Institutional Buildings

Featured Posts
11/27/17 1:00pm

Upstairs in the New Pharmacy Building Where UH Will Be Birthing Its New Medical School

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Institutional Buildings, University of Houston
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Where’s the University of Houston going to put its new College of Medicine? In the top 2 floors of this new structure behind the campus Rec Center, pictured here as construction completed this summer: the new Health and Biomedical Sciences Building 2. The College of Pharmacy is expected to complete its move into lower floors of the building by the end of this year. The adjacent tower (shown in the upper right of the photo below) is the 4-year-old Health and Biomedical Sciences Building (soon to be known as HBSB1), which, together with the older but also-attached Armistead Bldg. at the corner of Calhoun and Wheeler, houses the school’s College of Optometry.

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Campus Med Center
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East End
11/21/17 3:30pm

‘The Rebirth of Our Nationality’ Now Rebirthing on Canal St.

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Institutional Buildings, Public Art, Renovations
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Leo Tanguma‘s 240-ft.-long, 70-character 1973 mural slowly peeling from the southern facade of the former Continental Can Company warehouse in the East End (pictured above in 2013) was whitewashed over the summer. Mario Enrique Figueroa Jr. — better known to Houstonians as Gonzo247 — is now hard at work on the Chicano-art landmark’s replacement: creating with a small crew a mural of the same name, size, location, characters, and intention. These recent photos show the progress so far:

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Gonzo, Not Forgotten
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Bayous and Waterways
09/14/17 1:30pm

Ronald McDonald House Doubles Down on the South Bank of Brays Bayou

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Flooding, Institutional Buildings, New Construction
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Construction began in June, but the new administration of Houston’s Ronald McDonald House chose this past Tuesday — 2 and a half weeks after water spilling over the banks of adjacent Brays Bayou made Holcombe Ave. in front of the property difficult to pass — to hold an official groundbreaking ceremony for its new 3-phase expansion and renovation project. The facility at 1907 Holcombe Blvd., which sits across the Texas Medical Center’s official southern border between Holcombe and the bayou just west of Cambridge St., serves as a temporary home for families with children receiving treatment for serious illnesses.

Now going up: a new 2-story bedroom wing directly to the west of the main building. A complete renovation of the 50-bedroom existing building — dubbed Holcombe House — will follow. The photo immediately above, taken from the third floor of that building, shows the construction site as it looked earlier this week.

The official rendering below is still being used to raise the $22.5 million needed for the project; it shows the new bedroom wing on the left and the existing building on the right:

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Bedrooms Above
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Featured Posts
03/06/17 5:15pm

Katy Asian Town, Super H Mart Planned Alongside UH’s Grand Pkwy. Mall Ringroad Campus

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Institutional Buildings, Katy, Land Development, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Retail
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Site Plan of Katy Asian Town, 23119 Colonial Pkwy., Houston, 77449

The long-vacant lot above, near the northeast corner of I-10 and the Grand Parkway, is now being cleared and flattened to make room for the Houston area’s third Super H Mart, according to leasing materials a larger retail development being marketed as Katy Asian Town. Plans for the 16-acre site look to including a pair of smaller strip-style buildings and 2 pad sites, in addition to a long string of retail spots flanking the grocery store:

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Latest Grand Plans
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Featured Posts
06/15/15 11:15am

Behold the Revived Brutal Beauty of the New Freeway-Side Houston Chronicle Headquarters

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Galleria, Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Renovations
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Former Houston Post Building, Future Houston Chronicle Headquarters, 4747 Southwest Fwy., Houston

“It looks amazingly shiny without the 50 years of grime,” notes the reader who late last week snapped these photos of the former Houston Post building at 4747 Southwest Fwy., tucked into the lifted right armpit of the I-69-610 intersection. The brutalist main building of the 7-building campus, designed in 1970 by Astrodome architects Wilson, Morris, Crain, and Anderson, is being powerwashed — with a significant portion of the work complete just in time for this week’s heavy rains.

