For the opening keynote of Gulf Coast Green 2026, AIA Houston brought the architect of the building to the stage.
Farshid Moussavi, the London-based architect behind The Ismaili Center Houston, delivered the opening keynote on April 24, 2026, inside the building she designed. The Ismaili Center opened on Allen Parkway in November 2025 as the first of its kind in the United States — a 150,000-square-foot structure on 11 acres overlooking Buffalo Bayou Park, designed for a 100-year lifecycle and built around the integration of Islamic architectural tradition with contemporary sustainable design.
The setting made the conference’s theme concrete. Gulf Coast Green 2026 explored that theme under the title CYCLE: Where Ends Become Beginnings — a full-day examination of renewal, material life cycles, and design strategies that respond to the long-term needs of Gulf Coast communities.
Now in its 19th year, Gulf Coast Green is the leading green building conference along the Gulf Coast, drawing architects, landscape architects, engineers, and sustainability professionals for a full day of keynotes, sessions, expo, and networking.
Dee Zunker Photography covered the event for AIA Houston, documenting the keynote, panel sessions, and the conversations that filled the corridors and expo floor throughout the day. Houston corporate event photography that takes place inside architecturally significant venues gets a different eye — the colonnaded verandas, atrium screens, and layered natural light of The Ismaili Center were as much a subject as the speakers on stage.
Gulf Coast Green 2026 was supported by Legacy Sponsor Kirksey Architecture, Platinum Sponsor H-E-B, and a broad roster of Houston-area design and construction firms.
