Office Buildings

Institutional Buildings, Magnolia Grove, Office Buildings, Openings and Closings, Quicklink

6 Comments

INDIANS ON SCOTLAND After a ceremony yesterday, this 1984 office building across from the Cleveland Park at 4300 Scotland St. in Magnolia Grove is the new official home of the Consulate General of India. The Indian government bought the building in August. Next door: the Gables Memorial Hills apartments. [Voice of Asia] Photo: LoopNet

77007, Buying and Selling, Institutional Buildings, Magnolia Grove, Office Buildings, Openings and Closings

11/15/11 10:18am

Med Center Prudential Tower Skeleton Will Survive Through End of Year

Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Houston History, Medical Buildings, Office Buildings, Texas Medical Center, Uncategorized

7 Comments

The folks charged with blowing up old buildings at UT’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have set a January 8th date for the big dynamite surgical event meant to knock down what’s left of the institution’s Houston Main Building. The hulking 18-story tower at 1100 Holcombe Blvd. was built in 1952 for Prudential Life Insurance as part of Houston’s first-ever suburban office campus, designed by architect Kenneth Franzheim. The Med Center institution bought the building in 1975, but began the long demo process early this year.

77030, Demolitions, Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Houston History, Implosions, Medical Buildings, Office Buildings, Texas Medical Center

Construction Materials

11/14/11 10:46am

Stone Panel Leaps to Montrose Blvd. Sidewalk from Former Skybar Balcony

Hazards, Montrose, Office Buildings, Public Safety

36 Comments

A stone panel from the 9th floor of the vacant 10-story 3400 Montrose office building crashed to the sidewalk over the weekend, according to a reader report. “Was at Starbucks [Saturday] morning and all was good. An hour later things had fallen apart,” Swamplot’s informant writes. One of the submitted photos shows a policeman looking up at the jumping-off point: a now blank dark space where a panel had been mounted, in the top left corner of the building’s Montrose Blvd. facade.

77006, Construction Materials, Hazards, Montrose, Office Buildings, Public Safety

Landscape

11/07/11 10:35am

Urban Escape: An ExxonMobil Video Tour and Explanation for Its Enormous New Houston Forest Campus

Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Spring, Springwoods Village

32 Comments

Yes, ExxonMobil “values the environment.” That’s why the company is building this 385-acre pedestrian-friendly campus with an “urban vibe” — in the middle of the forest 20 miles north of Houston.

Previously on Swamplot: Welcome to the Land of ExxonMobil: A Tour of the Companyâ€™s New North Houston Campus, ExxonMobil Fesses Up to Its Employees About That New North Houston Campus Itâ€™s Been Building, ExxonMobilâ€™s Top Secret New Corporate Campus Now Hiding in Plain Sight on Google Maps, Aerial Views of ExxonMobilâ€™s New Sprawling, Top Secret Houston Headquarters, A First Look at the Plans for ExxonMobilâ€™s Humongous New Corporate Campus North of Houston, How Springwoods Village Will Earn Its Lunch Money, and other Secrets of the Great ExxonMobil Frontiers, Whoâ€™s Behind Springwoods Village, Anyway?, Is Springwoods Village the New Exxon Mobil Eco-City?, Spawn of the Grand Parkway: Huge New Woodlands-Like Development, Just South of The Woodlands

Video: ExxonMobil, via Loren Steffy

77389, ExxonMobil, Landscape, New Construction, Office Parks, Proposed Developments, Spring, Springwoods Village, Videos

Comments

11/03/11 11:02pm

Comment of the Day: Employee of the Month?

Fraud, Lawsuits, Oak Forest, Office Buildings, Parking, Quicklink

No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH? “In front of this building, to the right of the staircase, there used to be a sign that said ‘witch parking.’ Not sure why . . .” [Bill, commenting on The Feds Go After Houstonâ€™s Allied Home Mortgage]

77092, Comments, Fraud, Lawsuits, Oak-Forest, Office Buildings, Parking

Comments

10/25/11 10:41pm

Comment of the Day: Getting Serious, Now That Our Air Conditioned Defenses Have Been Breached

Critters, Hazards, Office Buildings, Quicklink

2 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GETTING SERIOUS, NOW THAT OUR AIR CONDITIONED DEFENSES HAVE BEEN BREACHED “A mosquito just bit me on the face. IN MY OFFICE ON THE 6TH FLOOR.” [Susan, commenting on Comment of the Day: Attack of the Giant Vampire Mosquitoes]

Comments, Critters, Hazards, Mosquitoes, Office Buildings

10/25/11 9:57am

Late to the Demolition Party on Eastside St.

Office Buildings, Upper Kirby

6 Comments

“I missed all of the fun,” complains the reader who sent in these photos of yesterday’s demolition extravaganza at 3210 and 3310 Eastside St. between Richmond and Alabama east of Greenway Plaza. “Not sure what the plans are, but apparently there was a ceremony to commemorate the event. The [above] photo shows an event tent with chairs in their abandoned parking lot. . . . It was essentially a large party tent & it looked as if several dozen chairs were being put away.” What was this place?

