Tag: University of Houston

Commercial Real Estate
01/21/10 12:44pm

Yet Another Protest of Houston’s New Planned Parenthood Headquarters

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Construction Problems, Institutional Buildings, Medical Buildings, Neighborhood Disputes, Renovations, University of Houston
36 Comments

A reader writes in to complain about the not-quite-complete renovation of the former Sterling Bank building overlooking I-45 South at 4600 Gulf Fwy. The building was stripped down to its structure and is being reborn as the largest Planned Parenthood administrative headquarters and healthcare facility in the nation.

Is anyone else really bothered by the fact that on the stair-stepped portions of the curtain wall the spandrel glass doesn’t line up with the spandrels on the rest of the building? I mean if you’re going to design a facade that’s all about geometry, shouldn’t the geometry work? There had to be better ways to do this, really.

A close-up view:

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Critters
04/20/09 2:55pm

Seen on the Street: Need To Get Out More Often

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Hermann Park, Home Decor, Reliant Park, University of Houston
2 Comments

Here’s the latest installment of Swamplot’s fun-pix-from-around-town feature!

Above: While visiting last weekend’s Gulf Coast Green symposium and expo at the Reliant Center, Sean Morrissey Carroll catches the Astrodome peeking in on the action.

A few more images loom:

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Buying and Selling
01/30/09 11:46am

Spur 5 Hop: The University of Houston Grows East

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Commercial Real Estate, Industrial Properties, Institutional Buildings, Office Space, University of Houston
14 Comments

The University of Houston has been given the go-ahead by the system’s Board of Regents to negotiate the purchase of the University Business Park, the 69-acre former Schlumberger Technologies corporate headquarters complex that faces I-45 South, just east of UH’s central campus.

The university currently leases 150,000 square feet in the business park, for offices “and other uses.” The new campus extension would be used for academic and research programs, administrative offices, storage, “industry partnerships,” and other functions. And it comes with 30 acres of vacant land.

UH has already completed the purchase of an adjacent 5-acre site, for about $2.5 million:

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Commercial Real Estate
09/10/08 11:41am

Abortion and Real Estate Protests

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Institutional Buildings, Medical Buildings, Neighborhood Disputes, Renovations, University of Houston
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Changes are coming to that stair-stepped, slit-windowed office building on the south side of the Gulf Freeway just south of Lockwood and Elgin, recently vacated by Sterling Bank. It will soon have a whole lot more glass — and become Planned Parenthood’s local administrative headquarters:

Peter Durkin, president of Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas, said the new building will be big: six stories and 75,000 square feet. He described the claim that the building will be the largest center of late-term abortions in the Western Hemisphere as “nonsense.”

Only one of the six floors will be for clinical space, he said. Most of the building, he said, will be used for administration and family planning.

Renovations on the former Sterling Bank building on the Gulf Freeway near the University of Houston will begin in November, and Planned Parenthood likely will relocate in early 2010.

A “conceptual drawing” of the renovated building . . . after the jump:

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Buying and Selling
08/15/08 12:13pm

UH Second Life Campus: Much Better Than the First

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Commercial Real Estate, Online Resources, University of Houston
1 Comment

Welcome Center, Department of Health and Human Performance, University of Houston Second Life Campus

The University of Houston is buying an island on Second Life! It’ll be used for the school’s Department of Health and Human Performance and the Texas Obesity Research Center.

Plans call for an interactive campus where students and professors adopt avatars to walk (or fly) around campus or teleport to any number of thousands of other islands.

Virtual doesn’t come cheap. UH paid $1,700 for the island and pays Linden Research another $300 a month in rent.

Not cheap?? You try renting an entire campus for $300 a month. You could hardly get a dorm room for that. But the best thing about UH’s new space is clearly its high quality design.

A virtual architect designed and built the campus as a very, very loose replica of the real thing “with better architecture,” says Associate Professor Brian McFarlin.

After the jump: More views of the beautiful UH-Virtual!

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Historic Preservation
07/25/08 1:21pm

TSU Loses a Light Rail Station

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Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Third Ward, Transportation
2 Comments

TSU LOSES A LIGHT RAIL STATION Under pressure from Third Ward residents and elected officials who didn’t want rail on Wheeler, Metro has officially rerouted an eastern section of the University Line further north. From Main, the line had been planned to travel east on Wheeler, north on Ennis, then east on Alabama to Scott at U of H. The new route snakes north sooner: north on Hutchins from Wheeler, east on Cleburne, north on Dowling, then east on Alabama to Scott. [Houston Chronicle]

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Hazards
11/16/07 3:30pm

Bee Moving: U of H’s End-of-Semester Surprise

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University of Houston
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Hive of 100,000 Bees Removed from UH College of Engineering BuildingUH students: Beware of “secluded spots” on campus!

Just a few days ago, University of Houston officials called in Pearland beekeeper Mike Knuckey to remove a giant colony of 100,000 bees from behind a 40-foot-high section of wall in the engineering college’s Building 1. The wall had been dripping with honey.

But now the bees are coming back . . . to an undisclosed location on campus! From a UH press release:

UH plans to build a new nest for the bees in a wooden, isolated area of campus. The bees should be in their new home on Friday, Nov. 16.

A report from the Houston Chronicle is a little more ominous:

While moving the hive was a bit of a headache, university officials ended up with a sweet surprise: five gallons of fresh honey.

“We’re gonna think of something clever to do with it here on campus,” Alexander said.

Uh . . . with the honey? Or with the hive?

Photo: Diego Almazan/The Daily Cougar

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Construction Materials
10/09/07 4:19pm

Planting Grass Over Their Heads

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Environmental, Gardening, Green Design and Development, Institutional Buildings, Renovations
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Green Roof at UH’s Burdette Keeland Design and Exploration Center

Will something like this be coming soon to a home near you? Up now: a green roof atop a renovated building that will serve as a fabrication shop for architecture and industrial design students at the University of Houston. Unlike most of Houston’s (few) commercial and institutional buildings with a planted roof, this one has a slope to it.

Photo of Burdette Keeland Jr. Design and Exploration Center: Green Team Houston

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