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I went to Houston last week for the first time in a bunch of years, and driving down OST toward the Medical Center I drove past the ugliest building I've ever seen. It's huge and looks like two pyramids glued together. It looks for all the world like something out of Doctor Who - a space age military fortress. It's at 1500 OST, the corner of OST and North Stadium Drive. Does anybody know who built that monstrosity, and for what purpose?

We've heard rumors, and this pretty much confirms it.. http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2014/04/anadarko-campus-in-the-woodlands-could-grow-again/

That's the south half of the old exxon research campus on buffalo speedway

http://flickr.com/photos/telwink/2163130953/ aka: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2298/2163130953_1cf4b4f12e_b.jpg"> Anyone have any idea about this old electic company building? If you get up close to it, its actually pretty neat looking. Huge sprawling windows, ghost doors (filled in with brick), very old-looking equipment. I'd love to know what it was and how old it is. Thanks! b

In a huge win for environmental groups, a federal judge has ordered ExxonMobil to pay nearly $20 million for spewing millions of pounds of excess air pollution from its Houston-area industrial facilities. The Sierra Club and Environment Texas sued the energy giant in 2010, alleging that over a five-year period it had emitted more than 8 million pounds of hazardous chemicals and other contaminants from its sprawling Baytown complex than is allowed by state and federal law and clean air permits. The 3,400-acre complex about 25 miles east of Houston houses a refinery and chemical, olefins and plastics plants. U.S. […] The post ExxonMobil ordered to pay $20 million for air pollution at Houston plants appeared first on Community Impact Newspaper. full articles

Does anyone here use a specific manner of reviewing current rates and comparing them in terms of available plans? I've heard good things about powertochoose.org as it's simple to navigate and unbiased for the most part (state-run).

"ConocoPhillips refining offshoot Phillips 66 will build a new headquarters facility no more than 10 miles away from the company’s current location, “within the I-10 and Beltway 8 corridors,”......" http://swamplot.com/...ton/2012-03-20/ This will probably be a suburban campus-type property like the existing headquarters, but this is still cool to hear.

This will be a nice addition to that part of Briarpark, the Westchase District's "scenic boulevard." Nothing else on that side of the street between Richmond and Westpark is over two stories, and all the buildings are at least 25 years old. That's the Schlumberger campus across the street; their grounds are very well maintained, it looks like a golf course. The building just to the north of the one that's being torn down is the headquarters for the US Professional Tennis Association, those are two tennis courts behind and just to the north of their building. This is my neighborhood, I know it well. I like to take walks, and the commercial properties and streets are so well maintained in that area it's like walking through a park.

Has anyone else had Centerpoint upgrade pole lighting in their neighborhood? I was out of town for a few days and noticed the street lighting was much improved near my home when I returned. My gf didn't notice the change from the orangish light to crazy bright white led but that was the first thing I saw when I got home. They didn't change all of them her near my Third Ward home but the one across the street and a few down the block are new.

Trivia information: The ERCOT region…does not include the El Paso area, the Texas Panhandle, Northeast Texas (Longview, Marshall, and Texarkana), or Southeast Texas (Beaumont, Port Arthur, and The Woodlands) http://www.opuc.texas.gov/ercot.html#ERCOT Not that it is necessarily good or bad thing, but just curious exactly why?

My elevator guy just told me Shell is planning on building a 35-40 story tower in The Woodlands and that Anadarko wants to build another one too. Can anyone confirm this?

elnina999 has added a photo to the pool: This glass-and-steel American skyscraper slab takes a simple, yet elegant twist with this blue glass and white aluminum tower. Click here to view this photo at the HAIF Photo Pool on Flickr

Source: Link Exxon set a trend. Expect more news out of this area... Shell.

Got this press release in the e-mail today. ------ FREEPORT LNG RECEIVES FINAL FERC AND DOE APPROVALS Close on financing and start of construction on first two trains expected by month end HOUSTON, November 17, 2014 - Freeport LNG Expansion, L.P. (Freeport LNG) today announced it has received final approvals for its proposed natural gas liquefaction and LNG export facility on Quintana Island near Freeport, Texas. On November 13, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) denied pending rehearing requests and, on November 14, Freeport received a final authorization from the Department of Energy (DOE) to export to Non-Free Trade Agreement countries. "We're very pleased to have received the final two approvals needed to begin construction and operation of our three liquefaction trains," said Michael Smith, Chairman and CEO, Freeport LNG. "As I said at our ceremonial groundbreaking just last Monday, this project will have a significant economic impact on this region and our nation, and achieving these milestones is gratifying. We look forward to moving quickly towards financing close and start of construction." Freeport LNG received conditional authorization from the DOE to export the entire contracted LNG production volume of the initial three trains of the liquefaction project. On July 30, 2014, Freeport LNG received FERC approval for the initial three-train liquefaction project, and in October 2014, FERC granted Freeport LNG authorization to proceed with construction. Now, with receipt of an order from FERC denying pending rehearing requests and a final export authorization from DOE, Freeport anticipates closing on financing and beginning construction on the first two trains later this month. Financing and commencement of construction on the third train is expected in second quarter 2015. Freeport LNG awarded contracts to a joint venture between CB&I, Inc. and Zachry Industrial, Inc. to construct the initial two trains of the liquefaction project. The first two trains are anticipated to commence operations 45 and 50 months from start of construction, respectively, with the third train expected to be in operation approximately six months following the second train. Each liquefaction train has a nameplate design capacity of 4.64 million tonnes per annum. Approximately 13.2 million tonnes per annum of the production capacity of the three liquefaction trains has been contracted under use-or-pay liquefaction tolling agreements with Osaka Gas, Chubu Electric, BP Energy Company, Toshiba Corp. and SK E&S LNG, LLC. Documentation pertaining to the liquefaction project, including regulatory applications and related materials, is available on Freeport LNG's website at www.freeportlng.com.

