Houston’s famous Galleria is the city’s largest mall and one of its biggest tourist attractions. This behemoth of a mall features six major department stores (Neiman Marcus, Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s, Nordstrom, and Foley’s), and hundreds of smaller stores, with famous names like Tiffany & Co., Ralph Lauren, Cartier, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Bailey Banks & Biddle, Kenneth Cole, and Versace. There are also several office towers, two hotels, and an ice rink in the mall.
After being sold to a new owner several years ago, the Galleria has undergone a major renovation and expansion. In March 2003, a new wing across West Alabama Street from the older parts of the mall was opened. This expansion is anchored by Houston’s first Nordstrom store, and Foley’s, a long-time Houston retailer that surprisingly had never expanded into the Galleria. The new section is linked to the rest of the mall by a skywalk on the second level. Renovations to the rest of the mall have given the older sections the same style as the 2003 expansion, replacing the previous decades-old atmosphere with new sleek, modern architecture. The result is that the entire mall once again lives up to its atmosphere as the premiere fashion center in the southwestern United States.
The one drawback of the Galleria is its size and popularity. The area around the mall is known for its traffic jams, and for those who are unfamiliar with the mall, navigating your way into the many parking garages, parking, and finding the mall entrance can be a daunting task. My advice as a local who is frequently in the Uptown/Galleria area: avoid Westheimer Rd., especially the Westheimer and Post Oak Blvd. intersection, as much as possible. Given that the mall fronts on Westheimer, this isn’t always possible, but the traffic jams that exist on Westheimer and to a lesser extent on Post Oak can easily be avoided by using other streets to access the mall. If you’re coming from the west, this can be accomplished by approaching the mall on Westheimer and taking the exit to the right onto West Alabama as Westheimer curves to the left a few blocks before you reach the mall. From West Alabama you’ll have easy access to several free parking garages on the back side of Gallerias I, II, and III (the numbers refer to different expansion stages of the mall). If approaching from east (inside the 610 loop), take Richmond to Sage Rd. Turn north on Sage, then turn right onto West Alabama. If coming from the north, exit 610 at Hildago, and take the sharp right-turn onto Hildago from the ramp. Follow Hildago to Sage, turn right, and go one block north to West Alabama, turning right again. Alternatively, from Hildago you can also access the new garages in Galleria IV near Foley’s and Nordstrom.
You can also take Metro. The mall is served by the 53 Westheimer Limited, 82 Westheimer, 33 Post Oak, 49 Chimney Rock, and 73 Bellfort routes.