The square is surrounded by a combination of nineteenth-century architecture and modern residential towers, with ground leases housing a variety of restaurants and bars.

The Houston Market House was a single-story rectangular building which faced Milam Street, a more convenient side of the square for the purveyors of rural produce.

The project cost the city $400,000, but the 1873 building was consumed by a fire on July 8, 1976, leaving Houston with $182,500 of outstanding debt in its bond and only $82,500 in insurance payments.

Edwin J. Duhamel won the architectural design competition sponsored by Mayor Irvin Capers Lord, and the architect hired Britton and Long to construct the new civic house atop the old foundation.

A memorial bust figure of her is positioned next to a water feature and plaque created in her honor at the Congress Street side of the park.

The 43-floor glass-clad tower houses a combination of residential and guest apartments, a full commercial kitchen, a ballroom, and a top-floor with a bar and a pool.