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Sunset Coffee Building At 1019 Commerce St.


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Somewhere back on page 3 or 5 or something, I was suggesting that this building was not a "historic renovation" and that it looked "wrong" to me. I was summarily told to "wait" until the finished building. Ok, I waited. This building is a nice NEW building. It has nothing to do with historic renovations or preservation.

For the record, I am fine with that. They could have bulldozed the building and built new and I would have been fine with that too. What irks me about this project is that it was touted as "historic renovation" and, frankly, in any sense of the word, it isn't.

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Glad to see this building almost complete.  Sadly, "Historic renovation" it is not.   To me, it shows that Houston is a city where, even "civic organizations" really don't care about preservation.  If those who should care the most don't, how can we expect those seeking profit to care more?  Houston is becoming a great city but historic preservation is simply not a core cultural competency.  We will build a beautiful city for the 20-teens and beyond.   it will not be grounded in historic structures but rather in modern construction.  And, since I can't have the former, that is fine with me.

Edited by UtterlyUrban
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2 minutes ago, UtterlyUrban said:

Glad to see this building almost complete.  Sadly, "Historic renovation" it is not.   To me, it shows that Houston is a city where, even "civic organizations" really don't care about preservation.  If those who should at are the most don't, how can we expect those seeking profit to care more?  Houston is becoming a great city but historic preservation is simply not a core cultural competency.  We will build a beautiful city for the 20-teens and beyond.   it will not be grounded in historic structures but rather in modern construction.  And, since I can't have the former, that is fine with me.

That's really not true... historic preservation doesn't always mean maintaining every original part of a building... it's maintaining the structure as a whole... and honestly the original bricks of this structure would not have withstood the test of time... the best way was to restore it back to it's original build. And the statement that Houston isn't being built on history is wrong. There are so many structures being saved and repurposed in this city. It's becoming the trend in Houston and culturally it's becoming the norm. I work with a guy who owns Underbelly, Anvel, and a few other places and we've had the same talk but many of his partners notice the trend has changed in Houston. Whether it's salvaging and repurposing or building 100 percent green, the city is building the right way now. 

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11 minutes ago, j_cuevas713 said:

That's really not true... historic preservation doesn't always mean maintaining every original part of a building... it's maintaining the structure as a whole... and honestly the original bricks of this structure would not have withstood the test of time... the best way was to restore it back to it's original build. And the statement that Houston isn't being built on history is wrong. There are so many structures being saved and repurposed in this city. It's becoming the trend in Houston and culturally it's becoming the norm. I work with a guy who owns Underbelly, Anvel, and a few other places and we've had the same talk but many of his partners notice the trend has changed in Houston. Whether it's salvaging and repurposing or building 100 percent green, the city is building the right way now. 

I hope that you are correct.  However, this building has NEAR ZERO left of its history except the interior floors.  The windows are new and wrong for the period.  Everything about it new is and wrong for the period.  It is possible to "historically restore" using new materials that are sensitive to the historic period in which the building was built.  That was not done here.  While unfortunate, I am fine with that.  As I have said before, they could have bulldozed this building for all I care.  I just don't like the concept of "marketing" the building as a "historic renovation" then doing something else entirely.

I do hope that you are correct.  Hopefully Houston is changing.  The Texaco renovation and a few others are promising signs.  But the recent bulldozing of a historic structure on Louisiana, the demolition of that (perhaps too far gone?) warehouse building on (Austin?) to create a parking lot, and the crushing of the Houston Club building tells me otherwise.  Time will tell and I hope that you win this debate.

 

 

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40 minutes ago, UtterlyUrban said:

I hope that you are correct.  However, this building has NEAR ZERO left of its history except the interior floors.  The windows are new and wrong for the period.  Everything about it new is and wrong for the period.  It is possible to "historically restore" using new materials that are sensitive to the historic period in which the building was built.  That was not done here.  While unfortunate, I am fine with that.  As I have said before, they could have bulldozed this building for all I care.  I just don't like the concept of "marketing" the building as a "historic renovation" then doing something else entirely.

I do hope that you are correct.  Hopefully Houston is changing.  The Texaco renovation and a few others are promising signs.  But the recent bulldozing of a historic structure on Louisiana, the demolition of that (perhaps too far gone?) warehouse building on (Austin?) to create a parking lot, and the crushing of the Houston Club building tells me otherwise.  Time will tell and I hope that you win this debate.

 

 

I do agree with you trust me... I just think the overall trend has not only come back to people moving back in to the inner city but also with saving older structures. If any city follows what the market is doing it's Houston. It's hard in some cities to distinguish what the overall trend in the market is because of such strict regulations on how and what to build. In this city you get such a huge spectrum on what is the current move in the market and what isn't. Houston is definitely changing culturally in many ways... whether it's salvaging history or embracing a clean "green" Houston, this city is going the right way and I can honestly say that I've never in my life seen Houston take such a huge initative in heading this direction. I think the culture of anything goes and not embracing this city is finally coming to an end. The culture in this city has been changing over the past 15 years and it's very exciting to see. 

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I'm still excited for the building to finish, I just can't get a sense of what the surrounding plaza is going to look like. I'm amazed this is still all dirt. I'm curious to see how they tie this into Main street and Allen's landing and hopefully make it a more inviting recreational space. 

 

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19 hours ago, Sunstar said:

I'm still excited for the building to finish, I just can't get a sense of what the surrounding plaza is going to look like. I'm amazed this is still all dirt. I'm curious to see how they tie this into Main street and Allen's landing and hopefully make it a more inviting recreational space. 

 

Agreed.

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This is going to be a great addition to the bayou and Market Square, and will become a popular place for water activities and boating,  just like Memorial Park's jogging trail is for runners. I can see some more restaurants or burger bar places opening in the neighborhood.

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1 hour ago, Tonyhtown said:

Any updates in this?

Yes.  This "historic renovation" has essentially gutted a building back to its bones and built an entirely new building that, other than is shape and footprint, looks nothing like the original building.  The materials used on the "historic renovation" do not seem to be, in anyway, sensitive to history.  It is a new building, with a new facade, built on an old structure -- old bones but everything that you can see has little to do with history.  Is it functional as a modern structure?  Very likely.  Is it functional as a modern structure that has been "historically renovated?" Not in my opinion.

 

This building could have been restored with period sensitive brick, mortar, Windows, and roof material.  It could have been a historic renovation.  But it sure doesn't look that way to me.  Does it to you?

 

 

 

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Yeah, this is definitely not a (NOT an!!! ugh) historic renovation - it is a modern renovation of an old shell of a building that was badly neglected for a long time. But those are just nitpicky words - I'm glad to see prime waterfront property repurposed by a nonprofit entity any day.

 

Speaking of nitpicky - does anyone know when this building actually housed Sunset? I have only seen it referred to as International or Cleveland Coffee..

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/12/2016 at 0:36 PM, sevfiv said:

Yeah, this is definitely not a (NOT an!!! ugh) historic renovation - it is a modern renovation of an old shell of a building that was badly neglected for a long time. But those are just nitpicky words - I'm glad to see prime waterfront property repurposed by a nonprofit entity any day....

 

Love Street was a dump.  Some fine music went on there.  And the surrounding area was site of some interesting hijinks.  

 

But the old building itself was hardly memorable.  It started to crumble as renovations began, so something useful was constructed on its bones.  

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I like the fact that they took the approach to preserve history and restore a historical building. I'm just not too crazy about the new orange-ish tan-ish color of the brick on the building. Even though the previous green color they used may have looked a little dated, they could have pulled it off if it was done right.

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Again, regardless of whether you like the final result, this is not a restoration of a historic building. All that's left of the old building is the basic structure. Everything else- exterior details, window pattern, brickwork- everything else is not just brand new but noticeably different. 

 

That's not to judge whether that choice was right or wrong; it's just worth clarifying that this is no longer a historic building.

Edited by Texasota
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  • The title was changed to Sunset Coffee Building At 1019 Commerce St.

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