COMMENT OF THE DAY: UPPING THE VOLTAGE ON HOUSTON’S DOWNTOWN VIEWS 
” . . . I wonder, if the property management companies downtown would illuminate the Houston skyline with LED lighting, how cool it would look? With Houston’s strong artistic community, it would be great to see a curated lighting of the skyline that’s different when you drive in from every angle. As they stand in the dark every night, you can’t at all see the pyramid atop Heritage Plaza, the outlines of the “kissing†Pennzoil Place towers, or hardly see the three tiers and spikes of Bank of America. At night, the Energy Capital of the World’s skyline is hardly . . . yawn . . . energetic.” [Austin, commenting on Shining a Little More Light on the Williams Tower Beacon, Now Back in Action] Illustration: Lulu
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Tag: Skyscrapers
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A 64-STORY HOLDOUT TO UPDATING THE HOUSTON VERNACULAR 
“I’ve wondered why this building has maintained its old name socially but other buildings in town haven’t. Many residents still refer to the building as Transco Tower instead of Williams Tower. The name change was in 1999. Why don’t folks in Houston call the JPMorgan Chase Tower the Texas Commerce Tower? The Bank of America Building is formerly known as the RepublicBank Center, the NCNB Center, and the NationsBank Center. Enterprise Plaza used to be called the Southwest Bank of Texas Building. Gulf Tower became Chevron Tower and is now the Fulbright Tower. I guess because the building is [one of] the tallest in Houston, and the most recognizable.” [Walker, commenting on Why the Williams Tower Beacon Was Off Last Fall] Photo: Russell Hancock
A more senior representative of the Williams Tower’s property management office wrote in yesterday with a correction to Friday’s note about the recent return of the rotating spotlight at the top, after another employee told Swamplot that the beam had been off while a new bulb was being hunted down. In fact, the source tells Swamplot, the entire beacon fixture has been replaced, as part of a redo of the tip of the tower itself.
The current work on the top started in November 2014 and includes the replacement of the “apex roof” (consisting of the sloping panels directly beneath the beacon, and the vertical panels directly below those, above the start of the glass skin). The above photo shows those vertical panels missing late last spring as the swap was underway. The new spotlight turned on in late December, and final touches to the roof should be done by March, if the weather cooperates.
Here’s what the roof looked like back before the work began:
Spotlight on the Roof
Update (2/9): The entire beacon fixture has been replaced. See this story for details.
The rotating spotlight on top of the 64-story Williams Tower in the Galleria area has been back on for a few weeks, following an autumnal hiatus. According to a representative of the tower’s property management office, the beam stayed dark during difficulties finding the correct kind of bulb for the fixture. A reader sent a report this week from a bedroom window overlooking the Galleria area:
Twinkle, Twinkle, Giant Bulb
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SIZING UP HOUSTON’S REFINERY BOOM 
” . . . The total investment ongoing in the Petrochemical complex is about $50 billion. 1000 Main sold in 2014 (after the crash was underway) for $0.5 billion. There are about 50 skyscrapers in downtown. Therefore, with the investment ongoing in the Petro complex, we could rebuild downtown Houston twice with only our classiest of class A skyscrapers.” [awp, commenting on A Tale of 2 Houstons During the Oil Bust; Inside 500 Crawford] Illustration: Lulu
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
Reader Mat Wolf sends in a couple of photos showing new but temporary street-level views of the building that for 34 years ranked as downtown’s tallest: the 1929 Gulf Building (officially, the JPMorgan Chase & Co. Building) at 712 Main St. Although views like the one above taken from the northeast, looking down Main St. from Texas Ave. have been available for quite some time (until about 10 years ago graced by a suburban-style McDonald’s in the foreground), sightlines of the 36-story tower have widened with the demolition of the Texas Tower at 608 Fannin St.
Behold another shot taken from the corner of Fannin and Texas Ave., in front of Christ Church Cathedral:
Engulfed Views Downtown
A reader sends this rendering of the skybridge that would hook up the existing Chevron buildings Downtown with the new 50-story big blue tower planned to rise at 1600 Louisiana and Pease, on the site of Kenneth Franzheim’s torn-down Downtown Y. The reader says that the new HOK-designed tower could rise as high as 830 ft., “making it the third tallest building downtown.” (Which, this rendering suggests, would invite backpack-wearing tourists to gawk and take photos.) A few other details: “The 4th floor will have an outdoor cafeteria and event space while the recently purchased parking garage will have two new floors added to house a new fitness center.”
