Take a gander at the 0ld Schlumberger building at the corner of Leeland St. and Delano. New photos of the 25,000-sq.-ft. building show a structure now slightly less windowless than back in 2013, when mobile app developer ChaiOne announced an intended Spring 2014 move to the top floor. A reader in the area reports that work such as drywall and A/C installation appeared to be happening this past summer, but seemingly stopped again in July, with little activity visible on the property since.
Plans for ChaiOne’s renovation, designed by Austin firm Bercy Chen Studio, incorporated ground-floor retail beneath 2 floors of offices:
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The HBJ reported in 2013 that owner and CEO Gaurav Khandelwal decided to purchase the $3-million building for the company (rather than renting office space) in order to give employees the freedom to tinker with the technological infrastructure, and that he hoped to foster a Google-or-Facebook-like vibe with open-concept office space:
A rooftop pavilion was also part of the plans:
A shot of the current state of the building, taken from Delano St.:
ChaiOne’s Houston operation is currently headquartered in a Galleria-area office highrise on the West Loop.
- Previously on Swamplot: A New Use for an Old East End Building
Images: Swamplot inbox (photos), Bercy Chen Studio (renderings)
I rendered that building fully restored for a group of private investors back in 2012. They had plans for turning it into a high end residential loft/apt building with some really cool phase 2 amenities in the back/courtyard. It’s a gorgeous building inside and out… Or at least was at one point. Interestingly I wasn’t aware of the proposal the year after in 2013 after the deal I was involved in fell through after several unsuccessful rounds of negotiations with the owner. Nonetheless here’s some of the renderings of it fully restored from 2012: http://wanderplay.com/rusteberg/?p=2336
Nice job on the render Tom. Hopefully it does get saved by someone as that area is getting remade and having a few original restored remnants will add an accent of class and character to it.
I wonder if the Chai people ran into unexpected complications with the building.