Tag: Shipping-Containers

Featured Posts
03/16/18 4:30pm

House of 11 Stacked Shipping Containers on McGowen Now Awaiting Doors, Windows, Electrification

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New Construction, Third Ward
34 Comments

When the owner’s work is finished on what he’s calling the McGowen Container House, the stack of boxes just east of 59 will be a 4-story house with a carport at ground level and a terrace atop the blue Hanjin unit shown in the photo above. A few windows, doors, and portions of the staircase that will climb through the building’s east side have been installed, according to the blog for the project. Rough-in plumbing and some preliminary electrical wiring is finished as well, but the utilities aren’t on yet.

Here’s a view of the cargo hold from the east, near Hutchins St.:

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Third Ward Freight
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Featured Posts
07/14/16 4:45pm

Half-Masked Double-Wide Shipping Container House Up for Sale in Fifth Ward

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Fifth Ward, Homes for Sale
11 Comments

1709 Dan St., Fifth Ward, Houston, 770201709 Dan St., Fifth Ward, Houston, 77020

Much of the front of container-composed 1709 Dan St. still sports that distinctive shipping container crimp, though the actual entrance to the 2-box structure has been partially camouflaged behind siding and a gabled-roof-sporting porch. The misalignment between the 2 boxes makes room for a matching patio space in the back of the home, which sits about a block and a half north of the intersection with Lyons St. in Fifth Ward. The house was put together by container enthusiast Build-a-Box (whose website says it’s also working up a 50-unit shipping container apartment complex for the neighborhood).

All the sections of the 2-bedroom, 2-bath structure add up to about 1,228 sq.ft.; the house went on sale last month for $189,995. The crimping has been completely masked on the inside of the house:

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Building With Boxes
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Featured Posts
04/29/16 3:45pm

Second Quadruple Shipping Container Duplex Getting Wrapped Up on Lehall St.

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South Union
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3622 Lehall St., South Union, Houston, 77021

3802 Lehall St., South Union, Houston, 77021The front is up on the shipping-container-containing duplex under construction now at 3622 Lehall St. between Tierwester and Scott. The box-based structure is similar to builder Krieger Containers’s first such project (down the street at 3802 Lehall); both buildings consist of 2 separate 2-bed 2-bath units framed around 2 steel containers each. The company claims on its website that the model can beat ‘any general contractor in Houston’ on a cost-per-sq.-ft. basis.

Back in September, company founder and steel box aficionado Sean Krieger spoke with Nancy Sarnoff about plans to built dozens more container houses in the South Union neighborhood over the next few years, aiming to draw students and young professionals. Krieger now tells ABC13 that the project underway at 3622 Lehall has faced abnormal scrutiny from city inspectors and officials, recently including a heated verbal exchange on site with District D councilman Dwight Boykins (who also spoke to ABC13 about the incident after Krieger sent them a recording).

The floorplan above shows the layout of the downstairs unit of completed 3802 Lehall; the bathrooms, bedrooms, and closets fit within the footprint of the shipping containers, which flank a central living space. Here are some shots of the inside, both during and after construction:

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Checking All the Boxes
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Art
04/02/14 11:00am

Touring the Latest Reworked Structures in Nestor Topchy’s Inner Loop Compound

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Brookesmith, Construction Materials
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Buildings at Nestor Topchy's Residence, Brooke Smith, Houston

Buildings at Nestor Topchy's Residence, Brooke Smith, HoustonLocal art guide Robert Boyd takes himself and readers on a photo tour of the outbuildings surrounding Nestor Topchy’s home “just south of the North Loop,” catching readers up on a few of the structures the artist has built since (or salvaged from) his residency at the legendary TemplO (earlier, Zocalo), the 6-acre arts commune he ran on a rented former truck depot at 5223 Feagan St. in the West End from the late eighties into the early aughts. And he finds much to impress, including the glass-walled tin-roofed structure pictured here, which Topchy pieced together from steel windows and doors salvaged from buildings in Houston and Argentina, and which fronts a pond on the acre-plus property. Topchy calls it the Crescent:

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Art Is Where You Make It
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Construction Materials
08/07/12 5:50pm

Woodlands Shipping Container Co-Op Building: Open Source, Fully Leased

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New Construction, Office Buildings, The Woodlands
6 Comments

The epic Software Group is now passing around pix of the “creative co-op” building the company painstakingly constructed next to its Woodlands headquarters over the last 18 months — out of 11 recycled shipping containers and a slew of other recycled materials. The 8-ft. x 40-ft. x 9-1/2-ft. containers, explains company president Vic Cherubini, are each 8-9 years old and still rated “sea worthy.” Around that core, the animation, multimedia and web development company production company built an almost-5,000-sq.-ft. building with a large video production studio inside. The assembly sits 50 ft. away from Epic’s own facility at 701 Sawdust Rd., and is now occupied by several creative companies in the area — who pre-leased it before completion.

