Swamplot Archives by Tag: Theater District

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Raising Funds for the New Houston Ballet Building: Just Wait Until Nutcracker Season

November 10, 2009 – 2:38 pm

An article on Bloomberg.com forwarded by a reader provides an update on the progress of fundraising efforts for the Houston Ballet’s new building Downtown planned for the block surrounded by Congress, Smith, Preston, and Louisiana streets. You’ll remember that back in August, Ballet managing director Cecil C. Conner told the Chronicle’s Molly Glentzer that the board had raised “about 70 percent of the funds” needed for the $53 million building — which the organization hopes to have ready for move-in by 2011.

What’s the latest news, 3 months later?

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2:38 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Financing, Institutional Buildings, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Neighborhoods: Theater District, New Construction
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Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Peeking into the New Houston Ballet Center for Dance Downtown

August 4, 2009 – 9:09 am

When the building is finished in 2011, what will wayward pedestrians poking past the new Houston Ballet Center for Dance from the intersection of Congress and Smith streets Downtown be able to glimpse of the action inside?

. . . the architects . . . envisioned the granite like a proscenium stage, framing views from the street through windows on several floors of the north and west facades.

Those windows, [Gensler managing principal James] Furr added, are like a “billboard for dance,” enabling passersby to see classes and rehearsals.

Furr spoke to the Chronicle’s Molly Glentzer, and Gensler provided more-up-to-date images of the 115,000-sq.-ft. facility, which will be clad in black granite on one portion and “a light plaster” on the other:

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9:09 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Neighborhoods: Theater District, New Construction
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Friday, July 24, 2009

Places, Everyone! Houston Ballet Center for Dance Starts Digging in Downtown

July 24, 2009 – 11:43 am

Shhhh!!! The curtain hasn’t gone up yet on the new Center for Dance the Houston Ballet is constructing at 601 Preston St., between Louisiana and Smith, at the northern end of Downtown. There have been no big public announcements about the project, no local news stories, nada. But it looks like preliminary construction work on the building has already begun.

Yes, the new Ballet building is the mystery construction project Abc13 reporter Miya Shay posted in her Twitter feed yesterday, prompting an impromptu guessing game here. After some smart guesses from Swamplot readers and Tweeters, Shay revealed the answer this morning. In a later tweet, she gave a few more details: that fundraising for the building had reached more than 50 percent of the organization’s goal and that the building’s skybridge — which would connect it directly to the Wortham Center, so performers’ ballet shoes wouldn’t have to touch the street — was “def[initely] in.”

Shay also posted a second photo showing work going on at the construction site:

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11:43 am | 3 Comments | Read more about Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Neighborhoods: Theater District, New Construction, Proposed Developments
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Friday, December 12, 2008

New Houston Ballet Building: Maybe Not

December 12, 2008 – 2:48 pm

It’s been obvious for some time that economic conditions and credit problems have placed a giant question mark next to almost every major proposed new development in town. But it sure is fun to revisit them one by one!

A week after Swamplot posted renderings of the new building the Houston Ballet has been planning for a Downtown block near the Wortham Center it bought last year, the Houston Press’s Richard Connelly made some inquiries with Houston Ballet PR manager Melissa Carroll about the building. In reply came this very brief message:

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2:48 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Neighborhoods: Theater District, Proposed Developments
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Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Dance, Building, Dance: Houston Ballet Makes a Downtown Debut

December 3, 2008 – 1:56 pm

What’s the Houston Ballet’s new $53 million, 120,000-sq.-ft. Downtown headquarters building going to look like? Two renderings of the 6-story building planned for the block between Smith, Louisiana, Congress, and Preston Sts. have appeared on an architecture website based in the U.K.

A connecting skybridge would prevent tutus from wilting on the long journey between the new ballet practice facilities and the Wortham Center, which is catty-corner to the site. The new building will also house the ballet’s offices and wardrobe shop, as well as the the Ben Stevenson Academy.

The two views of the building don’t exactly gibe — a likely sign that the design is not final:

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1:56 pm | 5 Comments | Read more about Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Neighborhoods: Theater District, Proposed Developments
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