77002 | Swamplot

02/25/16 12:30pm

Confirmed: United Airlines Preparing for .7 Mile Flight to New 609 Main Tower Downtown

609 Main St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Update, 5pm: In an email sent to the Houston Business Journal, a spokesperson for the airline confirms that 609 Main will become Unitedâ€™s Houston headquarters. This story has been updated.

A source tells Swamplot that United Airlines is about to announce an upcoming flight to the new tower rising at 609 Main St. Employees were briefed this morning on plans to move into Hines’s 41-plus-7-more-story skyscraper going up on the former site of the 1931 Texas Tower. The source says that United’s operations at 1600 Smith and 600 Jefferson streets (formerly known as Continental Center I and II, in the days before the 2010 merger of the 2 air giants) will be consolidated into the new space.

United employees may get a little lift from the underfloor air system incorporated into the tower’s design. The Chicago-based company should also feel at home moving in with fellow northern exports Kirkland & Ellis; the law firm announced its tenancy in the building back in December.

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With The Wind Beneath Their Feet

77002, Airlines, Downtown, Leasing, Office Buildings, Office Space

Downtown

02/24/16 10:30am

Expectations Lowered Another Notch for Rising Hotel Alessandra’s Floor Count

by Christine Gerbode

9 Comments

Construction of Hotel Alessandra, Fannin St. at Dallas St., GreenStreet, Houston, 77002

Here’s the latest glamour shot of Hotel Alessandra, looking sharp at the northern edge of the GreenStreet complex (and being photobombed by the former Sakowitz building from across Dallas St.). The hotel — initially planned around a 25-story question mark before it was reigned in to a less introspective 21-story design — was issued a set of floor-by-floor building permits at the end of January following its September foundation pour.Â Only 20 floors-worth of permits were issued, though, and Midway’s partner-in-highrise Valencia Group has updated its online description of the hotel’s specs to match the lower number since last spring.

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Growing at GreenStreet

77002, Downtown, Hotels, Houston Pavilions, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail

Downtown

02/22/16 4:30pm

Downtown Intersection Already Getting Jammed in Anticipation of Super Bowl Visitors

by Christine Gerbode

Proposed Developments, Public Art

2 Comments

Rendering of Color Jam at Main at McKinney streets, Downtown, Houston, 77002

Here’s an idea of what the corner of Main and McKinney streets may look like in a few more weeks, as the installation of Jessica Stockholder’s Color Jam Houston proceeds. The above rendering faces south across the north-er of the 2 intersections between the Main Street Square light-rail stops, with its existing semi-neutral stripes and swirls joined by some brighter colors. Stockholder’s installation, modeled after a previous painting of the town for Chicago in 2012, is one of the Downtown District’s temporary Art Blocks projects intended to brighten up the area for the year leading up to the 2017 Houston-hosted Super Bowl and NCAA championship. The Art Blocks initiative also includes the 60-ft-tall Trumpet Flower that will lurk in the alley between One City Center and its parking garage.

A reader tweeted a photo of some of the first blocks of pigment, evidently maneuvered into place late last week:

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Art Blocked at McKinney

77002, Art Installations, Downtown, Downtown District, Events, Main Street Square, Market Square, Parks, Public Art

TxDOT’s Plans for Freeway Expansion Around and Below the Newly Protected Cheek-Neal Coffee Building

by Christine Gerbode

28 Comments

A dotted line runs right along the inside edge of the Cheek-Neal Coffee Company’s former roasting plant at 2017 Preston St. at the corner with St. Emanuel St., which was declared a protected city landmark today after starts to the building’s redevelopment by new owners last year.Â The line marks the proposed right-of-way for TxDOT’s plans to reroute I-45 alongside 59 and send the Pierce Elevated out to pasture, as shown in update documents released in September. The 1917 building shows up as a beige box at the corner of Preston and St. Emanuel in the above capture from the project’s interactive online map system, and the seafoam green highlighting to the left indicates the newly planned frontage roads that would run to the west of it.

But the Cheek-Neal building itself actually doesn’t appear to be on the chopping block. The blue highlighting indicating the future path of freeway lanes skirt the western edge of the structure (though they appear to engulf the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen across Congress St. to the north). Moreover, a cross-section through the I-45-59 bundle specifically shows the building in place, with the frontage road to the east and the freeways tucked out of sight below ground level:

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Preservation on Preston

77002, Adaptive, Cheek-Neal Coffee Building, East Downtown, Freeways, Highway 59, Historic Preservation, I-10, I-45, Parks, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail

Art

02/01/16 5:00pm

Crowdsourcing the Giant Trumpet Flower That Will Bloom at Main Street Square

by Christine Gerbode

Downtown

1 Comment

Trumpet Flower Painting Event, Market Square, Downtown, Houston, 77002

Preston St. was closed down Saturday afternoon between Travis and Milam, as hundreds of people showed up to Market Square to paint the reclaimed strips of wood that will compose Patrick Renner’s upcoming Trumpet Flower installation.Â The sculpture is designed to loom 60 feet above the space between One City Centre and its parking garage downtown (off Main St. Square and Fannin, between Lamar and McKinney).

