Houston Endowment, a philanthropic foundation organized by Jesse H. Jones and his wife in 1937, built Jones Hall as a performing arts center and then presented it to the City of Houston. Jones Hall is representative of the 1960s in its crypto-classical cultural center style and in its conception as a multipurpose hall designed to accommodate symphony, opera, ballet, and theater. Charles E. Lawrence, chief designer for Caudill Rowlett Scott, skillfully compacted the 3,000-seat auditorium and stage onto a 250-foot-square city block by aligning them on the diagonal, so that the stage backs up to the Louisiana-Texas intersection alongside the main entrance at Louisiana Street and Capitol Avenue. With a spatially ingenious stepped-section organization, Lawrence routed audience circulation up and around the sides and rear of the auditorium shell. Since 1987 Jones Hall has been home to the Houston Symphony.