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Hess Tower: Office Skyscraper At 1501 McKinney St.


Ethanra

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FYI, Discovery Tower will have 871,001 SF of office space (as of Feb. 8, 2008)

http://marketing.cbre.com/houston/Listing%...%20Property.pdf

Soooo, if 21 floors of office space was going to encompas 630,000 feet, I guess the new specs support 31 floors of office with 10 stories of parking on the adjacent lot.

And from the FWIW department, I drove by this evening and both cranes were up and one of them had a huge auger/corksrcrew/drill on it. Like the kind they use to drill piers for big office buildings.

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How far into the process were they, time-wise when they realized they needed to buy the adjoining block for a parking structure? I mean, did they come to this realization fairly recently?

Since 2010 has chosen not to clarify his earlier post or answer my question, let me clear things up a bit.

The fact is, TC had the adjoining block under contract at the time they announced their purchase of Block 126 and plans to construct Discovery Tower. The fact is (as I demonstrated in an earlier post) TC had in mind the possibility of building parking on the adjoining block from the very start, contrary to what 2010 wanted us to believe.

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Since 2010 has chosen not to clarify his earlier post or answer my question, let me clear things up a bit.

The fact is, TC had the adjoining block under contract at the time they announced their purchase of Block 126 and plans to construct Discovery Tower. The fact is (as I demonstrated in an earlier post) TC had in mind the possibility of building parking on the adjoining block from the very start, contrary to what 2010 wanted us to believe.

just because you use the word "fact" doesnt mean your statements are factual. unless, of course, you are a sr. principal with crow, which i seriously doubt.

seems to me that you try your best to discredit others while no one is allowed to question your posts.

/ $0.02

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just because you use the word "fact" doesnt mean your statements are factual. unless, of course, you are a sr. principal with crow, which i seriously doubt.

seems to me that you try your best to discredit others while no one is allowed to question your posts.

/ $0.02

What is your problem? If you have contrary facts, please feel free to post them. Where did I even imply that no is allowed to question my posts? Question away, man. Question all you want. But keep it to the facts. If you can provide evidence that my facts are incorrect, I'm all eyes. And as I have shown on these boards, I am very happy to be corrected and, unlike plenty of board members, will admit to being wrong when shown to be so.

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For anyone who is interested... here are my sources.

The Business Journal article I linked earlier, says that they have the adjoining block under contract... that is as of March 2007.

Now, many of you know that I don't automatically believe everything I read in the newspapers. BUT, in this case, everything they said in the article matches up with other facts. In an earlier article, they said they had Block 126 under contract in December 2006. According to the county records, they took title to Block 126 in March 2007.

Now, the linked March 2007 article claims they have an adjoining block under contract. They in fact, (again, according to publicly-available county records) took title to the adjoining Block 98 in June 2007.

Not that hard to figure out; not that hard to verify. (And one doesn't have to be a sr. principal with Crow to do so.)

;-)

Again, if anyone has evidence contrary to any of this, I'm all eyes; and I will happily stand corrected.

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But keep it to the facts.

which is my point.

2010 made a disclaimer it was something he heard.

when your "source" is nothing more than the HBJ, its a report you are regurgating, not facts.

rather than bashing 2010, you could have easily said, "well, per HBJ, they said x".

you dont have any inside information on the projects, so stop acting like you do.

final $0.02 on the subject and sorry to the mods...

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which is my point.

2010 made a disclaimer it was something he heard.

when your "source" is nothing more than the HBJ, its a report you are regurgating, not facts.

rather than bashing 2010, you could have easily said, "well, per HBJ, they said x".

you dont have any inside information on the projects, so stop acting like you do.

final $0.02 on the subject and sorry to the mods...

Yeah, yeah, you've promised us your "final" comments before.

read more carefully before you go off on someone. 2010 never made any such disclaimer. I have never said or implied , anywhere at any time, that I have any inside information. In fact, I have repeatedly told people I have no inside information. None. And regurgitated facts are still facts. Facts gleaned from the Harris County public records, accessible to anyone online, are facts.

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I couldn't find the Discovery Green thread (I went back 5 pages) so I'll post it here. Channel 2 is going to be doing a special on Discovery Green and it's grand opening I presume on March 1st. Lauren Freeman was the one who shot the promo for it. Just a heads up.

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People keep raggin' on this building, but I like it more and more every time I see it. This newer rendering shows a lot more interesting things going on at the top. It might even make all those people who want to see improved lighting floo-floo on the downtown towers happier. There certainly are worse buildings going up. Still, I would love another 10 floors on this one.

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Is it trapazoid shaped? And maybe I'm the only one who hasn't noticed yet, but it looks like the top ornamental part is only on the front.

I don't understand the topper of this building. Are those columns? We need a better rendering than just the front... for all we know, a massive statue of Chuck Norris could be on the other side...

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People keep raggin' on this building, but I like it more and more every time I see it. This newer rendering shows a lot more interesting things going on at the top. It might even make all those people who want to see improved lighting floo-floo on the downtown towers happier. There certainly are worse buildings going up. Still, I would love another 10 floors on this one.

Hey, from what I've seen so far, especially after this new rendering, I like it. It seems chic but not over the top.

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The demographics on the location are kind of interesting. It says there are almost half a million people within a 5 mile radius, and the population within 1 mile is overwhelmingly male.

Why would CRBE include this on their website? It doesn't sell or differentiate their property. This data applies to every other building in the CBD as well.

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I think there actually may be some wind turbines in the top. There's some short little white poles that appear to have a spinning blade (very hard to see, but it looks like they're there....)

