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rechlin

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Posts posted by rechlin

  1. They've clearly been digging a pit in the south corner of the block for a while now, I think since early last week. There's been a steady stream of dump trucks all week, hauling out dirt rather than just debris from the tower deconstruction.

  2. Wait.. so this building will have its front entrance on MILAM?? how is that so if the garage and the vehicle ramp drive in/out is on the Milam side? or did they completely reorient the garage, and have the tower facing Market Square, instead of facing south like we all assumed? because that archway on the ground floor in the middle of the building sure looks like the front entrance to me, and i always figured that was facing Preston?

    I think the incline in the drawing is facing the wrong direction for it to be the Milam elevation. Doesn't Milam go downhill as you go north?

  3. The Stowers building is as close to Class A as it's going to get without tearing it down and rebuilding. It was completely redone, interior and exterior, less than 10 years ago, and it has tunnel access. I don't see what else could be done. The Wilson building had the same treatment but obviously has no tunnel access.

    I'd be very surprised if there's a boutique hotel in the Stowers building. The tenant directory sign in the lobby doesn't mention a hotel, and I don't think it's configured for the plumbing one would want for a hotel.

    I hope the rumor of exciting things being about to happen is true! I'm hoping to see some ground floor retail at the very least, as it's set up perfectly for that.

  4. Unfortunately, the situation is the same with the Stowers Building at 820 Fannin.  It was totally renovated around 2005-2006, yet today it remains almost completely vacant.  I think there's one tenant on the 10th floor, but that's it.

     

    It's great that developers are willing to save old buildings, but it seems like there is little demand from companies to then use them as office space.  This means much less of an incentive to save buildings in the future.

  5. I swear There are some now in downtown... Skyhouse? JW Marriott?

    No, sidewalks are completely blocked off at both of those places. There were some temporarily-covered sidewalks near GreenStreet recently, not sure if they are still covered. Also they recently added a little bit of sidewalk covering around the Texaco building, too, but the existing arcades do a good job of covering most of it so they didn't need much.

  6. Last week they finally reopened the old Texaco garage, and it's already mostly full of cars. This should give some much needed relief to the other garages and surface lots in the area, which have been a lot more full the last 6 months due to this garage being closed. As I suspected, they reconfigured the garage entrance to the San Jacinto side, because the Rusk side is blocked by the new light rail station. I wonder if Metro helped pay for this. They've also restriped most of the spots (except the top floor or so), and put up a new fence on the Fannin side. Click for a bigger view:

    Qq7QQ0pl.jpg

    • Like 2
  7. They're doing a massive concrete pour now, with a constant stream of cement trucks driving in and out all day today. While I was taking this photo (click for a bigger view), I saw identical trucks driving by on both Lamar and McKinney, too, so they have at least half a dozen cement trucks around there at any point.

    jELnrswl.jpg

    • Like 3
  8. No activity yesterday. The crane never moved, and the Bobcats and other equipment were just left at ground level with nothing on the roof. Looks like they are down to 15 stories now. No evidence of ground having broken; I don't know where that rumor came from (click for larger view):

    26s67VBl.jpg

    • Like 2
  9. Yes, it looks like they've cut a couple more floors of it since my last update. They've experimented with different tools on the Bobcat; for a while this week they were using the jackhammer instead of the shovel. Also it's been amusing to see a porta-potty on the roof of the building. Here's a photo of them hard at work on Wednesday (click for full size):

    Wz3FTMel.jpg

    And here's a photo (again, click for high resolution) of what it looked like late Friday afternoon:

    kpTrtuql.jpg

    • Like 3
  10. I figure since it has been a couple weeks since my last update, I'd update you guys again. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a whole lot of visible progress lately.

    They finally took down the scaffolding around the penthouse. Also, they put another coat of paint on floors 18 through 20, so those look a lot less splotchy now. Then they shortened the mast climbers/scaffolvators down to the 17th floor. Most recently, they added a little more trim around the 17th floor windows, troweled on the gray stuff, and put a coat of white paint on it. Also I saw a guy putting a little bit of the gray stuff on the right side of the area behind the right elevator, below floors 18, 19, and 20.

    Here's a photo from late Friday afternoon, and as usual, click for higher resolution:

    xNoSorBl.jpg

    • Like 6
  11. I took a few photos of the new lights while biking home from work on Friday night. They look awesome; I'm really happy with what they've done so far! The blue lights on the ends of the bridge to the police memorial are a nice touch. Unfortunately, the blue lights on top of the trail lights weren't all functional; maybe a quarter were out. I guess they're still working on it.

    Still not the best nighttime camera (just used my little pocket point and shoot that I carry everywhere) but I think they turned out a little better than the above ones (click each for higher resolution):

    fJEvFRjl.jpg

    QOPFiTOl.jpg

    PIiNmtql.jpg

    HwOWembl.jpg

    • Like 8
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