Downtown

77002, Apartments, Downtown, Highrises, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Retail

05/16/13 2:00pm

Airing Out, At Least, the Old Savoy Downtown

12 Comments

It must be musty in there: “After staring at this building for years,” a reader writes, “workers were spotted today removing drapes and opening windows!” This photo of what was called theÂ Savoy-Field Hotel was taken from the parking lot on Leeland St. between Main and Travis; the original 1906 Savoy Apartments building stood here, too, before it was declared dangerous and torn down in 2009. You can see a few of thoseÂ open windows and a pair of Dumpsters, already full with some of the hotel’s innards. Adds the reader: “Move out pigeons!”

77002, Downtown, Vacant Buildings

05/16/13 11:00am

Streamlining Downtown Parking Signs

Parking, Quicklink, Signage, Transportation

7 Comments

STREAMLINING DOWNTOWN PARKING SIGNS Downtown District rep Angie Bertinot tells abc13 that the organization counted more than 100 “different unique” parking signs mucking things up for drivers hoping to avoid getting towed or ticketed — and in response city council decided yesterday to get rid of as many as 6,000 of them and replace them with a single, easier-to-read, simpler-to-understand version that Mayor Parker says might eventually be the standard all over Houston.Â (The redundant triptych shown here on Travis St. near Leeland would be one the city would likely address.)Â The switcheroo is reported to cost about $1.3 million during the next year. KUHF also reports that the old signsÂ will be used for an art project. [abc13; KUHF] Photo of signs on Travis St.: Allyn West

77002, Downtown, Parking, Signage

Demolitions

05/15/13 10:00am

Houston Club Tunnel Tenants Making Their Escape

Downtown, Office Buildings, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail

3 Comments

HOUSTON CLUB TUNNEL TENANTS MAKING THEIR ESCAPE The last 2 restaurants in the tunnels underneath the 18-story former Houston Club Building on Rusk St. are preparing to get up and out of there, reports Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff: The below-ground Skyline Deli and KoKoro Sushi will have sold their last lunches by the end of May, in advance of what a rep from new building owner Skanska says will be “selective interior demolition and abatement.” And that demolition is about to become much less selective, adds Sarnoff, since Skanska says it’s designing an office tower for this Downtown lot bound by Rusk, Capitol, Travis, and Milam. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Silberman Properties

77002, Demolitions, Downtown, Downtown Tunnel System, Office Buildings, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail

Comments

04/30/13 2:30pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Downtown’s Horse Pee Problem

by Swamplot

Downtown, Public Safety, Quicklink

17 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: DOWNTOWN’S HORSE PEE PROBLEM “If the streets smell like pee it is because of the horse cops. Seriously, walking down Main Street is like walking through a barn, and it isnâ€™t the fault of the homeless — it is the dang horses. Why do we need horse cops anyways? Canâ€™t cops get around on bike, or scooter, or something that doesnâ€™t leave piles of poop in the middle of the street?” [Evan7257, commenting on Bringing the Streets Downtown Right into the Lobbies]

77002, Comments, Downtown, Odors, Public Safety

Development Stategies

04/30/13 11:45am

Bringing the Streets Downtown Right Into the Lobbies

Downtown, Quicklink

17 Comments

BRINGING THE STREETS DOWNTOWN RIGHT INTO THE LOBBIES Why isn’t there more street life Downtown?Â A recent architectural exhibition suggests that one cause might be the sealed world of aÂ tunnel system that’s accessed mainly through closed-off corporate lobbies: “[Rice University’s BryonyÂ Roberts] argues that these [sites] provide opportunities for a new type of public space that would more effectively integrate street activity and subterranean circulation,” explains OffCite’s Helen B. Bechtel. Using studies of One Allen Center, the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Reliant Energy Plaza, andÂ Wells Fargo Plaza — imagined here to include ramp-like pedestrian feeders — Roberts shows howÂ “otherwise segregated interior and exterior public spaces” might be linked. The exhibition’s on view — where else? — in the One Allen Center lobby at 1200 Smith. [OffCite; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: BryonyÂ Roberts via OffCite

