Highrises

Downtown
01/30/14 11:00am

Downtown’s New Highrise for Cars Is Going Up!

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Highrises, New Construction, Parking
14 Comments

Construction, 1311 Louisiana Parking Garage, Downtown Houston

Rendering of Proposed 1311 Louisiana Parking Garage, Downtown HoustonConstruction has begun on the 16-story, 1,600-car parking-only highrise at 1311 Louisiana St. When complete, it’ll cover the northeast half of the block surrounded by Polk, Milam, Louisiana, and Clay, and provide layers of automotive insulation for the cars up against the ropes (and more recently installed chain-link fence) on the adjacent Wedge International parking garage. In the meantime, Wedge parkers will have a decent view of the construction activity below.

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16 Stories of Vertical Parking Bliss
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Apartments
01/28/14 10:30am

What the SkyHouse River Oaks, Not Far from River Oaks, Will Actually Look Like

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Highland Village, Highrises, Proposed Developments
16 Comments

Proposed SkyHouse River Oaks, Westcreek Ln., Highland Village, HoustonA pair of renderings are out showing the sorta-near-River-Oaks River Oaks SkyHouse, which has already broken ground, the developers declared yesterday. And — surprise! — it looks a whole lot like the SkyHouse Houston going up downtown (as well as the 9 other SkyHouses completed or under construction in other Southern cities). Two views — one more polished than the other — will allow map sleuths to pinpoint the tower’s spot within Cypress Realty Advisor’s redevelopment of the former Westcreek Apartments: It’s on the plot of the now-vacant apartment block at 2041 Westcreek Ln., directly adjacent to the, uh, “River Oaks” Target. It’s identified as Building D in the site map below. Ashley Furniture is the white box at the top left of the image above, on the other side of San Felipe.

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Just Off Target
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Apartments
01/16/14 10:15am

A Deck Pool, but no ‘Skybar,’ for the New 3400 Montrose

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Highrises, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment
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A DECK POOL, BUT NO ‘SKYBAR,’ FOR THE NEW 3400 MONTROSE Rendering of Montrose Facade of Proposed 3400 Montrose Highrise, Montrose, HoustonNancy Sarnoff collects a few more details on Hanover’s plans for the 30-story tower to replace the vacant ‘Skybar’ building the apartment developer bought just south of Kroger on Montrose Blvd.. The new 3400 Montrose will contain a total of 330 apartments, the smallest of which will be 500 sq. ft. (keeping them out of the “micro-unit” category). The Montrose-facing driveway will serve as a garage entrance as well as an exit. On the ninth-floor open-air deck above the parking garage (just out of view in the rendering above of the Montrose Blvd. view) there’ll be “a swimming pool with private cabanas, grilling areas and a green lawn.” If downtown views from that level are blocked by the tower, they’ll be available from the Hawthorne St. balcony overhang Hanover hopes to gain approval for in its variance hearing next week. The company expects to take about 2 years to build the Montrose highrise, but hasn’t announced a start date for construction. [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Solomon Cordwell Buenz

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Apartments
01/14/14 2:00pm

Here’s Chelsea Montrose, Another 20-Story Apartment Tower for the Museum District

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Highrises, Montrose, Museum District, Proposed Developments
27 Comments

Proposed Chelsea Montrose Apartment Tower, 4 Chelsea Blvd., Montrose, Houston

Dallas apartment developer Streetlights Residential is planning to build this 20-story apartment tower on the former site of the Eye Excellence clinic at 4 Chelsea Blvd., backing up to the Southwest Fwy. just south of where it spits out the Downtown Spur. The company bought the property behind the Chelsea Market shopping center last September, tacking on an additional freeway-facing parcel. The rendering above shows the not-quite-final scheme from Dallas architects Gromatzky Dupree & Associates.

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From the Site That Gave You Eye Excellence
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Apartments
01/10/14 2:30pm

New ‘River Oaks’ SkyHouse Apartment Tower Wants To Snuggle Up Between Target and the West Loop off San Felipe

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Highland Village, Highrises, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment
10 Comments

Rendering of SkyHouse Houston, Downtown HoustonAtlanta’s Novare Group is getting ready to announce construction of its second SkyHouse apartment tower in Houston. According to the company, it’ll be “just like” the 24-story building (and adjacent parking garage) currently under construction on Main St. between Pease and Leeland downtown (shown in the rendering above, which in turn looks very similar to the company’s SkyHouse developments in other cities). Novare appears to have designated the building the River Oaks SkyHouse. Though it’ll be a bit south and west and on the other side of the tracks from the actual River Oaks, the new building will sit closer to its namesake than the River Oaks District mixed-use project currently under construction directly south of it.

