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


TheNiche

Exxon Building, Love it or hate it?  

127 members have voted

  1. 1. Exxon Building, Love it or hate it?

    • Love it!
      98
    • Hate it!
      31


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Exxon building, love it or hate it? Why?

ExxonMobil-001.jpg

(Image courtesy of artefaqs.com)

First, how come these kinds of polls never have more choices...?

Secondly, while it is not a modern marvel like some of the newer (80s) buildings, it has a certain style. I shot a birthday party up at the top a couple of years ago and it was pretty nice.

the monotony of buildings with glass facades is too commonplace. the protruding ledges make it more unique.

Yeah, it's certainly not the worst architecture in the city by a long shot.

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  • 2 weeks later...
It's still on top. in fact, they have gone out of their way to make it accessible by offering valet parking up front

My wife and I had our rehersal dinner at the Petroleum Club (back in '95). While it is somewhat dated, it's still a beautiful place with some of the best views of Houston. Because of this personal connection with the building - I voted 'Love it'. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

"Love it" is kind of strong, but I certainly don't hate it. By virtue of its being here so long I think you can call it a landmark, plus it's got the Petroleum Club, which has a lot of history.

Architecturally, I find it an interesting example of early-mid 60s modern style. The cantilever sunshades, which are the distinctive feature that is hated by so many, make a lot of sense in keeping the building cool in the Houston summer, especially 3 decades before the advent of green glass. I say it is better to have it than another anonymous glass box.

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  • 1 month later...

I'm voting that I love it. Of course, I'm biased due to family attachment. My Grandfather worked for the Humble Oil Co from 1927 until his death in 1972. Most of that time was in Longview, TX. In 1960, he relocated to Houston at the same time they constructed their new HQ. These are photos that my Grandfather and my Dad (his son) took during that time:

Photos of the Humble Bldg Constuction

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yes, great pictures. fun for us middle age guys too.

i'll repeat my earlier opinion: "i think the building has potential. currently, it looks dingy and dark. it needs to be brightened up. the concrete needs to be cleaned or painted and the glass panels should be replaced. additionally, it could have soft, ambient light on the exterior, illuminating the dark spaces between each level. the crown needs work as well."

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  • 1 month later...

Yeah Josh, thanks for those pictures. My mother worked for Humble Oil in the late 30's up until around 1943 when she took a wartime job at Shell Oil in Deer Park. She wanted to go back to Humble Oil after the war but was not allowed to. It seems the returning GI's were given priority. Women were encouraged to stay home.

I remember going to a wedding reception in the Petroleum Club in the late 70's. Real snazzy place.

The Humble Building, along with the Tennesse Gas Building were built like forts, including fall out shelters in the basements.

The floors were engineered with conduit banks inbedded in the floors for electrical service. This type of construction allowed for unobstructed workplace layouts without any service drops or stub walls to block views. Marvels in their days.

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I vote that they should tear it down but only so that Exxon, one of the largest companies in the freaking world, can build a replacement tower to properly represent itself in our skyline. Come on Exxon, have some panache with all that cash we're giving you.

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  • 6 months later...

Eh, tell it to Maxwell House in the East End or Anheuser-Busch on whatever freeway they occupy. Imagine what people would do if coffee and beer were even single-digit dollars a gallon. They'd think they'd died and gone to heaven; and about the closest those chemicals come to having to be leased, found, captured, dragged around half the equator and subjected to arcane processes is the point when the fancy bars whip out a scale to measure the pressure on the coffee grounds.

Look at it this way instead: Because the skyscraper is not just an American but a Northern invention, not only were the early skyscrapers in New York and Chicago, but all of the subsequent generation of skyscrapers were either happening in Buffalo, Cincinnatti, Cleveland, Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, Seattle and San Francisco, or were mimics of theirs. By mimics I mean that even when high-rise construction did creep beyond those cities in the course of the early century, Dallas in particular, but also Houston to a strong degree, took their architectural design cues from the classicism of New York or the blockiness of Chicago style.

