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Work seems to be coming along on this. They cleaned the front facade, and it makes a big difference. They are also replacing the canopy over the front entrance with a new one that replicates the original.

Proposed plat.

Goree Architects have a self storage building "On the Boards" for this location. HCAD and Google Maps show the address to be 1200 Givens St. https://goree.com/our-work/?type=on-the-boards

http://en.wikipedia.org/upload/0/04/Reliant_Park.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/upload/d/df/PictureofReliantStadium.JPG Above & Beyond Roof covers new ground by bringing unique elements into play By DAVID BARRON Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle As you drive at night along the South Loop and gaze at newly built Reliant Stadium, you may think that you see one building that, in the words of its designer, twinkles like a giant jewel box amid Houston's skyline. What you really see, in the orderly, mathematical world of David Manica and his colleagues at HOK Sports, is two projects -- the stadium, which is impressive in its own right, and the roof, which is unlike anything in the history of American sporting palaces. Roofed stadiums are, of course, almost old hat in Houston. Reliant Stadium, after all, towers over the building that broke -- and redefined -- the mold, the Reliant Astrodome. From the upper regions of Reliant Stadium's north side, it is possible to see downtown Houston and the baseball complex now known as Minute Maid Park. Reliant's roof, however, is unique in the small circle of retractable-roof stadiums. It has two retractable panels, as opposed to three at SkyDome in Toronto and six at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. The panels retract in opposite directions, similar to the BOB's roof but unlike the two moving panels at Minute Maid and Safeco Field in Seattle, which travel in the same direction. Miller Park in Milwaukee also has two moving panels, but they retract in a fan-shaped pattern. Manica's first challenge in designing what would become Reliant Stadium actually came back in the days when the NFL's return to Houston was little more than a pipe dream. In 1997, the stadium-to-be was a decidedly different project. For one thing, the roof was fixed, not retractable. "That was the initial design," he said. "But the tenant requirements between the football team and the rodeo were such that the rodeo would require the roof to be closed. They were not interested in being a part of an open-air facility. INS & "Houston was competing with Los Angeles at the time to get the team, and there is no doubt that the NFL prefers an open-air stadium with natural grass. So the best way to solve that problem was to design the new building here with an operable roof." Manica's first drawings of a roof that would open and close began in the summer in 1997 and proceeded in fits and starts for the next two years as Texans owner-to-be Bob McNair wooed and eventually won the rights to the NFL's 32nd franchise. HOK's original plan for the roof called for an "accordion-style" roof -- one that, in visual terms, would simply "fold up and go away" when opened. That plan, Manica explained, would prevent the roof from "overpowering" the stadium by setting too heavily, in a design sense, over the rest of the building. "But that started to present some interesting engineering complications and cost and maintenance worries," he said. "And so we moved away from the accordion to the simple roof panel." To be exact, two roof panels -- each 240 feet long and 385 feet wide. From midfield, one panel slides to the north and one to the south along a set of tracks placed along the 967-foot long "super trusses" that frame the roof structure. When the roof is fully retracted, the open space above the playing field is 350 feet wide by 500 feet long -- 175,000 square feet. Unlike Texas Stadium, which has trusses that span the open portion of its roof, the Reliant Stadium roof is completely open to the elements when the two panels are retracted. And, unlike the roof at Minute Maid Park, which whether open or closed is easily the defining element of that stadium, the Reliant roof is just that -- a top that doesn't overwhelm everything beneath. Smiley N. Pool / Chronicle Reliant Stadium is completely open when two of the roof panels are retracted, a process that takes only seven minutes. "We keep the visual weight of the roof down by not stacking panels, like they do with the roof at Minute Maid Park," Manica said. The second unique element -- at least as it applies to retractable-roof stadiums in the United States -- is that the roof material is made of fabric. Specifically, a Teflon-coated, fiberglass fabric manufactured by Birdair Inc. of Amherst, N.Y. "We wanted to have the feel of an open-air stadium, even with the roof closed," Manica said. "When you walk around the Astrodome, you walk through circular, dark concourses. We wanted to have more light with the comforts of climate control, and the fabric was an important part of that design." Birdair fabrics were used in the United States for the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, the Metrodome in Minneapolis, the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis and Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. Elsewhere, the company installed fabric roofs on the Millennium Dome in London, Olympic