...and by the way - my office is on the 30th floor of One Houston Center, and there is a lot of wind at that height. You can hear it zipping between One HC adn the Fulbright tower almost every day for long periods of time

Edited by King Owl
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I don't understand the topper of this building. Are those columns? We need a better rendering than just the front... for all we know, a massive statue of Chuck Norris could be on the other side...

Man, I almost blew my coffee through my nose when I read your comment on Chuck! :D

I agree that it does not look as if the top ornamentation actually extends the full breadth of the top of the building. Maybe we are going to have another Memorial Herman "off center crown debate".

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I was wondering about the shape too. It does look to be something other than a rectangle in the rendering. The lot is an interesting shape so maybe the building will follow suit.

It's interesting b/c the bottom level looks parallel w/ the street, but the top/back doesn't look like 90degrees.

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What makes you think it's wind turbines? None of the articles mentioned wind turbines, the rendering doesn't show wind turbines, and Houston isn't a particularly windy city..

I thought I read that in an article? For some reason that's exactly what I thought they were when I looked at the rendering.

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I thought I read that in an article? For some reason that's exactly what I thought they were when I looked at the rendering.

The top doesn't look like it has wind turbines to me, but who knows...

It would be cool.

EDIT: There's now a google earth model for discovery tower and it looks like it might have some sort of vertical axis wind turbines on it (not the common propeller style turbine), but who knows how accurate the model is, or who made it.

Does anybody have a link to the article to confirm this one way or the other?

(this is what i mean by vertical axis wind turbine)

http://www.eco-nex.com/resources/wind+turbines+vortex1.jpg

Edited by Jax
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It seems that Discovery Tower will also make a big impact on the skyline, especially from Midtown and the 288, as will One Park Place (Main Place not so much, you can just barely see it from this angle).

gallery_3613_3_57457.jpg

Edited by Jax
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I hope the person that made this rendering got the height right in relation to the rest of the skyline. If this is correct, Discovery Tower will make a bigger impact on the skyline than I thought it would. It will make DT look wider from a distance from the north/south. Cool!

Has the height (in feet) of Discovery Tower ever been announced. I know is supposed to be 30 or 31 floors, so I assumed it would be taller than the 27 floor 5 Houston Center building (the tower on the block due west), but these google renderings show it as being about as tall as the new 37 floor One Park Place.

BTW, that small rendering that was posted here a few weeks ago which shows Discovery Tower with the park in the foreground, shows that Discovery Tower is noticeably smaller than One Park Place. I hope this latest rendering form google is more accurate, but I have my doubts.

But anyway, it looks like the stuff at the top of Discovery Tower will make the building LOOK at least 4 stories higher. So, maybe it will appear to be about 34-36 floors even if it is only 30-31.

Every inch counts. ;)

Edited by Mister X
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I hope the person that made this rendering got the height right in relation to the rest of the skyline. If this is correct, Discovery Tower will make a bigger impact on the skyline than I thought it would. It will make DT look wider from a distance from the north/south. Cool!

Has the height (in feet) of Discovery Tower ever been announced. I know is supposed to be 30 or 31 floors, so I assumed it would be taller than the 27 floor 5 Houston Center building (the tower on the block due west), but these google renderings show it as being almost as tall as the new 37 floor Park Tower.

Figure 14 feet per floor of office space, so that's 434 feet. Add some amount for the crown, and we're pushing 450 feet.

Residential floors are typically not quite as tall as office floors, since shell office space needs a crawl-space above the ceiling to accomodate dramatic reconfiguration of lots and lots of wiring and ductwork.

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Figure 14 feet per floor of office space, so that's 434 feet. Add some amount for the crown, and we're pushing 450 feet.

Residential floors are typically not quite as tall as office floors, since shell office space needs a crawl-space above the ceiling to accomodate dramatic reconfiguration of lots and lots of wiring and ductwork.

That was about the same as my estimate. I was thinking about 430-440 feet. By the way, the most recent images offered here are the best that I've seen so far. I hope the color scheme is correct as well. I think the blue skin makes more of an impat.

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I hope the person that made this rendering got the height right in relation to the rest of the skyline. If this is correct, Discovery Tower will make a bigger impact on the skyline than I thought it would. It will make DT look wider from a distance from the north/south. Cool!

I don't know about Discovery Tower, but the Apartments in the picture next to 5 Houston look way bigger than they will be in real life. I work near there, and they are just about out of crane space, so I don't even think it will be as tall as 5 Houston...

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I don't know about Discovery Tower, but the Apartments in the picture next to 5 Houston look way bigger than they will be in real life. I work near there, and they are just about out of crane space, so I don't even think it will be as tall as 5 Houston...

They will be increasing the size of the crane as they go. It really is going to be that tall.

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Looking at the little awning / front covered entry way thing out front of Discovery Tower, it sort of reminds me of the look of the Apple store that's just Southeast of Central Park in NYC. How cool would it be if they incorporated something like that out front of Discovery Tower? For those of you who haven't been to the Apple store in NY, it's a big glass cube that has an elevator that takes you below ground to the actual store - visually very cool

http://picasaweb.google.com/federicoer/New...472207761388002

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Is it trapazoid shaped? And maybe I'm the only one who hasn't noticed yet, but it looks like the top ornamental part is only on the front.

No, it is not. At first glance I thought the same thing, but all the lines converge at the same vanishing point as the road. It is just a strong visual perspective that gives it that look.

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  • The title was changed to Hess Tower: Office Skyscraper In Downtown
  • The title was changed to Hess Tower: Office Skyscraper At 1501 McKinney St.
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