Tag: Institutional Buildings

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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Institutional Buildings
07/21/08 11:34am

Coming to Rosenberg: 60-Acre Yoga Retreat

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Proposed Developments, Rosenberg
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Yoga Camp with Swami Ramdev at the George R. Brown Convention Center, July 2008

A groundbreaking ceremony was held Saturday for a $4.5 million yoga center on 60 acres in Rosenberg. Yoga guru Swami Ramdev announced the project on Wednesday during a 4-day-long yoga camp at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

The Press Trust of India reports that $4 million has already been raised for the project, including $2 million in 2 hours at a fundraiser held in Houston on July 18th:

The project includes a clinic to treat chronic ailments, housing for active seniors and retirees; a herbal garden, retreat centre, vedic Gurukul school for young children and a University.

Two people involved with the project said the center will open early next year.

Photo of Swami Ramdev yoga camp at George R. Brown: Keith Plocek, Houston Press

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Homebuilders
07/10/08 10:36am

Just Another Houston Homebuilder

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Institutional Buildings, Quicklink, Temporary Housing
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JUST ANOTHER HOUSTON HOMEBUILDER “But there are plenty of challenges to overcome first. To camp on the moon, astronauts need to be shielded from solar radiation. In a waterless environment every drop of H2O, including sweat and urine, must be recycled and purified. NASA engineers are sorting through dozens of possible models for the lunar outpost—from horizontal, aluminum cylinders to inflatable structures that are essentially giant, Kevlar-reinforced balloons.” [Smithsonian]

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Downtown
07/01/08 1:46pm

The New Downtown YMCA Replacement: When?

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Institutional Buildings, Proposed Developments
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Proposed New Downtown YMCA

Forwarded by a helpful reader: an email from the Downtown Y that includes the above image of the new Downtown YMCA. The new building is planned for a site that’s just a knight’s jump away from the current 1941 building on Louisiana St., which is now slated for demolition.

The new site is on the block bordered by Travis, Milam, Pease, and Jefferson — currently a surface parking lot. However, the YMCA email says “a new location has not been purchased.” So can y’all please keep quiet about this so the sellers don’t raise their price and ruin the whole deal?

The image comes with a clear message about the building’s schedule, too! The email has a slightly looser concept of “now”: “Doors are scheduled to open,” it says, “by the end of 2010.”

After the jump, more images of the proposed new building . . . from Kirksey’s website.

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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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Annexation
06/30/08 11:37am

Baytown Annexes 320 Acres for Second Baptist

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Baytown, Institutional Buildings, Proposed Developments
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Parking Lot for Proposed Second Baptist Church of Baytown on North Main St., Baytown, TX

Baytown’s City Council has voted to annex 320 acres of land along North Main and south of I-10 — so that Baytown’s Second Baptist Church can get utility and other municipal services for a new 48,000-sq.-ft., $8.7 million shopping-center-style facility it is hoping to construct on North Main St.

The Baytown Sun‘s Barrett Goldsmith reports that even more land may be annexed:

According to information submitted to Council by city planner Kimberly Brooks, additional property along North Main will be brought to Council for annexation as the utility system is extended to the area.

After the jump: More images of the new church . . . plus a video!

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Ashford Point
06/06/08 12:48pm

Ashford Point Golden Globe Palace: The Mr. Kimberly Sessions

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Institutional Buildings
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Tien Tao Temple, aka Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace, Ashford Point Dr., Houston

Noting that the site is “relatively maintained and free of vandalism and graffiti,” Robert Kimberly reports back from his recent pilgrimage to Ashford Point Dr., where he got the apparently-still-empty Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace to smile for the camera.

A few more highlights from the photo session, below:

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Institutional Buildings
06/05/08 10:57am

Twist and Whisper: Texas Children’s Neurological Secret

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Medical Buildings, Texas Medical Center
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Rendering of Dan & Jan Duncan Neurological Research Institute at Texas Children’s HospitalIt sure looks like there’s been a dramatic twist in the plans for the new Dan & Jan Duncan Neurological Research Institute that Texas Children’s Hospital is building in the heart of the Med Center Campus, right behind the waterfall parking garage on Moursund St. Renderings of the building looked a little different at the groundbreaking ceremony last December. A construction permit for the superstructure of the 14-story, 370,000-sq.-ft. tower was approved yesterday.

Texas Children’s doesn’t seem to be putting out a huge amount of detail about the new structure on its website, which is probably understandable for a building that will be housing hundreds of thousands of lab mice. Any knowledgeable readers want to share a little more about the plans . . . and that new twisting corner?

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Art
05/15/08 3:19pm

Still Tinkering: Yoshio Taniguchi at the Asia Society

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Institutional Buildings, Museum District, New Construction
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Lobby View of Asia Society Texas Building by Yoshio Taniguchi

You may have seen a few old small, blurry model photos of the Asia Society headquarters Yoshio Taniguchi has been designing. But more detailed plans and views of the building planned for Caroline and Southmore in the Museum District haven’t exactly been in wide circulation. Maybe that’s because the architect is apparently not done tinkering:

Even though the noted Japanese architect has spent the past four years developing his design for the new Asia Society Texas Center headquarters, he recently scoured a table-top model of the building like it was the first time he had ever laid eyes on it.

