The headquarters and worship center of the T'ien Tao Association, a Chinese syncretic religious tradition of twentieth-century origin, was characterized in February 1996 by Houston Press reporter Steve McVicker as a “stairway to heaven.” The white building escalates from three to five stories in height to frame a centered, freestanding geodesic sphere, eighty feet in diameter, with its facets of gold anodized aluminum. External stairs rise along each edge of the third-floor terrace to symmetrically bracket the extraordinary gold globe. The T'ien Tao temple signals modern Asian identity with science fiction intensity.
Chong Hua Sheng Mwu Gwung
1996, Cho Design Force and Cisneros Design Studio. 3695 Overture Dr.