Tenants have been filing out of the 5-story office building shown above at the northeast corner of Richmond Ave and Eastside St. in anticipation of its planned collapse 2 months from now, according one employee who’s still inside but won’t be for long. Building management gave all occupants — includingĂ‚Â Imparali Tailor, luggage retailer Kipling, and dozens of other business and medical groups — notice last year that they’d need to hit the road.
Designed by Wilson, Morris, Crane & Anderson, the building is one of a dozen vertically-windowed mid- and lowrises that then-not-yet-famous Houston developer Gerald Hines built along Richmond in the early 1960s to accommodate businesses looking to spread out away from Downtown for the first time. (3100 Richmond, on the other side of Weslayan Eastside, was his work too, as well as 3101 Richmond, which sits catty-corner to the soon-to-be demolished building.) By the time the Richmond Ave corridor of similar-looking office structures was complete from Kirby to Weslayan, it had served as a sort of “MBA course,” write Houston architect Barry Moore and preservationist Anna Mod, “for Gerald Hines and arch-competitor Kenneth Schnitzer [of Century Development],” the 2 of whom soon graduated to designing taller and more notable Houston buildings inside and outside of Downtown.
- The Richmond Corridor [OffCite]
- The Business Strip [OffCite]
Photo: Capital Realty
There goes more of our mid-century heritage…
“(3100 Richmond, on the other side of Weslayan, was his work too”
I think you meant to say “on the other side of Eastside”.
Thanks.
Rusty
That’s fine. There’s no use in preserving stuff from the era that brought us cookie-cutter sprawl.
Inexpensive, well-located office space is something that makes Houston great for business. In its own way, this building is a better place for start-up businesses than the giant Sears store remuddle happening over in HomelessLand a.k.a. Midtown.
Note that 3100 and 3101 Richmond are at the intersection of Eastside, not Weslayan.
A little correction, o Swamplot: both 3100 and 3101 Richmond are, like the doomed 3000 Richmond, at the intersection of Eastside, not Weslayan.
My father worked with Gerald Hines on some of those low to mid buildings in the 1960’s. They later colloborated on the Galleria . Where will the Eastside Farmers Markey go? Those Upper Kirby denizens are going to be lost…wandering the UK District yearning for fresh produce , etc.
HappyGoLucky, the Eastside market moved to the St. John’s School parking lot last September.
I worked in this building for a number of years, no big loss. This building would have fallen down in its own eventually.