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Powerwashed!
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East Downtown
05/14/15 2:15pm

SEARCH Homeless Services Will Be Moving from Midtown to This New Building in East Downtown

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Institutional Buildings, New Construction, Proposed Developments
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Rendering of Proposed New Employment Services and Care Headquarters for Search Homeless Services, 2015 Congress Ave., East Downtown

Here’s a rendering of the new employment services and care center Midtown-based nonprofit SEARCH Homeless Services is just about ready to start building on a 10,000-sq.-ft. vacant lot at the northwest corner of Congress and St. Emanuel. The site is one block east of the Hwy. 59 overpass, at 2015 Congress Ave. Arch-Con Construction will begin construction on the design by Studio Red Architects after a groundbreaking ceremony next Monday. The nonprofit plans to leave its current HQ in the fifties Mod building at 2505 Fannin St. in Midtown for this new East Downtown perch. In addition to offices, the smaller, 27,105-sq.-ft. facility will include a chapel, training rooms, workspaces, and a terrace.

Rendering: Studio Red Architects

Congress & St. Emanuel
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Featured Posts
05/08/15 11:00am

Replacement for Houston’s Shuttering Downtown Post Office Is Actually Somewhat Close to Downtown

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Institutional Buildings, Midtown
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Sam Houston Station, 1500 Hadley St., Midtown, Houston

Barbara Jordan Post Office, 401 Franklin St., Downtown HoustonOne advantage of tearing down the Pierce Elevated: Doing so would bolster the argument that the station that’s about to take over as Houston’s central post office — after the Barbara Jordan Post Office closes later this month — should be considered a part of Downtown. For now, though, Sam Houston Station (pictured at top) is pretty clearly in Midtown, at the corner of Hadley and LaBranch streets, across the street from the former VA building that now houses the La Branch Child Development Center. The address is 1500 Hadley St., and the Zip Code is still 77002, though USPS officials for some reason have confusingly labeled it 77005 in several recent notices. 77001 boxholders exiled from their longtime home at 401 Franklin St. Downtown (pictured directly above) took up residence here at the beginning of the month:

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1500 Hadley St.
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Downtown
05/06/15 4:17pm

Downtown Barbara Jordan Post Office on Franklin St. Will Close Forever on May 15th

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Institutional Buildings, Openings and Closings
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Barbara Jordan Post Office, 401 Franklin St., Downtown Houston

The U.S. Postal Service plans to end all retail operations at its flagship Downtown Houston post office next Friday, May 15th. And that’ll be it for the Barbara Jordan Post Office in the 5-story 1962 building with concrete fins at 401 Franklin St. All P.O. box and caller services at that location have already ended; they stopped on May 1st. And the post office boxes themselves have been gently extricated as well, leaving this scene inside:

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Get Your Stamps There While You Still Can
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Attractions
01/23/15 1:00pm

End Zone Seats at Rice Stadium To Be Replaced with New Student Weightlifting Observation Attraction

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Institutional Buildings, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Rice University, Uncategorized
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Proposed Brian Patterson Sports Performance Clinic, Rice Stadium, Rice University

It’s been notoriously difficult to fill Rice Stadium — ever since those darn Houston Oilers came to town. Even President Kennedy couldn’t do it when he came by in 1962 to introduce a little mission to the moon he had cooked up. About 8 years ago, giant logo-bearing tarps were planted over the seating areas in both end zones, reducing the capacity (though not permanently) from 70,000 to 47,000.

But the latest planned changes appear to be following a 2-fold strategy to help fill the place: First, Rice University’s new $31.5 million Brian Patterson Sports Performance Center will knock out the stadium’s entire northern end zone — including more than 11,000 seats. Even better, the mostly brick building will have a giant glass wall on the side facing the playing field, which will offer spectators tired of watching the game shaded views into 2 levels of weight rooms. If they can get the scheduling right, with gridiron and pumping-iron action running simultaneously, fans will have the opportunity to enjoy 2 attractions at once. Likewise, flexing athletes will have a pretty good view of the field — and fans, if they’re out there — while they’re working their muscles.

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Watch Them Pump and Watch
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Featured Posts
01/12/15 3:00pm

The Future of Midtown Art and Theater Productions Is Now Framed in Steel

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Institutional Buildings, Midtown, New Construction
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Construction of Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston, 3400 Main St., Midtown, Houston

Here’s a pic showing construction of the new midtown arts center, taken from the corner of Holman and Main St. last week. And the folks behind MATCH are happy to walk you through the steel-outlined spaces of the building-in-progress, designed by Lake Flato and Houston’s Studio Red: “The breezeway is on your left; the café is at your feet and the backstage corridor for Theatre A stretches into the distance on your right where you can see the plumbing stub outs for the laundry and the Theatre A dressing rooms. The high steel in the foreground at 12 o’clock is Theater A and the high steel off to the left at 10 o’clock is Theatre D. The dirt area to your left is the future home of the South building where the offices, gallery and rehearsal rooms will be.”