Stadium in Rome, Hiroshima Stadium in Japan and Shanghai Stadium in China. "We used a high-translucency version of the fabric, which requires a lot of special care to install as opposed to the standard fabric," said Clark Martens, project manager for Birdair. "It allows 24 percent to 25 percent of the outside light to get through. The Georgia Dome roof, by comparison, allows maybe 10 percent." As with all projects, there are tradeoffs in using fabric, Manica said. "Fabric is more expensive than using a hard roof surface of decking and membrane," he said. "However, we found that not needing the additional amount of structural steel to hold up the weight of the roof would offset the cost of the fabric. So we came up with the most cost-effective roof that could be designed for this building." This particular element of architectural haute couture cost about $10 million. However, Martens said, it is engineered to carry full hurricane loads, including winds of more than 100 mph. Try that with your garden-variety Armani frock. The fabric also creates a vaulted frame over the roof frame to help shed water and to "give a sense of space for those inside inside the seating bowl," Manica said. A series of 10 steel cables, each two inches in diameter and capable of exerting 200,000 pounds of pressure, secure the fabric to the roof structure and create the series of peaks and valleys. "This is relatively new for the United States, but if you go to Europe, fabric roofs are much more of the norm," Martens said. "The next domed stadium that will be built in this country will be the football stadium in Phoenix, and that also will be fabric. We think it is a cost-competitive system, and it gives you a lot of nice attributes, such as that feel of natural daylight." The job of making the roof panels and their giant fabric swatches move to and fro fell to Cyril Silberman, president of Uni-Systems Inc. of Minneapolis, who also designed the transport system at Minute Maid Park. This system, however, is as different from Minute Maid's as football differs from baseball, Silberman said. For one thing, the Reliant Stadium roof is lighter -- 3,000 tons, as opposed to 9,000 tons at Minute Maid, including the sliding glass wall that runs along Crawford Street. That difference made for some, as Silberman gingerly described it, challenging design problems. "The Reliant roof could depart the stadium under a number of different circumstances if we didn't do something special with it," he said. "In winds of 50 mph from the right direction, in theory it could sail away if you didn't have a retention system. And you have 50 mph winds at least 10 times a year during thunderstorms. "Consequently, this roof has a very complex electrical and mechanical system that measures the wind and keeps the roof gripped firmly on its rails and moves it with timers and sensors that make it absolutely impossible for the roof ever to get away." Another challenge in designing the transport system, Silberman said, is that buildings are subject to lateral defractions. In other words, they wiggle. "To build the trusses strong enough so that they wouldn't have had any movement would have required 400 to 600 extra tons of steel and concrete," Silberman said. "But, by allowing this to be a semi-flexible structure, they saved a lot of money and complexities and erecting hazards." The roof is designed to allow 21 inches of lateral wiggle room as the building expands and contracts. To cope with those changes, Uni-Systems installed what it calls a four-bar linkage system on the north roof panel that keeps the roof on track as the building breathes. The south edge of the roof is on a rigid series of transports engaged to a rail that does not allow movement. "We only needed (the release mechanism) on one side," Silberman said. "The other side has to be rigid. Otherwise, the building could fall over sideways." The roof track also has a series of what Silberman describes as hurricane hold-down clamps that are not present on any other transportable roof in the United States. "It's like a series of giant scissors with teeth under the railroad track (on which the roof moves)," Silberman said. "There's enough clearance for the roof to move, but not enough for it to leave the track. When the roof comes to a stop, they clamp on tightly." If you're concerned about leaks, don't be. When the roof panels come together, it activates a system of inflatable seals, powered by a system of six to eight 15-horsepower air blowers, to keep fans protected from the elements. Silberman's transport system can close the roof in seven minutes, as opposed to 12 minutes for the one-way system at Minute Maid Park. He estimates the total cost of the roof, including the transport system, the fabric and the structural steel, at about $48 million. http://images.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/02/reliant/img/opensky.jpg Reliant Stadium is completely open when two of the roof panels are retracted, a process that takes only seven minutes. http://images.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/02/reliant/img/rooftop.jpg Even at night, it's clear that the Reliant's fiberglass roof shaped up to look very different from the fixed-glass one that covers the Reliant Astrodome. http://images.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/02/reliant/img/roofrail.jpg The retractable roof rides this rail when it is set in motion.