As far as cues go, not only were Southern skylines content to model their local pride directly upon Northern gigantism - a difference from the usual Southern way, which has been to do things more personally, to do things small and well - they also were not bothering, as they borrowed, to significantly improve the building type from what had been set in much dimmer and colder surroundings. Fastforward across the world war transformations in production now. By the turn of the 1960s, when Exxon set up its building plans, there were only two major - even 500' - buildings in use in the entire subtropical and tropical zones of the globe. Mexico City's Torre Latinoamericana (1956) and Sao Paulo's Pal

Edited by strickn
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  • 3 weeks later...

I voted "Love it" and I still think it's ugly. C'mon it's a classic!

My mother used to work in a building on Kirby with similar "sun shades" on it, and groing up I thought this was just how skyscrapers were supposed to look.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I voted 'hate it' because it's a boring old ugly building. Someone said it looks like a stack of crackers and it does from a distance. I'm glad they finally removed the 'mosquito netting'!! Someone told me that was for asbestos abatement, but don't know if that's true. :wub:

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I voted 'hate it' because it's a boring old ugly building. Someone said it looks like a stack of crackers and it does from a distance. I'm glad they finally removed the 'mosquito netting'!! Someone told me that was for asbestos abatement, but don't know if that's true. :wub:

Nah, if it were for asbestos abatement they would have to gut the entire interior and clean it out.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I work in that building and at first I thought it was ugly, but if you really take a look at the design and the materials, it is a really high end building with a lot of thought put into the materials and workmanship. The interior finishes are beautiful--matched pieces of limestone on the walls, granite all over the lobby, including the exterior plaza, beautiful gardens with japanese maples and azaleas. Most of the office interior walls are made of metal and they provide you with magnetic hooks to hang pictures, coats, etc. No holes in the office walls. It's a classic.

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I work in that building and at first I thought it was ugly, but if you really take a look at the design and the materials, it is a really high end building with a lot of thought put into the materials and workmanship. The interior finishes are beautiful--matched pieces of limestone on the walls, granite all over the lobby, including the exterior plaza, beautiful gardens with japanese maples and azaleas. Most of the office interior walls are made of metal and they provide you with magnetic hooks to hang pictures, coats, etc. No holes in the office walls. It's a classic.

It's not bad. I've certainly see worse (like that monstrous desert cactus looking building across the street from it).

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I voted love it. It brings back fun memories of going to the top and having one of those plastic molds of the building made. In high school my friends and I would go up to the top at night time and oooh and aaah over the view. It will always be the Humble building to me.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 months later...

It looks a little dated, but you have to respect the decorating they do on it during the holidays. That giant Peace On Earth globe with the doves warms the cockles of my heart, and I'm not even Christian.

Edit: Here's a picture for those who haven't seen it: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2374/211707...c535946.jpg?v=0

Edited by kylejack
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I love this building, even though I've never been inside. I'm sure they don't take kindly to random strangers just trapsing in. It's just so stylized 60's. On another note, kylejack, I don't think you have to be Christian to want world peace. If it was a cross or something, that'd be a different story.

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I love this building, even though I've never been inside. I'm sure they don't take kindly to random strangers just trapsing in. It's just so stylized 60's. On another note, kylejack, I don't think you have to be Christian to want world peace. If it was a cross or something, that'd be a different story.

Don't be intimidated. Trapse on in and check out the food court in the basement. The food, the prices and the variety rock!

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Humble Oil gave away little plastic models of the building at ENCO filling stations back when the building was being constructed. The toy was about five inches tall and had a weighted bottom so that it could be used as a paper weight. My older brother kept it on his desk for years up until he got out of high school. I guess it got thrown away when my parents cleaned out his room, which is amazing because they kept alot of our crap.

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Humble Oil gave away little plastic models of the building at ENCO filling stations back when the building was being constructed. The toy was about five inches tall and had a weighted bottom so that it could be used as a paper weight. My older brother kept it on his desk for years up until he got out of high school. I guess it got thrown away when my parents cleaned out his room, which is amazing because they kept alot of our crap.

I used to have one of those too. They show up on eBay every now and then.

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I used to have one of those too. They show up on eBay every now and then.

Love it too. Understand it is strong structurally so in case of a tornado or something you want to be in it. I would opt for the basement myself anyway.

I own ExxonMobil stock and glad they didnt spend my share of profits on a fancy building, all that would do is st art the tongues wagging about gasoline is over priced if they can build a fancy building yada yada.

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  • 2 years later...

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