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Just Like Downtown
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Demolitions
01/08/14 10:30am

The Crane for the Crane for the Texas Building Demo Is Here

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Downtown, Highrises, Office Buildings, Redevelopment
15 Comments

Crane for Demolition of Texas Tower, 608 Main St. at Texas, Downtown Houston

What’s that giant red crane looming downtown on the block surrounded by Main, Texas, Fannin, and Capitol? Assembling another crane. Which, in turn, will do all sorts of nasty business to the 21-story Texas Tower, which happens to be in the way of the shiny new 609 Main St. office tower that Hines plans to build on that block. The Texas Tower’s original Art Deco details were removed in the 1940s; back then it was known as the Sterling Building. It went up in 1931.

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Knock-em-Down ’Scrapers
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Apartments
01/06/14 11:00am

The Best Views Yet of Hines’s Market Square Apartment Tower and Its Downtown Headlight

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Downtown, Highrises, Proposed Developments
22 Comments

Proposed Hines Market Square Apartment Tower, Travis and Preston Streets, Downtown Houston

Slicker renderings of the 33-story almost-half-block apartment tower Hines is planning to plant on what’s now a parking lot catty-corner to Market Square downtown have been posted to the website of the building’s designers, Ziegler Cooper Architects. And an appended description annotates the more than half-dozen different facade treatments scheduled for different portions of the building’s 7-level parking garage, meant to allow the 289-unit structure to fit better into to its smaller-scale surroundings: The building will be clad in “a crisp combination of glass, aluminum, and stainless steel complimented by the richness of stone and masonry detailing.”

Between the garage and the apartments above them, according to the website, will be a 9th-floor gathering space featuring an “aqua lounge,” outdoor pool and terrace, fitness center, club room and kitchen, theater, and other typical apartment amenities. Facing Market Square at the corner of Travis and Preston streets will be “a welcoming porch for outdoor dining.” Ground-floor plans presented to the city’s historical commission in August showed retail spaces along Travis and Preston, but the latest renderings appear to show a garage entrance on Preston that might eat into some of it (on the building’s left) and don’t make clear which level will have the outside eats:

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A Building of Many Faces
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Cancellations and Delays
12/20/13 10:00am

Chevron Won’t Reconsider Plans for New Downtown Tower on Old YMCA Site Until 2015 at Least

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Downtown, Highrises, Office Buildings
25 Comments

Proposed Chevron Tower at 1600 Louisiana St. and Pease, Downtown HoustonThe tallest, least-curvy tower in the trio pictured at left won’t be built any time soon, Chevron declared yesterday. The new 50-story structure, which the oil company announced over the summer and planned to combine with the 2 structures passed down to it from Enron into a consolidated Downtown campus, had been scheduled to begin construction shortly after March of next year. A spokesperson for the company tells the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff it won’t even make a decision on whether to proceed with the now-on-hold project until 2015. The 1.7-million-sq.-ft. building on a parking-garage plinth at 1600 Louisiana St. had been designed by architecture firm HOK for the former site of Houston’s Downtown YMCA.

Rendering: HOK

On Hold
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Featured Posts
12/17/13 4:45pm

Jury Tells Ashby Highrise Developers To Pay Neighbors $1,661,993.62

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Highrises, Lawsuits, Neighborhood Disputes, Southampton
68 Comments

Rendering of Street in Front of Proposed Ashby Highrise, 1717 Bissonnet St., Southampton, HoustonAfter more than 6 hours of deliberation over 2 days, the jury in the Ashby Highrise trial came back with a verdict this afternoon, awarding damage claims to a subset of the neighbors who filed suit against the developers of the highrise apartment tower planned for 1717 Bissonnet, claiming that the development would cause harm to their property. Jurors who spoke afterward to Chronicle reporter Erin Mulvaney said they believed the development was “out of place” for the Southampton neighborhood it abuts. Expert witnesses for the plaintiffs in the month-long trial presented evidence that the 21-story tower would cause lower property values, structural problems, and increased traffic for its immediate neighbors. Total bill, ordered for 20 of the 30 neighborhood households that entered into the lawsuit: $1,661,993.62. Next up: a hearing before Judge Randy Wilson over whether the project should be allowed to go forward.

Rendering: Buckhead Investment Partners

Surprise!?
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Condos for Sale
12/13/13 2:15pm

Strung Between the Towers of a Museum District Condo Building

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Highrises, Home Decor, Interiors, Museum District
6 Comments

1111-hermann-8D-07

Warwick Towers, 1111 Hermann Dr., HoustonAptly named a “bridge unit,”  this eighth-floor space spans between the 30-story Warwick Towers just north of Hermann Park in the Museum District. The 3,385-sq.-ft. condo it’s part of had $5oK knocked off its initial asking price earlier this week in its relisting by the same agent after a 6-month previous listing expired. The million-dollar view (which curiously is not pictured in the listing) is now priced at $1.15 million — plus a not-insignificant monthly maintenance fee of $2,694.