Renner, of far-more-horizontal Funnel Tunnel fame, is slated to install the towering cone by the end of March, as part of the Art Blocks project planned to jazz up Main Street Square leading up to the 2017 Superbowl.Â The tip of the structure will stretch down from the top of the garage and flare out into a furnished canopy shelter at street level.Â A tiny model of the installation was on display at a side table during the painting free-for-all:

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Sprouting Downtown

77002, Art Installations, Downtown, Downtown District, Events, Main Street Square, Market Square, Parks, Public Art

East Downtown

01/25/16 3:45pm

Coffee Coming Back to Long-Vacant Coffee Plant Next to East Downtown Soup Kitchen

by Christine Gerbode

22 Comments

Renovations at 2017 Preston St., East Downtown, Houston 77002

Greenway Coffee Co., the roasting operation behind Blacksmith’s coffee (in the former Westheimer home of Mary’s), appears to be involved in a coffee project intended for the ground floor of the 1917 Cheek-Neal Coffee Co. building. The former coffee plant at 2017 Preston St. (located across Congress Ave. from the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen and SEARCH Homeless Services’s under-construction employment center) received little use or maintenance following the 1946 departure of coffee manufacturing operations; the building is currently being renovated after sitting vacant for years across 59 from Minute Maid Park.

2017 Preston’s new owners mentioned plans to put a coffee shop on the ground floor of the structure to the Houston Chronicle in September — and on Friday, Greenway’s David Buehrer posted a photo of the renovation’s interior progress to Instagram:

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Preston St. Coffee Buzz

77002, Adaptive, Cheek-Neal Coffee Building, East Downtown, Historic Preservation, Restaurants, Retail

A Closeup of That Downtown Sci-Fi Christian Science Church the AIA Tried to Buy

by Christine Gerbode

3 Comments

First Church of Christ the Scientist, 1720 Main St., Downtown, Houston, TX 77002

Take in this nice long view of the gleaming spire atop the part-Modernist-part-Brutalist-part-Islamic-part-1960s-science-fiction sanctuary of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, which was listed on HAR and now seems to be circling in on a finalized deal.Â The church received a large number of offers on the property despite a short bid period, and the Houston AIA chapter’s hopes to buy the building as its new headquarters were dashed over the weekend.

Once the church changes hands, members of the congregation will move to any of the other CS branches in the Greater Houston area (which number at least 7). While the sale wraps up, a service is still being held on the first Sunday of each month in the turquoise glow of the inner sanctum:

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Selling a Space-Age Sanctuary

77002, AIA, Buildings for Sale, Churches, Modern Design

Downtown

01/20/16 4:00pm

Golden Spired 1960s Mod Church Awaits Sale Closure and Fate Downtown

by Christine Gerbode

7 Comments

First Church of Christ the Scientist, 1720 Main St., Downtown, Houston, TX 77002

Now pending: the sale of the First Church of Christ the Scientist at 1720 Main St., north of Jefferson St. The 1961 structure, designed by Texas architect Milton Foy Martin, was listed for $2.25 million; the listing caught the attention of the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects, who had hoped to buy the building and move into it.

The organization made an offer, and even got Mayor Annise Parker to write a letter to the Church’s congregation in early December — Parker’s letter asked the Church to consider selling the building to AIA for the sake of historical preservation, citing fears that “any other purchaser would tear the building down.”

AIA was apparently outbid, however, by a cash buyer asking for no due diligence period.Â The sale is currently listed as pending on HAR. More detailed photos of the inside and out below, including that golden spire and turquoise tile:

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It’s Blue Inside

77002, AIA, Buildings for Sale, Churches, Downtown, Modern Design

Downtown

01/20/16 10:15am

Ferris Wheel Makes Winter Migration from the Downtown Aquarium

by Christine Gerbode

3 Comments

Downtown Aquarium Ferris Wheel, 410 Bagby St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

As of rush hour yesterday, a reader tells Swamplot, the Downtown Aquarium’s Ferris wheel at 410 Bagby St. was missing something — namely, the whole wheel bit. Workers were observed dismantling the spokes earlier in the day at the freeway-side restaurant-tainment complex. According to the restaurant’s website, the wheel is out for winter maintenance and won’t be spinning again until March 1st.

From Memorial Dr. headed west under I-45, here’s an evening snapshot of the newly unemployed support posts:

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Bagby at Buffalo Bayou

77002, Aquariums, Downtown, Freeways, Maintenance, Restaurants, Theme-Parks

Adaptive Reuse

01/19/16 4:30pm

Buffalo Bayou Cleanup Extends to Camp Beneath the Louisiana St. Bridge

by Christine Gerbode

Bayous and Waterways, Downtown

18 Comments

The encampment under Louisiana St. (shown above) was dismantled earlier today; a reader sends both now-you-see-it and now-you-don’t shots. The camp was previously tucked above the south bank of Buffalo Bayou, about halfway between Sesquicentennial Park and Allen’s Landing.

