Tag: Office Buildings

Development Restrictions, Highrises, Home for Sale, Leasing, Office Buildings, River Oaks

2244 Welch St., Vermont Commons, Houston, 77019

A reader notes that the 1938 house at 2244 Welch St.Â —Â justÂ 60Â ft. eastÂ ofÂ the newÂ 17-story office tower neighbor at 2229 San Felipe (peeking in fromÂ the right inÂ the frame above) — is up for sale. RentingÂ residents of the house made the news during early construction of theÂ “boutique” San Felipe Place highrise in 2014; the occupantsÂ complained of diesel fumes, noise, and structural damage to the property from equipment operating feet from the fenceline (including the giant crane planted in the lot next door). Hines’s efforts to patch up theÂ neighborly dispute escalatedÂ fromÂ the hasty installation of “hobo-penthouse” plastic sheetingÂ to an eventualÂ payoff arrangement that helped the renting family move to Pearland around April of 2014.

The houseÂ went on the market for $789,000 last November, not long after the 2-time lawsuit-defying completion of the tower in September and the pickup of a handful of tenants. The Kinder Foundation announced in OctoberÂ thatÂ itÂ wouldÂ be leasing the top floor of the highrise, whichÂ can be seen peering inÂ through the shutters in a few of the house’s listing shots:Â

Neighbors

2229 San Felipe, 77019, Highrises, Office Buildings, River Oaks, Vermont Commons

03/16/16 4:00pm

Long Drawn-Out Breakup of Corporate Plaza Nearing Final Stages at Kirby and 59

Upper Kirby

Corporate Plaza I Demolition, Kirby at Norfolk, Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

The progress on theÂ piece-by-pieceÂ disassembly ofÂ Corporate Plaza IÂ can beÂ seen inÂ the aboveÂ overcast shot of the building’s increasingly skeletal profile, here partially obscured by 2 American Red Cross buildings and by a Texas Direct Auto billboard. The 1972 midrise on 59 just west of Kirby Dr. is the last and tallest of the 3 similarly-clad office buildings previously occupying the site; the tower’s facadeÂ started to go missing shortly before the way-faster-than-intended teardownÂ of the last of the plaza’sÂ 7-storyÂ parking garage, which nearlyÂ turned the tablesÂ the demo team on itsÂ way down last month.

Status Check

77098, Demolitions, Midrises, Office Buildings, Parking-Garages, Upper Kirby

02/26/16 3:00pm

Wrecking Ball Takes Another Swing at Cornered Solvay Building in Greenway Plaza

Greenway Plaza, Highrises, Office Buildings, Office Space

Demolition of Solvay America Building, 3333 Richmond, Greenway Plaza, Houston, 77098

A reader caught a glimpse of the 1992 Solvay America building taking some more nasty blows from a demo crew out back behind the new 3737 Buffalo Spdwy. office tower south of the corner with Richmond Ave. (That’s the 2727 Kirby condo highrise glancing over at the scene from the right edge of the shot, while the distant Huntingdon tower looks away.) [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Lufti Rukab

Octa-goner

77098, Demolitions, Greenway Plaza, Highrises, Office Buildings

Downtown

02/25/16 12:30pm

Confirmed: United Airlines Preparing for .7 Mile Flight to New 609 Main Tower Downtown

Leasing, Office Buildings, Office Space

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609 Main St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Update, 5pm: In an email sent to the Houston Business Journal, a spokesperson for the airline confirms that 609 Main will become Unitedâ€™s Houston headquarters. This story has been updated.

A source tells Swamplot that United Airlines is about to announce an upcoming flight to the new tower rising at 609 Main St. Employees were briefed this morning on plans to move into Hines’s 41-plus-7-more-story skyscraper going up on the former site of the 1931 Texas Tower. The source says that United’s operations at 1600 Smith and 600 Jefferson streets (formerly known as Continental Center I and II, in the days before the 2010 merger of the 2 air giants) will be consolidated into the new space.

United employees may get a little lift from the underfloor air system incorporated into the tower’s design. The Chicago-based company should also feel at home moving in with fellow northern exports Kirkland & Ellis; the law firm announced its tenancy in the building back in December.

