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JW Marriott At 806 Main St. & Expansion Into Battlestein’s - 812 Main St.


Houston19514

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  • 4 weeks later...

So, it looks like they are filling in the joints of whatever the exterior covering/sheeting is. Perhaps it is not so temporary as I thought. There were also workers working on putting a brick pattern on to a section of it.

 

Without knowing exactly what every step has been, it is tough to say definitively, but it looks like it will be faux brick exterior.

 

2rynak6.jpg

 

35j05eo.jpg

Edited by Nate99
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Can you describe this a little more? Was there some material they were putting on or more like paint?

 

More like paint, I would say. If I had a decent camera with a zoom, I'd take a shot of the (small) part that they have done this way on the Main side.  Since you can not get closer to it than across the street, it's tough to say for sure, but based on the varying coats of stuff around it, I'm guessing it is just a pattern painted/applied on top of the sheeting.

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Looks like they are taking out the lower level brick altogether...

 

10zo934.jpg

 

Edited to add big version, you may be able to see the new "brick" pattern to the left of the construction elevator on the 4th floor.

Edited by Nate99
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here's the rendering posted to Culture Map, so, yeah, they will probably repalce the lower facade with new brick, then paint a brick facade over the higher bricks they had to paint to cover up the damage from the 60's facade's glues and resins...

 

JW-Marriott-downtown-Houston-May-2013-re

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I don't mean to get off topic, but I don't know where else to ask without starting a new thread. Does anyone know what's happening to the old days inn building that's vacant?

 

It was reported recently that it had been sold and the new owner plan/hope to rehabilitate in the next couple years.  I think that's about all anyone knows.  (Unless we have some insiders here with more knowledge.)

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It was reported recently that it had been sold and the new owner plan/hope to rehabilitate in the next couple years. I think that's about all anyone knows. (Unless we have some insiders here with more knowledge.)

That building is old and full of asbestos.

There were many proposed renovations of it before but no one wanted to eat the cost of asbestos abatement, which is extrememly expensive due to EPA regulations.

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So it looks like they've added quoins where none existed before? Or at least I couldn't tell they were there on the earlier photos.

 

I didn't know what they were called, thanks. You can see what the structure looked like from the earlier pictures, there does not look like there was much of anything apart from the plain brick. 

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here's the rendering posted to Culture Map, so, yeah, they will probably repalce the lower facade with new brick, then paint a brick facade over the higher bricks they had to paint to cover up the damage from the 60's facade's glues and resins...

 

JW-Marriott-downtown-Houston-May-2013-re

 

I like the shade at the bottom.

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The gray material they are putting on looks more like a cement, plaster, or drywall compound ("mud").  They apply it with a masonry trowel.

 

I agree. They put up the backer board and then troweled on the mud. I am assuming the brick pattern will go on top of that. If you look at my pic in post #186, you can see that they have the layers mocked up with backer board, mud, base brick pattern, finished brick pattern from top to bottom on the two strips.

 

The quoins look to be made from the backer board material too.

Edited by Nate99
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The original brick looked like hell, they had to do something. Restoring the original brick, if possible, would have been ridiculously expensive. Replacing it probably even more so. Taking an approach as they have could be the difference between having a nice looking hotel and an abandoned useless rotting building on Main.

 

JW Marriott isn't exactly in to letting their name go on dumpy properties, I bet it will look pretty sharp once it is done.

 

 

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fssssssssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...[sound of energy going out of this thread as we slowly realize how cheap and non-durable this historic finish is going to look.]

 

Have you looked at the photos to see how durable the original materials were? The new stuff cannot be any worse than the old stuff.

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Have you looked at the photos to see how durable the original materials were? The new stuff cannot be any worse than the old stuff.

The original brick, before they ransacked it in the 60's, probably was more durable than a textured faux brick facade over backer board. Unfortunately it was damaged beyond repair.

Hey folks, I'm not attacking the redevelopers, who apparently you are related to or have some other emotional tie. Obviously the old brick was too damaged to look good. Just disappointing that the city's first skyscraper has to end up getting dressed in faux brick.

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