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This seems way faster than the Sheraton. Granted, that was a larger building. Out with the old, in with the new.

 

The Sheraton was also a disassembly, which is a somewhat more involved process than whacking at brick and concrete.

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some days it seems like HAIF is all seeing:

 

from a HAIFer's perspective, that building appears to have come down quite efficiently.

 

And quickly. Imagine the crane forest that is coming for this area! 6 Houston Center (1 or 2 cranes), 609 Main (1 or 2 cranes), Marriot (1 or 2 cranes), Block 69 (1 or 2 cranes), Market Square (1 or 2 cranes), Former Macy's site (2 cranes), Green Street Hotel (1 or 2 cranes). It'll look like the Exxon campus I bet...

 

That's a total of 14 cranes on projects that'll be going up nearly at the same time!

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And quickly. Imagine the crane forest that is coming for this area! 6 Houston Center (1 or 2 cranes), 609 Main (1 or 2 cranes), Marriot (1 or 2 cranes), Block 69 (1 or 2 cranes), Market Square (1 or 2 cranes), Former Macy's site (2 cranes), Green Street Hotel (1 or 2 cranes). It'll look like the Exxon campus I bet...

That's a total of 14 cranes on projects that'll be going up nearly at the same time!

You've forgotten so many potential cranes it's hard to name them all.

Hampton inn& home wood suites

Hyatt place

Block 35 40 story residential?

Will there be a crane for HSPVA?

Or the GRB parking garage?

I'm sure I'm missing others like 1400 Texas and the Hess garage tower (though one of those might be block 69)

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I wonder how many eye-sores are left in Downtown and which are best for redo and which are best for demo.

 

More specifically, how many vacant buildings do we have in DT?

 

Offhand there's the old Holiday Inn, Melrose Building, Battlesteins.  Of those the first one is best for demolition.  We've been losing vacant buildings though, with renovations at the Savoy and Texaco and demolitions of this one and the Sheraton.  Downtown will gain a really large vacancy when Exxon departs for points north.

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The Melrose Building is really the only building left near 609 Main that badly needs to be addressed.  It smells awful and has been vacant for as long as I can remember.  Now that they totally renovated the old Texaco garage next to it, with the Texaco building behind it in the process of being renovated, and with 6HC supposed to go in across the street, it seems like it is time to finish addressing this block (the other half of the block is surface parking).  Yet I have not heard a word anywhere about any plans for the building, either tearing it down or renovating it.

 

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that 609 Main is supposed to have "unparalleled" access to the tunnel system.  I know some have said there were rumors it would be connected to the JP Morgan Chase Center Garage across Main.  But I also read that it was going to be connected to BG Group Place.  The only way I could see that working would be to go from BG Group Place diagonally across Fannin/Rusk through the renovated Texaco building, under the garage that will be built for it, into the Sak's garage (which already has an abandoned tunnel connection to it across Capital, I believe), and then across Fannin to 609 Main.  Perhaps "unparalleled" means they will have both for 609 Main?  Has there been any update on this?

 

If the latter connection is made, that would mean that the block with the Melrose building will then have easy tunnel access (via the tunnel diagonally between BG Group Place and the Texaco building), so perhaps that empty half block could be put to use.

 

Battlestein's is nearby, too, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do ground level renovations as part of the 806 Main project (the sidewalk has been closed off for well over a year anyway), and it's nowhere near the eyesore that the Melrose Building is.

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I vaguely remember reading somewhere that 609 Main is supposed to have "unparalleled" access to the tunnel system.  I know some have said there were rumors it would be connected to the JP Morgan Chase Center Garage across Main.  But I also read that it was going to be connected to BG Group Place.  The only way I could see that working would be to go from BG Group Place diagonally across Fannin/Rusk through the renovated Texaco building, under the garage that will be built for it, into the Sak's garage (which already has an abandoned tunnel connection to it across Capital, I believe), and then across Fannin to 609 Main.  Perhaps "unparalleled" means they will have both for 609 Main?  Has there been any update on this?

 

With all those diagonals, it sounds like "unparalleled" is simply a literal description.

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The Melrose Building is really the only building left near 609 Main that badly needs to be addressed.  It smells awful and has been vacant for as long as I can remember.  Now that they totally renovated the old Texaco garage next to it, with the Texaco building behind it in the process of being renovated, and with 6HC supposed to go in across the street, it seems like it is time to finish addressing this block (the other half of the block is surface parking).  Yet I have not heard a word anywhere about any plans for the building, either tearing it down or renovating it.

 

I vaguely remember reading somewhere that 609 Main is supposed to have "unparalleled" access to the tunnel system.  I know some have said there were rumors it would be connected to the JP Morgan Chase Center Garage across Main.  But I also read that it was going to be connected to BG Group Place.  The only way I could see that working would be to go from BG Group Place diagonally across Fannin/Rusk through the renovated Texaco building, under the garage that will be built for it, into the Sak's garage (which already has an abandoned tunnel connection to it across Capital, I believe), and then across Fannin to 609 Main.  Perhaps "unparalleled" means they will have both for 609 Main?  Has there been any update on this?

 

If the latter connection is made, that would mean that the block with the Melrose building will then have easy tunnel access (via the tunnel diagonally between BG Group Place and the Texaco building), so perhaps that empty half block could be put to use.

 

Battlestein's is nearby, too, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do ground level renovations as part of the 806 Main project (the sidewalk has been closed off for well over a year anyway), and it's nowhere near the eyesore that the Melrose Building is.

 

The story that the 609 Main tunnel connection would be via Chase Center was from a post on this board and I'm pretty sure it is the case.  I'm not sure how a connection would work to BG Group Place since that would involve tunneling under either Club Quarters Hotel or the Texaco Building.  

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Better shot. You can see how little is left of the old building and on the right you can see a boom from a concrete pumper truck. There is a fairly deep hole already dug near the Capitol/Fannin corner. The top of the truck cab was below street grade. 

 

2qn04uv.jpg

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Too bad 609 Main won't go up nearly as quickly as this building came down.

 

Indeed. 

 

I'm sure it has been written up and analyzed as to why, but this building will basically take 3 years start to finish. The Empire State Building took a little over 16 months from excavation to opening (January 1930 - May 1931).

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Indeed. 

 

I'm sure it has been written up and analyzed as to why, but this building will basically take 3 years start to finish. The Empire State Building took a little over 16 months from excavation to opening (January 1930 - May 1931).

 

Empire state building is a steel frame structure. This one is going to be all reinforced concrete(I'm guessing), which is more labor intensive. ESB construction also had 5 workplace fatalities, which today would be totally unacceptable. I tried to find a similar sized steel frame high rise built in the "modern era". Bank of America building in downtown Atlanta, over 1000 feet. Built in 14 months. 

 

The other thing to take into account is Fair Labor Standards Act, which passed in 1938. It established the 40 hour work week (and 8 hour day). If they built the empire state today, I would guess that the total man-hours(or person-hours) would be less, but the elapsed time to completion would be more. 

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