No matter what the company did, those 2 buildings are the best! I think its 1200 Smith, the older one, is a 50 story high-rise with all mirrored glass, then 1500 Louisiana is a 46-48 high-rise. They have an all glass sky walk connecting the two. Its awesome!

It's not all that surprising that with Kinder Morgan eating El Paso Energy, the tower at 1010 Milam is getting a new name. Mark down "Kinder Morgan Building" as its new official name once the purchase is finished. For the curious, Kinder Morgan's offices will move from 1 Allen Center to the bottom half of the former El Paso Energy Building. An independent company formed from the buyout called EP Energy will take most of the top half, with the exception of the top five floors which are going to whomever has pockets deep enough to get them. Here's the naming history of the building (in reverse chronological order): *Kinder Morgan Building *El Paso Energy Building *Tenneco Building *Tennessee Pipeline Company Building *1010 Milam

Occidental Petroleum Company is moving their HQ from LA to Houston.. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2014/02/14/occidental-petroleum-splintering-and-moving-its.html

Chevron Phillips Chemical Office Building At 10001 Six Pines Dr.

I spoke to a woman at the bowling alley a few months ago who works for Anadarko and she confirmed the rumor that plans were in the works for a third tower across Lake Robbins which is exactly where the picture above indicates. From the looks of the picture, the building will be around 20 to 25 stories. Appears to be shorter than Allison and Hackett towers...

got this in email--- I wondered if I would notice a difference in the number of lights left on in skyline buildings. . . . LightsOut Houston Thursday, April 25 - Sunday, April 28 The "Energy Capital of the World" will continue its sustained commitment to becoming the "Energy Conservation Capital" by turning off the lights the nights of Thursday, April 25 - Sunday, April 28, 2013. LightsOut Houston started in 2008 as a citywide commitment to energy efficiency by commercial building owners and their tenants, and has evolved into a partnership among the City of Houston, Harris County and Houston Independent School District. The goal of the program has expanded to establish a sustained reduction in the use of non-essential electricity by all buildings throughout the greater Houston area. Participants are asked to sign a pledge now, making your commitment to energy conservation. Visit http://www.lightsouthouston.com/ for more information about the challenge. To learn more about the City of Houston's sustainability efforts, visit www.codegreenhouston.org/and www.greenhoustontx.gov/ or contact Lisa Lin at lisa.lin@houstontx.gov

I came to understand earlier today that Shell has committed to ensuring that all of their about 6,000 employees in Houston are in LEED certified green buildings. They are currently housed in several downtown skyscrapers and in a few other sites around town. To my knowledge all of their downtown space is leased and in multitenant buildings and very little space elsewhere is owned. Unless the owners of their current buildings opt to undergo expensive retrofitting, this means that Shell would be more likely to relocate and consolidate their operations into one or more new towers, similar to how Chevron is doing in the old Enron towers. If the average amount of space per employee is 300 square feet, and there are 6,000 employees, then there is a need for 1.8 million square feet of new office space. Feel free to speculate. For the moment, it's anyone's guess as to how that might pan out.

Anyone work for Exxonmobil in operations? I took the test in Beaumont and passed.

I'm trying to track down the street address of the Continental Oil (now Conoco) Company's office building (headquarters) when they first moved to Houston in either 1949 or 1950. Thanks

I just ran across this: Culture Map Basically, they are pondering giving the building over to the city of Houston. Would this be a good thing or not?

An interesting article on research from State University of New York at Albany on Wind Farms having a warming effect on local climates. Wind Farms May Raise Temperatures Large wind farms might have a warming effect on the local climate, research in the US showed on Sunday, casting a shadow over the long-term sustainability of wind power. Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels contribute to global warming, which could lead to the melting of glaciers, sea level rise, ocean acidification, crop failure and other devastating effects, scientists say. In a move to cut such emissions, many nations are moving towards cleaner energy sources such as wind power. The world’s wind farms last year had the capacity to produce 238 GW of electricity at any one time. That was a 21% rise on 2010 and capacity is expected to reach nearly 500 GW by the end of 2016 as more, and bigger, farms spring up, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (OD Feb.7’12). Researchers at the State University of New York at Albany analyzed the satellite data of areas around large wind farms in Texas, where four of the world’s largest farms are located, over the period 2003 to 2011. The results, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, showed a warming trend of up to 0.72° Celsius per decade in areas over the farms, compared with nearby regions without the farms. “We attribute this warming primarily to wind farms,” the study said. The temperature change could be due to the effects of the energy expelled by farms and the movement and turbulence generated by turbine rotors, it said. “These changes, if spatially large enough, may have noticeable impacts on local to regional weather and climate,” the authors said. But the researchers said more studies were needed, at different locations and for longer periods, before any firm conclusions could be drawn. (Reuters)