Construction of the facility at 3400 Main St. is expected to be complete by fall, with or without the last $2+ million of the $25 million budget the organization still needs to raise.

Photo: MATCH

MATCH Going Up
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Apartments
12/22/14 2:00pm

The Soggy Demise of Richmont Square Apartments’ Back Third

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Demolitions, Institutional Buildings, Montrose, Museums
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richmont-demo1

Behold Friday’s sodden wreckage of the northernmost 33 percent of the Richmont Square apartment complex at 1400 Richmond, which is currently being erased to make way for the Menil’s upcoming drawing institute.

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Menil On The Move
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Featured Posts
07/01/14 11:45am

The Strange Thing Last Month’s Fannin St. Collision Did to the Front of the Search Homeless Services Headquarters Building

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Hazards, Institutional Buildings, Midtown
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Damage to Search Homeless Services Building, 2505 Fannin St., Midtown, Houston

Damage to Search Homeless Services Building, 2505 Fannin St., Midtown, HoustonIt’s the kind of façade mangling that could only happen to a fifties-mod office building: A reader sends pics showing damage to the front of the 1959-vintage Search Homeless Services headquarters at 2505 Fannin St. just north of McGowen in Midtown in the aftermath of last month’s vehicle-meets-building drive-up accident. The collision twisted one of the embedded steel columns along the sidewalk into a nonprofit-organization-logo-worthy S shape. Where’d the extra steel come from to allow that to happen? Look up, and you’ll see:

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A Unique Fifties Fender Bender
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Featured Posts
05/28/14 11:30am

A.D. Players Says It’s Ready To Build Its Giant Galleria Theater Complex, for Reals This Time

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Galleria, Institutional Buildings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
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A.D. PLAYERS SAYS IT’S READY TO BUILD ITS GIANT GALLERIA THEATER COMPLEX, FOR REALS THIS TIME Proposed A.D. Players Theater, Westheimer Rd. at Westheimer Way, Galleria, HoustonA mere decade after the installation of the first “coming soon” sign on the organization’s (then) new never-built-on 4-acre lot on Westheimer Rd. just west of Yorktown, A.D. Players appears ready to begin building the sparkling new theater it’s been promising — and fundraising for — all these years. The company, which produces plays “rooted in Christian values,” has announced it will break ground on the project — sometime this summer. The company hasn’t specified the budget for the building, or how much it’s raised in its 10-year capital campaign, but it is touting a recent $2 million gift from the Houston Texans owner’s Robert and Janice McNair Foundation. The facility will include a 450-seat mainstage, a 300-seat children’s theater, and a 150-seat black box theater. It’ll sit between the 5444 Westheimer office building and CVS. [Houston Business Journal] Rendering: A.D. Players

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Demolitions
04/17/14 5:00pm

Rice U. to Menil, Tin House Fans: Here’s That Art Barn We’ve Been Carefully Dismantling for You

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Institutional Buildings, Rice University
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Demolition of Former Rice Museum, Martell Building, Rice University, Houston

A funny thing happened on the way to carefully disassembling the former Menil Museum on the campus of Rice University so that it could be rebuilt somewhere in the Fourth Ward with the help of a Brown Foundation grant: After workers spent a week or so carefully removing the corrugated galvanized but weathered panels on the building, an excavator began summarily demolishing the rest yesterday. Or almost the rest — work had to be stopped after crews hit a power line, Molly Glentzer at the Chronicle reports.

So by midday today the scene near Rice University’s University Dr. entrance looked something like this:

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Oops, Did Somebody Want This?
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Featured Posts
03/12/14 1:30pm

Menil Collection Predecessor on Rice Campus Is Headed for the Fourth Ward

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Houston History, Institutional Buildings, Rice University
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Martel Building, Former Rice Museum, Rice University, Houston

The Brown Foundation has agreed to provide funds for Rice University to disassemble the corrugated campus building once known as the Rice Museum and reassemble it on a site in the Fourth Ward, the school’s student newspaper reports. A story posted last night by the Rice Thresher‘s Jieya Wen doesn’t precisely identify the intended new location of the building, but art professor and photographer Geoff Winningham tells her that plans are being developed to turn the metal-sided structure into a public art center on its new site: “The building was designed so that it can be disassembled and moved in parts,” he tells Wen. “The university has agreed to allow [the] building to stand for a couple more weeks [in order] to come up with the actual plan for moving the building.”

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A More Public Art Center
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