The removal appears to have been carried out by workers for Houston First, responsible for maintenance of public venues such as Miller Outdoor Theater and the George R. Brown Convention Center, along with a list of downtown parks that includes Sesquicentennial and the Sabine Promenade. Houston First also works on marketing and branding for the venues (and more generally for “the Houston product”) in partnership with the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau.

Here’s what the spot looked like after today’s clear-out:

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Gone Downtown

77002, Adaptive Reuse, Bayous and Waterways, Bridges, Camping, Downtown, Houston First, Parks

Demolitions

01/19/16 9:45am

A Glimpse of the Hidden Pecan at 509 Louisiana St., Now That the Building is Out of the Way

by Christine Gerbode

Downtown, Quicklink

No Comments

A GLIMPSE OF THE HIDDEN PECAN AT 509 LOUISIANA ST., NOW THAT THE BUILDING IS OUT OF THE WAY Demolition of 509 Louisiana St., Downtown, Houston, 77002 While much of the 1906 structure that formerly stood at 509 Louisiana St. was still on site as of early afternoon yesterday, the pieces had mostly been rearranged. A couple of excavators can be seen picking them over in this shot sent in by a reader. The once-secret pecan tree is also hanging out in the open as it waits for the axeÂ — look for the branches peeking out around the corner of the Calpine Center parking garage entrance, on the left edge of the shot. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jack Miller via Swamplot inbox

77002, Demolitions, Downtown, Historical Buildings, Hotels, Houston History, Parking-Lots, Theater District

East Downtown

01/14/16 5:00pm

Start and Stop on Schlumberger’s Art Deco Former Headquarters in East Downtown

by Christine Gerbode

2 Comments

Former Schlumberger Building, 2720 Leeland st., East Downtown, Houston, 77002

2720-leeland-st-3

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.Â 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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Will They, Won’t They?

77002, Adaptive Reuse, East Downtown, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Retail

Downtown

01/13/16 4:58pm

A Quick Houston Ghost Story, Before 509 Louisiana St. Gives Up the Ghost

by John Nova Lomax

No Comments

509 Louisiana St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

517 Louisiana St. is down — the former haunt of the Longhorn Cafe (509 Louisiana, to the right of the hole in the above photo) was still standing as of 2 PM this afternoon, along with the pecan tree in its once-secretÂ courtyard. Both have permits lined up to follow 517 into the Great Beyond, to make room for surface parking on the block.

The hidden pecan tree is purported to harbor a ghost, rooted deep in some Republic of Texas history:

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Louisiana St. Demolitions

77002, Demolitions, Downtown, Ghosts, Historical Buildings, Hotels, Houston History, Legends, Parking-Lots, Restaurants, Retail, Theater District

Demolitions

01/12/16 3:45pm

Those 2 Century-Old Louisiana St. Buildings Being Demolished Now for Lancaster Hotel Parking

by John Nova Lomax

Downtown, Houston History, Houston Landmarks, Land Development, Parking, Theater District

8 Comments

Demolition of 517 Louisiana St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Time to bid adieu to 2 more of downtownâ€™s oldest buildings: readers sent both sky-high and excavator-side photos of yesterday’s teardown work at 517 Louisiana St., and 509 is permitted to follow). According to the buildingâ€™s owners, the next-door Lancaster Hotelâ€™s parking crunch is the reason the 2 1906 Theater District neighbors will meet their flattened fates, along with a long-hidden pecan tree that shades a once-secret courtyard at 509. Taking their place: a surface lot for 50 cars — and, maybe, one day, an expansion to the hotel.

517’s transformation to empty space was complete by the end of the day yesterday:

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Coming Down in Downtown

77002, Demolitions, Downtown, Historical Buildings, Hotels, Houston History, Parking-Lots, Restaurants, Retail, Theater District

Downtown

01/11/16 10:45am

La Calle Prepares to Bring the Taco Cause Next Door to That Evicted Brewery Incubator’s Former Downtown Command Post

by Christine Gerbode

Restaurants

2 Comments

Some blue fists are clenched on the ground floor of the Bayou Lofts building, at the northeast corner of Travis and Franklin — La Calle Tacos y Tortas purports to be bringing Mexico City-style street fare to the space at 909 Franklin St. Owner Ramon Soriano Tomka anticipates a February opening, and is currently plugging the chance to win free tacos for a year via various social media platforms.

The storefront is the former home of dim sum spot Hong Kong Diner, and sits between the former homes of Franklin Street Coffee and Brewery Incubator, the kitchen-kickstarter-turned-brewery-fermenter that was evicted in 2014 following complaints about a late-night game of naked Twister.

A rendering posted to La Calle’s facebook page shows what the spot could look like after buildout is complete:

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Taco Solidarity on Franklin St.

77002, Downtown, Proposed Developments, Restaurants

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