77098, Demolitions, Office Buildings, Upper Kirby

09/20/11 9:15am

M.D. Anderson Tower Will Go Out with a Bang

Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Houston History, Medical Buildings, Office Buildings, Texas Medical Center

12 Comments

The facilities steering committee at UT’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has decided to demolish what’s left of the institution’s Houston Main Building at 1100 Holcombe Blvd. with several blasts of dynamite — before the end of the year. The announcement in an online employee-only newsletter cited safety concerns for the decision: “Manual demolition with jackhammers and blow torches would expose our employees, our patients, the public and dozens of construction workers to noise, dust and vibration for months. Implosion reduces that exposure to a matter of minutes.”

The 18-story Med Center structure was known as the Prudential Building before M.D. Anderson purchased it from the insurance company in 1975. It was vacated last year, and demo work on the building began this past April. The newsletter announcement also recaps the institution’s explanation for knocking down the structure, which was designed by Houston architect Kenneth Franzheim in 1952 as part of Houston’s first suburban office park:

77030, Demolitions, Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Houston History, Implosions, Medical Buildings, Office Buildings, Texas Medical Center

Comments

09/19/11 11:16pm

Comment of the Day: Had Been Saving Them for Something

Demolitions, Northwest Houston, Office Buildings, Quicklink

1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HAD BEEN SAVING THEM FOR SOMETHING “These are the first two buildings that IAN+A designed for Compaq way back when â€“ and my first two high-rise buildings. Sad to see them go. I guess this means I can get rid of the drawings now.” [Tbarrow, commenting on HP Go Boom: Watch These Former Compaq Buildings Disappear in a Cloud of Dust]

77070, Comments, Demolitions, Northwest Houston, Office Buildings

09/19/11 11:13am

HP Go Boom: Watch These Former Compaq Buildings Disappear in a Cloud of Dust

Northwest Houston, Office Buildings

3 Comments

If 2 office buildings go down in a cloud of dust in what looks like a forest, will anybody see it? In Houston, certainly — and so many onlookers have been kind enough to upload their own demolition videos, too. So here you go: vids of this weekend’s Controlled Demolition implosion of 2 unloved former Hewlett Packard office buildings at the future Lone Star College University Park campus near Hwy. 249 and Louetta. A much longer video from Hewlett Packard here features details and interviews.

77070, College Campuses, Demolitions, Implosions, Northwest Houston, Office Buildings, Videos

Buying and Selling

09/13/11 1:49pm

Skanska Helping Houston Club to Early Exit

Downtown, Office Buildings, Quicklink

4 Comments

SKANSKA HELPING HOUSTON CLUB TO EARLY EXIT A year after Downtown’s Houston Club Building fell into foreclosure, the U.S. division of Swedish construction firm Skanksa has at last bought the 63-year-old building at 811 Rusk. But the new owner isnâ€™t saying yet whether it plans to tear down the 18-story property. A company representative tells Nancy Sarnoff, though, that it will be â€œvery difficultâ€ to update and repair the structure. In any case, Skanska is letting tenantsâ€™ leases expire, and is helping the Houston Club itself relocate to “another downtown buildingâ€ in February 2013, 2 years before its lease is up. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo : Silberman Properties

77002, Buying and Selling, Downtown, Office Buildings

Memorial City

09/07/11 4:52pm

Nexen Plan at Memorial City: Office Building Now, Strip Centers and More Later

New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments

1 Comment

A reader sends in a drawing showing MetroNational’s long term plans to develop the “Lifestyle Tract” at Memorial City — on I-10 west of Bunker Hill Rd. That new office building going up at 945 Gaylord is the 14-story tower the company is developing for Nexen Petroleum, which is moving its headquarters here from Plano. The Houston Business Journal reported the company would be leasing 250,000 sq. ft. from MetroNational — and that the building would be a mirror image of the Cemex tower to the west.

77024, Memorial City, New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments

Memorial City

09/02/11 1:47pm

The Cranes Come to Bunker Hill

New Construction, Office Buildings, Shopping Centers

19 Comments

What’s that looks-kinda-huge project going up on the southwest corner of I-10 and Bunker Hill Rd., just east of the Memorial City Mall? A reader writes in with some info, but wants to know more: “Anslow Bryant, the company responsible for the lotus-blossom-topped Memorial Hermann Tower, is handling the project. There’s a couple of cranes doing crane things and a temporary fence lining the spot already. In addition to spicing up that desolate parking lot, the project means the demise of the nearby Spec’s and the other four or so forgettable places that line that dilapidated strip center, too. Do y’all know anything? Tell me it’s something cool and not just an office building or a La Quinta.”

77024, Memorial City, New Construction, Office Buildings, Retail, Shopping Centers

Institutional Buildings

07/11/11 4:44pm

M.D. Anderson’s Big Step Over the Bayou

Medical Buildings, New Construction, Office Buildings, Texas Medical Center

4 Comments

Here’s the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s massive new 1MC (for “Mid Campus Building 1”) at 7007 Bertner Ave., just a short hop into the medical frontier south of Brays Bayou. 25 stories, 1.4 million sq. ft., $350 million. All to consolidate various leasing tenants from 8 sites around the Med Center, plus get some space for future expansion. Swamplot reader Stephen J. Alexander hopped from parking garage to parking garage to capture these views: