811 Main: Office Skyscraper At 811 Main St.

[houstonfella]

I hope we see the renderings in a couple of weeks. The waiting is the hard part.

[UrbaNerd]

Fresh off of the press!

http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5073679.html

[King Owl]

Looks awesome. Hopefully that top part will light up at night

It almost looks like a periscope sticking up out of a submarine.

...and by the way, where did the other story go? Down to 46?!??

[Guest Marty]

I like it because it looks different from anything I have seen before, but I can see the nickname already. The PAC MAN building or the PEZ Dispenser Building.

[Deut28Thirteen]

So glad to see a rendering of it! That is nice and I like how it just stands out from the other towers. It looks so futuristic to me. Nice add to the skyline.

[TxDave]

So glad to see a rendering of it! That is nice and I like how it just stands out from the other towers. It looks so futuristic to me. Nice add to the skyline.

nice looking building to fill in a gap in the skyline which han't seen much activity recently

Edited August 22, 2007 by TxDave

[Houstonian in Iraq]

This looks really nice. I like it

Plans call for the building to be completed by late 2010.

seems so far away...better than never

The new project, to be called MainPlace

someone might want to change the name of this thread

...is one of four being planned for downtown

I'm excited about the other buildings, hope they get built

[HtownWxBoy]

Awsome... looks great!

[houstonfella]

It appears this will be the night view (from Chron link above).

FINALLY... renderings of the 630 ft tall tower. This will replace San Felipe Tower as the city's 15th tallest.

2010 will be here before you know it.

Edited August 22, 2007 by houstonfella

[Jax]

Looks surprisingly similar to one of the sketches somebody did! Is that a garden near the top?

[Trae]

Looks nice! The Discovery Tower has some new news also.

[sevfiv]

Looks surprisingly similar to one of the sketches somebody did! Is that a garden near the top?

looks like there will be a couple gardens:

It will also have a recessed "sky garden" on one of the top floors and a parking garage with a "green" or landscaped roof.

[musicman]

It will also have a recessed "sky garden" on one of the top floors and a parking garage with a "green" or landscaped roof.

o oh...Hines and parking garage . where was that other garage again?

Edited August 22, 2007 by musicman

[sevfiv]

o oh...Hines and parking garage . where was that other garage again?

haha - about a block away

[Trae]

From the Chron article:

While the national economy will be modestly affected by the tightening of credit, overall demand for energy and commodities will continue to rise, putting Houston in a strong position, Hines' Cover said.

The company is even looking into the future beyond MainPlace.

Hines is locking up a second location on Main Street, between Texas and Capitol, where it's considering another office building.

[GovernorAggie]

So Hines was last to formally disclose a building project and first to produce a rendering. Works for me. Two more towers have tentative (IMO) groundbreaking dates of January and February. If they don't slip, that'll be a minor miracle, and a great thing! Even more so, hopefully we can get a couple renderings in the next few months.

[Issa]

Here's a map of the tower locations from the HChron:

[HtownWxBoy]

Great location!

MainPlace.bmp

[Saddleman]

Is Hines' possible second tower where the Shamrock was supposed to be?

[Trae]

Some more renderings from the Chron:

Edited August 22, 2007 by Trae

[ChannelTwoNews]

Is Hines' possible second tower where the Shamrock was supposed to be?

Yep, that's the block.

Awesome to see the renderings and the prospects for new projects as well!

[Trae]

Wasn't that Houston City Centre suppose to go on that site? Maybe that is a Hines proposal.

[HtownWxBoy]

MainPlace should be turned around so that garden near the top is facing Main Street... just a thought.

[PAC]

Here are some additional renderings of MainPlace that I thought you would enjoy.Just an FYI on the street view renderings...there is a significant amount of streetscape that is missing...trees, sidewalk eating areas, an entry feature, etc. Those renderings were done as part of the ongoing design study, and are not meant to be a fully rendered version of the final product, though they are pretty accurate for the building itself. Other items: the top of the garage will be a garden / outdoor area for the first floor tenant.

[Trae]

Tenants will flock to this thing. Especially those cramped up in other towers.

[yaga]

To be somewhat coy, and please do not ask how I know...but I know. I have very good information on the new Hines building, and some of the speculation here is somewhat unfounded, though some is quite correct.

1) The building has a skin unlike anything here in Houston, with sunshades on all facades and a glass facade that is absolutely amazing.

2) The building will be LEED Silver at a minimum.

3) The building has a 10 story garage underneath the building as a podium.

4) The sky garden is a very unique feature, and should be a tenant item. With the high dollar skin, this is clearly the defining feature of the building.

5) While there are plenty of surface lots downtown, none of them are conducive to a development of this magnitude due to location or price.

6) The cost for new highrise buildings is well over $300 per square foot. Anyone who tells you differently doesn't have a clue.

7) Discovery Tower doesn't hold a candle to their building. The renderings being shown to the broker community are a glass cube, and is very boring given its location on Discovery Green. Houston Center 6 is even worse.

8) Don't be surprised if Hines doesn't develop two buildings downtown. They have already hired an architectural team for the 2nd building. I have not seen any renderings of this building yet, though I have heard some rumors about the design.

