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Bank Of America Tower At 800 Capitol St.


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1 hour ago, H-Town Man said:

Looks good, more open and cold than some of the other downtown food halls but it is also functioning as a gateway from the tunnels. Seems like it will probably lack the intimacy of some of its competitors for this reason. But it probably won't need it to be successful due to the sheer volume of traffic.

 

Michael Hsu did a similar food hall in Austin that was below-grade in a downtown office building, opening up to the first floor lobby above. Like there he has used a lot of wood to soften the corporate atmosphere. This one feels more successful because the surrounding architecture of the building is contemporary versus the 80's architecture of the Austin building, but in both cases you get the feeling that he doesn't really enjoy the office tower environment and wants to collect his fee and move to the next project.

 

I agree with your comments on it's location but I honestly believe the synergy that's been created downtown already, will fuel the tunnels in to becoming something much more than a place for workers. 

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2 hours ago, CrockpotandGravel said:



Another rendering of Mama Ninfa’s Tacos y Tortas coming to Understory, the food hall at Skanska's Capitol Tower in downtown Houston.

From the Understory website:
mmpHuZQ.jpg
(direct link to non-compressed, full size image: https://i.imgur.com/mmpHuZQ.jpg )
 

 

The dude that did the rendering needs to chill a bit with the motion blur. All these people are standing still or stationary in some sense. Unless these people are ridiculous fidgetters, or the whole place is buzzing then what is going on here? To those here who ever get into architecture visualization...motion blur is for...things in motion not standing still. If that even needs to be said.

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  • 5 weeks later...
On 3/21/2019 at 6:38 PM, mattyt36 said:

Anyone know when the closed tunnel sections will reopen?

 

(BTW the Downtown District’s website on this is useless ... the map still shows 609 Main as under construction.)

 

from rumors in chase tower, that section is supposed to open Q4, maybe Q1 next year.

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9 hours ago, mollusk said:

Last time I looked, the sign on the easels on the tunnel level in Pennzoil and Esperson said 2Q this year - which certainly looks doable, if a bit tight.

 

I recall seeing the same, though perhaps something would slow them opening all the way to Chase, no idea there. In any case they are working on interior trim, sidewalk pavers and landscaping. They could certainly be done in a couple of months based on what you see at street level, if the tunnel stuff is behind, it could of course take longer. 

 

These food halls seem to take their sweet time getting built out. 

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There is a sign in front of the Bank of America location in the lobby at 700 Louisiana that says they are permanently closing at 2 pm on June 7th, and opening the new location June 10th. I'd bet the building has to be finished by the 10th.

Edited by jermh
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Walked by at lunch time today (blissfully ignoring the BoA sign in the lobby on my way out the door - prolly mentally registered as likely having to do with home loans or some such)... they're setting the sidewalk trees, and the ground floor lobby suddenly looks a whole lot more finished than it did even last week. 

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On 4/23/2019 at 9:37 AM, Houston19514 said:

 

According to the article linked below, the tower "is expected to deliver in June."

https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/office/skanska-taps-law-firm-as-new-tenant-at-capital-tower-96156

Great news, if accurate!

On 4/23/2019 at 12:25 PM, jermh said:

There is a sign in front of the Bank of America location in the lobby at 700 Louisiana that says they are permanently closing at 2 pm on June 7th, and opening the new location June 10th. I'd bet the building has to be finished by the 10th.

GREAT!

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  • 2 weeks later...
14 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

 

Nah, would rather have kept that and had this built on one of our dozens of surface parking lots. However if we must erase every iota of history from our city I'm at least glad to see this level of development take its place. 

Totally agree. I guess my question was geared more towards the second part of what you said.

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15 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

 

Nah, would rather have kept that and had this built on one of our dozens of surface parking lots. However if we must erase every iota of history from our city I'm at least glad to see this level of development take its place. 

 

Both agree and disagree. It really depends on context and the situation. What I admire most about this city is that it de-emphasizes the more elitist mentality that arises with preservation and the "well I'm here first and here for all time". Instead the city embraces the idea that each new generation has a chance to redefine what Houston is for them, and the same applies for each future generation. To your remarks this current generation has been the most flexible generation than any that have proceeded it, yet at the same time isn't going to simply beholden to a previous generations interpretations of the city restricting the current one from constructing where they would like to express themselves and how they wish the city to be. There are restraints that are necessary and then there are unnecessary constraints. We can't put top-down constraints that put undo burden on those that come after us. Instead the best we can do is make architecture that can be as flexible as possible to make it easier for those in the future to do something new and interesting, and also pass down that knowledge to others. Houston is not really a city of the past or even the future, but a city for right now. Its why its one of the ultimate modernist cities and its why the city is so dynamic right now.

 

EDIT: This doesn't mean that there aren't trade-offs to this mentality, but it is the prevailing ethos and identity that we carry, and while it does come with some sacrifices I believe that it is what makes us unique and interesting.

Edited by Luminare
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26 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

Both agree and disagree. It really depends on context and the situation. What I admire most about this city is that it de-emphasizes the more elitist mentality that arises with preservation and the "well I'm here first and here for all time". Instead the city embraces the idea that each new generation has a chance to redefine what Houston is for them, and the same applies for each future generation. To your remarks this current generation has been the most flexible generation than any that have proceeded it, yet at the same time isn't going to simply beholden to a previous generations interpretations of the city restricting the current one from constructing where they would like to express themselves and how they wish the city to be. There are restraints that are necessary and then there are unnecessary constraints. We can't put top-down constraints that put undo burden on those that come after us. Instead the best we can do is make architecture that can be as flexible as possible to make it easier for those in the future to do something new and interesting, and also pass down that knowledge to others. Houston is not really a city of the past or even the future, but a city for right now. Its why its one of the ultimate modernist cities and its why the city is so dynamic right now.

 

EDIT: This doesn't mean that there aren't trade-offs to this mentality, but it is the prevailing ethos and identity that we carry, and while it does come with some sacrifices I believe that it is what makes us unique and interesting.

 

So are you completely against top-down constraints? Do you wish we didn't have the historic district protections for the buildings around Market Square and lower Main?

 

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1 hour ago, H-Town Man said:

 

So are you completely against top-down constraints? Do you wish we didn't have the historic district protections for the buildings around Market Square and lower Main?

 

 

I find it a little funny how after reading all of that, the only question you can come back with is a question that could essentially be boiled down to "are you part of my tribe or not?" I'm not going to answer a question like that because I don't need to. Do you have a better more nuanced clarifying question than those?

Edited by Luminare
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30 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

I find it a little funny how after reading all of that, the only question you can come back with is a question that could essentially be boiled down to "are you part of my tribe or not?" I'm not going to answer a question like that because I don't need to. Do you have a better more nuanced clarifying question than those?

 

It's the only question I had about what you said. I am trying to distill all the waxing eloquent to a specific position. The question I asked was fairly clear and direct, in contrast to your post, which was all nuance and no clarity.

 

 

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On 5/10/2019 at 10:36 AM, Nate99 said:

They're really closing in on completion here, they have furniture in the lobby already. 

 

And today the sidewalks are open to mere mortals such as us.

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