Montrose1100

1 hour ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

The Moran CityCentre hotel undergoing renovations - Houston Business Journal (bizjournals.com)

"A comprehensive hotel renovation is Houston-based Midway's latest move to expand and update its CityCentre mixed-use development.

The Moran CityCentre's 244 guest rooms have been updated, and the transformed public spaces will debut in late summer, Midway said April 15. The goal of the project is to improve "the overall guest experience through a modern Texas-inspired aesthetic, state-of-the-art amenities and new food and beverage offerings," the company said.

This will be the first renovation of The Moran CityCentre, at 800 Sorella Court, since it opened in 2009 as Hotel Sorella CityCentre."

This is great news. They went with such an odd trend of the time, aged it quickly.

They already have a few cow hide rugs, so what's the harm in adding some more?

Apologies for the grainy photo. Screenshot of a video.

So Long, Shanghai River!

18 hours ago, mollusk said:

There was not a giant sign at the top of the building, but there was monument signage at the street level.

It was across the fountain, and beautiful at night. 

20 hours ago, CREguy13 said:

You really can't please everyone haha

This is accurate reporting, apparently a memo went out not long ago within Oxy on these very details.  Having this level of corporate campus is a total game changer for the RO development.  The Oxy news is also a recent update and is  'in addition' to the build-to-suit office building (another awesome tenant).  This is going to be an incredible urban development, anchored by 2 great corporate tenants. 

So much of the interest from these companies to relocate to the RO is primarily the walkability of an urban campus with housing, lodging and retail/restaurants on-site. So cheer up @shasta, there will be a lot of construction soon!

This is exciting. Their renderings for the buildings last cycle were really nice (especially the lone tall one). Excited to see what they cook up next.

Do they own the Anadarko tower complex in the Woodlands?

This is such a waste of time and money. Also bitter about the Y pillars getting annihilated. 

8 minutes ago, hindesky said:

A towering new high rise along Allen Parkway is being called an eyesore by some Houstonians thanks to a series of ultra-bright lights covering the exterior of the building.

Construction on The Allen, at 759 Gillette St. just west of Downtown, began in 2019. At the time, the tower was lauded for its proximity to Buffalo Bayou and its mixed-use offerings, which include retail stores, restaurants, a spa, and a 172-room luxury hotel from Thompson Hotels, as well as 99 luxury condos starting at $1.8 million. Among those condos are 22 multi-story penthouses, priced between $3 million and $9 million, with floor-to-ceiling windows and "state of the art" amenities including smart lighting, music controls, temperature controls and electronic vehicle charging stations in the parking garage. A May Instagram post from Thompson Hotels referred to the tower as an "architectural marvel poised to become the fashion-forward landmark of the city."

That was until September when the lights came on. The decorative lights, which appear as horizontal bars wrapping around the building, appear brighter than nearly anything else in the Houston skyline. And that's led to plenty of discussion on social media.

In a lengthy thread on the Houston Architecture Information Forum, posters at first were excited about the lighting, writing that it added a modern and "posh" look to Downtown. But pretty soon the questions came.

"I could see the neighbors complaining about how bright it is," one user wrote, along with photos taken from a distance showing just how bright the lights look from afar.

https://www.chron.com/culture/article/houston-allen-parkway-tower-lights-18591772.php

 

 

I wonder who that person on HAIF is? 😏🤷‍♂️🙊

 

There was a thread on r/houston, and thought I was on nextdoor for a second. It's just as bright as 1 Shell in the distance. Our Downtown lighting is a joke, the absolute minimum. A lighting scheme comes along with something other than just the roof outline and it's an "eyesore".

If it's a bright enough problem for the Allen House or the Apartments to the south, sure they could dim them a bit. Otherwise, think it looks great. Downtown properties should step up their game if they don't wish to be outshined.

Complaining about lack of lights as another ERCOT warning comes out for next week. 🙄

Let's keep this thread on topic.

4 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

Barf

At least the current building is interesting. It's "diagonal" to the grid, and very well lit at night. Another boring blue box for the Energy Corridor, I mean Allen Parkway.

On 10/6/2023 at 2:33 AM, IntheKnowHouston said:

 

The webpage for the forthcoming Houston location of Holey Moley is up.

Holey Moley is a bar with a miniature golf course & putt putt. Houston is one of a handful of USA markets the Australian-based concept is expanding to.

Located at 3839 Weslayan St, Suite 101, Holey Moley is leasing Harlow's / Harlow's Food & Fun's former space. It's on the ground level, next to Regal Edwards Greenway Grand Palace movie theater.

