Lakewood Church Central Campus, Religious complex in southwest Houston, US
Lakewood Church Central Campus is a worship venue in Houston, Texas, converted from a former sports arena. The central space spans multiple tiers and includes areas for choir performances, meeting rooms, and technical facilities behind the seating sections.
The Summit opened in 1975, built for $18 million after the NBA's San Diego Rockets moved to Houston in 1971 and the city lacked a suitable arena. It hosted the Rockets, the Aeros and the Comets, plus NBA Finals in 1981, 1986, 1994 and 1995. Compaq bought naming rights in 1998, and in 2003 the city leased the venue to Lakewood Church, which spent $95 million on over 15 months of renovations and bought it outright in 2010.
The congregation gathers in a space once built for basketball and concerts. Today it welcomes tens of thousands each week for worship services featuring contemporary music and sermons delivered in multiple languages.
Multiple entrances lead to different sections of the building, and large parking areas lie nearby. The facility is wheelchair accessible, and signage helps guide visitors through the interior spaces.
The building's name changed with its use: it was The Summit until 1998, then Compaq Center after a five-year, $900,000-a-year naming deal with Compaq, the first Houston sports arena to sell its naming rights. The name was kept even after Hewlett-Packard acquired Compaq in 2002.
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