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Bank Of America Tower At 800 Capitol St.


barracuda

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A like ok at the piers on the (podium or building) site. Im not an engineer but they look to be the same size as the piers at the northern end of the garage (see first pic)

Maybe that'll help figure out what's going on (or add further confusion lol)

https://twitter.com/thachadwick/status/688855091810557952

Edited by tigereye
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People kept mentioning GE could get this spot. Unsurprisingly, GE did not pick downtown Houston. They went to South Boston Waterfront. More urban than their usual suburban type campuses but still not surprising.

 

Edit: I used to be part of GE Capital but that's all been collapsing so they've been trying to restructure that mess as best as they can. They sold my sector off.

Edited by Triton
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What is the likelihood of Skanska moving forward with a restructured development concept..? Say.. try to lure one of those fabled high end hotels and residences to the property? It seems they would have an easier time developing this property as something other than office. 

 

I would say 0%.  They are sitting on a city block in the south side of downtown that they have owned for 5+ years.  I don't see them in much of a hurry.  The only change here is if their global development cash flow got pinched.  

 

Which seems to be doing fine....

http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/breaking_ground/2016/01/skanska-lands-first-tenant-for-spec-office-project.html

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I haven't actually wandered close enough to see if they're jumping a crane or bringing one down.

 

Oh the funny looks you get when you park and pop your head out of your sun roof for photos.... >.<

 

 

Best guess is that the tower crane is coming down.  It looks like they're just building enough to satisfy Those Whose Parking Shall Not Be Disturbed and (with any amount of luck) hooking the tunnel system hub back up.

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Oh the funny looks you get when you park and pop your head out of your sun roof for photos.... >.<

 

 

Welcome to the HAIF photographer world.  I always get a kick out of seeing people crane their necks looking for something interesting when I stop to get a picture of a building/garage under construction.  

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Are they going to leave the parking garage exposed? Thought we'd see some cladding by now.

 

 

A Baker concrete employee I talked to today said the other tower crane is supposed to come down in a couple weeks, they were wrappings things up this morning.

 

Sounds like it's gonna be nekkit for a while - which is reasonable, considering that the plan is to have more floors going up, not to mention the whole side that faces Chase of what's there is going to end up as the centerline of the eventual full garage.

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I'm still curious how (or if, I suppose) they are planning to weatherproof the tunnels.

 

With a protracted delay in the tower construction, you have the big (unfinished) open atrium leading down to the tunnels. Without a structure above, it is just a big open hole down to the lower level that I'm hoping will be opened back up to mole traffic.

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I'm still curious how (or if, I suppose) they are planning to weatherproof the tunnels.

 

With a protracted delay in the tower construction, you have the big (unfinished) open atrium leading down to the tunnels. Without a structure above, it is just a big open hole down to the lower level that I'm hoping will be opened back up to mole traffic.

 

The big hole has some way to drain out water.  So, to open it up at the lowest cost you rig up some sort of temporary structure to keep rain off of people's punkin haids (some version of the boxed in sidewalk on the Main Street side of 609), and rely on self closing doors at the access points to keep people from freezing out/getting heat stroke in the adjacent buildings.

 

Or not... just holler "take THAT, Mole People - circle around through the bank building to get to the tower!!!"  The only tunnel access that's not under cover of what's already built is the direct route to 600 Travis.

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The big hole has some way to drain out water.  So, to open it up at the lowest cost you rig up some sort of temporary structure to keep rain off of people's punkin haids (some version of the boxed in sidewalk on the Main Street side of 609), and rely on self closing doors at the access points to keep people from freezing out/getting heat stroke in the adjacent buildings.

 

Or not... just holler "take THAT, Mole People - circle around through the bank building to get to the tower!!!"  The only tunnel access that's not under cover of what's already built is the direct route to 600 Travis.

 

It occurred to me that the tunnel level had to be counting on the tower's HVAC system to keep it climate controlled anyway, so making the whole area water tight would probably make it nasty hot in the summer months, barring the use of a bunch of window A/C units.

 

I foresee something that has the feel of the corridors at airports out to the commuter jet "gates" that are really just a door farther out on the tarmac.

Edited by Nate99
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is anyone else not sad that a historic building was torn down for a freaking parking garage for the near future. This tower wont be built for years

 

Nope. It may delayed, but progress is being made. As someone in the industry, if it helps keep jobs and gives more work to go around, good.

 

And to sum up in general how I personally feel about saving historic buildings because they're historic : 

 

post-14239-0-59792900-1454607065.jpg

 

Just because you're historic for one reason or another doesn't mean we should keep you and impede progress and growth. Ahem, looking at you astrodome.

 

With all of that said, if a building is historic and it can be rehabbed and actually be used or re purposed for a socially responsible reason, keep it. If its collecting mold and rats and is beyond help, get rid of it.

 

 

..... and let the arguments begin (based on what I've seen, my opinion is probably not very popular). Everyone remember, we're all entitled to our opinions. 

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Nope. It may delayed, but progress is being made. As someone in the industry, if it helps keep jobs and gives more work to go around, good.

And to sum up in general how I personally feel about saving historic buildings because they're historic :

images.jpg

Just because you're historic for one reason or another doesn't mean we should keep you and impede progress and growth. Ahem, looking at you astrodome.

With all of that said, if a building is historic and it can be rehabbed and actually be used or re purposed for a socially responsible reason, keep it. If its collecting mold and rats and is beyond help, get rid of it.

..... and let the arguments begin (based on what I've seen, my opinion is probably not very popular). Everyone remember, we're all entitled to our opinions.

I didn't know the Astrodome was impeding progress and growth!

How long does a building have to sit vacant before we're sure it will never again be useful? Some of the buildings being renovated and restored now sat vacant for decades...

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Do they believe the bogus that comes out of your mind? Destroying a beautiful building with so much history without securing funding for a new building and replacing it with a freaking parkint garage is okay?

Some of you guys drink way too much koolaid. If this becomes a parking garage for 10+ years I'm going to be effin pissed

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Do they believe the bogus that comes out of your mind? Destroying a beautiful building with so much history without securing funding for a new building and replacing it with a freaking parkint garage is okay?

Some of you guys drink way too much koolaid. If this becomes a parking garage for 10+ years I'm going to be effin pissed

 

Get a grip, man.  Skanska has the funding to build the tower.  It just does not make sense for them to do so if they can't find any tenants.  I doubt there is anyone on this board who is not disappointed with the delay of this tower.  But, you know, #*$& happens.

 

Perhaps you have noticed a slight decrease in oil prices since this project was started.  If you know of a way to perfectly project future commodity prices so that development projects are never overtaken by economic events, I'm sure Skanska and every other developer would love to hear it. Otherwise, put a sock in it, already.

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I didn't know the Astrodome was impeding progress and growth!

How long does a building have to sit vacant before we're sure it will never again be useful? Some of the buildings being renovated and restored now sat vacant for decades...

 

Haha, thats another tailgating lot on Sundays ;) 

And since my taxes are paying for it to sit there, I'd say in some way shape or form it is financially impeding progress somewhere else.

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