.
https://www.holeymoley.com/locations/houston

I like how mini-golf is back, but with drinking.

8 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

Looks like I & II ground floor renovations. Interesting to get rid of the bottom two floors on that corner and incorporate larger stainless steel columns. Would flow with the infamous Post Oak arches. 

Does a picture of an attractive young woman sell more units than actually showing what they're supposed to look like?

On a different note, the office buildings in Greenspoint have updated Christmas lights (Red & Green LED vs the last 80s bulbs in the city). Cool to see the empty mall parking lot being used for something else.

Skyscraperpage.com has a few drawings you can compare heights with and see the rankings. But you have to know which buildings are residential.

On Page 2 of Houston Link, it shows the Brava as number 1. Would also reccomend looking up the heights from sources. The information on that page is provided by users and doesn't always have the source.

1. Brava - 167.3m

2. 2929 Weslayan - 162.5m

3. The Huntingdon - 153.3m

4. One Park Place - 152.7m

5. Parkside Residences - 146.3m (or The Post Oak if you count Hotel mixed use with residences).

Perhaps the @editor can advise, but there used to be a source on HAI and it would list buildings by type. appears to not work

Strange we didn't get a branch up to BCS via 249 or 290 via 36 to Killeen. The rail lines are always full of military transports. Suppose they do their job and we don't need another freeway branch.

It's cute. I'll take a glass box over anything stucco. Brick would be timeless, but that's asking a lot. Wonder if this 300 key hotel will further delay Houston First Hotel.

19 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

Uhm we do . . .

https://aiahouston.org/v/site-page/2023-Design-Awards/2023-Winners/e0/

https://preservationhouston.org/awards

Meant "we" as in HAIF, since it was the Dallas Forum that issued them, but was more so a joke since "Dallas Architecture Forum" is a legit architectural forum, and we're an internet forum board.

Sorry, being silly. Fountain Place is one of our state's Crown Jewels. 

Uhm why don't we issue awards?

2 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

We had absolutely totally recovered from our 80s building spree.  Not all that long ago, the office market in Houston was very tight and landlord -friendly.  We just happen to be in another down-cycle.

You might be right. There's a few buildings built during that time that have had "for rent" signs since, which would be an indicator of the property rather than the market. 

Sucks we won't get this cool building in the Med Center.

11 hours ago, houstontexasjack said:

Austin’s office binge is akin to Houston’s in the early 1980’s. 

Okay since we're going slightly off topic. Don't think it's akin. Let's look at the numbers.

7.2 million under construction in Austin. How much of our total office space (estimated 240 million), was built in the early 80s? Not sure. Let's start Downtown.

Chase Tower - 1.7 million square feet.

Wells Fargo Tower - 1.8 million square feet

Enterprise Plaza - 1.46 million square feet

Fulbright - 1.23 million square feet

TC Energy Center - 1.25 million

7.44 million square feet in just 5 large buildings. We currently have 45-60 million square feet (depending on the source), available right now for lease. I'd go so far to say that we have never "recovered" from our 80s building spree. Austin will be just fine. 

A Trademark for Triangle Refineries shows 2600 Nottingham, which would be the Bank of Texas building (5500 Kirby). Rice U has some architectural drawings of it in their archives, but no digital copy. I'm curious what the office building looked like.

Bankruptcy court file in Minnesota. 

Also found a superfund site outside of Atlanta, which is now a tank farm owned by Citgo.

17 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

This is quickly becoming one of the densest areas in town with lots of plots to add more housing still available. 

All the more reason to extend LR down Washington.

On 9/8/2023 at 5:35 PM, Brooklyn173 said:

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/article/Houston-Hobby-airport-downtown-tallest-building-16360235.php

The Chron is the almighty truth. The Chase Tower is standing pretty at 1,049ft.

On 9/8/2023 at 2:37 PM, rechlin said:

I've seen as many people claim this as people who say it's an urban legend and false.  Does anyone know the real story?

E-mailed the architects well over a decade ago. Like back in AOL times. Advised the building grew and shrunk before they settled at the current height/floor count. Have yet to see any solid proof (from either perspective), that there was an official FAA statement blocking the height of the tower - let alone the proposed BOTSW Tower. They did tell me the FAA were concerned about the flight path into Hobby.

A 75 floor count cap by the FAA is strange. Floor height varies. There would be a definitive height cap, like San Diego, or Singapore, in feet/meters.

For now, I'd say it's an urban legend. Wouldn't put it past the Chron to peddle it.