Tag: Green Design

Construction Materials
07/28/08 2:46pm

Reducing Bathroom Waste: Rice’s Prefabricated Pods

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Green Design and Development, Institutional Buildings, Rice University
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Dorchester Model Prefabricated Composite Bathroom Pod by Off Site SolutionsWorkers at Rice University are lifting 178 7-foot-by-7-foot bathroom pods into place in the two new student residences now under construction on campus. The pods, which arrived with all fixtures already installed, are meant to be among the “green” features of the new Duncan and McMurtry College buildings, say the designers. Because construction takes place offsite, the pods are expected to eliminate construction waste — as well as traffic to and from the site by subcontractors.

The Rice pods were manufactured by Off Site Solutions in the United Kingdom and Kullman Buildings Corp. in New Jersey.

The pods’ outer shell is constructed of glass-reinforced plastic and connected to a steel frame. The interiors are all white with 9-foot ceilings, wall-hung plumbing fixtures, light fixtures and a smooth ceiling and wall finish. Installation requires being hoisted into place by a crane and just a handful of plumbing and electrical connections.

After the jump: an exciting bathroom-pod photo tour, including overhead views!

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Alternative Energy
07/18/08 3:34pm

And Just Imagine How Well They’d Do If There Were Jobs or Shopping Nearby!

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Development Strategy, Discovery at Spring Trails, Green Design and Development, Homebuilders, Homebuying, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Montgomery County, Quicklink, Real Estate Marketing, Sprawl, Utilities
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AND JUST IMAGINE HOW WELL THEY’D DO IF THERE WERE JOBS OR SHOPPING NEARBY! Discovery at Spring Trails, Land Tejas’s gated and solar-panel-badged community north of Spring, is selling well, says Lisa Gray: “. . . only a few weeks after Discovery put itself on the market, and without even a finished house that would-be buyers can tour, most of the lots ready for building have been optioned, and the developer is scrambling to make more available fast. In fact, Discovery is off to the fastest start of any development in the company’s 11-year history, and Land Tejas expects demand to pick up even more this fall. Already, propelled mostly by Google searches, 200 to 300 people a week are touring the neighborhood’s ‘Discovery Center.'” [Houston Chronicle]

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Gardening
07/07/08 3:01pm

Why You Want Dragonflies in Your Garden

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Green Design and Development, Mosquitoes, Quicklink
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WHY YOU WANT DRAGONFLIES IN YOUR GARDEN “Our garden has a number of areas with standing water, prime mosquito breeding ground. In six years of gardening there, I have never been bitten by a mosquito. I don’t know of any other place in Houston, with the possible exception of being in the back of a convertible going 60 miles per hour down I-10, where I can make the same claim.” [Urban Harvest, in the Houston Chronicle]

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Demolitions
07/01/08 9:08am

Downtown YMCA To Self-Destruct, Finally

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Downtown, Green Design and Development, Historic Preservation, Institutional Buildings, Land Sales, Proposed Developments
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Downtown YMCA, Houston

The 10-story brick YMCA on Louisiana St., which has been taking up valuable space Downtown for more than 65 years, will at last be torn down, reports Nancy Sarnoff in today’s Chronicle. The Y will move to a new glass-and-brick building now being designed by Kirksey — apparently intended for the nearby block bounded by Travis, Milam, Pease, and Jefferson.

The best part of the story? The Y is being very polite about the whole thing. Having determined that its own building is not worth the $25 million a report determined would be necessary for repairs, the organization will go out of its way to demolish the structure itself, so no future buyer will have to be burdened with similar defensive and wasteful studies — or cleanup. And that future buyer has already been determined: Chevron, which already owns the former Enron building next door, says it has no current plans for the new 85,000-sq.-ft. vacant lot it is purchasing.

At 100,000 square feet, the new YMCA building will be less than half the size of the current facility, but will come with 250 parking spaces. And it will be rated LEED-Silver, which means its construction and operation will conserve energy and resources, unlike the wasteful current building, which was designed by architect Kenneth Franzheim in 1941.

In addition to continuing its mentoring, educational and other life-skill programs, the new facility will include a teen center, child watch area and women’s wellness center, as well as racquetball courts, a basketball gym, swimming pool, state-of-the-art fitness equipment, a chapel, meeting space and a food vendor.

Not included in the new structure: replacements for the 132 “short-term” residential units in the current building.

Below: A photo that illustrates the story!

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Commercial Real Estate
06/23/08 8:39am

More Discovery Tower Drawings Discovered

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Downtown, Green Design and Development, Highrises, New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Uncategorized
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Discovery Tower, Downtown Houston

New drawings and details appear of Discovery Tower, the 30-story office building now under construction at the northwest corner of Discovery Green Downtown.

