If you have the right tools, anything can be loosened up enough to take it apart.
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Demolitions
This striped confection is what developers are planning to put in place of the Courtyard on St. James Place, an ivy-bedecked wedding venue beloved — or at least remembered — by hundreds of Houston spouses and divorcees and tucked into the southwest corner of the office-building complex near the corner of San Felipe and Yorktown, northwest of the Galleria. Though the rendering doesn’t reveal much about the surfaces planned for the new structure, a comment from Jones Lang Lasalle’s Chris Decker, in charge of marketing the 13-story office building, says that “upper-level floors will feature exterior balconies and decorative masonry that will complement the sophisticated look of the limestone aggregate block window wall.†A colleague refers to it as a “niche-type jewel.” The 135,000-sq.-ft collection of offices — with what appears to be an attached 2-story segment modeled after a smaller groom’s cake — will sit on top of a parking-garage-podium base.
Fondant Memories
A fence is up and some demo work appears to be beginning at Galleria Plaza, across Sage Rd. from Galleria III. The mixed-use site, which stretches between Westheimer and West Alabama, is indeed the planned location of the new Hyatt Regency hotel that Swamplot reported on last month. The 14-story hotel, which was designed by Gensler and is being developed by Songy Highroads and the Carlyle Group, will fit into the surface parking lot at the northwest corner of Sage and West Alabama shown here:
Making Rooms
Demolition crews have begun working at the base of the 21-story Texas Tower at 608 Fannin St., which will be taken down floor-by-floor. The 85-ish-year-old structure, formerly known as the Sterling Building, stands in the way of Hines’s new, now-47-story 609 Main St. office tower (below), for which excavation and foundation work is scheduled to begin next March. A spokesperson from Hines says there are no plans for an implosion.
Bit by Bit
Just a little bit more cleanup and we’ll have some more nothings to work with.
After the countdown Sunday night at 9:30 pm, blasts went off on 3 of the 4 booster towers surrounding the Houston Astrodome. But there was no liftoff. As the towers collapsed into dusty piles moments later, it became clear: The blasts would not be enough to propel the Dome off its foundation and into outer space. They’ll have to find another way.
No Liftoff
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
A Rising Star falls, and other adventures in building disappearance.
