Tag: ExxonMobil

Demolitions
08/20/18 4:30pm

Crews of Excavators, Flocks of Birds Now Have Exxon’s Empty Katy Fwy. Chemical HQ in Their Claws, Talons

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Energy Corridor, Mixed Use, Office Buildings
11 Comments

A Swamplot reader noticed that demolition crews are now trashing the conference center at the abandoned ExxonMobil Chemical Company headquarters next to Terry Hershey Park, leaving a grizzly roadside scene along Memorial Dr. “More concerning,” writes the reader, “is that they drained the ponds and did not relocate the waterfowl.”

At least it’s still theirs to call their own — until PM Realty finds new tenants to replace the Exxon employees that left the property starting in 2014. Without anyone around to disturb the wildlife for now, “They are swimming in the tiny little bit of water left and otherwise just hanging out,” like so:

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Exxon Exodus
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Demolitions
01/22/18 4:00pm

Exxon’s Brookhollow Campus Now Making Its Last Stand Along 290

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Lazybrook
4 Comments

A Swamplot reader in motion along 290 sends photos of the late-stage demolition in progress on Exxon’s former Brookhollow campus, now down to its last office building at 4550 Dacoma St. Tear-down began on the structure last July after a partnership connected to Fidelis Realty Partners and Williamsburg Enterprises bought the 24-acre property just outside the Loop the year prior with plans to build a retail center on the site. The ruined 254,566-sq.-ft. structure is one of 3 office buildings that once stood on the campus.

A few more photos of the crumbling facility:

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Roadside Distractions
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Office Buildings
03/30/17 12:30pm

The Continuing Untold Story of What Happened When ExxonMobil Moved North

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Quicklink, Redevelopment
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THE CONTINUING UNTOLD STORY OF WHAT HAPPENED WHEN EXXONMOBIL MOVED NORTH Former Exxon Upstream Facility, 3102-3120 Buffalo Spdwy., Greenway/Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098We’ve been following the separate stories of various former ExxonMobil facilities around Houston individually after the company moved operations to its massive new North Houston campus. But if you want a good, quick rundown of the resulting real-estate fallout, take a look at this summary by veteran reporter Ralph Bivins, who chronicles the current status of the oil giant’s abandoned outposts Downtown, in Greenspoint, and elsewhere around town. The former upstream research campus on Buffalo Speedway between West U and River Oaks (pictured here), Bivins declares, “is expected to be transformed into a major mixed-use development.” The 24-acre Brookhollow campus near Hwy. 290 and Dacoma, which he notes is “not far” from the proposed terminal site for the Texas Central Houston-to-Dallas bullet train, “may be redeveloped for retail use.” The 35-acre former ExxonMobil Chemical facility at 13501 Katy Fwy. in the Energy Corridor, now called Republic Square, is the site of a proposed 2.6-million-sq.-ft. mixed-use project that might include a beer garden and art studios. But until that happens, owner Third Palm is “doing something very un-Exxon like — allowing the public to venture onto the grounds.” [Realty News Report; previously on Swamplot] Photo of demolition of former ExxonMobil facility on Buffalo Spdwy. and West Alabama: MontroseResident

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Demolitions
03/15/17 11:15am

Mashing, Smashing Begin in Earnest at Buffalo Spdwy. Ex-Exxon Campus

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Upper Kirby
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Former Exxon Upstream Facility, 3102-3120 Buffalo Spdwy., Greenway/Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

Former Exxon Upstream Facility, 3102-3120 Buffalo Spdwy., Greenway/Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098Permissions started to trickle in earlier this month for the  knockout of various buildings on the newly former Exxon Upstream research facility at the corner of Buffalo Spdwy. and W. Alabama St. California-based Spear Street Capital and Transwestern admitted to buying the property last week but stayed mum on plans for the site. A reader took a wandering tour around the edge of the 1950s lab complex yesterday afternoon, noting the parking garage teardown shown above, and the various signs of deliberately accelerated wear-and-tear around the rest of the structures:

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Upstream Going Down
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Featured Posts
02/28/17 11:30am

New Owner of Exxon’s Buffalo Spdwy. Research Campus Knocking Out Exterior Defenses This Week

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Greenway Plaza, Upper Kirby
6 Comments

Former Exxon Upstream Facility, 3102-3120 Buffalo Spdwy., Greenway/Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098Former Exxon Upstream Facility, 3102-3120 Buffalo Spdwy., Greenway/Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

Pieces of the fencing surrounding the MacKie and Kamrath-designed ExxonMobil Upstream Research facility on Buffalo Spdwy. were spotted sprawled out on the grass yesterday along the campus perimeter after being plucked from their stations; more barriers are getting yanked up this morning, as seen in the second shot above. The property (which appears to have been transferred to the nonprofit Exxon Foundation in 2015 after the oil giant’s plans to offload the site were announced) was  sold this month to an entity directing its mail to real estate investment and development firm Spear Street Capital. A couple of readers report that other major shuffling around and cleaning out appear to have been going on at the facility for at least the last few weeks, with vehicles bearing the Precision Demolition logo making periodic guest appearances on the scene.

