The Ion, a five-story, 266,000-square-foot building located at the site of the former Midtown Sears building, will serve as the hub of a future 16-acre Midtown urban Innovation District. When completed, the district will cover 3-5 million square feet of street life, public space, and a mix of uses that bring together technology, community and sustainability.

The building will bring together tech-focused corporate innovators, academic and community partners, startups, and entrepreneurs with accelerator programs, shared workspaces, and events and programming in a walkable, sustainable and open space available to the general public.

The building—brought to life from a $100 million investment from Rice University—is slated to open in early fall. The district in its entirety will come together over three phases over the next 10 years at an approximate cost of $1 billion.

View the progress in the gallery above.