Brazos Town Center ready for groundbreaking Allison Wollam Houston Business Journal NewQuest Properties will break ground on a 430-acre, $241 million development in Fort Bend County this week. Recent Company News

My nephew got to stay here when he interviewed with Transocean, had to pick him up. Architect - https://pflugerarchitects.com

Noticed this on Loopnet this week. Another Hotel to Multifamily conversion? The address is 6780 Southwest Fwy. https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/6780-Southwest-Fwy-Houston-TX/25052059/ https://www.hilton.com/en/hotels/houswhf-hilton-houston-galleria-area/

Two houses ( 704-706 I think) were demolished last week. Neighborhood heard it’s a new bar. Any one have details?

There is a sign up near the Bass Pro shops construction at the Spectrum exit off 288 showing the "Waterlight District" with a water taxi in the picture. Anyone know about this Woodlandsesque development?

This place is gonna be huge. Also, what is a curtain-wall high-rise? http://www.bizjourna...-sets-huge.html http://www.generationpark.com/ Last year's info from Swamplot http://swamplot.com/...ark/2011-06-09/

I looked up the Hyatt Regency hotel on Orbitz.com. I saw the one in Houston and the one in Dallas. The picture of the one in Dallas looked huge, so I thought it was bigger than the one in Houston. But a co-worker of mine told me that both hotels are about the same size. She said that she stayed in both of them. The only picture of the one I saw in Houston just showed the front entrance. That's what made me think it was smaller than Big Ds. Have any of you ever stayed in one or both of those hotels?

A Hard Rock Hotel & Residences is proposed for the southern end of Uptown, Sage Road & South Rice Avenue (3500 Sage Rd.) SubdivisionPlatPDF_Hard Rock Hotels And Condominiums-Sheet 1 - PP.pdf

I believe Hot Wells is the former site of an artesian Health spa or resort (sanatarium) that was popular back around the turn of the century. It is now the home of a shooting range. http://houstorian.wordpress.com/2007/03/20/hot-wells-tx/