How’d they put the thing together?

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Disaster Aftermath
05/09/12 4:09pm

Now Deployed and Awaiting the Next Emergency: Houston’s Solar Powered Disaster Response Shipping Containers

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Utilities
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The city recently bought 2 custom roll-off trailers so it could set up its brand-new fleet of 17 solar-powered shipping containers without having to hire contractors or cranes. And the method of opening the solar panels (or closing them before a hurricane hits the area) is now OSHA-compliant, says Andrew Vrana of Metalab, the local architecture and fabrication firm that designed them. (2 people on a ladder can do it pretty quickly.) The photos above show the unit installed recently at Fire Station 72 at 17401 Saturn Ln. just north of NASA Rd. 1, near the Johnson Space Center. “Yes they do produce a little power on a cloudy day,” Vrana reports.

All the units have now been delivered to their sites. In the event of a major power outage, the 140-sq.-ft. containers will become staffed disaster response centers — air-conditioned information and water-distribution centers: a place to charge your cell phone or laptop, power a medical device, or keep medicines refrigerated. In short, the kind of space it might have been nice to have nearby after Hurricane Ike hit. (As long as the solar panels are folded in and latched, the units will withstand hurricane-force winds.) In the meantime, they’ll provide additional office space and power for the facilities that host them. The container at Lake Houston Park, for example, will become an office for the new woodland archery range.

Here’s a map showing the fire stations, schools, and other locations around the city where you can now find the completely off-grid structures:

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Openings and Closings
02/17/12 10:47am

WTF Is Taking the Shipping Containers So Long at the Moon Tower Inn

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Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants, Second Ward
7 Comments

WTF IS TAKING THE SHIPPING CONTAINERS SO LONG AT THE MOON TOWER INN An only slightly cleaned-up report on the progress of the brewery and shipping-container redo at the Canal St. bar, straight from the Moon Tower Inn Facebook page: “as you all should know, we’re late for everything and some time’s we just plain don’t show up. but DO NOT WORRY, moon tower will be OPEN SOON. using new technology (shipping containers etc) is tricky business and moves a lil slow with our fine city. so, we’re not gonna say exactly when we’ll be back open yet ’cause we’re ass holes like that and we like the suspense. but, our brewery equipment is damn near built and the containers for the kitchen and bar are being fitted at a welding yard and are almost ready to bring on-site! so… everything’s a go! SEE YOU THIS SPRING . . .” [Moon Tower Inn on Facebook, via Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Eddie S.

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Nightlife
01/05/12 10:45am

Moon Tower Inn’s New Shipping Container Beer Cooler

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Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants
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MOON TOWER INN’S NEW SHIPPING CONTAINER BEER COOLER A few details on the brewery redo taking place on the hotdog reinvention grounds of the (currently shuttered) Moon Tower Inn at 3004 Canal St. in the Second Ward, from blogger Leslie Sprague: “One of the two new shipping containers being used to renovate the old space, to expand the kitchen and the tap wall to 42 taps, will be a walk-in cooler for cold storage. The brewhouse will be set-up in part of the office space, behind the old ordering counter. I wasn’t even aware there was an office. They have a 3 1/2 barrel brewhouse on order from Portland Kettleworks and are expecting delivery in mid-February. That’s definitely cutting it close to the planned February reopening.” [Lushtastic] Photo: Marty E.

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Houston Heights
09/15/11 2:35pm

Heights Shipping Container Food Court

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Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail
14 Comments

HEIGHTS SHIPPING CONTAINER FOOD COURT A food-truck-court-like conglomeration of shipping containers housing vendors selling waffles, burgers, barbecue, Mexican, Asian, or Cajun cuisine is being planned for a 25,000-sq.-ft. lot co-owned by the proprietor of C&D Scrap Metal at the corner of North Shepherd and 14th St., the Chronicle‘s David Kaplan reports. “Kitchens on 14th,” as designed by Uptown Sushi and Tiny Boxwood’s architect Issac Preminger, is expected to include trees, water features, and communal eating areas in a park-like setting. [Prime Property]

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Disaster Aftermath
11/10/10 1:42pm

Houston Buying 25 Shipping-Container Offices for Emergency Solar Power

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Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Office Space, Utilities
18 Comments

A small fleet of modified shipping containers outfitted with adjustable solar panels will soon serve as mobile emergency power supplies for the city of Houston. City officials are currently negotiating a contract to purchase 25 of the units, which are based on a prototype originally deployed as the green-themed sales office of a Montrose condo project. The solar-powered containers, called SPACE (“Solar Powered Adaptive Container for Everyone“), were created by a joint venture of local architecture firm Metalab, Joey Romano’s Harvest Moon Development, and design firm ttweak (best known for the popular “Houston. It’s Worth It.” marketing campaign). City sustainability director Laura Spanjian announced at the opening of the University of Houston’s Green Building Components Expo last month that SPACE and energy company Ameresco had been selected through a public-application process to supply the city with the mobile “solar generators.” Spanjian now tells Swamplot the contract should be complete “in a few weeks.”