With The Wind Beneath Their Feet

77002, Airlines, Downtown, Leasing, Office Buildings, Office Space

02/18/16 1:15pm

New Seafarers International Union Hall Laying Foundations on Former Second Ward Cement Facility

New Construction, Office Buildings, Second Ward

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A reader shipped over these shots of the new Seafarers International Union Hall under construction at 501 N. York St., just south of the crossing of Buffalo Bayou (and of the name change to Hirsch Rd.). An entity called Seafarer’s Building Corporation bought the land from the Buffalo Bayou Partnership in March of last year; the bayou folks snagged it in 2001 from construction materials producer Lafarge, which acquired it as a General Portland cement facility in 1989. The property sits a block down N. York from bayou-side Tony Marron Park, itself immediately upstream of the Dan-Loc Group machining plant.

A close-up of the rendering posted at the job site at the corner with Freund St. shows an access ramp stretching along the N. York side of the property, as well as what appears to be a partially covered upstairs patio:

Coming Together on N. York St.

77003, Industrial Properties, New Construction, Office Buildings, Second Ward

02/10/16 2:00pm

Watch Corporate Plaza Fail to Demolish Its Demo Crew with Surprise Garage Collapse

Upper Kirby

9 Comments

Yesterday’s unexpected acceleration of the parking garage demolition at Corporate Plaza hasn’t stopped plans to continue the ongoing deconstruction at Kirby Dr. and 59. An office worker across Kirby caught video of the narrow remaining slice of the 7-story structure tipping over and collapsing onto the excavator that had been tugging at a spot on the 5th floor.

The video (which also contains running commentary and a few surprised expletives) shows the other excavator and the rest of the demo team gathering as the dust clears to check on the operator, who emerges from the machine unscathed moments later. A Cherry Companies spokesman told CBS that the demolition work would continue as scheduled despite the office park’s attempt to turn the tables.

Turnabout at 59 and Kirby

77098, Construction Accidents, Demolitions, Office Buildings, Parking-Garages, Upper Kirby

01/28/16 3:15pm

Shredding of Corporate Plaza’s Parking Garage Now In Progress on Kirby Dr.

Upper Kirby

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Teardown work started yesterday morning on the parking garage behind the Corporate Plaza II and III buildings (shortly after Blanco’s got hosed down less than a mile away). North and east of the garage (that’s center and left in the above photo), the last crumbs of Miyako, Madras Pavilion, and Red Onion were swept away earlier this month.

A reader with eyes glued to the unfolding carnage sent the above overview shot, which shows the Corporate Plaza I midrise hiding unsuccessfully behind the disappearing parking garage as it awaits its own upcoming erasure. The next-door headquarters of the Houston chapter of the American Red Cross are visible on the right side of the photo, as a West University water tower gives the building bunny ears.

Another reader sends these shot of an excavator gingerly yanking at the bottom of one of the interior support beams of the 7-story structure early yesterday afternoon:

And Then There Was 1

77098, Demolitions, Office Buildings, Parking-Garages, Upper Kirby

01/18/16 2:30pm

Sweeping Up the Crumbs at the Former Home of Miyako, Red Onion, and Madras Pavilion

Office Buildings, Parking, Quicklink, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby

4 Comments

SWEEPING UP THE CRUMBS AT THE FORMER HOME OF MIYAKO, RED ONION, AND MADRAS PAVILION Corporate Plaza 2 and 3 Demolitions, Kirby at Norfolk, Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098 A reader surveys the scant leftovers of the once-restaurant-filled office park at Kirby at Norfolk this morning. The knock-’em-down phase of the demolition of Corporate Plaza II and III, which began in mid-December, appears to have wrapped up and transitioned into the haul-’em-away. The complex’s still-standing parking garage,Â pictured on the right, was issued its demo permit on Friday. The last structure of the office park trio, the Corporate Plaza I midrise (hiding unsuccessfully behind the garage), has recently acquired a sash of debris netting around the middle; Nancy Sarnoff reports that Corporate Plaza I will be demolished as well. The complex should be fully done in by the end of April. [Chron.com, previously on Swamplot] Photo of 3910 and 3930 Kirby Dr.: Swamplot inbox

77098, Demolitions, Office Buildings, Upper Kirby

East Downtown

01/14/16 5:00pm

Start and Stop on Schlumberger’s Art Deco Former Headquarters in East Downtown

Former Schlumberger Building, 2720 Leeland st., East Downtown, Houston, 77002

2720-leeland-st-3

Take a gander at the 0ld Schlumberger building at the corner of Leeland St. and Delano. New photos of the 25,000-sq.-ft. building show a structure now slightly less windowless than back in 2013, when mobile app developer ChaiOne announced an intended Spring 2014 move to the top floor.Â A reader in the area reports that work such as drywall and A/C installation appeared to be happening this past summer, but seemingly stopped again in July, with little activity visible on the property since.