The wind turbines at the top of the building are still there. The brochure also mentions solar panels on the south face of the building, a green roof on top of the entrance pavilion, 2 stories of retail, as well as some old Houston favorites: 2 floors of underground parking (151 cars), and a 10-story, 1,350-space parking garage one block north, connected by . . . . an air-conditioned (phew!) skybridge!

After the jump, more green-hot Downtown tower architectural rendering porn!

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Commercial Real Estate
05/01/08 10:56am

That Nineties Retro Tower Coming to the West Loop

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Development Strategy, Galleria, Green Design and Development, Highrises, Houston Architects, New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
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Proposed Office Tower at 1600 West Loop South, Uptown, Houston

From Ziegler Cooper Architects’ website: Renderings of a 20-story office tower the firm designed back in the early 1990s.

As we reported in February, the Novati Group plans to build the 500,000-square-foot spec tower, along with an 8-level parking garage, at 1600 West Loop South — next to Post Oak Motor Cars, on land purchased from Landry’s. The only changes from the original design will be adjustments so the building can qualify for LEED Silver certification.

So what if the design is old? Worrying that your brand new building already looks dated is so . . . last decade!

After the jump: the marble in the lobby will be old, too!

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Construction Materials
04/30/08 9:37am

The Path to the Top Is Paved with the Forgotten Efforts of Others

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Green Design and Development
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Staircase with Temporary Treads Made of Old Political Campaign Signs

Touring a local home for an upcoming TV news story on green building in Houston, abc13 reporter Miya Shay comes across some recycled leftovers from the last election:

The home isn’t finished yet. So, while the family waits for the stairs to be stained, carpeted, or whatever, they have cut up old campaign signs to use as temporary flooring on the stairs! As the homeowner told me, “They are very durable, and comfortable to walk on.”

Photo: Miya Shay

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Clear Lake
03/18/08 12:35pm

Cullen’s Upscale: The Big Green Restaurant in Clear Lake

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Commercial Real Estate, Green Design and Development, Land Development, Mixed Use, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Real Estate Marketing, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers
19 Comments

Rendering of Cullen’s Upscale American Grille on Space Center Blvd., Houston

A restaurant scheduled to open today just beyond Beltway 8’s southeastern elbow is the first “Certified Green Restaurant” in Houston approved by the Green Restaurant Association. Cullen’s Upscale American Grille completed 17 of the GRA’s environmental guidelines.

The grille’s proprietor is first-time restaurant owner Kevin Munz, who previously built a chain of 13 Houston-area pawn shops. He sold the Mr. Money Pawn shops to Cash America International in 2006. Two years before that, he bought 92.8 acres of undeveloped land at the eastern edge of Ellington Field and began planning Clearpoint Crossing, a series of strips along the west side of newly extended Space Center Blvd., featuring retail/lease space, a professional-office park, and a multifamily residential project.

Cullen’s is intended to be Clearpoint Crossing’s main attraction: a 37,000-sq.-ft. Las Vegas-style eatery with seven private dining rooms — including one built of glass and suspended over the main dining area — a ballroom, space for outdoor dining, and seating for 700 diners. Customers will have their choice of china: Wedgwood, Versace, or “the Titanic.” Munz spoke to the Houston Chronicle‘s David Kaplan about his plans for Cullen’s last year:

“I’ve been all over the U.S. and looked at restaurants. It’s the best of a bunch of different concepts and putting them into one, Munz said. “It’s the same thing I did with pawnshops.”

Munz told the South Belt-Ellington Leader he hopes to attract customers driving from as far northeast as Baytown and as far south as Galveston to his green restaurant, saying he “wouldn’t have done this in town.”

Munz expects the Clearpoint Crossing’s land value to “go up the day I open the restaurant,” he told Kaplan. That would be today!

After the jump, a plan of the whole Clearpoint Crossing development. Plus, a few of the restaurant’s green features!

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Construction Materials
03/04/08 11:47pm

Just Listed: Little Green Rehab in the Sixth Ward

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Development Strategy, Environmental, Green Design and Development, Historic Preservation, Homes for Sale, Old Sixth Ward, Real Estate Marketing, Renovations
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706 W. Sawyer St., Old Sixth Ward, Houston

It’s a little old bungalow on a small lot . . . but it’s clean and green inside! The sellers of this 2-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath, 960-sq.-ft. home say they’re trying to get this Sixth Ward home LEED certified:

The 1920 facade has been preserved, but when you open the door, its all about 21st century. The hm has been renovated using non toxic materials, low VOC paint & sustainable design materials.

