The north wall has been breached — windows have been carved into the facade of the Houston Chronicle’s freeway-front structure at the corner of the West Loop and 59 (where most of the paper’s staff will relocate early next year.) The multi-building campus under renovation at 4747 Southwest Freeway was bought from the Houston Post in 1995 after the competing newspaper folded; the Chronicle’s Texas Ave. space was bought by developer Hines in October.
The main building was powerwashed back to a gleaming beige over the summer — to brighten things up further, sections of the 1960s raw concrete Brutalist facade are currently being whitewashed as well, in line with exterior renderings released earlier this year by Gensler:
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The 7-building complex adds up to 440,000 sq.ft. of space:
Renderings of the interior indicate that the paper’s print and typographic design choices may carry through off the page and into the office decor:
Off-grid benches and light fixtures in a communal lobby gently echo the angles of the pile of jumbled papers depicted on the back wall:
But everything straightens out in the workspaces:
Images: Swamplot inbox (photo); Gensler [renderings]
While I appreciate Brutalism (somewhat) it is just too austere a look in such a highly visible location in a progressive cityscape. I congratulate The Chronicle on their new look …
This is not one of gensler’s better works. The exterior changes are especially insipid.
The windows mess with the scale. They make it look smaller than it used to. Not a fan.
As someone whose daily commute passes it by, I am very grateful that this building is being restored. Just the power washing has vastly improved it. And the windows definitely minimize its “penitentiary” look.
Sorry y’all have to work in such an ugly building. It is funny that the once proud, but quickly failing, Chronicle, will take over the ‘campus’ of the long simmering failure once known as the Post.
I believe that’s quite a bit more space than 44,000 sqft, no?
Maybe it’s a typo – 440,000?
Good catch, Arejay — fixed now!
@XL: what goes around comes around… Hearst Corp and the Chronicle did all they could to hasten the demise of the Post and usher Houston into the prestigious fraternity of one-newspaper towns.
Death spiral…