Across W. Alabama St. from the building’s more curvaceous end, the spot occupied until early last year by the empty shell of honky tonk Blanco’s has since been filled in with athletics stuff for St. John’s School:

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Exxon Exit
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Downtown
12/22/15 11:30am

Descend Into the New Tunnel Concourse Coming to the Former ExxonMobil Tower Downtown

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Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Uncategorized
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Proposed Modifications to 800 Bell St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Permits were issued yesterday for construction of a new tunnel concourse below 800 Bell St. —  the Louisiana tunnel will be tied into the new digs planned beneath the former ExxonMobil building, at the corner of Bell and Milam downtown.

Following Exxon’s gradual withdrawal north to its new Woodlands campus, the Bell St. building is being completely redone — beneath a fancy new hat, the structure’s exterior fins will be engulfed in a new glass skin to add 100,000 sq.ft. of floorspace to the building. Eric Anderson told the HBJ last year that the only part of the building that wouldn’t be replaced is the concrete.

Renderings and site plans from architects Ziegler Cooper now provide a glimpse into plans for the basement and coming tunnel connections as well:

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800 Bell St.
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Featured Posts
07/16/15 12:15pm

How To Tour ExxonMobil’s Shiny New North Houston Campus from the Comfort of Your Own Google

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Springwoods Village
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Frame from Photo Sphere Tour of ExxonMobil Campus, Springwoods Village, Houston

Update, 4 pm: Well, whaddya know? The photo sphere images have mysteriously disappeared from Google Maps, rendering our embeds defunct. Guess you might want to go ahead and set up that meeting after all.

Employees have been populating ExxonMobil’s new consolidated Springwoods Village campus since last year, but the company hasn’t exactly opened the place up to visitors. Which makes it a little odd that immersive virtual tours of the place, featuring both indoor and outdoor spaces around the 385-acre complex, have now appeared within Google Maps. If you just want to have a look around, there’s no need to bug your employee pal to arrange an on-site “business meeting” for you. All you need to do is poke around the photo spheres. From each spot you’ll have 360-degree 4Ï€ steradian views around you, if you click and drag within the image:

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Featured Posts
06/24/15 1:45pm

Poking Around the Mini-Woodlands Campus at Hughes Landing ExxonMobil’s Northern Employees Will Move To in October

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New Construction, Office Buildings, The Woodlands Hughes Landing
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Embassy Suites and ExxonMobil Building at Hughes Landing, The Woodlands, Texas

Real Estate Bisnow reporter Catie Dixon comes back from another tour of Hughes Landing with a couple pics showing construction progress on the 2 office buildings ExxonMobil is leasing as a pied à lac for a few select employee groups, 7 miles north of its new main campus. You can see part of one of the buildings at left of center in the photo above — next door to the unskinned Embassy Suites. And here’s a closer view:

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Satellite Offices
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Featured Posts
04/02/15 3:00pm

Snuck Preview of the ExxonMobil Campus’s Energy Center, the Glass Front Gate with the Hovering Cube

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Modern Design, New Construction, Springwoods Village
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Energy Center Under Construction, ExxonMobil Campus, Springwoods Village, Houston

From a source who wishes to remain unidentified come these pix of the glass-box keystone suspended at the entrance to ExxonMobil’s new north Houston campus. The 385-acre facility, which opened to employees last spring, is now largely occupied but remains under construction. The Energy Center, with its hovering 10,000-ton “floating cube” raised 80 ft. above ground, will serve as the campus’s front gate, welcoming visitors as well as shortcut-eschewing employees to the 10,000-worker compound.

The building will include a meeting and training center, and is meant to “represent the ExxonMobil brand for the long term,” according to a company document. Earlier photos showed an extensive scaffolding structure holding up the centerpiece; it’s now been removed.

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Flying Square Energy Donut
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Featured Posts
07/16/14 12:00pm

Aerial Pix of ExxonMobil’s Massive New North Houston Campus Construction Site, Where Employees Are Already at Work

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Spring, Springwoods Village
26 Comments

Aerial Views of ExxonMobil Campus, Springwoods Village, Houston

From a high-flying source come these fascinating close-up aerial views of the massive ExxonMobil campus just north of the intersection of I-45 and the now-building-to-suit Grand Parkway in the northern reaches of the city of Houston. The campus is still under construction but also partly occupied. The pix were taken late last month; the first of an expected total of 17,000 workers began moving into almost-complete structures back in April.

The photo at top shows the Pickard Chilton-designed “Energy Center” meant to serve as the campus gateway, as well as house a reception area, training and conference facilities, and a restaurant. When construction is complete, the scaffolding will come down and visitors will be able walk underneath the suspended 4-story glass block hovering at center in the photo above.

