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Yes, we do!

Does anyone know where this is?

This passed city council unanimously - pretty big step for Houston Urbanism.

A few pages back, it was mentioned that the leases were all expiring by 2020. This is incredible news and exciting to think about the gravitational pull this area is going to have. There was already so much momentum prior to this announcement.

Looking real good

Adjacent to the regular seated restaurant, it looks like common bond will also have some sort of counter service. Covered out-door seating area.

My rankings for downtown development: Tall building with GFR Mid-rise with retail on the ground floor Lot line building, 1-2 stories, with a shop, bar, or restaurant in it Mid-rise building Tall building Park (public space mainly with grass) Plaza (public space mainly with concrete) Nice looking parking garage vacant lot covered in grass active construction site giant hole in the ground parking lot

A couple of pics of the ceiling in the main atrium, taken from the third floor. As you can see, there’s tons of natural light augmented with some artificial light. I can’t wait to see this building once she’s finished!

I am beyond excited about this corner of houston getting the attention it deserves! I vote for no mattress store to reopen and for Half Price Books to take over that kooky building between Smoothie King and Snooze...(or somewhere else cool as i love Half Price Books and want it to have a cool new home)

wow! They certainly did not buy it to keep it as is. We should see something finally happen here!

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-considers-a-plan-to-make-the-city-more-15459085.php

I love these mid rise buildings. They are not as costly as a hirise They usually are cheaper to rent because of this. They can be filled up quicker They look a lot better than a surface lot They contribute more to building up the critical density than a surface lot. To be honest my eyes are usually between ground level and 6 levels or so. Anything higher than that for me is just icing. Filling up vacant or surface lots is more exciting than the number of floors just as long as I'm not looking at blank walls or exposed parking levels.

Eh, this is one of the most important intersections in the city. I'm hoping for something genuinely great (like the Montrose Collective + 500 apartments or something) rather than just good enough.

Per Nancy Sarnoff in today's Houston Chronicle: "Skanska USA Commercial Development closed this week on a $27 million acquisition of the property at the southwest corner of Westheimer and Montrose where it plans to build an apartment and retail development."

Exactly recognize you have a opportunity to do something that could define Montrose for the next 50 years . The goal should be something bold that stands out.

I think when it's all done, it will come together nicely...... I will remain optimistic. :-)

Unanimously???? Fantastic! I'm going to buy a cake or something to celebrate!

These pics are everything. Hines should have a holiday in Houston.

@houstontexasjackI partially agree with you. The street level facade at lobby/bank hall on Capitol and at the Understory atrium on Milam are nice enough. The ability to peer down into the food hall from outside and walk down the tiered seating inside has a nice sense of occasion and connection. The glassy tower is decent... but also at ground level everything beyond the Common Bond location on Rusk and all of the frontage on Travis doesn't feel scaled to pedestrians at all. Perhaps it's unfair, but for me it really drags the overall exterior experience down. I don't necessarily mind the lack of GFR (actually Common Bond is gonna be awesome at this location). It's the massing, detailing, and materiality along these 2 streets (Rusk & Travis) that bother me. It felt inhospitable to walk there. The big planter boxes somehow make it worse by squeezing people up against the big stone wall like walking through a back alley. They even down-graded the sidewalk pavement to plain ole concrete here 🤨. I know these are the more service/utility oriented sides of the building but other towers built within the last 15-20yrs do it appreciably better (1000 Main, Hilcorp, BG Place, 609 Main...) If a building occupies a full Downtown block, I don't think any side can be treated like it's the back but that's how most of the bottom 2 floors on the Rusk and Travis sides look. ^^^This doesn't look all that well thought out to me.

I very honestly would add the areas around the current rail lines to those two streets. Midtown, just by the buildings that are already there, give a glimpse of what the rail corridors could end up looking like, specifically that area by the Continental Club and a few streets north. All that land around Wheeler (that Rice/Mann don't already own) and south of it, the land south of TMC going to NRG, and the area going southeast of the soccer stadium can finally have development that makes sense and not just random smatterings of...whatever.

