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Texas turns green

Stetsons, cow-boy boots and western movies are the 3 things people think about when they hear about Texas.

The Lone Star State, as Texas is called, also houses 3 out of the 10 largest cities of the country, which are Houston, Dallas and San Antonio. Its capital city, Austin, is nicknamed the Live Music Capital of the World because of the number of its live music venues. It also boasts the largest of the nation’s statehouses, the Texas Capitol, an example of the late 19th century architecture. The Driskill Hotel (189 guestrooms and suites, 1, 500 sq m of meeting space and event facilities) also represents a legendary landmark of Texas hospitality. More modern, the brand new AT & T Executive Education and Conference Center is located on the University of Texas’ site in Austin. In Houston, many venues welcome meetings and events like the George R. Brown Convention Centre and its 117 meeting rooms and 100 000 sq m of flexible exhibit, meeting and registration space. The city also houses huge hotels: Hilton Americas Houston is directly connected to the George R. Brown Convention Centre, the Hyatt Regency Houston or the Four Seasons Hotel Houston. Houston is also known for its Space Centre, the best place in Texas for “an out-of-this-world” event up to 5,000 guests. Even though Texas is often associated with oil industry, it also features one of the greenest cities in North America, Dallas, the first in the US to be ISO 14 001 certified. The meeting venues also follow its green wind, such as the Dallas Convention Centre which uses 40% of renewable energy, is equipped of solar panels and is LEED certified. An important project is due to see the light of day in early 2012 with the opening of the Omni Dallas Convention Centre Hotel, a 1,000 room hotel connected by a sky bridge to the Dallas Convention Centre and which was designed to achieve LEED Silver level of certification. On the leisure side, the state offers 800 golf courses from the sunny Gulf of Mexico to the dramatic region of Big Bend. New courses are about to open in 2010: a 18-hole called “Black Jack Crossing” at the Lajitas Golf Resort & Spa and 2 courses at the JW Marriott San Antonio Hill Country Resort & Spa.
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