Hess Tower: Office Skyscraper At 1501 McKinney St.

[20thStDad]

please don't tell me this building is complete. I'm pretty disappointed on how architecturally uninspiring this building is. Even the lighting at night is very bland looking, although the wind turbines look cool while spinning at night. It would look cooler if they lit up the crown in a different color other than boring white. Kind of like the Memorial Herman building in the Medical Center that changes color inside its crown. Downtown needs some buildings like that.

Wouldn't a building that has wind turbines to offset power usage contradict itself by having an extravagant lighting scheme? I think it should be pitch black at night except for whatever the FAA requires.

[scarface]

Wouldn't a building that has wind turbines to offset power usage contradict itself by having an extravagant lighting scheme? I think it should be pitch black at night except for whatever the FAA requires.

It wouldn't be a contradiction. This building is LEED certified. They can do the LEED in different colors.

[crunchtastic]

This building looks awesome right now, before the interiors are finished out. You can see straight through it.

I'm glad we were spared the lights around the turbines. Downtown doesn't need every new building calling attention to itself like a fat suburban housewife wearing a shrunken Lucky tee and metallic platform sandals.

There is beauty in restraint.

[TheNiche]

This building looks awesome right now, before the interiors are finished out. You can see straight through it.

I'm glad we were spared the lights around the turbines. Downtown doesn't need every new building calling attention to itself like a fat suburban housewife wearing a shrunken Lucky tee and metallic platform sandals.

There is beauty in restraint.

Look closely at the recent photos. There are lights around the turbines. Scarface is whining about the color not being more flamboyant and/or dynamic (i.e. the highrise equivalent of the South Park character 'Big Gay Al').

[Geoff8201]

Once the turbines were online and spinning, it was hard to take my eyes off of them initially while exiting onto 45... seeing as how I'm still alive, I was successful in putting my attention back to the road.

This is something none of us have seen before in Houston and that makes it a milestone. Lack of fancy lighting schemes (frankly I like the lighting as is for now) , or this building being a glass box, or whatever doesn't take that away.

I don't think it's possible that exterior lighting on the turbines themselves could be a contradiction to having turbines... those turbines have the ability to turn all day if the wind is blowing and that power is stored... lighting them up is at night only. Hopefully (I haven't noticed) the lighting is off at at least 2am for further savings. Don't forget how many other LEED certified qualities this building has other than its ability to generate a percentage of its own power.

[20thStDad]

Great view from the discovery green water play thing.

[photolitherland]

Here are some photos I posted on ssp a few days ago from when I went downtown on Friday.

Edited July 19, 2010 by photolitherland

[bachanon]

moving conversation on downtown lighting to its own thread. this topic is discovery tower specifically. please stay on topic or create a new thread. thanks.

existing thread:

downtown at night

oops, three items are out of place.

Edited July 22, 2010 by bachanon

[Jax]

Taken on Sunday:

[HtownWxBoy]

My favorite thing about this building is how "reflective" it is... love the cladding... looks great when you are at Discovery Green!

[Talbot]

My favorite thing about this building is how "reflective" it is... love the cladding... looks great when you are at Discovery Green!

I like the glass as well. Really looks nice.

[Jax]

I saw the turbines spinning in the wind today. It looked really cool from Midtown. Maybe it doesn't generate a lot of electricity, but it's eye catching and at least it's generating some.

[Jax]

Yes, it does.

Just seeing something like that makes people think, and makes people talk about energy conservations, and plus looks cool and makes that building more than just another glass box. I'm sure that's what the architects had in mind since it was pretty obvious from the start that it wasn't going to be generating a significant amount of power. I think it's different, and I really like it.

Edited August 23, 2010 by Jax

[dbigtex56]

"The Razor’s 19 KW wind turbines use 5 blades instead of 3 to cut down on noise pollution. The building is expected to generate 50 MWh of electricity a year." CleanTechna.com

It's a start.

[TheNiche]

"The Razor’s 19 KW wind turbines use 5 blades instead of 3 to cut down on noise pollution. The building is expected to generate 50 MWh of electricity a year." CleanTechna.com

It's a start.

Found this.

You too can own a 2 KW wind turbine. Want to match the energy production of Hess Tower? Buy ten! Pay less than $20k. Want to attract attention to your douchey largess? Defeat the purpose by installing them in a boxy framework of steel and glass that's lit up at night (!) and costs millions of dollars.

It's a travesty.

[Jax]

Did he just call me "humanistic sludge"? I think The Niche is in line to take over Musicman's place on HAIF which makes me less inclined to post here as much.

The thing that makes this building interesting is that it isn't just pure aesthetics like a spire, or a lighted top. What makes it interesting is that it is aesthetically interesting and functional. You can think of it as a kinetic sculpture if you want, but it is also a small scale technology demonstration that gives people something to talk about and sets this building apart from the others. I am sure if they hadn't put turbines on top they would have spent money on something purely aesthetic and lit it up anyways.

I hope that someday you live in your nondescript metallic warehouse and your spite for me inspires you to save a lot of energy, but please consider being less condescending while you're at it.

Edited August 23, 2010 by Jax

[Mister X]

Did he just call me "humanistic sludge"? I think The Niche is in line to take over Musicman's place on HAIF which makes me less inclined to post here as much.