77002, Development Strategies, Downtown, Downtown Tunnel System, Street-Life

Demolitions

04/26/13 3:15pm

Downtown SkyHouse Clearing the Ground First

Downtown, Highrises, Land Development, New Construction

7 Comments

Another win for Komatsu: This vacant 30,000-sq.-ft. office building in the shadow of the Houston House apartments was reduced to rubble this week on the Downtown lot bound by Fannin, Main, Leeland, and Pease, where construction onÂ the 24-story, 336-unit residential tower SkyHouse is just beginning. (The parking lot in the foreground of the photo at the top is now a hole in the ground.) The project at 1625 Main was announced in March by Atlanta developer Novare Group, which has put up a similar tower in Austin.

Opening Spring 2014 [Simpson Property Group]
Previously on Swamplot: Where Downtownâ€™s New Residential Tower Will Go

Photos: Swamplot inbox (demolition), Allyn West (building)

77002, Apartments, Demolitions, Downtown, Highrises, New Construction

04/26/13 10:00am

Historic Cottage Trucked from Sam Houston Park to Permanent Home in Sam Houston Park

Historic Preservation, Houston History, Museums

2 Comments

How do you move a historic cottage from one location to another? Well, carefully: This video uploaded this week from the Heritage Society chronicles the easy-does-it, steady-as-she-goes relocation of a Fourth Ward cottage from its perch in Sam Houston Park. The Heritage Society says that the house, originally located on Robin St. in Freedman’s Town, dates to at least 1866. It’s been in the collection since 2002, temporarily sited on Dallas St., while the society awaited the funds to move it to its permanent home beside to the Jack Yates House in that architectural promenade on the park grounds along McKinney St.

77002, Downtown, Freedmans Town, Historic Preservation, Houston History, Museums, Relocations, Sam Houston Park

04/23/13 1:00pm

GMC Thinks Downtown Houston Would Look a Lot Nicer with a Huge Lake Next to It

Geography, Photography, Skyscrapers, Staging

23 Comments

This year’s Terrain Denali, shown here in Iridium Metallic, seems to have been redesigned with a towing capacity that borders on the seismic: Apparently, it can bring theÂ lake in along with the speed boat and dock right into the middle of the city! A vehicle that can manipulate geography according to your desires? What will they think of next? And it’sÂ just $34,925!

2013 Terrain Denali [GMC]

Image: GMC

Downtown, Geography, Skyscrapers, Staging

Development Strategies

04/22/13 10:00am

A New South Downtown ‘Garden District’ of Really Wide Sidewalks

Downtown, Parks, Proposed Developments, Streetscapes

46 Comments

Architect John Kirksey has an idea for building a park on 36 blocks in south Downtown — just north of the Pierce Elevated, between Louisiana and Caroline. But he doesn’t own the land, and he’s not proposing to buy it up. So Kirksey’s plan isn’t for a single park space — it’s for a bunch of linear walkways. Okay, call it a series of extra-wide sidewalks on the east-west streets. Here’s how it might look, driving through:

77002, Development Strategies, Downtown, Parks, Proposed Developments, Streetscapes

Comments

04/10/13 1:10pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: What To Expect from the Deck of the Second Convention Center Hotel

by Swamplot

Downtown, Hotels, Proposed Developments, Quicklink

7 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE DECK OF THE SECOND CONVENTION CENTER HOTEL “I am dumbstruck at the sheer genius (or is it audacity?) of a Texas-shaped lazy river. The turns around El Paso and Brownsville might be a little hazardous, but thatâ€™s a great analogy of the current state of affairs along the Rio. Iâ€™d also expect to encounter armed poachers along the Sabine, and flag-waving tea partiers along the Red, but Iâ€™m still pretty sure that by downing 3 beers from a floating cooler, I could not only survive, but conquer that bitch. The hardest part would be commemorating the accomplishment with (another) barbed wire arm tattoo and slapping one more bumper sticker on my pickup about guns, secession or liberals (pick one).” [Superdave, commenting on New Convention Center Hotel Seems a Done Deal] Rendering of proposed Marriott Marquis amenity deck: Morris Architects

