Tag: Design Competitions

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900 Commerce St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

A charrette will be held at 9AM tomorrow for anyone interested in entering the design competition for the American Institute of Architects’sÂ new Houston chapter headquarters, to be located atÂ 900 Commerce St. across from Spaghetti Warehouse. Â After being outbid on the blue mod Christian Science church on Main St.Â back in January, AIA and Architecture Center Houston are instead purchasing around 8,000 sq. ft. of space in the 1906 B.A. Reisner building, adjacent to the storiedÂ Bayou LoftsÂ occupying much ofÂ the block.Â Part 1 of theÂ competition willÂ solicit ideas only for the 5,400-sq.-ft. storefront, 2,200-sq.-ft. boiler room, and some connections between the spaces;Â teams making it to roundÂ 2 will win a bit of cash and be asked to create detailed designs for the storefront and the building’s facade.

The view of the Reisner building aboveÂ wasÂ snappedÂ from Commerce looking south; below is aÂ black-and-white shot of the building from further east across Travis, taken back in the days of itsÂ early-1900s employment by Southern Rice Products Company:

Rice Roaster Reimagining

77002, AIA, Allen's Landing, Design Competitions, Downtown

Condos

10/22/14 1:15pm

Here’s a First Entry in an Impromptu ‘What Randall Davis’s New Downtown Condo Tower Will Probably Look Like’ Design Competition

Downtown, Highrises, Proposed Developments

23 Comments

Proposal for New Randall Davis Condo Tower, 1211 Caroline St. at Polk St., Downtown Houston

There is always excitement surrounding an announcement of a new Randall Davis condo tower — before the design is revealed. Everyone wants to know: What mixture ofÂ far-away buildings and long-ago eras will the architecture reference? And what affordable materials will it be constructed from? From atop what garage launch platform will it point toward the sky? And even more simply: How grandiose will it be? Late yesterday, only a few hours after posting news that the developer had announced the impending arrival of a condo highrise adjacent to GreenStreet downtown, Swamplot received the humble design submission pictured above from reader Bill Barfield. He claims to have created the rendering “after much research.”

Randall Davis Aiming Downtown Condo Highrise for the Corner of Rock nâ€™ Roll and the Blues [Swamplot]
Randall Davis coverage [Swamplot]

Rendering: Bill Barfield (bill_b)

Vision Statement

77002, Condos, Design Competitions, Downtown, Highrises, Proposed Developments, Randall Davis

07/22/14 3:45pm

Local Design Mag Wants You To Reinvent Houston’s Police HQ Complex — in Minecraft

Quicklink, Redevelopment

14 Comments

LOCAL DESIGN MAG WANTS YOU TO REINVENT HOUSTON’S POLICE HQ COMPLEX — IN MINECRAFT Minecraft Model of Houston Police Headquarters, 61 Riesner St., Houston The online and offline publications of the Rice Design Alliance have announced a design competition to “reimagine” the area surrounding the city’s 21-acre police, courthouse, and jail complex centered around 61 Riesner St.Â between the Sixth Ward and Downtown — within the virtual world of Minecraft. Models of a number of existing buildings in the area bounded roughly by Houston Ave., Washington Ave, Preston St., I-45, and Memorial Dr. haveÂ already been crafted in the video game’s distinctive blocky style for the venture (try this server address:Â 108.60.220.190:25565), including Kenneth Franzheim’s 1950 Streamline Moderne HPD HQ itself (above); the publication is still seeking help to model other existing structures, including the Ferris Wheel and Aquarium on the opposite side of I-45. But simply blockifying existing structures isn’t the focus of the competition; instead, the editors of Cite magazine and the Offcite blog hope beginning or experienced users of the gaming environment will be inspired to inflict their visions of the larger area’s possible future on the design jury of one — New York design critic Alexandra Lange. [Offcite; map of site] Rendering: JP Dowling

77002, Design Competitions, Downtown, Minecraft, Redevelopment

Awards Programs

01/21/14 10:00am

Houston’s Salvage-Design Award Winners Made for Dogs and Hens

Awards Programs, Critters, Design Competitions, Recycled Materials

Critters, Recycling

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Dog House by Tend Building

Chicken Coop by Smitty Regula Eco-conscious chickens and a dog are the beneficiaries of the just-announced award-winning entries in the Houston division of the annual National ReUse Contest, coordinated locally by the city’s ReUse Warehouse at 9003 N. Main St. Tend Building‘s first-place canine riff on the Beer Can House (at top), called the K-9 Can Cabin, incorporates wood framing and siding found at the ReUse Warehouse, cedar fence slats, reclaimed shutters, a glass mosaic forged from the cast-offs of a local stained-glass company, and aluminum-can shingles. Only the fasteners and sealers are new. Taking third place is this chicken coop forged from used doors, windows, and lumber by Smitty Regula. Entertainment is provided by the roof and removable side panels, cut from local political signage.