I'm hoping that the Planning Department starts cranking out new Walkable Places and transit corridors as quickly as possible. Right now only the existing light rail lines, the uptown BRT, and the University BRT will be designated as corridors. They need to add every planned BRT line, Light rail extension, BOOST line, and any other high frequency bus line immediately. The 82 (lower Westheimer) needs to be a transit corridor yesterday. And then, for the first round of walkable places: Washington Corridor All of Montrose W 19th St White Oak Yale Shepherd Durham Rice Village EaDo N Main ...and lots of other places

Great photos thanks for those ! This building is making a massive presence felt downtown and I hope eventually on part of the skyline. It is amazing and going up so fast now. I swear Houston has one of THE BEST skylines in the country ! I'm so proud of this great City and region.

I hope Skanska puts A LOT more thought into the pedestrian experience and overall design than they did at Capitol Tower (not that whatever this becomes will be at the scale of a Downtown Tower). They REALLY need to step it up to Hines, Midway, Hanover, and Radom levels of thought and design.

Big win. Emailed the council members after meeting, I'm hoping they received enough support post meeting for them to feel comfortable with their votes. Mayor Turner being such a stalwart in defense of the ordinance probably had a huge impact.

Couldn't get any pics, but they're digging real deep on this one. I'm saying it's already a floor and a half down.

Literally tearing up the whole street, also looks like part of the new sidewalks are in.

Idk. An active construction site puts more of a smile on my face than a vacant lot covered in grass. That Chevron lot still hurts my heart. Depending on what's going up, I would prefer an active construction site over the plaza and park too. Construction sites are fun to follow

I hope it is the existing one in the mentioned center relocating since their lease is up...

From the Chronicle article today Why do we insist on covering all interesting architecture up?

I would have put "Johnny on the Job edifice" for #12 and parking lot as #13, but your list is spot on.

I wonder why they opted for a huge Randal Davis style podium to face Market Square like that. They couldn't have pizzazz'd it with some typical vertical long LED strips to make this +10 story stone wall visually appealing? Aris literally faces the park. Market Square Tower kind of tried. Just expected something more I guess.

I'm guessing these are glass mockups for the pyramid canopy? For reference the top picture was 8 am this morning and the bottom photo was from 6 pm last night.

N ⌵⌵⌵ Neither does this.

I think the Capitol Tower is actually quite nice in terms of pedestrian experience. The opening into Understory is clear and quite inviting. It lacks the same opportunities for ground floor tenants as 609 Main, but I think the design was mean to engage the surface with the tunnel space below. Skanska's "tunnel space" connects with the ground level in a way that I haven't seen with other structures Downtown. I would not peg the Capitol Tower design as lacking thought. It just engages the ground level differently than more traditional retail rings.

I agree, it's been surprisingly nice. The stone will be curved and has a nice look to it already. For a parking podium, it's better than any other I can think of in the near vicinity

I honestly like it. I think it will come together just fine.

I'm sure the ground floor will look fine which is what most people will be interacting with anyway.

I wonder what is going to happen to the tenants that are there now and their leases? I agree about covering up original facades with unattractive coverings, maybe the architects will incorporate some of the old Art Deco design into their new development?

The Park is very cute but having it gated is very unwelcoming. I know they're probably afraid of a tent city popping up here, but at least they're looking into future changes. If the 45 ribbons weren't strangling it either, it could very well be the front lawn of the city to tie in with BBP. I really hope they don't add building/hotel structure here. The potential is great for redevelopment. Imagine a Central Library redesign on top of that.

Montrose Collective Steel assembly continues...

East downtown is supposed be a downtown neighborhood, but the East side is still really lacking in pharmacies. If you look at this map, each ring is a 1/2 mile radius from a pharmacy (CVS, Walgreens, Kroger Pharmacy, HEB pharmacy, Randalls pharmacy).

especially if they power wash the side walk

Found a new vantage point. Definitely a great leg workout at 11 stories.