800 Bell St. (Former Exxon Building) Conversion to Residential

[Utinga]

After Pennzoil Place, it is my second favorite building in Houston. So, Love it. As a courier I have seen pretty much all of it. It is still the simplistic exterior that I love. Now that I have hear "the Cracker Building" It is even more endearing to me. As someone here said the Club on the top two floors are dated, but in a tacky, cool way I guess. That was a year ago, perhaps they've been updated now. It will be interesting what happens to this building now that Exxon is "moving on up" or should I say up North.lol

[infinite_jim]

The parking lot that takes up a half block to the West of the Exxon Tower, north of the Exxon Garage, and south of the Wedge Tower is now being razed. The Chevron daycare (designed by Kirksey) that takes up the other half of the block is not part of this development.

[Nick_G]

Hate it, looks unfinished and or like they never took the scaffolding down. I also believe Houston would benefit from more blue tinted glass towers reflecting the the sky as we already have the gritty concrete look category covered.

[Houston19514]

Love it. Beautiful mid-century design. I hope that IF Exxon ends up vacating the building that it can be converted to apartments

[infinite_jim]

The parking lot that takes up a half block to the West of the Exxon Tower, north of the Exxon Garage, and south of the Wedge Tower is now being razed. The Chevron daycare (designed by Kirksey) that takes up the other half of the block is not part of this development.

FYI this was part of a simple re-tenanting of the bldg. The lot was just resurfaced, re-striped, and the fence between the two lots was taken down. The auto-drop off was slightly re-designed on the civil too.

Edited April 5, 2012 by infinite_jim

[px4man]

^{I like it because my dad worked for Exxon (Hunble Oil) back in the 50's and moved there from the old building downtown, which had no A/C, and was on one of the top floors that I got to visit. I think at that time it was the tallest building in town.}

^{He would take me around to look at all the birds that hit the windows and landed on the overhangs.}

[swtsig]

http://www.globest.com/news/12_513/national/office/US-Cities-Rule-Top-5-Investment-Targets-328530.html?ET=globest:e36220:321965a:&st=email&s=&cmp=gst:National_PM_20130107:editorial

it will be interesting to see how Shorentstein redevelops it. plus it's nice to see some momentum on this side of downtown.

 

 

Renderings:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Subdude]

http://www.globest.c...30107:editorial

it will be interesting to see how Shorentstein redevelops it. plus it's nice to see some momentum on this side of downtown.

Could you describe what you are referencing? The link doesn't discuss the Exxon building.

On edit:

The San Francisco firm said to be buying downtown’s Exxon Mobil tower has closed on the property and is planning a major redevelopment of the building.

The buyer, San Francisco-based Shorenstein Properties, did not reveal the purchase price but said the acquisition was made “markedly below current replacement costs.”....

Exxon Mobil will lease back the building until 2015 when the company consolidates workers to a new campus under construction south of The Woodlands.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2013/01/california-buyer-gets-keys-to-exxon-building/

[Houston19514]

So it appears Shorenstein will redevelop the building as office space. Very interesting and a little surprising, given what we've been told on this forum about the building's interior. In any case, there sure are a lot of office projects bubbling in downtown Houston...

Hilcorp's 2-block project (Macy's and Americana blocks)

Skanska's Houston Club Building replacement

Hines' next tower on Main Street

Shorenstein's redevelopment of the Exxon tower

plus the possible

5 Allen Center and

6 Houston Center

I hope we see some dirt flying in 2013 on one or more of these projects. (On even more of a side note; damn it's frustrating to have Skanska and now Hilcorp (possibly) tear down buildings to replace them with presumably larger towers, when we still have an abundance of surface parking lots downtown. Arrrggghhh)

[swtsig]

Could you describe what you are referencing? The link doesn't discuss the Exxon building.

On edit:

http://blog.chron.co...exxon-building/

whoops... wrong link:

http://www.globest.com/news/12_513/houston/office/Shorenstein-Closes-On-800-Bell-Street-328539.html

no new info here i don't think.

[Houston19514]

CultureMap mentions that they plan to hook the building into the tunnel system.

http://houston.cultu...nnel-expansion/

Edited January 8, 2013 by Houston19514

[infinite_jim]

Good luck with the tunnel extension, Chevron keeps their tangent of the tunnel system access controlled.

[jgriff]

Good luck with the tunnel extension, Chevron keeps their tangent of the tunnel system access controlled.