Announcement – Our Local Winners In The National Reuse Contest [The Building Materials ReUse Warehouse Newsletter]
The 2013 TRP National Reuse Contest [The ReUse People]
2013 National Reuse Contest [City of Houston]

Photos: ReUse Warehouse

Nothing New

Cancellations and Delays

12/16/13 10:00am

SnÃ¸hetta’s Central Station Canopy Design Is Officially Dead

Downtown, Public Transportation, Quicklink

4 Comments

SNÃ¸HETTA’S CENTRAL STATION CANOPY DESIGN IS OFFICIALLY DEAD Proposed Design by SnÃ¸hetta for Downtown Central Station, Main St. Between Capitol and Rusk, Houston Whatever glimmer of hope supporters of a distinctive Central Station were holding out for Metro somehow following through on its design competition or for SnÃ¸hetta’s winning canopy design have officially been dashed, Dug Begley reports: “Metropolitan Transit Authority chairman Gilbert Garcia and interim CEO Tom Lambert confirmed [last] week that timing crippled any chance of resurrecting a winning design. Instead officials will build their basic canopy for the block-long stop between Capitol and Rusk streets on Main Street.” [The Highwayman; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: SnÃ¸hetta

77002, Cancellations and Delays, Design Competitions, Downtown, Light-Rail, Metro, Public Transportation

11/22/13 10:30am

How Metro Let an International Design Competition for Houston’s New Central Station Go Down the Drain

Public Transportation, Streetscapes

30 Comments

Snohetta Design for Central Station Canopy, Main St. at Capitol, Downtown Houston

Wondering whatever happened to the competition entries from architects competing for the new Main St. light rail station planned for the block between Capitol and Rusk streets downtown, where the new East End and Southeast Lines cross the existing rail line? After a long silence about the project, Metro board members voted yesterday to scrap the plan for a signature station at that location, and to spend $1.05 million to build a standard canopy there instead.

The winner of the invitation-only competition — which included SHoP Architects, LTL Architects, and Neil Denari from New York as well as Houston’s Interloop—Architecture — was New York and Oslo firm SnÃ¸hetta. But who’d have known it?

No SnÃ¸hetta for Main St.

77002, Cancellations and Delays, Design Competitions, Downtown, Light-Rail, Metro, Public Transportation

Here’s an Award-Winning Vision of the Astrodome, Loaded Up with Valuables and Floating Out to Sea

Flooding, Public Buildings, Reliant Park

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Rendering of Floating Astrodome by HiWorks Architecture and Erica Goranson

Sure it’s dug 35 ft. into the earth now, but who’s to say sometime after an additionalÂ 3 decades or so of mulling it over we couldn’t insert a steel hull under the thing — so that when the waters of the rising Gulf came for Houston, the Astrodome, stuffed with valuables and maybe a species specimen or two, couldn’t just up and spirit itself away? Of course in this scenario the whole Reliant Park area has already reverted to swamp, and raised-seawall Galveston’s been entirely underwater for a number of spring break cycles. It’s 2050, and after an extra water surge from Hurricane Rick — Rick? — overcomes the submerged island’s new dike, Houston has just a little bit of time left to get the Dome up on moorings, so the gently but steadily rising waters can lift it and carry it off to sea.

“One of the best things about this proposal,” writes the distinguished Reliant Stadium-loathing jury, not missing a beat, “is that it gets the dome away from its neighbor.” And so: second prize for “The Houston Ark,” by San Antonio architects Brantley Hightower (of HiWorks) and Erica Goranson (of Lake Flato Architects), in the strangely timed whatever-shall-become-of-the-Astrodome design competition sponsored by The Architect’s Newspaper and the zippy folks at YKK AP, whose winners were announced earlier this month.

What would this cargo-laden Astrodome carry?

The Houston Ark

77054, Astrodome, Design Competitions, Flooding, Galveston, Public Buildings, Reliant Park

Houston Landmarks

11/08/13 5:00pm

Now’s Maybe the Best Time To Enjoy a Parade of Astrodome Alternatives

Reliant Park

16 Comments

What kind of crazy idea is this — an actual open design competition for proposals to remake the Astrodome? And even stranger: One where the winners are scheduled to be announced a few days after voters pass judgment on what county officials had already declared to be the only viable alternative to demolition? Only now — given the results — maybe the timing and the concept don’t seem so absurd?

“Reimagine the Astrodome,” of course, was meant to be a design competition — not one focused on financial or political viability. (Maybe some other folks could put together a corresponding challenge focusing on those aspects.) The sponsors, the Architects’ Newspaper and YKK AP (yeah, the company with its name on your zipper) were hoping that “winning proposals would serve either as a swan song for a doomed architectural icon, or as inspiration for its possible future.” And what came in? 23 submissions ranging from “feasible interventions . . . to wildly imaginative and utterly improbable schemes that nevertheless encapsulated the heady spirit that originally propelled this project to completion in the 1960s.” And the winner, as announced yesterday by a jury not looking for cash flows or approval by the Houston Texans and the Rodeo but rather “strength of concept” and “quality of presentation”: this parking garage. A monument, as the jury of designers put it, “to the pain in the ass that parking is in Houston.”