Plans for ChaiOne’s renovation, designed by Austin firm Bercy Chen Studio, incorporated ground-floor retail beneath 2 floors of offices:

Will They, Won’t They?

77002, Adaptive Reuse, East Downtown, Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Retail

12/31/15 11:00am

Slicing a Window into the Houston Chronicle’s Brutal Freeway-Side Headquarters-To-Be

9 Comments

Houston Chronicle Building Remodel, 4747 Southwest Freeway, Pin Oak, Houston, TX 77007

The north wall has been breached — windows have been carved into the facade of the Houston Chronicle’s freeway-front structure at the corner of the West Loop and 59 (where most of the paper’s staff will relocate early next year.) The multi-building campus under renovation at 4747 Southwest Freeway was bought from the Houston Post in 1995 after the competing newspaper folded; the Chronicle’s Texas Ave. space was bought by developer Hines in October.

The main building was powerwashed back to a gleaming beige over the summer — to brighten things up further, sections of the 1960s raw concrete Brutalist facade are currently being whitewashed as well, in line with exterior renderings released earlier this year by Gensler:

59 @ 610

77027, Architecture, Office Buildings, Remodeling, Renovations

Downtown

12/23/15 10:00am

Who Poked That Hole in the Side of 1010 Lamar Downtown?

Interiors, Skyscrapers

5 Comments

Hole in the side of 1010 Lamar, Downtown, Houston, 77002

Something is missing: Reader Jamie Guidry snapped this shot of overcast Downtown this morning, noting that “a big chunk of 1010 Lamar” appears to be absent. The breached facade is shown here from the south, from the circular GreenStreet pedestrian bridge over Fannin. (A permit was issued on December 9th for the remodel of an upper-story suite of the office building, but a representative from permittee R.L. Hart Construction confirms that it has nothing to do with the hole.)

1010 Lamar was one of the properties snapped up in 2007 by Texas office space tycoon Zaya Younan, along with the former Sakowitz department store building (currently a parking garage) across the street at 1111 Main.

DIY Window Office

77002, Downtown, Interiors, Office Buildings, Remodeling, Skyscrapers

Downtown

12/22/15 11:30am

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

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. —Â 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:

800 Bell St.

77002, Adaptive Reuse, ExxonMobil, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Tunnels

12/16/15 12:30pm

Demo Crew Now Chewing Through Former Miyako, Red Onion, Madras Pavilion Office Complex on Kirby at Norfolk

Office Buildings, Uncategorized, Upper Kirby

9 Comments

Demo of 3910 Kirby Dr., Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

All eyes (well — at least 4) were on 3910 Kirby just north of 59 yesterday as excavators began snacking on the space formerly occupied by South Indian restaurant Madras Pavilion: reader J. Clark captured some sky-high views of the ongoing demolition; another anonymous tipster snapped shots from lower levels and the ground. The Corporate Plaza III building (shown en dÃ©shabillÃ© above) also previously housed Central-American restaurant Red Onion and sushi joint Miyako.

A fence has gone up around both Corporate Plaza III and Corporate Plaza II, next door at 3930 Kirby. Demo permits for both structures were issued on Friday, and work began yesterday morning to bring the northern building down. Corporate Plaza I, the taller sibling of the doomed twins, is visible on the right behind the parking garage on the same property:

All-You-Can-Excavate

77098, Demolitions, Office Buildings, Upper Kirby

12/14/15 3:15pm

Strategically Placed Fig Leaves Will Shield Bashful Rice U. Parking Garage from Medical Scrutiny

Proposed Developments, Rice University

5 Comments

Proposed Office Building and Parking Garage at Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, 77005

Don’t stare: next week, Rice University will begin construction of a new 6-story parking garage, which will be hidden from roving eyes in the Med Center across the street by giant plastic scrims covered in images of fig leaves.Â The 496-space garage will go up on part of the existing Lovett parking lot (just off Main Street, northwest of the intersection with Cambridge, at campus Entrance 3) and will come with an attached office building tastefully tucked alongside (in pale blue below):