Proposed Developments

Shipping Container

Here’s a building method that seems well-suited for Houston: It’s fast, it’s temporary, and it involves both shipping containers and fine art. Remember the demolition permit for the site on 11th Street in the Heights we mentioned a few days back? By Friday, it’ll have a completed building on it, according to ‘stina, who wrote in her LiveJournal Wednesday:

Today, the shipping containers will be delivered and installed to the new site of the 1400 square foot gallery, and you can see for yourself what this form of construction looks like. They started this morning with merely a few spread footings and grade beams and they’ll finish this evening with all the containers set and a good portion (if not all) of the roof in place.

It’s the new Apama Mackey Gallery, pieced together out of three shipping containers by Numen Development. The gallery will occupy the site for a few years, until the landowner is ready for a more permanent development in that location. Then Mackey will be able to move the gallery to a new lot she hopes to find in the meantime.

Some of the project’s green features, according to ‘stina’s report:

From conception of the idea in March, it has been three short months to a nearly final product!

The Mackey Gallery is built to be moved and reassembled with less than 5% waste.

Custom panelized roof and floor system utilizing Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs are extremely energy efficient and virtually eliminate the need for traditional framing while dramatically reducing waste and build time.)

Clerestory panels and office windows made from Polygal. (An insulated polycarbonate that is more energy efficient than glass, yet less expensive and more secure.)

The job site for the Gallery will need NO dumpsters because the building process has so little waste.

Even the parking lot will be made of Permeable Paving squares which are green, and reusable.

Assembly [Texaslawchick, via Offthekuff]
Apama Mackey Gallery
Numen Development
Daily Demolition Report: Coming Down from the Heights [Swamplot]

Photo: Flickr user Ross Dunn

77008, Demolitions, Development Strategies, Galleries, Green Design, Green Development, Houston Heights, Shipping-Containers

New Construction

06/04/07 1:04pm

The Best Thing About Those Southampton Oaks

Proposed Developments, Southampton

Sure, the canopy of coastal live oak trees along Sunset Boulevard north of Rice is purty and all, but what’s really great about it is that it’s going to block views of a new six-story medical tower going up in Southampton. Well, okay, the fact that car windshields don’t curve all the way up over our heads—that helps too. Just don’t look up while you drive by, okay?

Now if Southampton residents would just shut up about the new Medical Clinic of Houston building long enough to watch this drive-by video produced by the new building’s nice architects—showing the still-leafy drive along tree-lined Sunset Boulevard, they’ll see how silly their complaints are.

After the jump, un-foliated views of the new tower, plus the seven-level parking garage that’s going to face Rice Boulevard.

77005, Medical Clinics, Proposed Developments, Rice-University, Southampton, Trees

Apartments

05/21/07 9:57am

West Ave: Shiny, Happy People Holding Shopping Bags

Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, River Oaks, Upper Kirby

View Down West Ave

The teaser website for the apartments-and-retail complex slated for that large, recently scraped site at the southwest corner of Kirby and Westheimer is up! What will you find there? For starters, a trance soundtrack you’ll have a tough time figuring out how to turn off, plus slick rendered views and a whizzy video of a dark and urban-looking streetscape where pedestrians wield shopping bags and hover precariously on balconies.

This is the former site of the River Oaks Tennis Center. The development is named West Ave, and to prove it they’re putting in a new street by the same name just west of Kirby, extending from Kipling to Westheimer. Of course the big news is the two floors of retail space facing Kirby, West Avenue, and Westheimer. On top of that: five stories of apartments, managed by Gables Residential. The parking garage is tucked in back.

After the jump: The plan and more images.

77098, Apartments, Mixed Use, New Construction, New-Streets, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping, Upper Kirby, West Ave

Condos

05/15/07 10:21am

Stanford Lofts: Luxury Boxes at Midfield

Downtown, Lofts, Proposed Developments

The Stanford Lofts

Note: See below for an update.

The new stadium for the Houston Dynamo soccer team will likely be built downtown, on some surface parking lots across the highway from Minute Maid park. Negotiations between the city and the team focusing on that site are set to take place very soon. That’s big news for residents of the Stanford Lofts, until now a lonely building set a few blocks away from downtown’s hubbub. Miya Shay explains:

This is good news for sports fans, bad news for people who paid a premium for the Stanford Lofts. When those guys bought the high priced condos, they were told the parking lot in front of the lofts will NEVER be built on. Oh well, such is progress. Now, a portion of the parking lot will be used for the Dynamo stadium. No more unobstructed views of downtown!

Well, just wait until the new stadium plans are unveiled, okay? Maybe there’ll be a nice gap in the stands right at midfield, and the folks looking out their windows from the Stanford Lofts will have great views of all the games, for free. No lines at the restrooms, either.

After the jump, some unobstructed views.

77003, Condos, Dynamo Stadium, Lofts, Minute Maid Park, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Stanford-Lofts

Apartments

05/14/07 9:49am

The Instant Med Center Highrise

Highrises, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments

The great southern Med Center land grab continues: Moody National Companies has bought a one-and-a-quarter acre site at the corner of Woodbury and Cambridge—about a quarter-mile southwest of the Spires. What for? How about . . . a new 200-unit apartment tower? Globe St. reports:

The fact the parcel is situated within 100 feet of the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Baylor College of Medicine’s proposed 2.7 million sf [new campus] is underwriting the project’s potential as are the proposed rents. “We’ve projected rents at around $1.65 per sf, with an average unit measuring somewhere around 950 sf,” Moody tells GlobeSt.com. “We want to offer a lot of variety from smaller studio units to larger luxury units.” He adds that Moody will manage and lease the tower.

No architect yet. No general contractor. Early-2009 opening.

Moody National Will Build $35M, 200-Unit Tower [Globe St.]
Corner of Woodbury and Cambridge [Google Maps]

77030, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Devonshire, Highrises, Proposed Developments, Texas Medical Center

Condos

05/10/07 11:52am

Developing the Houston Highlands

Highrises, Proposed Developments

Highland Tower

For a flat, flood-prone, and low-lying town, Houston sure has given itself a lot of highfalutin placenames. Latest exhibit: Highland Tower, a luxury resort-style building Pelican Builders is planning to tuck between the Target on San Felipe and the Highland Village shopping center (oh, that’s where they got the name) on Westheimer. The sales center isn’t quite open yet, but the website is.

The site says it’ll be fifteen stories, with 99 residences. It was designed by Ziegler Cooper Architects, who also did the Briarglen next door: brick, with slick metal panels on the de rigueur semi-curved front, which’ll face west. Maybe they’re hoping that’ll give a blinding reflection to highrise Galleria workers in the late afternoon.

It’d be a good bet the Highlands name is also meant to refer to the green (and also blue, if they chlorinate the pool) roof on the parking garage. It’s the highrise’s fifth-floor Terrace level, which will feature

an infinity edge pool with Galleria area views

a covered outdoor pool-side pavilion

tranquil green space with fountains and paved courtyards

state of the art fitness center overlooking pool

dining room with catering kitchen

private party lounge for entertaining friends and family

private massage therapy room

After the jump, views of the Highland Tower’s never-gonna-flood party deck.