POST Houston: Skylawn, POST Market, and 713 Music Hall Guide

At a glance

• Where: 401 Franklin Street, Downtown Houston, TX 77201 (corner of Franklin and Smith Street)
• Hours: Sun–Wed 11 am–9 pm; Thu–Sat 11 am–10 pm. Check the official site for concert nights.
• Cost: Free entry to POST Market and Skylawn; 713 Music Hall tickets via Ticketmaster, price varies by show
• Parking: 800 onsite spaces; Mon–Thu first 60 min free, then $5/hr up to $40 max; Fri–Sun first 20 min free, then $5/hr up to $40 max
• Time needed: 2–4 hours for the food hall and Skylawn; plan a full evening for a concert

POST Houston, at 401 Franklin Street in downtown Houston, is an approximately 500,000-square-foot mixed-use complex built inside the former Barbara Jordan U.S. Post Office. It holds a 31-vendor food hall called POST Market, a 5-acre rooftop park called Skylawn with a working urban farm, and 713 Music Hall, a 5,000-capacity concert venue operated by Live Nation. The building is open Sunday through Wednesday 11 am–9 pm and Thursday through Saturday 11 am–10 pm.

One visit covers lunch from vendors spanning five continents, an afternoon on a rooftop park with a working urban farm above downtown Houston, and an evening concert in one of the best-sounding new music halls in the city. You can do all three in a single day.

The building: from post office to destination

The Barbara Jordan Post Office was built in 1962 as a mail processing center. At its peak, more than 2,000 postal workers processed mail overnight in the building, sorting letters and parcels under the same roof seven nights a week. The architects of the original expansion—Wilson, Morris, Crain and Anderson—were also the architects of the Houston Astrodome.

The USPS closed the facility on May 15, 2015, transferring operations to Sam Houston Station on Hadley Street. Developer Lovett Commercial purchased the building and hired OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the firm founded by Rem Koolhaas, for the renovation. The translucent polymer membrane roof—called ETFE—that now covers the internal atriums was reportedly the first of its kind installed in Houston. POST Houston opened on November 13, 2021, and drew approximately 40,000 visitors on its first day. TIME magazine named it one of the “World’s Greatest Places” that year.

The building was named for Barbara Jordan, who grew up in Houston’s Fifth Ward and in 1976 became the first Black woman to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention.

POST Market: 31 vendors, five continents

POST Market occupies Atrium O on the main floor. Thirty-one vendors cover cuisines from across the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe in one room. You can move from dim sum (Loy Loy Dim Sum) to West African cuisine (ChòpnBlọk) to Uzbek grilled specialties (Foreign Grill) to Vietnamese pho (Phở Lạc Việt) to Filipino food (Soy Pinoy) to handmade pasta (Ciccio’s Pasta) in about 40 steps. Two bars serve craft cocktails and specialty beverages. Happy hour runs Monday through Friday, 3–6 pm.

The guide to Houston’s food halls covers how POST Market compares to other options across the city.

Standouts worth finding first:

• ChòpnBlọk — West African dishes, one of the few options of this kind in a downtown food hall
• Foreign Grill — Uzbek kebabs and grilled specialties, uncommon anywhere in Houston
• Loy Loy Dim Sum — dumplings and small plates from Cantonese tradition
• Soy Pinoy — Filipino cuisine, rare downtown
• Thai Kun — a well-regarded Thai spot with a presence at POST

El Tiempo Cantina has a full-service Tex-Mex restaurant on Level 2 of the East Wing.

Skylawn and Skyfarm: the rooftop park

Skylawn is a 5-acre rooftop park on top of the POST building, described on the official site as one of the world’s largest rooftop parks. A 1-acre section called Skyfarm is a working urban food farm operated by Blackwood Educational Land Institute, a Houston nonprofit focused on soil-based growing and community agriculture. The farm grows food in soil on the rooftop and runs educational tours and volunteer days—it is a functioning farm, not decorative greenery.

The rest of Skylawn functions as a public park with regular programming: concerts, movie screenings, yoga and fitness classes (Zumba, Pilates), DJ performances, and seasonal festivals. The Outpost, a covered outdoor event space adjacent to Skyfarm, holds up to 450 guests.

The rooftop also offers some of the best unobstructed views of the Houston skyline from any publicly accessible spot downtown. Discovery Green gives you the skyline from street level. Skylawn gives it to you from above. Our Houston skyline views guide has other vantage points across the city.

Practical notes: Skylawn is open during building hours (11 am–9 or 10 pm depending on the day). No separate admission. It is an outdoor rooftop—dress for the weather and bring water in summer.

