Lakewood Church shooting

Lakewood Church is a non-denominational evangelical Christian megachurch located in Houston, Texas. It is among the largest congregations in the United States, averaging about 45,000 attendees per week. The 16,800-seat Lakewood Church building, home to four English-language services and two Spanish-language services per week, is located at the former Compaq Center. Joel Osteen is the senior pastor of Lakewood Church with his wife, Victoria, who serves as co-pastor. It has 368 full-time and part-time staff.

The Lakewood Church Central Campus is the main facility of Lakewood Church, a megachurch in Houston, Texas, five miles southwest of Downtown Houston and next to Greenway Plaza. From 1975 to 2003, the building served as a multi-purpose sports arena for professional teams, notably the NBA's Houston Rockets. It was known as The Summit until 1998, when technology firm Compaq bought naming rights and dubbed it Compaq Center. That name was dropped when Toyota Center opened as a new and more advanced professional sports venue in the same city, and the building was leased to Lakewood Church. Seven years later, in 2010, the church bought the building outright.

Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston (TECO-Houston, Chinese: 駐休士頓台北經濟文化辦事處) represents the interests of Taiwan in the southern United States, functioning as a de facto consulate. The mission is located on the 20th Floor of 11 Greenway Plaza. It also oversees a Cultural Center at 10303 West Office Drive in the Westchase district of Houston.TECO Houston's origins can be traced to 1937 when the government of the Republic of China established a consulate in Houston. The ROC was represented by a vice-consul. After opening the consulate of the People's Republic of China in 1979, the TECO mission opened its doors in 1992. The mission serves Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Oklahoma.The office sponsors cultural exhibits such as the 2009 "Nation of Splendor: Taiwan, the Republic of China," which was hosted at 2 Allen Center in Downtown Houston. The mission also sponsors the Hou, Hsiao-Hsien Film Festival in San Antonio along with the Trinity University East Program.After members of a Taiwanese religious movement in Garland, Texas, did not find God on television on a day in March 1998, an officer of TECO Houston offered assistance to members of the movement to assist travel back to Taiwan. On September 23, 2002, an e-mail relayed through TECO Houston warned the ROC government that there was a possibility of a terrorist attack. In 2005 Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana Mitch Landrieu and Kip Holden, Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, met with a delegation of TECO Houston officials to negotiate Taiwanese business interests in Louisiana.

Greenway Plaza is a business district located along Interstate 69 (U.S. Highway 59) within the Interstate 610 loop in southwestern Houston, Texas, 5 miles (8.0 km) west of Downtown and 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Uptown. The district is located immediately west of Upper Kirby, north of West University Place, and south of River Oaks. First envisioned in the late 1960s by local developer Kenneth L. Schnitzer, Greenway Plaza has evolved into one of Greater Houston's largest employment centers, with over 4.4 million square feet (410,000 m2) of office space on a 52-acre (21-hectare) campus. Noted for its expansive green spaces and consistent modernist architectural style, Greenway Plaza is widely considered a pioneering example of mixed-use development in the United States. The campus's ten office towers are connected by an extensive system of air-conditioned skyways, tunnels, and underground parking garages.Greenway Plaza contains Lakewood Church, a nondenominational Christian church, which hosts one of the largest congregations in the United States. Lakewood's main campus, a venue originally known as "The Summit" and later "Compaq Center," is the former home of the Houston Rockets, a professional basketball team, as well as other sporting teams, concerts, and events. Lakewood Church purchased the property in 2005.The Greenway Plaza development is part of a larger neighborhood, Greenway/Upper Kirby, which covers a 2.97-square-mile (7.7 km2) area roughly enclosed by Westheimer Road to the north, Bissonnet Street to the south, Uptown Houston to the west, and Shepherd Drive to the east. In 2015, Greenway/Upper Kirby had an estimated population of 21,120 and a population density of 7,111/sq mi.