The thing that makes this building interesting is that it isn't just pure aesthetics like a spire, or a lighted top. What makes it interesting is that it is aesthetically interesting and functional. You can think of it as a kinetic sculpture if you want, but it is also a small scale technology demonstration that gives people something to talk about and sets this building apart from the others. I am sure if they hadn't put turbines on top they would have spent money on something purely aesthetic and lit it up anyways.

I hope that someday you live in your nondescript metallic warehouse and your spite for me inspires you to save a lot of energy, but please consider being less condescending while you're at it.

Don't stop posting. Nobody cares what Niche thinks. If it wasn't for people like you, posting current photos of Houston on a regular basis , this website would be nothing but a bunch of know-nothing-know-it-alls typing useless gibberish and insignificant opinions all day. Don't take Niche's comments too seriously - I assure you no one else does. A photo is worth a thousand words. Anonymous internet opinions are worthless (except for mine, of coarse). Jax is a useful contributor to this website. Niche is not.

Edited August 23, 2010 by Mister X

['Stonian]

I concur! Let's all collectively ignore Niche & his useless babble...,

[jgriff]

The turbines promote stupidity. There are no doubt some people who think that they actually make a difference.

[porTENT]

I can't wait till they declare the turbines "job" as done and eventually abort the top of this building in some heavy handed haircut job. That's Houston architecture. LOL @ building crowns as PR, seems like a narrow tightrope to walk.

[KinkaidAlum]

Jax- I appreciate your photos and comments on this forum. You bring an interesting perspective since you're not from Texas or the USA.

No sure why The Niche seems to have it out for you but he certainly does follow your posts with petty attacks.

It seems pretty stupid to talk about "aesthetic waste" on an architectural forum. Seems like all architectural elements worth talking about have some form of "aesthetic waste."

[wernicke]

I must say that The Niche's constant antagonism makes me less inclined to post on this site...

DT turned out better than I expected. Makes a nice impression from the park... it looks modern and the turbines do add an aesthetic flare.

Too bad I can't say the same thing for the ugly and uninteresting Embassy Suites...

[KinkaidAlum]

True, the Embassy Suites is a fugly building. They totally turned their back on the park. Heck, even that stupid light tower thingie doesn't even face the park; instead they aimed it for "freeway presence."

[DrLan34]

I saw them spinning once, it was definitely very cool looking. I like this building a lot.

I saw the turbines spinning in the wind today. It looked really cool from Midtown. Maybe it doesn't generate a lot of electricity, but it's eye catching and at least it's generating some.

[TheNiche]

The thing that makes this building interesting is that it isn't just pure aesthetics like a spire, or a lighted top. What makes it interesting is that it is aesthetically interesting and functional. You can think of it as a kinetic sculpture if you want, but it is also a small scale technology demonstration that gives people something to talk about and sets this building apart from the others. I am sure if they hadn't put turbines on top they would have spent money on something purely aesthetic and lit it up anyways.

I am now prepared to concede the the top is interesting. I've only seen it in action once--tonight--and it was enough to draw my highly-intoxicated eyes off of the stripes on the road and induce swerving in my lane.

[jgriff]

There's nothing aesthetically wrong with them and I don't see where TheNiche ever said there was. They are technically dumb. It's a very bad spot for wind turbines to be placed and the money to put them there could have been used to build a more efficient power source somewhere else. The gullible and naive may think that they are something more than a publicity stunt and decoration. The last thing we need is for people to become more ignorant about energy production.

[dbigtex56]

There's nothing aesthetically wrong with them and I don't see where TheNiche ever said there was. They are technically dumb. It's a very bad spot for wind turbines to be placed and the money to put them there could have been used to build a more efficient power source somewhere else. The gullible and naive may think that they are something more than a publicity stunt and decoration. The last thing we need is for people to become more ignorant about energy production.

Edify us.

[TheNiche]

There's nothing aesthetically wrong with them and I don't see where TheNiche ever said there was. They are technically dumb. It's a very bad spot for wind turbines to be placed and the money to put them there could have been used to build a more efficient power source somewhere else. The gullible and naive may think that they are something more than a publicity stunt and decoration. The last thing we need is for people to become more ignorant about energy production.

They could've created a foundation to buy poor people 400-watt residential turbines and that would've been a far more economical approach to being 'green', meaning that they could have simply saved money on the same effect or made the effect larger.

Either way, yeah. "Technically dumb."

[Jax]

Does anybody know how much more it cost to integrate turbines into the roof rather than just building a lighted crown or some other conventional aesthetic feature like that and then placing the turbines at ground level? I don't think placing them in back yards really makes sense unless you're going to elevate them higher than the surrounding structures though so that would add to the cost of doing it that way. The only problem is that would reduce the impact of the building, and don't forget that we're living in a capitalist society where corporations always want their buildings to stand out. I'd much rather see a building that stands out by doing something different than just another lighted crown, even if the utility of it isn't as good as I would like.

I'd rather see a skyscraper that generates all of it's power off the grid but that's not going to happen. I'm pretty happy that we ended up with something unconventional. And I like the fact that it makes people talk about using wind power.

Edited August 24, 2010 by Jax

[livincinco]

They could've created a foundation to buy poor people 400-watt residential turbines and that would've been a far more economical approach to being 'green', meaning that they could have simply saved money on the same effect or made the effect larger.

Either way, yeah. "Technically dumb."

Ahh...the usual HAIF move from "I love this building!" to picking it apart. I had the over/under at 20 pages for this thread, so I guess I lost my bet.