The Spirit of Houston was planned to be a 555-foot statue in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

. The project was abandoned after the architect, Doug Michels, died. The planners felt that the city had an image problem in response to Houston not being chosen for the 2012 Olympics. The ambitious design was meant to be a multicolored reflective statue representing friendship, the origin of the name of the state of

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. It would have been the largest statue in the world and twice the height of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

.BBC NEWS , South Asia , India 'to build biggest Buddha'
/ref> Doug Michels is commonly known as the architect behind

Cadillac Ranch ''Cadillac Ranch'' is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas, US. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm (group), Ant Farm. The installation consist ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spirit of Houston Culture of Houston History of Houston