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The Cubicles Under the Cranes
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Featured Posts
04/16/14 4:45pm

Employees Are Moving into ExxonMobil’s New North Houston Campus Now

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Office Space, Springwoods Village
14 Comments

ExxonMobil North Houston Campus Under Construction, Springwoods Village, HoustonExxonmobil began moving the first workers into its new campus south of The Woodlands last Friday, a source tells Swamplot. Among the first to make the trek to the former pine forest (pictured at left, with workers in formation, during construction last year) near the intersections of I-45, the Hardy Toll Road, and the latest segment of the Grand Parkway: employees of the ExxonMobil Development Company, who’ve been working in Greenspoint for more than a dozen years.

Photo: ExxonMobil

It’s Moving Month!
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Featured Posts
03/10/14 10:15am

The New Baker Hughes Headquarters Near the New ExxonMobil Campus

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Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Springwoods Village
19 Comments

THE NEW BAKER HUGHES HEADQUARTERS NEAR THE NEW EXXONMOBIL CAMPUS Map of Springwoods Village, Showing Possible Location of New Baker Hughes Headquarters, Houston“Sources” are telling reporter Catie Dixon that oilfield services company Baker Hughes is planning to build a new headquarters for itself far north of its current home (in the America Tower along Allen Pkwy.). A new 400,000-to-500,000-sq.-ft. building, she reports, appears to be under development on a piece of land “just south” of the site where Southwestern Energy has its new offices under construction hugging I-45 just north of the Grand Parkway. That’s just a bit southwest of the site of ExxonMobil’s new campus (where the first employees are moving in this month), as indicated in the older marked-up area plan shown here. Following Dixon’s description, the Baker Hughes tract would likely be the one marked “UC” (for “under contract”) just south of the SWN site in the plan. However, reps from Springwoods Village developers Coventry Development tell her that “Baker Hughes doesn’t have any property under contract in Springwoods Village, and declined to comment on any activity on the aforementioned tract.” [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Map: Jones Lang LaSalle

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Featured Posts
12/17/13 10:45am

The Mixed View of Hughes Landing from ExxonMobil’s New Woodlands Campus Corner Conference Room

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Leasing, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, The Woodlands, The Woodlands Hughes Landing
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View from Corner Conference Room, Proposed ExxonMobil Office Building, Hughes Landing, The Woodlands, Texas

A couple of renderings are out of the 2 office buildings in Hughes Landing ExxonMobil has signed up to lease as part of the oil company’s surprise second new Houston-area campus. And the one above shows a broad-ranging view of the Hughes Landing development — as the office buildings’ architects at Kirksey see it. Judging from the renderings and the Hughes Landing site plan posted on the Woodlands website (below), the 2 buildings will not sit directly on the Lake Woodlands waterfront but along Hughes Landing Blvd., 2 parking garages south of the previously announced Two Hughes Landing. The view out of the corner conference room shows off the overall development’s mixed-use cred: To the left is the 175-room hotel shown on the plan, fronting Hughes Landing Blvd. and a fountained inlet of Lake Woodlands; beyond and to the right of that is the 8-story, 390-unit apartment building that sits behind a row of inlet-side restaurants with dummy names. At the far right of the image is an 8-level parking garage with a waterside grill on the ground floor (somehow obscuring the expected view of the Two Hughes Landing office building). That’s quite a view, but it’s a well-chosen one.

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Off the Waterfront
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Featured Posts
12/10/13 12:00pm

ExxonMobil Setting Up a Separate Second New Campus for Itself — in The Woodlands

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Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Taxes, The Woodlands, The Woodlands Hughes Landing
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Rendering of Proposed Developments at Hughes Landing, The Woodlands, Texas

Yes, ExxonMobil has been constructing an enormous new 20-building corporate campus on 386 acres near the intersection of I-45 and the new Grand Parkway, where it plans to consolidate approximately 17,000 employees from several Houston-area and out-of-state locations. But the oil company is apparently planning a bit of a move in the opposite direction at the same time. It now has plans to lease more than 480,000 sq. ft. in 2 new office buildings in a new separate “satellite campus” 7 miles north. This won’t be a contrasting urban setting for workers seeking something similar to the company’s longtime Downtown Houston tower. It’ll be in Hughes Landing (pictured above), the new mixed-use development on the shores of Lake Woodlands in The Woodlands.

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When 386 Acres Is Not Enough
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Downtown
11/11/13 10:00am

Redo of Classic ExxonMobil Tower Downtown Will Eat Fins, Fatten Up

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Houston Landmarks, Modern Design, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Uncategorized
41 Comments

An entry posted over the weekend to the website of Ziegler Cooper Architects indicates that the local firm has won Shorenstein Properties’ invited competition to remake the soon-to-be-former ExxonMobil Building (at right), a prominent, bristly, and standoffish figure on the southern edge of Houston’s Downtown since 1962. The redo, which will be far more extensive than a simple reskinning, removes the most distinctive feature of the building, originally designed by L.A. architects Welton Becket for Humble Oil: the 7-foot-deep shades, cantilevered from marble-clad columns, that help shield sunlight from all but the top of the tower’s 44 stories.

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