Houston Business Journal From the April 11, 2005 print edition Atlanta condo converter makes buy near Medical Center Jennifer Dawson An Atlanta-based firm that specializes in converting apartments into condominiums has completed the first of three planned deals involving a total investment of $86 million in Houston properties. Choice Condominiums spent $24 million last month to buy the Braeswood Park apartments from Denver-based Archstone Smith. The property is located near Main and South Braeswood, near the Texas Medical Center. Choice will spend $2.5 million to renovate the apartments and convert them into condos. The condo converter, which acquires properties through various affiliated companies, is close to buying two additional complexes for $30 million each, says Ron Lozoff, member/manager of Choice Condominiums. Lozoff would not disclose the properties' names, but acknowledges that Choice Condominiums has another 210-unit property under contract in the Medical Center area. The new four-story building that sits atop a two-story parking garage will be purchased once construction is finished in August, Lozoff says. One industry expert speculates that the Texas Medical Center property in play is a project from the Dinerstein Cos. that has not yet been announced. Jack Dinerstein, an executive with the Houston-based apartment development and management company, confirms construction of the new property, but will not say whether it is being purchased for conversion. The Valencia is coming out of the ground at 1711 Old Spanish Trail. Dinerstein believes the high-end apartment units -- located across the street from Woman's Hospital of Texas -- will be popular because of their proximity to Medical Center institutions and the light rail. "We're just hundreds of feet from the rail system," Dinerstein says. "We have tremendous visibility. We're 75 feet tall. We have wonderful views of the Medical Center." Founded in 1955, the family-owned Dinerstein Cos. operates apartment complexes in 27 states, employs more than 400 people and is considered to be the largest builder of off-campus student housing in the country. Meanwhile, Choice Condominiums also plans to complete a deal in May to purchase an unnamed 27-story tower in the Galleria area that contains close to 100 units, Lozoff says. Industry speculation points to The Bristol on McCue as the property that Choice Condominiums is buying. Located at 3350 McCue just south of Richmond, The Bristol was originally constructed as condominiums, but now operates as a full-service apartment building. The 96-unit Bristol was built in 1983 and reportedly has a high occupancy level. Making a choice Apartment complexes on the sales block are attracting quite a bit of attention. A few condo converters are competing for the properties, but most potential buyers are institutions looking to place investment capital. David Mitchell of Apartment Realty Advisors, which represented Archstone Smith in the sale of Braeswood Park, says 30 parties bid on that multifamily complex. "There is a lot of institutional capital chasing real estate deals in the Medical Center," Mitchell says. "That's why we received so many offers." Choice Condominiums was the highest of the bidders -- 10 percent to 15 percent of whom were interested in converting the units to condos, Mitchell says. "Condo converters usually offer a premium versus typical apartment owners," says Mitchell, who brokered the deal with colleague David Oelfke. Butch Novy of Houston-based Novy Investments Inc. represented Choice Condominiums on the sale, which took about six months to complete. Apartment sales take longer and are more complicated when condo conversion is in the works, Mitchell says. The Braeswood Park complex consists of 240 units built in 1985 that will be converted into condominiums. Another 36 units were added in 1999, but deed restrictions prevent those from being converted to condos until 2009. Lozoff plans to sell off those apartment units as a group. Choice Condominiums plans to begin selling units in Braeswood Park in two months for prices between $100,000 and $160,000, Lozoff says. The firm was attracted to the property due to prior accomplishments in the area. "It's directly across the street from City Plaza, where we had great success," Lozoff says. "We really understand and know the Medical Center." The new $86 million local investment does not include the firm's property at 2400 McCue in the Galleria area. Choice Condominiums purchased the 200-unit complex last September for more than $30 million. jdawson@bizjournals.com

Saw this FAA Obstruction permit for the hotel. Merge if already posted. Architect - https://www.bokapowell.com https://austin.towers.net/austins-waterloo-park-hotel-tower-could-finally-break-ground-in-2023/

This development is pretty exciting for a town like Dickinson. It has the chance to be a really great spot despite its small size and it is truly mixed-use (rather than just a couple uses next to one another- looking at Flyway in Webster). Notably, the original plan for this property was a typical suburban shopping center but the city asked the developers to dream a bit bigger and they came up with this. https://www.remecompanies.com/_files/ugd/4f928b_40178470a45145ee8838eaea3d26f86d.pdf

From the Galveston County Daily news: http://galvestondail...m/story/319850/ Awesome news! Two of the taller, vacant buildings in Galveston are to be renovated! I had noticed the work and progress at the Jean Lafitte hotel but wasn't sure what the story was there. Now if we can just get some news on the Martini Theater... With the cruise industry booming in Galveston I would have thought at least one of those towers would have made a nice boutique hotel My wife loves Galveston so we actually bought a historic (weekend) home last year and now I love it, too. I'm biased but it seems like things are getting better

http://downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2014-01-06/140102_Current_Projects_11x17.pdf This proposal has been on the development map for a while now, guess no one really noticed. Anyway, the owner behind the plans recently asked the DRA to increase funding. I'm not sure if the building will be converted to residential or hotel use.

https://www4.mdanderson.org/procurement/bids/index.cfm?pagename=viewBid&id=6298&name=Request for Qualification&historic=yes MD Anderson; A pre-submittal conference will be held at 11/12/18, 1:00 pm, local time, at Jesse H. Jones Rotary House, Conference Room RHI 1.202 abc, 1600 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030. Owner seeks Design-Build services to expand the MD Anderson Rotary House International Hotel and complete a skybridge to cross S. Braeswood Blvd. This project includes the design, construction and activation of a new hotel tower immediately adjacent to and connected to the existing and occupied Rotary House International (RHI) hotel, located at the corner of Holcombe Boulevard and South Braeswood Boulevard.

