1177 replies to this topic

[Jax]

would the project be a failure otherwise?

I didn't say that, all I said is they didn't mention retail. Somebody on here told me there was going to be retail, and I am personally interested to know whether that is true or not. The Chronicle didn't mention retail, and neither did the official press release.

I don't think retail could make or break this project, but retail could possibly benefit main street. Even with all of the empty retail space, it takes empty space to make something great in the future. If everybody designed their projects to have no retail space, there will be no possibility of a vibrant street in the future. At least with empty space, there is a possibility of it filling up in the future.

I think retail might factor into the LEED certification somehow. The Chronicle mentioned that the Discovery building was going to have retail, as a part of it's LEED certification, or something like that. But until we get some real credible information, it's all speculation. Unless somebody has insider info that I don't know about.

Edited by Jax, Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 11:48 AM.

[sevfiv]

I don't know much about demo... are there other ways besides implosion to take down a 11 story building ?

i don't know much about it either, but another option is wrecking ball.
it doesn't seem that there is a whole lot of room for the swing of the crane, line, and ball...

[Highway6]

.. but another option is wrecking ball.

Fun

[lockmat]

Either I can't find it, or Pickard Chilton, the architecture firm designing it, has not put it up on their site yet.

where did that other link come from? Hines' site?

[wxman]

i don't know much about it either, but another option is wrecking ball.
it doesn't seem that there is a whole lot of room for the swing of the crane, line, and ball...

I would imagine implosion would be the way to do it. Another option would be to dismantle the building floor by floor.

This is being done right now on the 40 story Deutsche Bank Building in NYC. The building was severely damaged by the collapse of WTC 2 and tore a 26 story hole in the facade of the building. During the disaster the sprinkler system filled the building with water. After not being inhabited for over two years, black mold grew over everything and on top of that, over 300 human remains were found in and on the building. Therefore the building is being taken down floor by floor, piece by piece. The once 40 story building is now down to 26 floors.

[pm91]

hey quick question, how tall is MainPlace in FEET?

[HtownWxBoy]

This is going to be a great building... w/ great views from many sides of the city. Coming in on I10 from the east yesterday I noticed that you will have a great view of the building.

[Houston19514]

hey quick question, how tall is MainPlace in FEET?

630 feet

[fandangoeggplant]

Considering the age of the buildings to be demolished, asbestos may be a primary factor in evaluating methods of demolition.

We'll see.

[PAC]

Look back at the Chronicle's main picture of MainPlace. See all that clear glass store front on Main Street? Thats retail. It also has retail back on the corner of Fannin and Rusk, though its not much (think Starbucks or something of that ilk). Total retail SF is roughly 10k.

As for the site...the buildings are not interconnected around Stowers. The Stowers does not touch anything else...there are alleys on all sides. The Montague, which is 12 stories, will be imploded, while the West Building may or may not be imploded.

[Jax]

The photo of Main Street looked like a huge glass lobby entrance to me. I'm glad I may be wrong.

Edited by Jax, Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 2:58 PM.

[Gary]

The photo of Main Street looked like a huge glass lobby entrance to me. I'm glad I may be wrong.

It seems to me that this tower is a win, win situationn regardless of whether it has retail or not. What I mean, is that this tower will house a few thousand workers, which in turn will inject money into the surrounding Main street area. Main already has a number of boarded up retail spaces, so this could help revitalize those locations... At least during the work week.

[Jax]

I totally agree. But I'm still curious.

[Highway6]

Look back at the Chronicle's main picture of MainPlace. See all that clear glass store front on Main Street? Thats retail.

No.. that's lobby. Big, overthetop lobby space like every other new skyscraper has.
The only place there might be retail would be the smaller glass area at the base of the garage.. so we're talking half a block along Main maybe.

[Jax]

Jackson,

There will be retail space along Main Street…we fully intend to address the Main Street component of this project with landscaping, retail frontage, etc. While we don’t have anything of the scale of the Pavilions, we do have as much as is possible given the layout of our 3/4 block site.

I appreciate the thoughts and comments. We are very excited about this project and Pickard’s design.