Enjoy!

Good insider info Houston2010! Do you know if the City Centre rendering is Hines' 2nd tower?

[Triton]

Love the render!

It looks absolutely massive! It looks like it will have a grand lobby. And what's that next to the Hines tower? a parking garage?

[PAC]

The garage is integrated into the building, just as it is at 717 Texas.

[VelvetJ]

I really like this building. It's a nice fresh design for Houston. I am so glad a "up to date" design with a atypical element was chosen for the city. Great atypical designs and ideas is what put Houston on the map architecturally and I for one hope this Hines building is a sign developers for Houston buildings are reverting back to that.

Bravo to the Hines Group!

[skooljunkie]

I get really excited about the Hines Tower and the locations of these other towers because of the Southesast Corridor BRT/future light rail line! The Rusk/Capital Corridor has awesome potential...I think Hines picked a great spot.

http://www.metrosolutions.org/posted/1068/...1306.137994.pdf

[bkjones98]

I do like the design, but this is what first came to mind--the bic building

[TheNiche]

I like it because it looks different from anything I have seen before, but I can see the nickname already. The PAC MAN building or the PEZ Dispenser Building.

I sure am glad that Houston missed out on the 90's crown fad. This is far more sophisticated and in exceptionally good taste.

[pm91]

i absolutely love this building. one thing what is "IMO"? and with hines going to the old shamrock site which is supposed to be the site for the 60= houston city centre does that mean city centre is cancelled? im praying that it isnt because i would love to see it built too. but when they mentioned hines' second site, is it possible that the site is across the street from houston city centre and still have the main, texas, and capitol adress?

[moni]

A beautiful addition to Houston's fantastic skyline. Does this building have a name yet??

[sevfiv]

Does this building have a name yet??

reluctantly...yes. MainPlace

one thing what is "IMO"?

in my opinion

[dbigtex56]

We'll see the renderings w/in a couple of weeks when the building and name are officially announced. Then we will finally be able to rename this thread, LOL.

someone might want to change the name of this thread

Done.

[moni]

Thanks, guess I didn't get that.

[wxman]

I know some of you guys are pretty handy with the graphics...is there anyway one of you can give us a rendering of the skyline from the N., S., E., and W? I would imagine that the building would not be seen from the West side. Is that right?

[pm91]

oh i hope someone can do that i just asked someone on skyscrapercity to do it if they could.

[Jonah]

What a great design. It's sleek, modern, classy, and will hopefully stand out in a good way in that area of downtown. This is like the first building that has a received a unanimous positive response.

[Jax]

This is going to be right across the street from the ugly Hines parking garage. I wonder if they are going to clean it up a bit so it doesn't distract people from their new masterpiece...

[pm91]

i just realized this. i went to my google earth to see if it will make an impact on the skyline and it definatley will. i put the buildings up on G.E, and i have the mainplace site as a placemark on G.E. i viewed downtown from the famous view (the west), and realized that you will be able to see it easily between bank of america and one shell plaza. i dont know how to photocrop so this is the best i can do.

[Ethanra]

This is exciting news. I hope the other proposed building where the Shamrock Building was going to be gets built as well. DT alone could have a dozen cranes up next year...

[swtsig]

i am very pleased with the design... looks beautiful.

[TheNiche]

i just realized this. i went to my google earth to see if it will make an impact on the skyline and it definatley will. i put the buildings up on G.E, and i have the mainplace site as a placemark on G.E. i viewed downtown from the famous view (the west), and realized that you will be able to see it easily between bank of america and one shell plaza. i dont know how to photocrop so this is the best i can do.

When all else fails, hit the Print Screen key and paste it into Microsoft Paint.

[Jax]

The article doesn't mention whether it will have retail. Does anybody know for sure? The article does mention that Discovery Tower will have retail though.

[Mister X]

Nice. They must have decided to make the terrace face east so that it would face Minute Maid Park. I think it is a good choice. I would have thought that any unique attribute on any tower in Houston would automatically face west since that seems to be the "front" of the dt skyline, especially on this building where the west side of the building also faces Main and the rail. But it's nice to see that the planners were thinking outside the box on this one. Plus, this tower and it's unique terrace on the east side will make a significant impact to the skyline when seen on television during Astros games.

[pm91]

i think we need to get KHOU to have a segment on this tonight. that would really be cool. how do we get them to have a report on it? i tried writing to them i cant do it for some reason.

[sevfiv]

http://www.globest.com/news/976_976/houston/163404-1.html

The schematic design work, which includes a nine-story, 1,130-space parking garage, will be completed in January.

The developer has set a ceremonial groundbreaking for 2008 Earth Day, April 22, with the high rise's grand opening planned for Earth Day 2011.

[BuilderGeek]

I like it because it looks different from anything I have seen before, but I can see the nickname already. The PAC MAN building or the PEZ Dispenser Building.

Or "stapler on a pedestal." Just kidding. I think they did a great job on this one and I think this may be one case where the real building is going to look even better than the rendering.

Edited August 22, 2007 by BuilderGeek