CHEVRON GETS A CHEVRON-SIZED TAX ZONE DOWNTOWN 
To further persuade Chevron to build that 50-story tower that it told everyone back in July that it was gonna go ahead and build, city council voted unanimously yesterday to create a tax abatement reinvestment zone for the 2 acres on which the tower would stand at 1600 Louisiana. The resulting cash should help Chevron replace a sewer line on the former Downtown YMCA property, the Houston Chronicle reports. And the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker adds up all the incentives that might be coming to help out the energy giant: “[The zone] could mean $2.7 million to $3 million for the company . . . . That money would be in addition to the $12 million it could receive from the Texas Enterprise Fund, which Gov. Rick Perry’s office announced in July.” [Houston Chronicle; Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: HOK
A reader sends Swamplot what appears to be the first rendering of the Gensler-designed International Tower: What has been tentatively described as a 41-story, 750,000-sq.-ft. office building, developed by Stream Realty and Essex Commercial Properties, would go up on a Linbeck-owned block Downtown that now is a surface parking lot bound by Preston, Prairie, Milam, and Travis; it’s immediately south of Market Square Park and immediately west of where Hines has said it is considering building another residential highrise. The reader adds that the first 2 floors of the new tower would be devoted to retail and what appears to be a restaurant; construction could begin as early as next year.
- 50-story International Tower by Stream/Essex [HAIF]
- Houston’s downtown skyline to be reshaped [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Project aims at ultra-rich wanting to live smaller [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Previously on Swamplot: Hines Interested in Building Residential Tower on Downtown Block Near Market Square Park
Image: Gensler
Hines says that it isn’t quite ready to say that the office tower planned for 609 Main will be taller than the previously described 41 stories and 815,000 sq. ft. Still, a rep from Hines says that increasing demand for office space Downtown is driving a redesign from Pickard Chilton, and it’s likely that the tower will end up comprising more square footage — if not more stories. The proposed block, bound by Main, Texas, Fannin, and Capitol, is shared now with the vacant Texas Tower — though it’s still unclear whether that building would be torn down to make room. At any rate, it seems that we’ll soon know: The second round of designs should be completed by the end of the year, says the rep, and construction could begin as early as January.
- Houston’s next great skyscraper? Hines to Texas size new Main Street office tower, speed up development [Culturemap]
- Previously on Swamplot: Does New Hines Highrise Mean Old Texas Tower’s a Goner?
Rendering: Hines
To form a power trio with the 2 curvaceous Enron hand-me-downs it has occupied since 2004, Chevron will be building a more boxy 50-story tower on the urban meadow left behind when Kenneth Franzheim’s Downtown YMCA came down in 2011. Chevron announced today that the HOK-designed building at 1600 Louisiana and Pease will provide 1.7 million sq. ft. of space, including training and conference rooms, more parking, and a cafeteria. This rendering suggests there will also be plinth-top common areas and — as though a subtle homage to what preceded it on this 85,000-sq.-ft. lot — a gym.
When Twitter’s landlord Shorenstein Properties out of San Francisco acquired in January the ExxonMobil Building, it made a fuss about wanting to sync the somewhat standoffish tower at 800 Bell St. with the tunnel system that serves the rest of the Downtown fraternity of skyscrapers and extensively renovate what was, at the time it was completed, the tallest building west of the Mighty Mississip’. The rendering you see at the top from Kirksey Architecture shows one take on just such a renovation — except, says a rep from the firm, it ain’t gonna happen. Apparently, Kirksey wasn’t awarded the bid to get the building ready in 2015 for a new tenant once ExxonMobil packs up and moves north to the under-construction campus among the trees in Spring.
But the rendering comes from an action-packed presentation video that Kirksey put together and posted online less than a week ago — and removed this morning. And it’s too bad: The video opens with a magical installation of the shards of a glass curtain wall atop the shade-providing tiers that now hula-hoop their way up the 45-story building. It’s the kind of thing you’d see were Magneto a general contractor and not a comic-book evildoer. Fortunately, a HAIF user grabbed some stills from the video and posted them, giving us a good idea of what’s not going to be:
This year’s Terrain Denali, shown here in Iridium Metallic, seems to have been redesigned with a towing capacity that borders on the seismic: Apparently, it can bring the lake in along with the speed boat and dock right into the middle of the city! A vehicle that can manipulate geography according to your desires? What will they think of next? And it’s just $34,925!
- 2013 Terrain Denali [GMC]
Image: GMC
And here’s what BHP Billiton Petroleum’s new 30-story tower might look like. The company announced yesterday that construction will begin at 1500 Post Oak in November on the fifth skyscraper at Four Oaks Place; the proposed 560,000-sq.-ft. building, going up where a vacant 24-Hour Fitness now sits, will be connected by a skybridge to the company’s existing 1360 Post Oak building. BHP says that the twinnish towers are meant to consolidate the company’s entire workforce in Uptown.
- BHP Billiton office tower to rise on Post Oak Boulevard [Prime Property]
- BHP Billiton Petroleum unveils plans for Post Oak tower [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: West Loop Nineties Revival Not Getting Enough Love
Rendering: Houston Business Journal
