800 Bell St. (Former Exxon Building) Conversion to Residential

[bobruss]

So where's the render? Is this the same plan as they had a year ago?

[Triton]

Late 60s

 

[cspwal]

I think I see something on Block 334

[htownboy]

20 hours ago, Triton said:

Late 60s

 

Man, I wish all those pre-wars weren't mowed down... What a bummer that empty lots sit there now. Older downtowns function like real cities, not seas of boring disconnected, cold office towers. Anyways, a great shot and a great look into the past!

 

Perhaps this is straying from the topic of the discussion, but does anybody have an estimate of how many were destroyed?

[cspwal]

How many were vacant when they were torn down though?  Empty blocks suck, but 30 blocks of abandoned buildings doesn't exactly encourage a lively atmosphere

[Purdueenginerd]

Many US (inner) cites were abandoned in the 60's and 70's. This certainly wasn't unique to Houston. Its important to note too that renovation is most of the time cheaper than new construction. Obviously I can't predict what would have occurred if the buildings were kept, but In my opinion a few of them would have been renovated by the 90's and early aughts. 

Looking at that building in the foreground in historic aerial photography, thats the corner of La branch and Rusk st . Which today is a surface level parking lot. (Lot 97)

[cspwal]

That is a good point - I guess it's hard to imagine now other cities having lots of abandoned buildings.  

 

I wonder how downtown would have turned out if they hadn't demolished the buildings for Houston Center.  South downtown wasn't part of that, but it might have kept some of those buildings

[Ross]

A number of those buildings were likely torn down to reduce property taxes, reduce maintenance costs, and to provide the ability to make money from use as a parking lot. For those of you who weren't here in the 70's and especially the 80's during the oil bust, Downtown was dead. No one went there much, except to go to work. There was no real demand for space, so no reason for the buildings to be kept.

[Purdueenginerd]

Also, since were posting old photos of the building, I'll share a project I'm working on right now. I was able to get a skyline shot of Houston from 1966 which I had digitally restored.  I then hired a drone operator to take an equivalent shot for me. 

Edit, seems like I can only display one imgure link try this: http://i.imgur.com/np541Gz.jpg   and http://i.imgur.com/sfw5Mcj.jpg 

Edited December 30, 2016 by Purdueenginerd

[Triton]

44 minutes ago, Purdueenginerd said:

Also, since were posting old photos of the building, I'll share a project I'm working on right now. I was able to get a skyline shot of Houston from 1966 which I had digitally restored.  I then hired a drone operator to take an equivalent shot for me. 

Edit, seems like I can only display one imgure link try this: http://i.imgur.com/np541Gz.jpg   and http://i.imgur.com/sfw5Mcj.jpg 

I tried viewing your first picture in several different browsers but I am not able to view it.

Edited December 30, 2016 by Triton

[Purdueenginerd]

Just now, Triton said:

I tried viewing your first picture in several different browsers but I not able to view it.

Try this link

https://imgur.com/a/66Xxv

 

Not good at this internet thing this week apparently

[Triton]

Just now, Purdueenginerd said:

Try this link

https://imgur.com/a/66Xxv

 

Not good at this internet thing this week apparently

Awesome! That works.

[H-Town Man]

1 hour ago, Purdueenginerd said:

Also, since were posting old photos of the building, I'll share a project I'm working on right now. I was able to get a skyline shot of Houston from 1966 which I had digitally restored.  I then hired a drone operator to take an equivalent shot for me. 

Edit, seems like I can only display one imgure link try this: http://i.imgur.com/np541Gz.jpg   and http://i.imgur.com/sfw5Mcj.jpg 

 

Not bad at all in 50 years. The obvious next move will be to remove the freeway, so that development takes off in the foreground and the bayou becomes a greenscape corridor between two skylines.

 

 

[Ross]

5 hours ago, Purdueenginerd said:

Also, since were posting old photos of the building, I'll share a project I'm working on right now. I was able to get a skyline shot of Houston from 1966 which I had digitally restored.  I then hired a drone operator to take an equivalent shot for me. 

Edit, seems like I can only display one imgure link try this: http://i.imgur.com/np541Gz.jpg   and http://i.imgur.com/sfw5Mcj.jpg 

Apparently, there were no parking garages Downtown in 1966 (OK, there's one for the Humble Building, and presumably a couple of others). There are a lot of cars in the surface lots. Which may explain why so many low rise buildings were torn down.

[UtterlyUrban]

5 hours ago, Ross said:

A number of those buildings were likely torn down to reduce property taxes, reduce maintenance costs, and to provide the ability to make money from use as a parking lot. For those of you who weren't here in the 70's and especially the 80's during the oil bust, Downtown was dead. No one went there much, except to go to work. There was no real demand for space, so no reason for the buildings to be kept.

And, in the late 1980s, downtown after dark was fairly dangerous.  Heck, the Urban Animals had to skate around in big packs just to stay safe!

[BeerNut]

6 hours ago, Purdueenginerd said:

Try this link

https://imgur.com/a/66Xxv

 

Not good at this internet thing this week apparently

Awesome.  Only thing cooler would be if you could make one of pictures where you can slide it to reveal what's changed.

[HoustonIsHome]

I was walking passed the Exxon building at about 6:30 one morning and looked up and that building looked so charming, so comforting, so Houston. I will be sad when it is altered. 

 

It looks so good when the sun is going down with the Enron buildings in the background.

 

The alterations will make this building look so normal. So nondescript,  so anywheresville. 

