The spires of the 37-story Gulf Building capped the building boom of the 1920s. That decade witnessed a competition to erect the tallest building in Houston and the founding of the Houston Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America Inc. Entrepreneur Jesse Jones vied with other builders to create his landmark structure, still associated with his name. The first six stories of the Gulf Building were built by the Hewitt Construction Company. When Hewitt retired, American took over to complete the next 31 stories. The Gulf Building was, for a time, the tallest office tower west of the Mississippi. No other taller skyscraper was built in Houston until 1963.