713 Music Hall

713 Music Hall is a 5,000-capacity concert venue on the main floor of POST Houston, operated by Live Nation. The hall has a column-free floor for general admission, raked upper seating with unobstructed sightlines, and a double-height dividing wall that can shift the space between intimate and large-scale configurations. The lobby features aluminized fabric heat shields around the bar, a design nod to Houston’s space industry. Tickets are available via Ticketmaster. Premium options include the Kashmere Lounge for reserved seating and Fast Lane expedited entry.

See the complete 713 Music Hall guide for the seat map and what to expect on concert nights. Our Houston live music venues guide covers all the major venues across the city if you are comparing options.

Art Club and other spaces

The Art Club is a new media art museum inside POST. The Office is an event venue with capacity for 1,750. Common Desk operates coworking space on-site. If you are downtown for a weekday, POST works as a practical all-day base as well as a destination visit.

When to visit POST Houston

The building works any time it is open, but the most satisfying combination is a weekday evening: food hall for lunch or early dinner, an hour on Skylawn before the heat builds, then a concert at 713 Music Hall. On weekends, the food hall gets crowded by mid-afternoon.

In fall and winter, the rooftop is comfortable into the evening. In summer, plan to spend no more than an hour outside before retreating to the air-conditioned food hall. POST Houston is not connected to the Downtown Tunnel System, so in summer heat plan your walk from parking or transit accordingly.

Getting there and parking

Address: 401 Franklin Street, Houston, TX 77201, at the corner of Franklin and Smith Street in downtown Houston.

POST Houston has 800 onsite parking spaces with license plate recognition—no paper ticket, no cash. Rates as published on the official site:

• Monday–Thursday: First 60 minutes free; $5 per hour after; $40 daily maximum.
• Friday–Sunday: First 20 minutes free; $5 per hour after; $40 daily maximum.
• EV charging available; 30 minutes free on weekends.

Concert nights may have different rates—check the POST parking page before you go. Off-site alternatives are available via ParkWhiz. The downtown Houston parking guide covers garages and street parking across the area.

Nearby

POST Houston is about a ten-minute walk from Discovery Green and roughly that from the Theater District. The things to do in downtown Houston guide covers the full area. For dinner outside POST, the best restaurants in downtown Houston has picks for every budget. For a rooftop bar before or after your visit, see best rooftop bars in Houston.

Save this: a one-day POST Houston plan

• 11 am — Arrive and walk all of Atrium O in POST Market before you order.
• 1 pm — Take the elevator to Skylawn. Walk the full 5 acres, including a stop at Skyfarm.
• 3–6 pm — Happy hour at the POST Market bars.
• 7 pm — Concert at 713 Music Hall. Buy tickets in advance on Ticketmaster.

Last verified: October 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What is POST Houston?

POST Houston is an approximately 500,000-square-foot mixed-use complex at 401 Franklin Street in downtown Houston, built inside the former Barbara Jordan U.S. Post Office. It includes POST Market (a 31-vendor food hall in Atrium O), Skylawn (a 5-acre rooftop park with a 1-acre working urban farm called Skyfarm), and 713 Music Hall (a 5,000-capacity concert venue operated by Live Nation). It opened November 13, 2021.

Is POST Houston free to enter?

Entry to POST Houston, POST Market (the food hall), and Skylawn (the rooftop park) is free. 713 Music Hall requires a concert ticket, purchased via Ticketmaster; prices vary by show.

What is Skyfarm at POST Houston?

Skyfarm is a 1-acre working urban food farm on the Skylawn rooftop of POST Houston, operated by Blackwood Educational Land Institute, a Houston nonprofit. It grows food in soil on top of the building and hosts educational tours and volunteer days open to the public.

Where is POST Houston and how do I park?

POST Houston is at 401 Franklin Street, Houston, TX 77201, at the corner of Franklin and Smith Street in downtown Houston. The building has 800 onsite parking spaces with license plate recognition. Monday through Thursday, the first 60 minutes are free; Friday through Sunday, the first 20 minutes are free. After the free period, rates are $5 per hour up to a $40 daily maximum.

How big is 713 Music Hall at POST Houston?

713 Music Hall has a capacity of 5,000 for general admission standing shows. The venue spans 90,000 square feet with a column-free floor and raked upper seating. It is operated by Live Nation. Tickets are on sale via Ticketmaster.

What was the POST Houston building before?

The building was the Barbara Jordan U.S. Post Office, built in 1962. At its peak it employed more than 2,000 workers processing mail overnight. The USPS closed it on May 15, 2015. Developer Lovett Commercial purchased it and hired the architecture firm OMA for the renovation. POST Houston opened on November 13, 2021.