This investigation begins and ends with conditions present in the city of Houston, which in many ways typify processes at work in other urban centers around the country and around the world. One senses, in the vast empty ring which surrounds downtown Houston, the infinity of the great plains, in the midst of a highly urbanized context. The complete lack of hierarchy or figure inherent in this landscape seems to be a fascinating architectural problem. How do we build in such an area, and how do we come to grips with this vast emptiness which surrounds it? The conditions of emptiness and dematerialization inherent in the territory led to an investigation of the aesthetics of silence. Silence can be defined in three ways: first of all as a literal refusal to tell us anything. Secondly, as a condition of presence or immanence, and finally, as a condition of exhaustion, at the end of the line. All three conditions appeared to be present in the territory bordering downtown Houston to the East. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)