The access controlled part wouldn't be where they would connect. They'd have to go through the open parts of the tunnel to get to the access controlled part.

[Houston19514]

Good luck with the tunnel extension, Chevron keeps their tangent of the tunnel system access controlled.

They can connect through the Wedge Intl Tower, which is closer than Chevron anyway.

[Subdude]

It would still be a long stretch of tunnel to connect via the Wedge building. Without retail in a long stretch of tunnel it still might not get much use.

[swtsig]

It would still be a long stretch of tunnel to connect via the Wedge building. Without retail in a long stretch of tunnel it still might not get much use.

isn't the exxon building caddy-corner to wedge? not that long of a stretch although it would be sparsely populated (for now). if shorenstein is to be succesful in repositioning the building tunnel connectivity is an absolute imperative and i'm sure they feel the same way. won't be cheap but it's a cost they are likely more than willing to fork out.

[Houston19514]

Yes

[Subdude]

Yeah, but it seems that buildings at the end of tunnels where there aren't a lot of retail business don't get all that much traffic. As I recall there isn't that much now around the Wedge Bldg. It's like going to the Calpine Bldg. at the opposite end of the tunnel system.

You know, I wonder what the impact of this news will have on other mooted downtown projects (Skanska, Hines, Brookfield, Macy's-Americana). Would not 50 renovated floors coming on to the market - tunnel connection or not - depress demand for new buildings?

[Houston19514]

Yeah, but it seems that buildings at the end of tunnels where there aren't a lot of retail business don't get all that much traffic. As I recall there isn't that much now around the Wedge Bldg. It's like going to the Calpine Bldg. at the opposite end of the tunnel system.

You know, I wonder what the impact of this news will have on other mooted downtown projects (Skanska, Hines, Brookfield, Macy's-Americana). Would not 50 renovated floors coming on to the market - tunnel connection or not - depress demand for new buildings?

It's all about getting leases signed. Also, the Exxon tower will probably not be ready for tenants until at least 2016, perhaps 2017. Hines and Brookfield, and possibly the other 2 as well, could get a tenant into their proposed new tower in 2015.

[Urbannizer]

The award-winning design proposal by Ziegler Cooper:

 

 

 

 

 

Kirksey design, losing proposal:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Article from January: http://houston.culturemap.com/news/realestate/01-07-13-11-07-san-francisco-developer-buys-exxon-mobil-building-for-major-re-do-and-possible-tunnel-expansion/

Edited November 12, 2013 by Urbannizer

[HoustonBoy]

What if we don't have Hulu plus?! How else can we see the video?

[Urbannizer]

What if we don't have Hulu plus?! How else can we see the video?

 

Google "Kirksey Architecture Vimeo", first link and after that you should see the video. It doesn't show much more than what I posted above.

[Moore713]

Given the design of it , I am impressed it will look this good. if houston keeps turning all are building into giant glass.. were going to get call from the other cities that we are blinding them..lol

[brijonmang]

That definitely modernizes this building in a much needed way.  I remember someone talking about how tired they are of the all glass look but I think this still combines enough of the old floor awning overhang while adding a new roof element to keep it from looking "too glassy".  I think Kirksey has done a good job with this concept.

[Montrose1100]

This is an outrage. Kinda cool looking one though... They are doing to this building what they did in the 70's to 806 Main, the Chronicle building... Erasing history.

 

So as you can tell I'm a little torn. This new design is impressive, and I see they are using elements from the original design.

[nativehoustonion]

Very cool, nice design.  Looks like a brand new office tower. Wow!

[lockmat]

Where do these employees park?

[Purdueenginerd]

Very nice. In my opinion, an upgrade over its current appearance--- which I'm not a huge fan of.

 

My question is, is this an architects weekend project that were seeing or is there substance to possible renovations? 

[Triton]

Wish we got a nighttime rendering. Would be cool if that glass on the top lit up at night.

[brijonmang]

Where do these employees park?

 

There is currently underground parking for the building but I don't think enough for all of the employees.  A neighbor of mine works in the building and I know he parks at one of the surrounding parking garages.

 

Very nice. In my opinion, an upgrade over its current appearance--- which I'm not a huge fan of.

 

My question is, is this an architects weekend project that were seeing or is there substance to possible renovations? 

 

I remember hearing about this building getting renovated for a while now.  When Exxon moves it's employees to the new complex this building will be looking for tenants again and I don't think it will be an easy sell without renovations.  I'd say there is substance.