Guilty" (1984). "Houston (Means I'm One Day Closer to You)" was the group's third and last number one on the country chart. The single went to number one for two weeks and spent a total of fifteen weeks on the country chart.

Chart performance

References

External links