The largest city in the Lone Star State, Houston, TX is the fourth largest city in the entire US-right after New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago. But while those cities have a distinct impression in the minds of people from around the world, Houston is still being discovered by people every day. Located just upstream from the Gulf of Mexico it is a major port to markets across the globe. Situated in the oil rich state of Texas, it is world headquarters to many of the most important energy multinationals. Unique, vibrant, diverse and prosperous, Houston, TX is emerging as America’s next great world-class city.

One interesting Houston distinction is that unlike most cities in the US there are no zoning ordinances. The result is that every neighborhood is a patchwork of businesses, homes, churches and other places of worship, schools, parks and manufacturing. Some areas have managed to keep a more traditional layout, but across the city you won’t find anywhere else with the kind of ordered chaos offered in Houston. Part of this organic chaos is some pretty nasty traffic and like Los Angeles (and unlike the older, Eastern metropolises of New York and Chicago) a car is more or less a must have here. As you cruise across town you’ll have to keep your eyes peeled; great treasures are often mixed in with rather prosaic surroundings.

Houston, TX-like many big cities-has a well-developed fine arts community. Its downtown district actually boasts the largest concentration of playhouses and dramatic performance spaces anywhere in the United States outside of Broadway. Touring companies of all the big musicals come through town-often on the first runs with the original casts-and there are a number of world premieres right here in Space City. Also of interest is the Rothko Chapel. Mark Rothko was one of the most notable and influential artists of the 20th century. His experiments with color and composition have been celebrated by critics and art historians since even before his 1970 suicide. Right before he took his life in the midst of a terrible depression Rothko finished a project wherein he designed a non-denominational space for meditation in Houston and decorated it with original paintings. The space is now considered a major work of art in itself and is open to the public where they can see the dark works created by this deeply significant artist. The city also hosts a terrific opera and world-renowned ballet among a number of other galleries and museums.

As for more popular art forms, Houston has emerged as one of the central scenes in the global hip-hop movement. The city’s rap artists have created a unique sound now emulated by rappers and DJs everywhere. No musical innovation is more characteristic of the H-Town sound than “chopped and screwed” tracks-slowed down and echoing, the sound was developed by the legendary DJ Screw to emulate the effects of the prescription cough syrup popularly abused among the set (and responsible for the deaths of several-not the least of which was Screw himself).

Houston, TX is a place where art, music, architecture and commerce come together from every corner of the planet to create an intricate human quilt like nowhere else. Whether traveling or looking to move, Houston has a place where you will fit.