Heritage Clay Street Garage At 1200 Bagby St.

[ricco67]

Driving by the Doubletree, I noticed that there was a whole bunch of marking going on on the street. This caught my attention by the fact that the parking lot across from the Doubletree has been closed off. As I casually asked a very bored supervisor he told me they were getting ready to put in a new tunnel to the Lot and that there was some construction going to happen.

Are they building a new Garage or has something else slipped under the radar? Wasn't this supposed to be the location for the Orion?

[CSOM]

Driving by the Doubletree, I noticed that there was a whole bunch of marking going on on the street. This caught my attention by the fact that the parking lot across from the Doubletree has been closed off. As I casually asked a very bored supervisor he told me they were getting ready to put in a new tunnel to the Lot and that there was some construction going to happen.

Are they building a new Garage or has something else slipped under the radar? Wasn't this supposed to be the location for the Orion?

You sure it was for construction and not prepping for the Race for the Cure Saturday morning? I was at the Doubletree today and didn't really notice anything...

(BTW - don't park at the 1100 Smith garage, even on business... $30 all day and they don't accept Credit Cards...)

[ricco67]

I was thinking the same thing (the Run), but there were quite a few red marks noting where various utilities were.

The thing that REALLY caught my attention was tunneling to across the street. I mean, why build a tunnel if there is nothing there for people to walk to? A parking lot?

[KinkaidAlum]

The Orion was going to be built on Asbury off of Memorial Drive just West of Shepherd.

From what I remember, a new parking garage is going to go up there to service a nearby office tower (Heritage Plaza?).

Such a shame that a prime spot on the Western edge of downtown and overlooking the park will only see a parking garage..

[houstonfella]

Yeah, I was going to post this siting today, but found this thread. That lot is fenced in with plastic around it and a sign that says construction area. Also, note that Babgy is going to be closed from 10/8/2007 to 12/31/2007. Ouch for some. I'm really curious as to what is going on here ... I just figured Bagby needs to be repaved (and it does), but are they really going to build a garage there? That would be a great skyscraper site.

[Houston19514]

Driving by the Doubletree, I noticed that there was a whole bunch of marking going on on the street. This caught my attention by the fact that the parking lot across from the Doubletree has been closed off. As I casually asked a very bored supervisor he told me they were getting ready to put in a new tunnel to the Lot and that there was some construction going to happen.

Are they building a new Garage or has something else slipped under the radar? Wasn't this supposed to be the location for the Orion?

Yeah, that's the site of the parking garage for Heritage Plaza. It's been mentioned on this board before.

... and the Orion??? Not even close.

Man, you really do need to get yourself some better "ears on the ground." ;-)

[tanith27]

Got a tenant notice here in Allen Center about the street closure. Its based on construction of a new parking garage which apparently will take 14 months to complete. They are building a tunnel so that would explain the road closure between Oct 8th and the end of the year. Attached are the plans for the closures.

Phase_1___3_lane_closure_Bagby.pdf

[ricco67]

Thanks for the link, it was very interesting.

It's going to be interesting to see how they pull this off, that's a VERY busy intersection. This also clarifies the path of the tunnel, but I would have figured it would have been connected to the Double tree as well since a number of their customers uses that parking lot.

[Serrano]

can this be a tall building going their?

[ChannelTwoNews]

It's a parking garage.

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...ic=13285&hl

[capnmcbarnacle]

can this be a tall building going their?

Thanks. I missed the other thread somewhere. Boy, oh boy, a parking garage is going to look awesome next to the old houses over there!

Thanks for the link!

[Subdude]

Dupe topics combined.

[TheNiche]

This is actually really good news. The more parking that is available to skyline district buildings, the more marketable they are to tenants. In a lot of cases, the parking that was built for them originally just isn't able to accomodate the higher density of square feet per persons that is typical today.

And the more people that come downtown...

[wernicke]

Yea my gf works for Deloitte and Touche... they are moving to nice new digs at Heritage Plaza (several floors are being remodeled now) from Allen Center and supposedly a requirement for a new parking garage was part of the deal.

[ChannelTwoNews]

I've seen some overhead views of the site when I had to park at the Allen Center Garage. I can see it has a fairly sizeable footprint, but I'm just wondering as to what the overall size & capacity would be.