77002, Comments, Downtown, Hotels, Proposed Developments

Development Strategies

04/10/13 10:10am

City Council To Decide Whether Downtown Hotel Redo Will Receive Federal Dough

Downtown, Financing, Hotels, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Real Estate Investing, Renovations

6 Comments

CITY COUNCIL TO DECIDE WHETHER DOWNTOWN HOTEL REDO WILL RECEIVE FEDERAL DOUGH Houston Politics’ Mike Morris is reporting that city council will vote today to decide whether it will loan Pearl Real Estate up to $7.4 million toward the $81 million renovation and redevelopment of the 22-story slipcovered 1910 Samuel F. Carter building at Rusk and 806 Main St. What does Pearl have in sight? A JW Marriott. (It’d be across the street from BG Group Place.) Last summer, explains Morris, the city applied for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development money that would be passed on to Pearl and ultimatelyÂ paid back with interest — or that’s the idea, anyway. This kind of deal went off without a hitch in 1998, when the Rice Hotel paid back their $4.8 million right on time. But the city’s been kept waiting before: “In early 2005, it came to light that the Magnolia Hotel (which had gotten $9.5 million in 2002) and the Crowne Plaza (which had gotten $5 million in 2000) had never made a full payment to the city on their loans.” Though by 2012, Morris adds, those loans had been repaid.Â [Houston Politics; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 806 Main St.: Swamplot inbox

77002, Development Strategies, Downtown, Financing, Hotels, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Investing, Renovations

Buildings for Lease

04/08/13 2:00pm

Owners of Houston Studios Seeking Tenants: Will Tear Down To Suit

Commercial Real Estate, Downtown, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Warehouse District, Warehouse Space

3 Comments

This relatively gritty Warehouse District warehouse appears to be the subject of some real estate speculation, reports Hair Balls’ Richard Connelly: A website for the Houston Studios building — home to a 10,000-sq.-ft. soundstage with a 30-ft. ceiling for video shoots, rehearsals, and other creative expressions — features renderings that show it as aÂ cleaned-up commercial complex:

77002, Buildings for Lease, Commercial Real Estate, Downtown, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Warehouse District, Warehouses

Malls, Proposed Developments, Renovations

04/05/13 9:56am

GreenStreet, Frame by Frame: Previewing the Upcoming Houston Pavilions Remake

by Swamplot

48 Comments

Houston Pavilions is to be renamed in honor of 2 urban features the troubled 5-year-old Downtown outdoor mall had so far shunned, its new owners announced yesterday: greenery and streets. The newly dubbed GreenStreet appears to be taking a few cues also from Discovery Green, the younger but far more successful urban attraction a few blocks to the east. Midway, which with Magic Johnson’s Canyon-Johnson Urban Funds bought the 3-block-long mixed-use center out of bankruptcy last August (and the adjacent parking garage on Clay St. between Main and Fannin a few months later), plans 6 to 9 months’ worth of renovations to the property as well, to turn it into a CityCentre-style event hub.

The new design, by Houston architects MuÃ±oz + Albin and the Office of James Burnett, a local landscape firm, will try to soften and connect the 3 separated interior courtyards and make them come across as more park-like. Additional changes won’t exactly make the famously inward-looking mall turn itself inside-out, but they do appear to make a few stabs at poking through to Dallas St., adding signage, storefront windows in some places, and a few outdoor seating areas along its northern edge.

77002, Downtown, GreenStreet, Houston Architects, Houston Pavilions, Malls, Proposed Developments, Renovations

04/04/13 12:15pm

Multiplying Houston’s Rent-a-Bike Fleet