Swamplot Archives by Category: New Construction

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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

What Could Possibly Take the Place of Chicken N Egg Roll?

February 17, 2010 – 1:19 pm

A hungry reader writes in wanting to know about the new concrete-block building going up at 2802 S. Shepherd, just across Harold St. from the Houston Wine Merchant. Half of the lot is the site of the former Chicken N Egg Roll. Because the neighboring house on Harold was carted away, the new lot is twice as deep.

I have confirmed that it is a commercial establishment, but can’t find any additional info. Do you know? It looks too small to be a restaurant, but one can hope . . .

Here’s one clue our reader will be happy to hear: The original demolition report from last April listed the owner or occupant of the property as Toyama Japanese Restaurant.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

1:19 pm | 9 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Lanier Place, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
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Monday, February 8, 2010

Taniguchi’s Asia Society Texas Center Gets Into the Ground

February 8, 2010 – 10:04 am

A reader sends in photos from the mudfest last week on the large block at Southmore and Caroline in the Museum District, where construction has at last begun on the new Texas Center headquarters building for the Asia Society. An elaborate groundbreaking ceremony for the 2-story, 38,000-sq.-ft. building featuring dancers, drummers, and noted local restaurateur Yao Ming took place more than 20 months ago. Meanwhile, architect Yoshio Taniguchi continued tinkering with the design, and the organization continued its fundraising efforts.

More muddy views of what’s going on, plus a look at the latest model:

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10:04 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Institutional Buildings, Museums, Neighborhoods: Museum District, New Construction
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Thursday, January 28, 2010

That East Garage Spirit: Pride of Parking at the University of Houston

January 28, 2010 – 11:20 am

Chron columnist Lisa Gray takes note of the new UH East Parking Garage:

On the Spur 5 edge of campus, the University of Houston recently finished a garage that takes garage pride a step further. It’s trimmed in jazzy vertical strips of Cougar red and white — a parking pep rally, a garage that serves as a billboard promoting its institution. If Renu Khatour, UH’s chancellor and tireless promoter, were a parking garage, this is the garage she would be.

Oh, it gets better . . .

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11:20 am | 5 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: University of Houston, New Construction, Parking, Real Estate Marketing
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Monday, January 18, 2010

Comment of the Day: This Time, Some Real Groundbreaking at Taniguchi’s Asia Society HQ

January 18, 2010 – 2:54 pm
   

“Construction has begun! It’s been a while in the making but it appears that progress is now rapidly occurring. I first noticed activity on the site about a week ago and as of this morning there were at least two construction trailers and several earth-movers on the site. Much of the two plots have already been cleared.” [Ned Dodington, commenting on More Images of the Asia Society Headquarters Design]

2:54 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Art, Comments, Institutional Buildings, Neighborhoods: Museum District, New Construction, Quicklink
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Monday, December 21, 2009

Light Rail Construction and the Gorillas’ Last Stand

December 21, 2009 – 11:17 am
   

The latest idea from Metro: Create official signs, flags, and banners for businesses along light-rail construction routes, to show they’re still in business, and to guide cars into open parking areas. Only problem? “Some of the proposed flags would flutter afoul of the city’s newly tightened sign ordinance, which bans certain types of ‘attention-getting devices.’ City Council may have to approve a small change in the city’s sign law to allow temporary banners to stay up for longer than the allotted seven out of 30 days, according to city public works official Andy Icken. . . . The city’s new sign ordinance kicks in on Jan. 1. It bans the giant inflatable balloon animals and other eye-catching gizmos that you often see on Houston’s highways and roads. So enjoy the giant ‘For Sale’ gorillas while you can. Also, the dancing wind socks along the side of the road, the silver and blue streamers at car dealerships, and the other pennants, pinwheels and puppets meant to pull your gaze from the road to the roadside.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]

11:17 am | 21 Comments | Read more about Development Regulations, New Construction, Quicklink, Retail, Signage, Transportation
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Rail Removal Program Complete for the Year: Heights Hike and Bike Trail Opens

December 21, 2009 – 10:58 am

Sometime after this photo was taken at the start of the month, the missing rail on the rebuilt trestle bridge over White Oak Bayou was installed. But the rest of the rails are gone! A 5-mile segment of the MKT Trail through the Heights, named after the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad tracks that used to run along it, opened over the weekend. The trail starts at 26th St., runs down Nicholson to 7th St., east along 7th for a bit, down and across the bayou. It ends at Spring St. and I-45. When will it connect to Downtown, or new trails to the north?

Four other bike paths opened in 2009, making 15 new miles in all:

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10:58 am | 38 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: First Ward, Neighborhoods: Houston Heights, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Transportation
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Monday, November 30, 2009

Comment of the Day: Commodity, Firmness, and Notoriety

November 30, 2009 – 10:17 pm
   

“The design can’t possibly be that bad. People are talking about it. When was the last time anybody remarked on the designs of Energy Tower III or Energy Crossing II?” [TheNiche, commenting on There Will Be No Tours of the Death Star, and Other Details About the Hospital in the Belly of the Memorial Hermann Tower]

10:17 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Comments, Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Memorial City, New Construction, Office Buildings, Quicklink
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There Will Be No Tours of the Death Star, and Other Details About the Hospital in the Belly of the Memorial Hermann Tower

November 30, 2009 – 9:55 am

Hospital executive Adam Lane tells the Houston Business Journal’s Jennifer Dawson that the easiest patients to move into the new Memorial Hermann Tower on I-10 will be . . . the babies, “because they don’t know where they’re going.”

Also, it sounds like some of the interiors might prove a little disorienting for suburban kids:

A hospital floor dedicated to children has been elaborately designed as a town center. The hallway is made to look like a street with curbs, grass and storefronts.

