A doctor’s office with a wacky backyard goes down to make room for a new residential tower. Three lost homes too, in today’s report.
Read more about: 77019, 77030, 77057, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
More homes around the city turn to dust. Plus a baker’s dozen demolitions in Greenview Manor—all after the jump.
Read more about: 77005, 77006, 77008, 77019, 77025, 77032, 77055, 77075, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
One of the biggest office landlords in Texas has announced that he wants to build a very tall tower in either Chicago, Los Angeles, or Houston. Zaya Younan, who’s been in the real-estate business for five years, wants to show the world how tall a building he can erect. How tall is that?
. . . he doesn’t want a building that will barely rate a mention in the history books, a delicate titleholder surpassed in some Asian capital before its paint dries. “I want it to be the tallest for as long as I am alive,” Younan told the Sun-Times. . . .
The chairman of Younan Properties Inc. said that to build something with a lengthy hold on the record, he’ll need about 500 feet of cushion between his building’s height and any probable competitors.
By today’s standards, that means going up about 3,000 feet. It’s Sears Tower times two. It could cost $4 billion.
The Chicago Sun-Times article declares that the wealthy and powerful L.A. developer “is not crazy.” Younan Properties owns and manages the Norfolk “Tower” (it looks maybe ten stories tall; see the photo above) at Greenbriar and 59 in Houston. The company is the top office landlord in Dallas and the third-largest owner of Class A office space in Texas.
Houston airspace height restrictions blah blah blah downtown blocks too small a base blah blah blah free publicity in three cities blah blah blah.
Read more about: 77019, Development Strategy, Highrises, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, River Oaks, Skyscrapers
Nine houses fail to please. Read today’s list of unappreciated structures—after the jump.
Read more about: 77007, 77019, 77025, 77027, 77032, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
A modernist classic gets its dust-conversion approval. That and other building-retirement news in today’s report, which begins after the jump.
Read more about: 77004, 77006, 77007, 77008, 77019, 77024, 77030, 77061, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
On today’s knock-down docket: Portions of four businesses and six houses. Read ’em and weep—after the jump.
Read more about: 77004, 77006, 77008, 77017, 77018, 77019, 77025, 77026, 77043, 77074, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions, Oak-Forest, Sharpstown, Southern Oaks
Four businesses and seven residences gained official release from the restricting confines of structural integrity yesterday. What’s going down? Our list of falling buildings is after the jump.
Read more about: 77003, 77004, 77005, 77006, 77009, 77018, 77019, 77026, 77030, 77081, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
A fast food icon quickly devoured, plus the end of a house on an oak-lined Woodland Heights street. Details after the jump.
Read more about: 77004, 77005, 77007, 77009, 77019, 77055, 77056, 77087, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
Coming down soon . . . in a neighborhood near you! It’s our daily report of sold demolition permits. Our list of casualties approved Friday begins after the jump.
Read more about: 77005, 77008, 77019, 77025, 77051, 77098, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions, Houston Heights, Montrose
Not wasting a single day, Weingarten has already filed for a “certificate of appropriateness” that would allow it to demolish the northern curve of the River Oaks Shopping Center horseshoe.
The HAHC will consider the certificate at its May 23 meeting; if the commission denies Weingarten the certificate, the company will have to wait until Aug. 7, 90 days after it applied for the COA, to actually get demolition permits.
Looks like we’re right on schedule.
Read more about: 77019, Demolitions, Development Strategy, River Oaks, River-Oaks-Shopping-Center, Shopping Centers, Weingarten Realty
Disposing of older buildings used to be so simple. It’s tougher now, but it’s not impossible. You’ll just need to use some new techniques. If the buildings you want to demolish have a high enough profile, you’ll also need a good PR consultant who can help you with strategy.
For a while, it looked like Weingarten Realty might have some trouble tearing down its historic River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks Theater, and Alabama Bookstop (which used to be the Alabama Theater—back in the day when people watched movies instead of reading so much). When rumors first began to circulate, there was the big hullabaloo about the River Oaks Theater, and all those online petitions.
But since then, not so much. Weingarten clearly has its winning gameplan mapped out. How did they do it? How do you tear down an immensely popular older building in Houston today, and do it right?
The technique you need involves outrage bait. What’s that? Read on, after the jump!
Read more about: 77019, 77098, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Landmarks, Preservation, River Oaks, River-Oaks-Shopping-Center, River-Oaks-Theater, Shopping Centers, Weingarten Realty
