The Houston and Southeast Texas chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association will be moving its headquarters from Holcombe Blvd. to Southeast Houston. Gensler redrew the former Plus4 Credit Union on the Loop feeder near Long and Griggs to do away with the 6-teller drive-thru and include instead a garden, cafe, office space, and entrance pavilion on the 2.2-acre property. The 2-story, 16,078-sq.-ft. bank building dates to 1979. Construction is scheduled to begin this Wednesday.
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The landscape pavilion will open up to a garden area with an adjacent cafe:
Elsewhere, space will be converted into offices . . .
. . . education rooms
. . . and multipurpose spaces:
- Houston and Southeast Texas Chapter [Alzheimer’s Association]
Renderings: Gensler Architects
Is this what we have to look forward to for those who will care for us in our dotage?
Compare this to the renderings for downtown buildings – here the building is populated by the Evil Spirits from Ghost and is surrounded by what appear to be a mid ’80’s LTD, an even older Oldsmobile, and a Rambler; downtown you get Kim Kardashian and other people who actually have skin tones and clothing traipsing around amid shiny new Mercedes and Lexi.
I’m happy to see something relatively nice looking being built at a spot that has a serious case of the uglies.
And the rendering is probably the low-budget type for a non-sexy project. Being a converted bank on the feeder of the South Loop doesn’t require a lot of subliminal pop to be rendered. Although it could be seen as insensitive using the ghost figures as those could be interpreted as Alheizmer’s patients wandering around who are mere shadows of their former selves. And yeah the software might be from the 80s. The cars do look like LTDs, or maybe ’89 Crown Vics.
Gensler is certainly the architects de jour for these generic “remodelings”. Why didn’t they stay on Holcombe where I’m assuming they were close to the Medical Center.
Would those three legged chairs with no arms work for someone of advanced age?
@ Creole: The Asscn. probably moved because the lease payments were getting too high.And the Asscn. can get MORE square footage for what it was paying on Holcombe.Being in close proximity to the TMC (Texas Medical Center) causes properties to have HIGHER rent/lease/loan payments!!!
What were we talking about?
Low budget schmow cludget. There is no reason a cheap rendering has to look cheap, just like there’s no reason a cheap building has to look cheap. This -should- be what you hire an architect for (well, this and making sure water doesn’t come in during a storm).
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I also have to wonder about the choice of renderings. Do we really need to see what is apparently a run-of-the-mill conference room and an even more run-of-the-mill open office space? We already know what those are going to look like. If it had been me doing the renderings, I’d have put more effort into the exteriors and lobby shots, and left the run-of-the-mill spaces out.