Fortunately, more familiar surroundings will be nearby: the building is connected by skybridge to the Memorial City Mall.

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9:55 am | 27 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Medical Buildings, Neighborhoods: Memorial City, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space
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Monday, November 16, 2009

Kiddie Party on the Plaza: A Discovery Tower Construction Update

November 16, 2009 – 1:03 pm

A reader sends in photos of the new Hess Tower, formerly known as Discovery Tower, under construction adjacent to Discovery Green Downtown.

You can see the tower isn’t quite finished yet but it sure looks like that plaza in front of it already is! Though really, all those office workers look a little young, don’t you think?

More pics:

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1:03 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Green Design and Development, Highrises, Neighborhoods: Downtown, New Construction, Office Buildings
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Raising Funds for the New Houston Ballet Building: Just Wait Until Nutcracker Season

November 10, 2009 – 2:38 pm

An article on Bloomberg.com forwarded by a reader provides an update on the progress of fundraising efforts for the Houston Ballet’s new building Downtown planned for the block surrounded by Congress, Smith, Preston, and Louisiana streets. You’ll remember that back in August, Ballet managing director Cecil C. Conner told the Chronicle’s Molly Glentzer that the board had raised “about 70 percent of the funds” needed for the $53 million building — which the organization hopes to have ready for move-in by 2011.

What’s the latest news, 3 months later?

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2:38 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Financing, Institutional Buildings, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Neighborhoods: Theater District, New Construction
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Monday, November 9, 2009

That New Thick-Skinned FBI Operative Moving in Next to Oak Forest

November 9, 2009 – 5:06 pm

What fancy high-tech firm just moved into that shimmering new green building off 290 at 43rd St.?

It’s your FBI. And hiding behind those dark shades in the new Houston Field Office:

The building includes a crisis management operations center, room for several crime and gang task forces, an arrest processing area where suspects are brought in, polygraphed, interviewed, booked and fingerprinted.

There’s a “complaint duty” office where anyone can walk in and lodge their concern with an officer on duty.

It also features a heavily equipped exercise room, a clinic headed by fulltime occupational health nurse Tisha Millard and the annual Citizens Academy led by Ronnie Cutlip, outreach coordinator.

The building includes the requisite extra-long-walkway anti-porte-cochere, specially designed to thwart vehicular attacks. But its real innovation is the external green-glass skin, hung away from the building on a lightweight metal frame, and specially formulated so the agents inside will be able to keep their cool when that Texas heat is on:

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5:06 pm | 8 Comments | Read more about Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Neighborhoods: Oak Forest, New Construction
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Monday, October 26, 2009

The Westchase Spec Office Building That Ate Tinseltown

October 26, 2009 – 4:01 pm

Not a fan of the “ugly uninspired office parks” that line Beltway 8 on the west side of town, radio geek and computer answer guy Jay Lee finds he has a few nice things to say — and photograph — about the recently completed first phase of Westchase Park, a Simmons Vedder office development that’s replaced the Cinemark Tinseltown Westchase just north of Westpark:

There’s a water feature in the front of the building that sports a metallic sculpture which sort of reminds me of the contraption from the movie “Contact.” It’s by far the most interesting piece of architecture I have seen out here on the west beltway.

The building itself is glass and chrome and glints in the daylight. I was kind of hoping the sculpture was a corporate logo of some kind and that this was going to be to world headquarters of some up and coming conglomerate or something. Alas, it is simply a business park and will soon be selling office space to those looking to setup shop in the Westchase District.

On the plus side, it looks pretty cool at night:

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4:01 pm | 15 Comments | Read more about Houston Architects, Neighborhoods: Westchase, New Construction, Office Buildings, Redevelopment
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Four New Houston Metro Rail Routes, As Seen from Above

October 13, 2009 – 5:35 pm

Found: extrapolated video footage of Houston’s soon-to-be light-rail routes, as viewed from . . . a crop duster. Hang time for the 4 routes shown: 8 minutes and 8 seconds. Your travel time and elevation may vary.

MIA: The University Line.

How old are these renderings, anyway?

Video: Gino Martin

5:35 pm | 9 Comments | Read more about New Construction, Public Transportation
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Monday, October 5, 2009

Taking Root at Arbor

October 5, 2009 – 8:54 am
   

A reader asks: “Any idea what is going up at the intersection of Main St and Arbor Place, across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Craft? There have been pretty substantial columns in the ground for a few weeks now.” [Swamplot inbox]

8:54 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Neighborhoods: Binz, New Construction, Quicklink
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Friday, September 18, 2009

All Those New Energy Corridor Office Buildings

September 18, 2009 – 11:56 am
   

“Among projects slated to begin construction soon are the 477,000-square-foot Energy Tower III from Mac Haik Realty Ltd. on the Katy Freeway, the 170,000-square-foot Enclave Corporate Center and the 230,000-square-foot Energy Crossing II, developed by Phoenix-based Opus West Corp. on the Katy Freeway. Currently, 13 new office buildings are being constructed in the Energy Corridor, according to the Energy Corridor Management District. Major developments coming online in the near future include the 300,000-square-foot Three Eldridge Place at 737 North Eldridge Parkway being developed by Dallas-based Behringer Harvard; the 447,000-square-foot Energy Tower II, which is expected to be completed this fall and will be occupied primarily by Technip; and Eldridge Oaks I, a 350,000-square-foot building at 1080 Eldridge Parkway being developed by Transwestern. In all, the market will gain an estimated 1.25 million square feet of new space, of which about 33 percent is pre-leased. Class A vacancy is expected to increase by about 50 percent this year, its highest rate in five years, according to market experts.” [Houston Business Journal]

11:56 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Leasing, Neighborhoods: Energy Corridor, New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
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