Thanks, Brock

Houston's iconic Beer Can House preserved by local brewery's donation

St. Arnold's Brewery helps preserve the Beer Can House

The Beer Can House now offers free admission and expanded hours.

Courtesy of The Beer Can House/ The Orange Show

The Houston Beer Can House, one of the city’s most famous and beloved artistic landmarks, will now have free admissions and expanded hours thanks to a partnership with Saint Arnold Brewing Company.

Located in the Rice Military neighborhood, John Milkovisch created the Beer Can House as a way to avoid chores rather than a grand artistic statement. The exterior is covered in roughly 50,000 crushed beer cans, most of which Milkovisch drank himself. It houses several sculptures and currently serves as an art gallery space.

The bright Houston sun refracts off the aluminum, turning the entire thing into a glimmering artifact that has brought in visitors from all over the world.

“Saint Arnold is proud to be a part of The Beer Can House’s continued evolution,” Saint Arnold founder Brock Wagner said in a statement. “As Texas’ oldest craft brewery, we take pride in supporting our local community and helping to make Houston a fun and exciting place to live and visit. I’d like to think that should Saint Arnold have been around during John Milkovisch’s time, he’d have used some of our cans to create his masterpiece.”

Tours and visits will be available Wednesday through Sunday from 10 am - 4 pm. In addition, the house will host special programming throughout the year, starting with a Block Party on October 12.

The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art bought the building in 2001 for $200,000, and it has been a part of the Houston art scene ever since. Some experts argue whether the building should be considered folk art or tramp art. Either way, it is a unique building that feels distinctly Houston.

“The Beer Can House is not only an internationally-recognized art environment – sparking curiosity and joy with each visitor it welcomes — but it also tells the story of Houston’s growth and our innate desire to create without abandon,” added Jack Massing, executive director of the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. “For over 15 years, our preservation efforts with The Beer Can House have been simply about maintaining the structure and the grounds. Through this new partnership with Saint Arnold Brewing Company, we are looking forward to focusing more attention on enhancing the visitor experience while offering regular community events and rotating art exhibitions, all free and open to the public five days a week.”

Plans for future programming include art markets, concerts, interactive art activities, and more. Saint Arnold Brewery has a long history in the Houston area of funding important artistic and cultural institutions, everything from festivals and the Art Car Parade to veteran art therapy programming. Obviously, supporting a beer-themed landmark is a natural fit for a craft beer brewery, and their backing means The Beer Can House will be around to welcome its next generation of visitors.

More information can be found at the Orange Show website.

hail hail

Self-driving Waymo robotaxis hit the streets in Houston

Waymo/ Facebook

Waymo is now offering driverless rides to Houstonians.

Waymo will begin dispatching its robotaxis in Houston and four more cities in Texas and Florida, expanding the territory covered by its fleet of self-driving cars to 10 major U.S. metropolitan markets.

The move into Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Orlando, Florida, announced Tuesday, February 24, widens Waymo's early lead in autonomous driving while rival services from Tesla and the Amazon-owned Zoox are still testing their vehicles in only a few U.S. cities.

In contrast, Waymo's robotaxis already provide more than 400,000 weekly trips in the six metropolitan areas where they have been transporting passengers: Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, and Austin.

Waymo's cars soft launched service in San Antonio in November 2025, initially only offering the rides to employees. The company first began testing Alamo City’s roads the previous May as part of a multi-city “road trip” meant to map out roadways and help alleviate local concern over safety and other issues.

Waymo operates its ride-hailing service through its own app in all the U.S. cities except Atlanta and Austin, where its robotaxis can only be summoned through Uber's ride-hailing service.

The expansion into four more markets marks a significant step toward Waymo's goal to surpass 1 million weekly paid trips by the end of 2026. Without identifying where its robotaxis will be available next, Waymo is targeting a list of eight other cities that include Las Vegas, Washington, Detroit, and Boston while signaling its first overseas availability is likely to be London.

To help pay for more robotaxis, Waymo recently raised $16 billion as part of the financial infusion that puts the value of the company at $126 billion. The valuation fueled speculation that Waymo may eventually be spun off from its corporate parent Alphabet, where it began as a secret project within Google in 2009.

Although Waymo is opening up in four more cities, its robotaxis initially will only be made available to a limited number of people with its ride-hailing app in San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Orlando before the service will be available to all corners in those markets.

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This article contains additional reporting from CultureMap San Antonio editor Brandon Watson.

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