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Hess Tower: Office Skyscraper At 1501 McKinney St.


Ethanra

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More good news for DT...

I remember reading a few post from last year that mentioned, the new park would be a waste of money.

I have heard about this tower before... great news for Downtown! That will look awsome next to or at least very close to the park (not sure what block that is exactly). It would be great to see more towers on that side of Downtown... fill in that area a bit. :-)

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East side of DT will/is becoming a cool neighborhood. With MMP, Toyota Center, Church expansions, new park, etc... It would be great to get more residential with street level retail... I'm sure more projects will be announced and break ground in this part of DT over the next couple of years.

How do you estimate how many floors and/or heigth a building will be when the number of square feet is given?

Edited by Ethanra
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Block 126 appears to be the irregular shaped block bounded by McKinney, LaBranch, Rusk and Crawford. It would be on the north edge of the park, east of Houston Center 5(? the newest one). However, HCAD maps are not loading up for me, so I cannot be positive. Can anyone confirm? Type in 1501 McKinney.

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Block 126 appears to be the irregular shaped block bounded by McKinney, LaBranch, Rusk and Crawford. It would be on the north edge of the park, east of Houston Center 5(? the newest one). However, HCAD maps are not loading up for me, so I cannot be positive. Can anyone confirm? Type in 1501 McKinney.

I used yahoo maps, and it is the irregular shape block bounded by McKinney, La Branch, WALKER, and Crawford. Thanks Red

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Block 126 appears to be the irregular shaped block bounded by McKinney, LaBranch, Rusk and Crawford. It would be on the north edge of the park, east of Houston Center 5(? the newest one). However, HCAD maps are not loading up for me, so I cannot be positive. Can anyone confirm? Type in 1501 McKinney.

That's the block I am seeing... two blocks east (or southeast) from Chevron Tower. Great location! Right next to the park... across the corner One Park Place. If you go to Discovery Green's website they actually have a tower placed there in the picture of the park.

Edited by HtownWxBoy
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I used yahoo maps, and it is the irregular shape block bounded by McKinney, La Branch, WALKER, and Crawford. Thanks Red

Sorry, E. I tried to memorize all the streets and brain farted that one. Age and happy hour, I guess. :blush:

As for the building, a LEED project should make it a pretty cool looking building all around. I look forward to seeing what they come up with.

Edited by RedScare
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East side of DT will/is becoming a cool neighborhood. With MMP, Toyota Center, Church expansions, new park, etc... It would be great to get more residential with street level retail... I'm sure more projects will be announced and break ground in this part of DT over the next couple of years.

How do you estimate how many floors and/or heigth a building will be when the number of square feet is given?

Well for reference Chase Tower is almost 2 million sq. ft. and Heritage Plaza is about 1 million and change. So if this tower could be as much as 1.2 million sq.ft. think between 50 and 60 stories if it will sit on top of its own garage. If it was built at 600,000 sq.ft. I would guess that sits it at about 40 stories or so.

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Well for reference Chase Tower is almost 2 million sq. ft. and Heritage Plaza is about 1 million and change. So if this tower could be as much as 1.2 million sq.ft. think between 50 and 60 stories if it will sit on top of its own garage. If it was built at 600,000 sq.ft. I would guess that sits it at about 40 stories or so.

I hope it's AT LEAST 50 stories. :D

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"Gensler Architects has been tapped to design the project, which will be built as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-certified project."

As long as they don't pop out another boring(but still decent) box like 1000 Main, I'll be happy. Gensler seems to have a knack for designing boring structures around here (if I am not mistaken, 1000 main, and the Anadarko Tower in The Woodlands). Some of their new works in Hong Kong and DUbai are interesting, though.

Still, good news for downtown! :P

Edited by UrbaNerd
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I'm assuming they would rename at a later date after some company or something. Or no?

Most likely. Remember the ChevronTexaco tower was originally the Texas Heritage Plaza... then when Texaco signed on it became the Texaco Heritage Plaza. That's just how these things work.

This is great news. I kind of wish it was on the irregular block on the opposite side of the park, so as to better the view from Minute Maid Park, but I'm not complaining!

A 50+ tower would be great, but if they decide to play it cautious and build smaller, that's fine too... it just makes it more likely for other towers to be built in this area. I'd rather see a bunch of short buildings around this park than a few tall ones - it takes out the parking lots and helps build a neighborhood. A few really tall buildings sitting by themselves, with hundreds of cars pouring in and out all day, does not build a neighborhood.

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Great news, but as always it will probably be a long brutal process before shovels turn.

So this would be on the block adjacent to where 6 Houston Center would have been. I would have guessed that would have been first past the post in the downtown office building race.