Sincerely,
Philip Croker
Project Manager

[sevfiv]

As for the site...the buildings are not interconnected around Stowers. The Stowers does not touch anything else...there are alleys on all sides. The Montague, which is 12 stories, will be imploded, while the West Building may or may not be imploded.

Beatty-West is extremely close to stowers -



and even closer to Bond:

Edited by sevfiv, Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 3:33 PM.

[Highway6]

Jackson,

There will be retail space along Main Street…

Sincerely,
Philip Croker
Project Manager

Okay.. so maybe a little more than half of Main St frontage... at the garage.. thats pretty good. (first pic)

Still the lobby is shown all along Rusk and along Main in the 2nd pic...
and in the third pic, at the end of the int lobby shot, you can see lobby window opening to Fannin.. so it doesnt look like to me there will be any retail actually at the lobby of the bldg, in any direction....... just the garage, which.. if thats 60% of a block along Main.. aint so bad.

EDIT: I guess that lil corner at Rusk and Fannin could be something pretty small retail... though i dont know why they would want to mar the corner of their shiny new bldg with clear lobby all the way through.. with a starbucks.

Edited by Highway6, Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 3:38 PM.

[sevfiv]

Sincerely,
Philip Croker
Project Manager

i think we're all getting our information from the same person

Edited by sevfiv, Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 3:38 PM.

[Jax]

He said their minimum LEED goal was silver, but they are hoping to do ever better.

[Boris]

If I'm not mistaken, this is the block that will be demolished?










On the bottom:










And to the right:





And this is what I found on Windows Live Local, the block in the middle:






If so, though I prefer older buildings than new glass skyscrapers, I think this new office tower will be an improvement here.

..

Edited by Boris, Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 5:31 PM.

[Jax]

If I'm not mistaken, this is the block that will be demolished?

Why are there always people hanging out on that corner? Is there a bus stop, or something? I always see people just standing around on this corner, but why?

[musicman]

Why are there always people hanging out on that corner? Is there a bus stop, or something? I always see people just standing around on this corner, but why?

from the pic it looks like a bus stop.

[Jax]

Yeah maybe that's it. Always more people standing around that corner than other ones. I didn't notice the sign until now.

[ricco67]

If I'm not mistaken, this is the block that will be demolished?










On the bottom:










And to the right:





And this is what I found on Windows Live Local, the block in the middle:






If so, though I prefer older buildings than new glass skyscrapers, I think this new office tower will be an improvement here.

..

Good lord, what did you do? rent a copter to get these shots?


I'm gone for a day and and there are a ton of posts on this.


As I mentioned in a previous post, the logistics for the construction are going to be a pain on this job, especially with the time frame they have put on themselves.
Deconstruction isn't much of an option with their schedule they put themselves in. I'm sure that if there was absestos in there, they would have taken it into consideration.

They might have the wrecking ball starting on the Rusk/Fannin corner and work their way in. I'm trying to wrap my head around how're they're going to do it with minimal traffic lane closures and intrusion upon Club Quarters...

which reminds me, their Valet is going to be a major pain. The current procedure is for them to park across the street in the lot, drive down Walker, to main, and then to the Rusk entrance.
Once Demo/construction starts, northbound traffic on main gets shut down. So that means they will have to go all the way to travis to circle around. Kinda' makes me feel bad for the valet guys.

[TheNiche]

FYI, the entire Stowers Building is for sale by CBRE; they weren't even able to sell one office condo. Hines had it under contract at one time but backed out. It is probably safe from the wrecking ball at this point in time.

[pm91]

by any chance can someone update emporis?

[ChannelTwoNews]

by any chance can someone update emporis?

It was updated yesterday.

[pm91]

then why isnt mainplace in front of one park place? and it still doesnt have a pic and neither does discovery green.

[ChannelTwoNews]

then why isnt mainplace in front of one park place? and it still doesnt have a pic and neither does discovery green.

I was the one who updated the page for MainPlace, and it takes a while (up to 2 days) sometimes for the changes to appear on the public version... so maybe later today the info should be updated everywhere.

I also added pages for 6 Houston Center and the new Duncan College at Rice in the process.

When it comes to renderings, I can't upload a scan from the paper at this point since there's probably a better version available which would be released soon enough.

Edited by ChannelTwoNews, Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 11:29 PM.