 

This building,  Heritage Plaza,  BOA, Continental/ Chevron,  Wells Fargo all remind me of Houston. 

[H-Town Man]

I doubt it will be altered.

[j_cuevas713]

Even if the existing facade stayed as is, the building is in desperate need of a good scrubbing. I drive by it every single day.

 

[Ross]

3 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Even if the existing facade stayed as is, the building is in desperate need of a good scrubbing. I drive by it every single day.

 

They redid almost all of the stone cladding not that long ago, maybe 10 years. It shouldn't be too dirty yet.

[cougarpad]

It been a while since I have heard anything on 800 Bell. There was a company planning to renovate it last I heard. Then there were the talks of turning it into a court complex. I thought was a innovative way reuse the tower. Figure you dont need all the floors for the court complex so the rest could be rented out law firms and such.

[BigBlueContractor]

The study was done, high rise court facilities do not work. Major problems with conveyance of people, i.e. inmates and jury members. Also parking becomes a headache, people end up being late, etc... 

[Avossos]

1 hour ago, BigBlueContractor said:

The study was done, high rise court facilities do not work. Major problems with conveyance of people, i.e. inmates and jury members. Also parking becomes a headache, people end up being late, etc... 

 

That is too bad. Would love to see this building remain in it's current form.

[Ross]

3 hours ago, BigBlueContractor said:

The study was done, high rise court facilities do not work. Major problems with conveyance of people, i.e. inmates and jury members. Also parking becomes a headache, people end up being late, etc... 

Someone needs to tell Harris County that, since both of the main courthouses are high rise buildings.

 

800 Bell's elevators are first class, fast, and there are a lot of them. 3 banks if I remember correctly from meetings I attended there.

[BigBlueContractor]

They learned their lesson! Especially with the Jury Issue. They had to build a separate building just to house the jurors before they could go in. 

 

But you have to remember that was all master planned and their are tunnels that go from jails to criminal courthouse - it allows for seperation. 800 Bell would not allow that. They were also talking about 800 Bell housing the police HQ at 600 Travis. The original deal that was in place was a really complex delivery. 

 

The bottom line is that the COH needs new "social infrastructure", but they do not have enough money to pay for it. They would have to go to the voters asking to get 500+ to rebuild their jails, courthouses, and police center into a "campus". It is spread out right now, where Harris County is bundled together nicely. 

 

Not sure what the voters appetite would be on a large bond program for those types of facilities?

[Houston19514]

19 minutes ago, BigBlueContractor said:

They learned their lesson! Especially with the Jury Issue. They had to build a separate building just to house the jurors before they could go in. 

 

But you have to remember that was all master planned and their are tunnels that go from jails to criminal courthouse - it allows for seperation. 800 Bell would not allow that. They were also talking about 800 Bell housing the police HQ at 600 Travis. The original deal that was in place was a really complex delivery. 

 

The bottom line is that the COH needs new "social infrastructure", but they do not have enough money to pay for it. They would have to go to the voters asking to get 500+ to rebuild their jails, courthouses, and police center into a "campus". It is spread out right now, where Harris County is bundled together nicely. 

 

Not sure what the voters appetite would be on a large bond program for those types of facilities?

 

Why would they need to separate the jurors any more than they currently do?

[Ross]

The cases heard in municipal court are all small misdemeanors. Jury separation is a far smaller issue.

[Sparrow]

3 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

 

Why would they need to separate the jurors any more than they currently do?

What's all this talk of separating anyhow? I thought the jury building for the county was more of an organizational convenience than a need to isolate the populace from the law.

 

I served for nearly 2 months on a trial at the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse a few years back, and on many occasions walked in thru the metal detectors right behind or in front of the guys that were on trial or lawyers from either side. We jurors exercised good practice (as did they) and didn't ride in the same elevator up with them--we would just wait for the next one.  

 

Edited March 9, 2017 by Sparrow

[BigBlueContractor]

27 minutes ago, Sparrow said:

What's all this talk of separating anyhow? I thought the jury building for the county was more of an organizational convenience than a need to isolate the populace from the law.

 

I served for nearly 2 months on a trial at the Bob Casey Federal Courthouse a few years back, and on many occasions walked in thru the metal detectors right behind or in front of the guys that were on trial or lawyers from either side. We jurors exercised good practice (as did they) and didn't ride in the same elevator up with them--we would just wait for the next one.  

 

Correct... It was more of preventing from you waiting outside in the rain when they have a pool they are picking from. Let's say it is more of convenience and knowing that your tax dollars are being well spent. 

[mollusk]

On 1/2/2017 at 6:09 PM, Ross said:

They redid almost all of the stone cladding not that long ago, maybe 10 years. It shouldn't be too dirty yet.

 

Let's hope your mother isn't reading this... 

 

On 3/8/2017 at 7:24 PM, Ross said:

Someone needs to tell Harris County that, since both of the main courthouses are high rise buildings.

 

The public elevators in the criminal courthouse are incredibly inadequate.  Those in the civil courthouse just have pretty long waits at peak times - far longer than what you experience in a typical commercial building.

 

9 hours ago, BigBlueContractor said:

They learned their lesson! Especially with the Jury Issue. They had to build a separate building just to house the jurors before they could go in. 

 

The current centrally located underground jury assembly facility is at least the second one. There was an earlier version in Congress Plaza, on Congress between Fannin and Main, built in the very early 80s.  Before that goes a bit before my time.