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Looks like the intial plans call for only 31 stories:

31-story building planned

Citing downtown market's strength, developer expects to draw tenants

By NANCY SARNOFF

Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

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Betting on the continued strength of downtown's office market, Trammell Crow Co. is planning to build a tower on the eastern end of downtown near the convention center and Discovery Green, a 12-acre park under development.

The building, to be known as Discovery Tower, is designed to be 31 stories tall, including 630,000 square feet and 10 levels of parking. But the developer, which doesn't have a tenant for the building, said it could grow to 1.2 million square feet, depending on demand.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4663689.html

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Yeah, I didn't think 50 stories were very likely given the info from the original HBJ article. Sounds like a spec project, and given the wide range of office space proposed, it didn't sound like it would be any more ambitious than 35-40 stories. The building will probably top out at around 435 feet or so if we use our old estimate formula from the Turnberry thread.

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It's 31 stories now, but the story said it could grow (basically double) to around 50 stories based on demand. And they purchased the option on the next block! But I agree with H-Town Man--I wouldn't mind a dozen towers of 30-40 or so stories in place of say, 5 60 story office towers. If we can somehow get more mixed use towers (residential/hotel/office for example), then I think taller would be better. Taller ones would come if several 30, 40, even 50 story buildings quickly filled up because of the large blocks of space available.

Either way, great news!

Even greater news is the 6 Houston looks like it will be built on spec also, and Hines really is planning a new tower, likely for the "last seedy block of Main".

Edited by GovernorAggie
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It's 31 stories now, but the story said it could grow (basically double) to around 50 stories based on demand. And they purchased the option on the next block!

To me it was unclear whether the possible expansion meant more floors on the same building -- or building a second building on the other block. So if the demand comes in strong, I'm not sure if this one grows, or this one stays at 31 and they build another. (My guess is there are enough firms looking at building towers now that this one stays at 31 stories on one block, at best...)

I'm wondering just how "prime" this block is. If you're a company looking for space, what's more attractive? A building by the park, the convention center, Minute Maid, Houston Pavillions, etc...? Or one more centrally located in downtown? Either way, I'm beginning to think Brookfield's proposed building on the Continental Center I front lawn doesn't stand a chance -- it's in a far corner of downtown, and it's not close to any attractions. (Unless, of course, Chevron needs yet more space, but they're still getting the old Enron HQ ready for move-in)

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I'm wondering just how "prime" this block is. If you're a company looking for space, what's more attractive? A building by the park, the convention center, Minute Maid, Houston Pavillions, etc...? Or one more centrally located in downtown? Either way, I'm beginning to think Brookfield's proposed building on the Continental Center I front lawn doesn't stand a chance -- it's in a far corner of downtown, and it's not close to any attractions.

Brookfield's advantage is visibility along the western skyline. That's nothing to sneeze at. They're also in a fairly accessible part of downtown by virtue of the 'spaghetti bowl', whereas the eastern part requires a longer drive from most directions.

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It's 31 stories now, but the story said it could grow (basically double) to around 50 stories based on demand. And they purchased the option on the next block! But I agree with H-Town Man--I wouldn't mind a dozen towers of 30-40 or so stories in place of say, 5 60 story office towers. If we can somehow get more mixed use towers (residential/hotel/office for example), then I think taller would be better. Taller ones would come if several 30, 40, even 50 story buildings quickly filled up because of the large blocks of space available.

From an aesthetic standpoint, I'd rather have the 5 60-story towers because it would allow us more room for long-term growth and have a greater impact on the skyline, which in my view is much more important than the downtown streetscape.

My only reservation, though, is that our sleek native style will be replaced with imported architecture that tries to recreate styles from other cities. If those 60-story towers all had spires on them, for instance, like the Frost Bank building in Austin, I'd rather that they be smaller and not be in the position to dominate the skyline.

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It's 31 stories now, but the story said it could grow (basically double) to around 50 stories based on demand. And they purchased the option on the next block! But I agree with H-Town Man--I wouldn't mind a dozen towers of 30-40 or so stories in place of say, 5 60 story office towers. If we can somehow get more mixed use towers (residential/hotel/office for example), then I think taller would be better. Taller ones would come if several 30, 40, even 50 story buildings quickly filled up because of the large blocks of space available.

Either way, great news!

Even greater news is the 6 Houston looks like it will be built on spec also, and Hines really is planning a new tower, likely for the "last seedy block of Main".

What's spec mean?

===========

I've noticed on downtown maps on the street that the west side of DT is called the Skyline district. Do they call it that b/c that's just what it is, or are there some kind of regulations that say if you build in that area, it's gotta be a certain height?

===========

Another question. Is it more or less expensive to build two 30 story buildings, or one 60 story building? Or is it the same?

Edited by lockmat
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Most likely. Remember the ChevronTexaco tower was originally the Texas Heritage Plaza... then when Texaco signed on it became the Texaco Heritage Plaza. That's just how these things work.

That's cool. Although I really like Discovery Tower.

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