Phoenix Tower is a 434 ft (132m) tall skyscraper in Houston, Texas. It was completed in 1984 and has 34 floors. It is the 36th tallest building in the city. The Phoenix Tower is adjacent to Greenway Plaza and located in an area between Downtown Houston and Uptown. A Jack Nicklaus-designed nine-hole putting green is on top of the building's parking garage, conceived by the building's owners as a way for tenants to relax in the middle of the day. The tower has 629,024 square feet (58,438.2 m2) of office space. The tower was purchased by Parkway Properties in December, 2012 for US$124.5 million.Trico Marine Services, a former corporate tenant, relocated its corporate headquarters to The Woodlands. Trico maintains a minor presence in the tower. In 2009 Trico sublet 6,135 square feet (570.0 m2) to the law firm Edison, McDowell & Hetherington.The Phoenix Tower was the former headquarters for Champion Technologies. After its acquisition by Ecolab, it formed the combined company of Nalco Champion. The new company will office a large part of its employees as it consolidates its operations.In 1983, Hurricane Alicia's winds sent debris from the parking deck that was under construction onto the Buffalo Speedway.

ROCO, formerly the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, is a Houston, Texas based chamber orchestra founded in 2005 by Principal Oboist Alecia Lawyer. Now in its 13th season, as of April 26, 2017 the program includes classical music as well as compositions from contemporary composers (e.g. Carter Pann). The participating musicians represent outstanding players from the national professional community. Among the conductors are JoAnn Falletta, Joel Smirnoff, Mei Ann Chen and Alastair Willis. ROCO performs occasionally without conductor.

The Briar Club is a country club in Houston, Texas. It is located in the River Oaks area, at the corner of Westheimer Road and Timmons Lane. The club was founded in 1949 and is member owned. It is between The Galleria and Downtown Houston. As of 2004 it has 1,100 members. As of 2023 the club has 1300 equity members and is now on a waitlist. As of 2004 the club annually hosts 20 to 25 weddings. Richard Lareau, the club's chief operating officer and general manager, said that he hoped to have the club perform three times that number.In 1997 Skip Hollandsworth of the Texas Monthly wrote that Briar Club "had become a haven for many River Oaks residents".

St. John's School (also known as St. John's or SJS) is a coeducational, independent K–12 day school in Houston, Texas, United States. The School was founded in 1946 and is a member of the Houston Area Independent Schools, the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS), and the Southwest Preparatory Conference (SPC). Though situated adjacent to St. John the Divine church, St. John's claims no religious affiliation. Tuition costs range from around $27,000 to $32,000 per school year. As of December 2022, SJS's endowment is $86,000,000.

West University Place, often called West University or West U for short, is a city located in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land metropolitan area and southwestern Harris County. At the 2020 U.S. census, the population of the city was 14,955. It is nicknamed "The Neighborhood City" and is mainly a bedroom community for upper-class families. West University Place is surrounded by the cities of Bellaire, Houston, and Southside Place. As of 2011, West University Place has the state's fifth highest concentration of households with incomes $150,000 or greater.

Lamar High School is a comprehensive public secondary school located in Houston, Texas, United States. It is a part of the Houston Independent School District (HISD). Lamar High School, was established in 1936 in memory of Mirabeau B. Lamar (1798–1859), a leader in the Texas Revolution and the second President of the Republic of Texas. Lamar has a four-year program, serving grades 9 through 12. The school is located in the Upper Kirby district, serving the Houston neighborhoods of River Oaks and Montrose, the incorporated city of West University Place, a portion of the city of Southside Place, and other Houston subdivisions. Lamar offers neighborhood, Advanced Placement, and IB Diploma (International Baccalaureate) programs. It also hosts a business magnet program offering business management courses that works in conjuncture with the Houston business community to provide internships and university scholarships. Lamar's IB Diploma programs is one of six in HISD, and consistently graduates the largest number of IB Diploma diploma candidates in Texas.

Highland Village Shopping Center is a mixed-use shopping center on Westheimer Road in Houston, Texas. Highland Village was built in the mid-1940s by S.N. Adams and has been owned by Haidar Barbouti's Highland Village Holdings since 1991. Barbouti is the center's property manager and broker. Stores found at Highland Village include Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, and Williams Sonoma. Its restaurants include Escalante's, Benihana concept restaurant RA Sushi Bar, Smith & Wollensky, and Barbouti's own Up Restaurant. Highland Village was one of the first shopping centers opened in Houston.

Upper Kirby is a commercial district in Houston, Texas, United States. It is named after Kirby Drive, so indirectly takes its name from John Henry Kirby. Upper Kirby contains many businesses, including restaurants. Upper Kirby is east of the Greenway Plaza, southwest of Neartown, north of the city of West University Place, and south of River Oaks. Upper Kirby is considered to be in an area west of South Shepherd Drive, east of Buffalo Speedway, north of Bissonnet Street, and south of Westheimer Road.