A neighbor who watched the work reports the house was sold to the current owners as a teardown:

It was a nasty, dirty, filthy, funky house with a garage in the front yard. They tore the garage off the front, moved the house around on the lot a tad, and have done an outstanding renovation.

Plus: the neighbors are very very quiet, says our correspondent. The house is next to Glenwood Cemetery.

Read on for more pics, from before and after!

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Commercial Real Estate
02/29/08 3:50pm

Discovery Tower: Yep, They Are Wind Turbines

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Downtown, Green Design and Development, Highrises, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing
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Top of Proposed Discovery Tower, Downtown Houston

From our email comes a message from a reader who has heard from someone involved in the project that the white poles shown at the top of the new Discovery Tower drawing are . . . indeed, wind turbines.

So . . . if they do end up being put in, how much energy will they bring to the building? And . . . how many tenants?

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Commercial Real Estate
02/28/08 5:13pm

Discovery Tower: Ready for Closeup?

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Downtown, Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
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Rendering of Discovery Tower by Gensler, Downtown HoustonThanks to an alert poster on HAIF, we now have a more up-to-date and better view of Discovery Tower, Trammel Crow’s 30-story office building — designed by Gensler and planned for a perch on the north side of Discovery Green Downtown.

Other HAIF participants have been speculating whether the shorter white poles at the top of the image are supposed to be . . . wind turbines!

Well, are they? Scrutinize a larger version of the rendering and judge for yourself . . . below the fold.

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Commercial Real Estate
02/26/08 4:31pm

New West Loop Tower: Keeping the Uptown Office Market Up to Date

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Development Strategy, Galleria, Green Design and Development, Highrises, Houston Architects, New Construction, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments
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According to a report by Jennifer Dawson in the Houston Business Journal,, the first new spec office building built in the Galleria area in more than 25 years will be . . . a 20-story tower that was designed 15 years ago!

In the early 1990s, [Novati Group CEO Ken] Moczulski ran Transworld Properties, a developer of office, industrial and multifamily properties. Transworld owned the land at 1600 West Loop South at that time, and commissioned Ziegler Cooper Architects to design an office for the site.

“We had planned a building,” recalls Moczulski. “It was all designed.”

The economy turned south, he says, so the facility did not get built. . . .

Last year, Novati co-founders Moczulski and Fernando De León start looking in the Galleria area for an office development site. Moczulski approached Landry’s about buying the West Loop land because, as in the 1990s, he still thinks the location and high visibility make it a good site for an office building.

To top it off, Novati is saving months of development time by dusting off the original plans from Ziegler Cooper. The only design changes needed are those to make the 475,000-square-foot structure eligible for certification as a green building.

Hey, maybe it’s one of those towers that kinda looks like a tall glass cylinder is bulging out from the center? That was a hot nineties look, wasn’t it?

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Commercial Real Estate
02/18/08 3:45pm

Eldridge Oaks: Turn on the Lights!

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Energy Corridor, Green Design and Development, Highrises, New Construction, Office Buildings
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Eldridge Oaks, Proposed Office Building in Houston Energy CorridorA reader who works in the Energy Corridor reports that a sign has just appeared at the Northwest corner of Enclave Parkway and Eldridge Parkway announcing Eldridge Oaks, a 350,000-sq.-ft. 14-story office tower being developed by Transwestern.

Transwestern is apparently taking energy issues in this Energy Corridor building seriously: It will pursue an unspecified LEED rating, and has signed the project up as a sponsor of this spring’s Gulf Coast Green conference. Plus, this drawing from the project website shows what the building will look like when the lights go on . . . then off . . . then on!

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Fifth Ward
02/06/08 3:27pm

Building Cheaper with Kudzu: $99K House Competition Finalist

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Green Design and Development, Home Design, Landscape
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Plan of House 99 by Gail Borden

Yes, that’s a hedge of dense kudzu wrapping around this long skinny house . . . and threatening to do the same to its Fifth Ward neighbors. The kudzu, a court of crushed oyster shells, a house-length porch, a cistern, Murphy beds, and a butterfly roof are the major features of House 99, one of five finalists in a local competition to design a “green” house for $99,000 or less.

House 99 was designed by L.A. architect and USC professor Gail Borden. The Rice Design Alliance and Houston’s chapter of the American Institute of Architects want to build the winning design of their $99K house competition at 4015 Jewel St., or on other properties swept up by the city’s Land Assemblage Redevelopment Authority.

Below the fold: More drawings! More kudzu! More cost-saving measures! More greenness!

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