“Each time I meet with my client, I feel like I’m under pressure,” he said, while examining the model of the $50 million Asia House in a nondescript office near the Galleria. “I have to make it better. I can’t make a mistake.”

On this recent morning, Taniguchi was concerned about the height of a stone fence that will jut out from one corner of the building. He wants it tall enough to define the space but not so imposing that it blocks out the surrounding neighborhood.

Since January, Taniguchi and his team have suggested 85 small changes to the building before construction officially gets under way after today’s groundbreaking ceremony.

After the jump: More building details! Plus . . . an old small, blurry model photo!

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Ashford Point
05/05/08 12:29pm

Most Unknown: Ashford Point Palace of the Golden Orbs

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Attractions, Institutional Buildings, Kingsbridge Park
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Tien Tao Temple, or Chong Hua Sheng Mu Holy Palace, Ashford Point, Houston

One highlight of David Beebe and John Nova Lomax’s Richmond Ave. walking tour mentioned here last week was Lomax’s description of this strange vision on the #25 bus route to Mission Bend:

Towards the end of the line, the bus turned left off Richmond and into a weird suburban residential neighborhood. Ashford Point, the street we were on, was bisected by a greenspace in which there was a sunken trail, which ducked under the streets in little tunnels.

And then there was… this thing, this sprawling empty complex, this five-story square building topped by a 40-foot golden geodesic dome, flanked by two smaller domes. Two exterior staircases flanked these orbs – the overall effect was something like a sawed-off Mayan temple of the sun.

The whole compound was ringed by an iron fence, and then there was another huge fence around the entry to the building. The vast parking lot was empty, and there were no signs nor apparently even a mailbox. It was completely surreal. Neither Beebe nor I had a clue what it was – Beebe thought it might be the private residence of a very weird Arab sheik. I thought at first that it might be a mosque, but it didn’t look much like one closer up.

After the jump: What was it?

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Art
05/02/08 11:53am

Opening Box 13 on Harrisburg: New East End Art Venue

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Institutional Buildings, Openings and Closings, Parking
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Box 13 ArtSpace, 6700 Harrisburg Blvd., Houston

Tonight’s art opening at the new Box 13 ArtSpace will serve as a grand opening for the new East End art venue as well.

The space is a 2-story former furniture store on the corner of Harrisburg and Cesar Chavez (or — as the organization’s website uh, “artfully”(?) calls the street — “Cesar Chivas”). It features 13 studio spaces for artists in residence, three interior galleries, a storefront-window display space, and an “outdoor performance exhibition space,” known more conventionally as a parking lot.

The artist-run nonprofit intends to acquire a second building, at 6701 Capitol (directly behind the 6700 Harrisburg building), within a few months. “The Capitol building lends itself toward sculptors and installation artists,” declares the website.

After the jump: A quick tour of the new facilities!

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Institutional Buildings
04/22/08 2:44pm

Glass Is Now in Session: New Rice Coffee Plaza and Pavilion

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New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Rice University
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Rendering of New Brochstein Pavilion at Rice University, Designed by Thomas Phifer and Partners

More buildings brewing on campus at Rice: The new Brochstein Pavilion, behind Fondren Library, opens later this week!

Designed by architect Thomas Phifer, the 6,000-square-foot building features natural lighting from light scoops, plasma screens, couches and chairs, all surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on a 10,700-square-foot wraparound plaza. This exterior seating area is covered by a trellis designed to filter light, as live oaks do along Rice walkways, and is encompassed by an elm grove, fountains, live oaks, new sidewalks and a freshly sodded Central Quad.

A new freestanding structure dedicated to the increasingly popular liberal-arts discipline of . . . Caffeine Studies?

Does Swamplot have any readers at Rice? Send us your reports! Uhh . . . how’s that coffee?

Drawing: Pavilion architects Thomas Phifer & Partners

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Institutional Buildings
04/18/08 10:32am

New Rice Palace of Sweat

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Proposed Developments
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Interior of new Rice University Recreation and Wellness Center, Designed by Lake/Flato Architects

Where’s that giant climbing wall in the atrium?

Rice University’s new recreation and wellness center will have

2 indoor basketball courts, 4 racquetball courts, 2 squash courts, cardio, weights, dance studio, a 50 meter outdoor competition pool, an outdoor recreation pool, and 2 outdoor lighted basketball courts.

That sounds just a bit smaller than UH’s giant 264,000-sq.-ft. Wellness Center on the other side of town. Groundbreaking for Rice’s new building, designed by Lake/Flato Architects with F&S Partners, is scheduled for next week.

After the jump: More muddy images of the complex!

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Home Design
10/26/07 8:25am

When Graffiti Artists Paint the House

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Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Renovations
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This Old House by Aerosol Warfare at the Diverseworks Satellite Space

DiverseWorks gave graffiti collaborative Aerosol Warfare free reign to paint the arts organization’s satellite space at the corner of Alabama and Almeda in Midtown, and this is the result.

You remember this house, right? It’s the one that used to have giant Sesame Street characters airbrushed all over it.

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