[Triton]

Friday night, I drove past the Houston International Festival and I saw a construction project that I wasn't sure that I had seen on this board... maybe it's somewhere else and not in the going up section?

Well, it's already at about 3 stories and the construction/real estate/etc. company is Holder. Anyone have a clue about what I'm talking about? It looks like a big project whatever it is.

Edit: I think it may have been at the corner of Mckinney Steet and Smith Street.

Oh.. nevermind. This must be the 300 Block Louisiana project in the Houston Downtown forum. Nevermind! Can a mod please close this?

Edited April 24, 2008 by Triton

[Triton]

Wait a minute... the 300 Louisana construction is a surface lot.

What I saw was at least 3 stories so far... does anyone have any clue what I'm talking about?

[rsb320]

Friday night, I drove past the Houston International Festival and I saw a construction project that I wasn't sure that I had seen on this board... maybe it's somewhere else and not in the going up section?

Well, it's already at about 3 stories and the construction/real estate/etc. company is Holder. Anyone have a clue about what I'm talking about? It looks like a big project whatever it is.

Edit: I think it may have been at the corner of Mckinney Steet and Smith Street.

Oh.. nevermind. This must be the 300 Block Louisiana project in the Houston Downtown forum. Nevermind! Can a mod please close this?

No, 300 La. St. is not near City Hall and nothing is being built there. They just tore down and old drive thru and now it's all surface lot. City Hall is about at the 800 block. I go by there every day and I don't know what you're talking about. They are remodeling the DT Library

[jt16]

Maybe you're talking about the parking garage going up by Heritage Plaza?

[rsb320]

Maybe you're talking about the parking garage going up by Heritage Plaza?

I thought about that too. That's Dallas/Allen Parkway @ Bagby.

[Triton]

Maybe you're talking about the parking garage going up by Heritage Plaza?

Ah, that's what it must be. Yeah, it's right next to Heritage Plaza. Is there already a thread for it and how tall will the parking garage be?

[lockmat]

Here are the pictures for it:

http://www.morrisarchitects.com/

Here is what the chron article had to say about it that rsb320 posted in another thread:

Heritage Plaza Parking Garage and Tunnel, Scheme One, Morris Architects: Allen Parkway is a beautiful way to drive downtown except that, once you get there, you feel that you've come in the back door. This dramatic design for (of all things) a parking garage would give that neglected spot some much-needed oomph.

Edited May 8, 2008 by lockmat

[MidtownCoog]

They planned this garage before they even secured new tennants. Not the other way around.

[lockmat]

Actually, here is a better picture the chron provided

http://images.chron.com/photos/2007/04/11/...opupGallery.jpg

[H-Town Man]

It reminds me of one of the hollow buildings at Ground Zero.

[KinkaidAlum]

Man, that is worse than I thought. At least it is short. I was worried it would be 15 stories or so.

However, I can't help but think how awful this will look across the street from our Heritage Park. There really are times when I think "only in Houston."

[Lectro]

I actually really like the design.

[Subdude]

Inasmuch as we're talking about parking garages, it isn't bad at all. It is certainly miles better than that "architecturally significant" piece of garbage Hines built on Main Street. That said, what I hate is the location If I had my druthers the whole section of land between Dallas and 45 would be incorporated into the park. The Chronicle's comment was simply inane. Entering downtown through a park doesn't require any additional "oomph".

[MyEvilTwin]

I'm not thrilled about this garage at all... They've reached the top in construction already, though only on one side of it. Driving in from Allen Parkway, it looks like it will hide a majority of the Doubletree from the skyline view when completed. I hope it looks ok when it'd done, but I'm not that optimistic.

The Doubletree guest rooms are definitely losing their views.

Edited May 10, 2008 by MyEvilTwin

[H-Town Man]

I saw where it was under construction today, and it looks terrible. Looking across Sam Houston Park before, you could always imagine that it went further than it did because there was nothing behind the treetops. Now there will be a big ugly garage.

Even more shocking though was the "architecturally significant" Hines garage on Main St., which I had never seen before. I thought I was prepared for it, but when it came into view, I let out a small yelp. Ugliest thing on Main St.

As to the Chronicle's comment, it really lends credence to the idea that they are still a cheerleader rag for the powers that be. Could you imagine any architecture critic of any newspaper in this country saying something good about a parking garage looming over a park (the city's oldest)?