My background is posted on the Central Square topic in case this doesn't make sense to anyone. I lived in the Savoy hotel for about 6 months starting last February. I discovered and had to explore the building the moment I saw a huge chandeller (sp?) hanging from behind a broken window in the lobby. It's hard to keep me out of any building and it wasn't long before I had discovered an entrance. The Savoy is actually two buildings, the older, shorter one on the north side and the addition on the south. The older building is absolutely rotten and decrepit. It has caved in from the top floor to the ground and actually looks pretty freakin cool. Toilets hanging by plumbing ten stories up and whatnot. Well anyways, that's where the fire escape was, though they had cut it off about two stories up. I had to climb up a support pole to reach it. And then go down an elevator shaft to get to the newer building. Once in it's always easy to find a way out. My first astonishing discovery was that the place was still completely furnished and obviously nobody had been in it for quite some time. I'm from California where land is worth more than gold so this was quite shocking. Also, the electricity was still on for some reason. There's a refrigerator downstairs in the kitchen that has the door ripped of and has been constantly on since 1988 and is probably still on. There was also a phone in the lobby that I used to get calls on. 713-something-1212. It's still listed and I used to get calls from people asking for room rates. The downstairs is actually really pretty. Tall ceilings and curved staircases, huge chandelliers and a beautiful solid marble statue in the entryway. Two libraries, (stocked completely with Texas law books) a patio area between the two buildings had a fountain and a jacuzzi, now smashed and covered in pigeon refuse. Anybody know why the hell they would leave the electricity on for so long? Makes no sense to me. The owner is obviously hoping for the "New Main Street" effect to take place that far south and have the building converted into lofts ala Rice. I don't see that happening anytime soon, but then again it's already been closed for 16 years. The upper floors are rather ugly and boring. Single hallways straight through with cookie cutter rooms on each side. The penthouse suites are kind of nice but still I don't think they could call this place urban lofts without gutting the whole building. There's no uniqueness to it. The older building was obviously a hell of a lot classier in it's day but when Best Western had control of it you could tell it was a bit cut rate. I have a pile of brochures for it from the 70's that I'll scan if I get the time. I think the hotel was mainly for visiting Shell employees across the street. They'll have to demolish the older building before they can do anything with the newer one, as they are both connected and the older one threatens to demolish itself any day now. I say smash it and start over, the building is too ugly to ever be profitable. But in the meantime, open it to the homeless sleeping on the sidewalks outside. (that's what I told the owner anyways, with a few expletives added in) They have the parking garage open now, mainly so the penny pinching millionaire can make 30 bucks a day and watch the building he's sitting on sit empty while people sleep outside. Sorry, I hate landlords, particularly that one. Any questions? Any other buildings worth getting into? I'll be back in Houston come January. Charles Grube beware.

Office to hotel conversion on a National Register of Historic Places building. Architect - https://www.hksinc.com

The Rice Hotel was not built yet in 1910.

Surprised this was passed up on HAIF. 10 year old Marriott hotel located at 1400 Old Spanish Trail.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2023/11/16/beyonce-concerts-drive-hotel-bookings-houston.html?cx_testId=40&cx_testVariant=cx_27&cx_artPos=8#cxrecs_s "Hotel occupancy across the city last month came in at 59.5%, marking a 5.8% increase over September 2022. The average daily rate and revenue per available room increased 5.4% and 11.5%, respectively, over the same month last year. Houston’s hotels have maintained a steady increase in business in 2023 compared to 2022. During the first nine months of the year, hotel occupancy averaged 61.1%, up 7.8% compared with the same period in 2022. ADR and RevPAR were up 7.5% and 15.9%, respectively, so far this year compared with 2022, according to Houston First."