Institutional Buildings, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Public Buildings

77054, Astrodome, Design Competitions, Houston Landmarks, Public Buildings, Reliant Park

Houston Landmarks

09/06/13 12:05pm

Anyone Got a Better Idea for the Astrodome?

by Allyn West

Quicklink, Reliant Park

16 Comments

ANYONE GOT A BETTER IDEA FOR THE ASTRODOME? The Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. might have passed overÂ everyone else’s ideas about what to do with the Astrodome, but that doesn’t mean that no one would pick them: Thus, Architect’s Newspaper and YKK AP are sponsoring a Dome design competition to launch its new Southwest edition. The gist of the contest: A jury will award cash prizes to the 5 best ideas, which will be featured in the inaugural issue to debut November 6: “[W]e feel that the current proposal can only be made better by an infusion of fresh ideas. . . . Great aspirations and utopian schemes are welcome, as are feasible proposals that mesh with The New Dome Experience.” You’ve got to pay to play and register by September 17 to compete. [Arch Paper; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West

77054, Astrodome, Design Competitions, Harris County Government, Houston Landmarks, Reliant Park

Highrises

04/01/13 5:00pm

New Houston Saudi Consulate Should Be Even Better Than This

by Allyn West

22 Comments

Kirksey submitted the rendering above in a 4-firm competition to design a general office with some temporary housing for the Saudi Consulate, now occupying a suite in the 22-story Westheimer highrise shown here, which dates to 1982 and sits across the street from an IHOP. But Kirksey lost that competition — to Studio RED.

77057, Design Competitions, Government Agencies, Institutional Buildings, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Public Buildings

Institutional Buildings

12/20/12 3:50pm

Steven Holl’s New Houston Museum Building May End Up Looking Kinda Like This

Museum District, Proposed Developments

10 Comments

Seen any images floating around of the new building Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts is planning for the northwest corner of the Bissonnet and South Main, next to the Cullen Sculpture Garden? Well then, this watercolor-and-charcoal “concept sketch” for the building by architect Steven Holl from a year and a month ago may interest you. It’s going up for auction tomorrow — as part of a fundraiser for the nonprofit Architecture for Humanity. Holl was selected from a group of 3 finalists this past February, beating out LA design firm Morphosis and Osloâ€™s SnÃ¸hetta for the MFAH commission of a new structure to house 20th- and 21st-century art.

77005, Auctions, Design Competitions, Institutional Buildings, Museum District, Museums, Proposed Developments, Steven Holl

Houston Architects

02/06/12 3:52pm

The Midtown Collaborative Arts Yurt That Got Away

Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Proposed Developments

10 Comments

Here’s a scheme for the Independent Arts Collaborative building in Midtown that won’t get built. It’s one of at least 2 concepts developed for the block bounded by Main, Travis, Francis, and Holman streets by Morris Architects — the same firm that had earlier put together the first round of “initial concept drawings” for the IAC center, helping the fledgling arts organization sell the concept to city officials and local arts groups. What’s the big idea here? An inverted yurt. Filled with people and art. A garden and light on top. Like so:

77006, Art, Design Competitions, Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Proposed Developments

Institutional Buildings

02/02/12 3:21pm

Steven Holl Will Design the New MFAH Building

Museum District, Museums, Proposed Developments

27 Comments

Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts just announced the winner of its 3-architecture-firm face-off for the commission to design its new building for 20th and 21st century art. It’s New York’s Steven Holl Architects, but the institution put itself in the limelight too, declaring the firm had been chosen “to partner with the board and staff of the museum in developing” the expansion, which will also include a new parking garage.

That garage will be needed because the new structure will take up the 2-acre parking lot across Bissonnet from the museum’s main building between Montrose and South Main St. (Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe added onto that building twice; it’s now known formally as the Caroline Wiess Law building.) The museum and its new director, Gary Tinterow, expect Holl’s design to integrate the existing sculpture garden on the northwest corner of Montrose and Bissonnet, and allow for expansion of the glass-block Glassell School just to the north.

77005, Design Competitions, Institutional Buildings, Museum District, Museums, Proposed Developments

02/01/12 10:00am

5 Designs for Houston’s New Main St. Central Station

Proposed Developments, Transportation

23 Comments

The reddish steel structure shown here is UH architecture grad Neil Denari‘s design for the new light-rail transfer station on Main St. between Capitol and Rusk downtown, where the new East End and Southeast Lines currently under construction will intersect with the existing rail line. Besides Denari, whose firm is based in LA, 3 New York and 1 local architecture firm were invited to dream up schemes for the long open-air, 11-ft.-wide rail platform. A jury selected by Metro will pick the winning design, but Metro is still asking for rider comments on each of them.