Shhhh!!! The curtain hasn’t gone up yet on the new Center for Dance the Houston Ballet is constructing at 601 Preston St., between Louisiana and Smith, at the northern end of Downtown. There have been no big public announcements about the project, no local news stories, nada. But it looks like preliminary construction work on the building has already begun.

Yes, the new Ballet building is the mystery construction project Abc13 reporter Miya Shay posted in her Twitter feed yesterday, prompting an impromptu guessing game here. After some smart guesses from Swamplot readers and Tweeters, Shay revealed the answer this morning. In a later tweet, she gave a few more details: that fundraising for the building had reached more than 50 percent of the organization’s goal and that the building’s skybridge — which would connect it directly to the Wortham Center, so performers’ ballet shoes wouldn’t have to touch the street — was “def[initely] in.”

Shay also posted a second photo showing work going on at the construction site:

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Swamplot featured renderings of the building — designed by the Houston office of Gensler — late last year. The building will have 6 levels and contain 115,000 sq. ft. of space. A single below-grade level will contain 30,000 sq. ft. of parking. Inside: 9 ballet practice studios, production and wardrobe space, administrative offices, and a dormitory for dancers.

• Miya Shay’s Construction Guessing Game: What’s Going Up Here? [Swamplot]
• Dance, Building, Dance: Houston Ballet Makes a Downtown Debut [Swamplot]
• New Houston Ballet Building: Maybe Not [Swamplot]

Renderings: Gensler, via e-Architect. Photo: Miya Shay