This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 12 In 1965, Shell Oil Co. decided to open a new office in Houston, a 30-story building where executives would run operations for the western United States. But over the next six years, Shell's ambitions for Houston grew, and so did the scale of its project. By the early 1970s, Shell Oil, the U.S. subsidiary of the international energy company Royal Dutch Shell , supported building not one but two skyscrapers in Houston and moved its headquarters from New York into the 50-story building known today as One Shell Plaza. That move not only vindicated Houston's claim as the world's oil capital, but also touched off a building boom that would transform the city's skyline as war and revolution in the Middle East launched oil prices and the industry to new heights. One Shell stood as the tallest building in Texas for more than a decade, … [Read more...] about Shell Oil helped ignite the growth of Houston’s downtown skyline