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Brookesmith
09/04/09 12:26pm

Secret Powers of the Cordell St. Shipping-Container House

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Construction Materials, Green Design and Development, Home Design, Homebuilders, New Construction: Residential, Quicklink, Transportation
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SECRET POWERS OF THE CORDELL ST. SHIPPING-CONTAINER HOUSE The Brookesmith home of Kevin Freeman and Jen Feldmann — fashioned from shipping containers by Numen Development’s John Walker and Katie Nichols — meets a national audience in the pages of the latest issue of Dwell: “The meat distributor [across Cordell St.] begins loading trucks as early as 5:30 a.m., but the couple imagines themselves as hipsters living in New York City’s meatpacking district, and that makes it okay. . . . The corrugated steel of the container that houses the master suite becomes a textured wall for writing messages in the home’s entrance. ‘When we were furnishing the house, I thought, “Oh no! Our fridge isn’t magnetic for Eli’s artwork,” but then I realized the whole house is magnetic,’ Feldmann says. ‘We’ve become magnet connoisseurs,’ Freeman adds.” [Dwell; previously in Swamplot]

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Apartments
06/26/09 5:15pm

Solar-Powered Shipping Containers Flee; It’s Apartments for the Mirabeau B.

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Buying and Selling, Condos, Development Strategies, Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing
1 Comment

Hey, what’s happening to those fancy solar-powered recycled shipping containers on the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh, meant to attract eco-minded buyers to the $400K+ condo units in the Mirabeau B.?

Up and away they go! Did the Mirabeau B. meet its sales target? Nope . . . but it’s time for construction anyway, developer Joey Romano tells Swamplot:

Our financing is in place and we have signed our contract with Mission Constructors who have commenced work on the site. If all goes to plan at the City, the building work will begin in the next few weeks.

How’d that happen? With a little switch: to rental. But Romano says none of the project’s “green” features will be changed:

We’ll still plant our green roof; our 15 KW solar PV system will still power all common areas; and our rainwater retention system will still irrigate our native Gulf Coast plants. Our units will be large, open, and spacious, offering unique, high-grade finishes, high-end energy efficient appliances, and natural light in every bedroom.

So where are the shipping containers headed?

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Buildings for Sale
02/26/09 10:57am

Green Sales Offices for Sale: Solar Powered Shipping Containers for Everyone

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Green Design and Development, Houston Architects, Office Space, Real Estate Marketing, Utilities
4 Comments

The solar-powered portable building fashioned from recycled shipping containers that’s been waiting patiently at the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh since last September isn’t just the sales office for the Mirabeau B. condo. It’s also a prototype.

Designers Joe Meppelink and Andrew Vrana of Metalab have teamed up with ttweak Renewables (creators of the Mirabeau B.’s sales graphics) and Harvest Moon (the condo’s developer) to market the structures, which they call SPACE. That stands for Solar Powered Attractive Container for Everyone — though more likely it’ll be for companies that want a sales center that also works as a big green sign.

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Brookesmith
01/14/09 11:19am

The Recycled Glass Driveway at the Cordell Shipping Container House

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Construction Materials, Flooding, Green Design and Development
15 Comments

Next experiment at that Swamplot-Award-winning house built out of shipping containers on Cordell St. in Brookesmith? The unique driveway installed earlier this week. John Walker of Numen Development writes in with details:

It is composed of recycled crushed glass, with a resin binder, and achieves the consistency of caramel popcorn for lack of a better description, so it has voids that allow surface water to percolate through the paving and ultimately be absorbed into the underlying soil rather than running off into the storm drainage system. It is a triple threat: recycled material, reduces environmental impact of development, and it’s really cool!

Walker says Presto Geosystems, a division of Alcoa, installed the driveway as a pilot project for the Houston market.

This installation has been described by their consulting engineer as most likely the “first and last” residential project they will do in Houston as the product is expected to meet with huge commercial demand, especially for “landlocked” developments for whom expansion is limited by Harris County stormwater detention limitations.

Some views of the installation:

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