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Looking North and South
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Apartments
10/18/13 10:00am

The 25-Story Apartment Tower Hines Plans To Build in the Museum District

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Highrises, Museum District, Parks, Proposed Developments, Retail
13 Comments

Here’s a rendering of that 25-story residential highrise Hines says it plans to start building in the Museum District in July. Designed by Munoz + Albin, the 259-unit, 301,000-sq.-ft. apartment building and parking garage will stand next to the Asia Society Texas Center on most of the block bound by Caroline, Oakdale, Southmore, and San Jacinto.

What’s missing from this rendering is that historic home on the corner of Caroline and Southmore whose owners chose not to sell. It appears that the property immediately west of the holdouts’ and next to the light rail line will become a 10,000-sq.-ft. “public-access park,” reports the Houston Business Journal: “In addition, there is potential for small retail space adjacent to the park, such as a café or light food services.”

Rendering: Hines

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Comments
10/10/13 2:30pm

Comment of the Day: Your Inner Loop Neighbors

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Highrises, Homebuying, Quicklink, Renting
39 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOUR INNER LOOP NEIGHBORS “Who wants to buy a house in the innermost area of Houston when you never know what horrible thing is gonna sprout 25 stories in the sky butted up next to your charming house and garden you spent so much time on? Renting is the only quick easy escape. Of course then your landlord sells the vintage apt bldg, gives tenants notice and the new owners tear it down. I feel sorry for my old neighbors, they’re about to have a colossal monstrosity next to them, after they put up with the banging and the big trucks and the port-a-potty that sits in the yard for 6 months. [Bethsheba, commenting on The First Look at That 25-Story Residential Highrise Hines Might Build in the Museum District] Illustration: Lulu

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Apartments
10/09/13 4:05pm

The First Look at That 25-Story Residential Highrise Hines Might Build in the Museum District

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Highrises, Museum Park, Proposed Developments
42 Comments

Here are a pair of early drawings and the site plan for that apartment tower Hines has said it’s considering putting up across the street from the Asia Society Texas Center in the Museum District. Previous reports and rumors pegged the building at 20 or 22 stories, but these elevations appear to show a 25-story structure, with 19 floors of apartments perched atop a 6-level parking garage. This drawing shows the north façade. The block Hines has in mind is bound by Caroline, Oakdale, Southmore, and San Jacinto, where the light rail runs. But it appears that the building won’t take up that whole block: The site plan shows that the tower has been drawn around that home on the corner of Southmore and Caroline, whose owners have been rumored to have refused to sell.

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Apartments
09/30/13 10:05am

Lawsuit To Stop Ashby Highrise Going To Trial This Fall

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Boulevard Oaks, Highrises, Lawsuits, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments, Southampton
57 Comments

Last week, a judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit filed by folks in Boulevard Oaks back in May against Buckhead Investment Partners to stop the construction of 1717 Bissonnet (a.k.a. the Ashby Highrise), setting up a jury trial this November. In the suit, you’ll remember, neighbors cite concerns about traffic and privacy and also allege that the proposed 21-story residential tower would deprive their lawns and gardens of shade and rain. Right now, of course, the site — cleared once and for all of the Maryland Manor apartments — is itself a kind of garden, with grass and weeds sprouting at the feet of a painted-over fence.

In a statement sent to Swamplot, Buckhead explains its side of the story:

The claims contained in the Petition are without merit and are not supported by Texas law. This lawsuit is a serious threat to urban growth and economic prosperity throughout the State of Texas. If successful, the resulting lack of predictability and uncertainty in the law would invite a flood of similarly styled litigation aimed at stopping projects subjectively deemed as inappropriate or undesirable by any individual or like-minded group of would-be plaintiffs. There would be an immediate and economically debilitating statewide chilling effect on the development of new real estate projects due to the new precedent that any lawful, entitled and fully permitted project might be enjoined using these same sorts of baseless claims.

Image: Buckhead Investment Partners

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Apartments
09/12/13 4:45pm

A Few New Views of the 33-Story Apartment Building Hines Wants To Build in Market Square

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Downtown, Highrises, Historic Districts, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Retail
32 Comments

It appears that Hines and Ziegler Cooper have changed their plans a bit for that 33-story mixed-use tower to go catty-corner from Market Square Park. The new drawing at the top was submitted earlier today to the Historical Commission; the drawing at the bottom, you’ll remember, was the original.

Additionally, the application for a Certificate of Appropriateness to build here in the historic Main Street Market Square District also includes 2 full elevations of the building — described as a 25-story, 289-unit apartment tower perched atop an 8-story podium, with 7 levels of parking and ground-floor retail:

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