See how the area around the George R. Brown Convention Center has changed over the past 30 years

A rainbow is seen over the George R. Brown Convention Center on Sept. 16, 1987, just ten days before its official opening. These days the area on any given weekend is teeming with life but at the tail end of the '80s the area looked nothing like it does today. Just over 30 years ago the area was a rather barren piece of downtown's easterly end ripe for renewal.

See more photos of the area around the convention center before it became a Houston hot spot... less A rainbow is seen over the George R. Brown Convention Center on Sept. 16, 1987, just ten days before its official opening. These days the area on any given weekend is teeming with life but at the tail end of ... more Photo: Larry Reese, Houston Chronicle Photo: Larry Reese, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 98 Caption Close See how the area around the George R. Brown Convention Center has changed over the past 30 years 1 / 98 Back to Gallery

This year, the George R. Brown Convention Center and the area around it have been a hotbed of activity from Super Bowl festivities to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

Just months after hosting Super Bowl-related events and happenings, the convention center was a safe haven for those impacted by Harvey's flood waters. Discovery Green across the street is easily the heart of downtown with concerts and family-friendly entertainment.

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These days, the area on any given weekend is teeming with life, but at the tail end of the '80s the area looked nothing like it does today. Just over 30 years ago the area was a rather barren piece of downtown's easterly end, ripe for renewal.

According to the Discovery Green website, the area we all know as the hub of free fun in Houston was once a high-end residential neighborhood in the late 1800s.

Conventions before George R. Brown were held at scattered halls around the city before the giant ship-like structure was opened this week in 1987.

The first convention held at the center was the American Society of Travel Agents in October 1987, surely a rowdy affair in the heyday of travel agents before online booking.

A new convention hall had been in the works for some time.

By the early '80s the Albert Thomas Convention Center in the Theater District had been deemed obsolete, a relic. Inexpensive real estate, combined with a generous donation of property by Texas Eastern, factored largely in the decision to build on the largely dormant east side of downtown.

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Developers of other nearby sites would come soon after, like the various hotels that now dot the area.

A new round of construction commenced in 2001 to add on to the existing hall. Again, in 2014, work started on yet another series of improvements which were completed in December 2016, just in time for Super Bowl LI activity.

One of the newest additions, Avenida Plaza, is a pedestrian-friendly outdoor space which now hosts concerts and other events.

Designed by Hargreaves Associates Landscape Architects in San Francisco, the 12-acre Discovery Green, as we currently know it, was opened in 2008 and it soon became a hub of Bayou City activity.

Its buildings, seen in plenty of family photos, were designed by Larry Speck of PageSoutherlandPage and the landscaping was by Lauren Griffith of Houston.