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One Market Square: Proposed Office Tower For Block 43 - 800 Preston St.


lockmat

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A lot of projects have been shelved in the past, because lets be honest, after the oil bust back in the day Houston was a scary place for investors. Now that we have gained some national spotlight for once, the city is getting the projects that we deserve. Investors and developers are taking a new chance on Houston. And this time around we are more stable than ever. What you go through only makes you stronger, and Houston is a stronger city. Here's proof, Skyhouse, Discovery Green, etc. etc. etc. We hadn't had development downtown in almost 25 years before Minute Maid Park was built. I'm glad the city forced them to build downtown. Actual city planning is a beautiful thing.

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@j_cuevas

To expand on what you ere saying . . . This was such a different place 25 yrs ago, even despite the oil bust. The city was very much in it's modern day infancy. For those who have been here all this time, I think it's safe to say that this is the most diverse our economy has ever been. Yeah Oil and Medical still power this town but in 25 years we've added a much bigger legal, logistical, and manufacturing base than we had back then. I'd say banking has stayed about the same although BBVA Compass really seems to be setting up shop. I wouldn't be surprised if more major worldwide banks give this place a long look in the next 20 years. And to think, they project another 2 million people here within 20 years.

And yeah, a little planning and some beautification do go a long way. I can't think of a single more transformative project in the last 25 years than the East side of downtown. I remember going there in the early 80s and seeing the utter dereliction. I credit MMP somewhat and Discovery Green mostly. The GRB was all alone out there previously and never really did anything for that side of downtown. My only lament is that Discovery Green isn't twice as large.

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@j_cuevas To expand on what you ere saying . . . This was such a different place 25 yrs ago, even despite the oil bust. The city was very much in it's modern day infancy. For those who have been here all this time, I think it's safe to say that this is the most diverse our economy has ever been. Yeah Oil and Medical still power this town but in 25 years we've added a much bigger legal, logistical, and manufacturing base than we had back then. I'd say banking has stayed about the same although BBVA Compass really seems to be setting up shop. I wouldn't be surprised if more major worldwide banks give this place a long look in the next 20 years. And to think, they project another 2 million people here within 20 years. And yeah, a little planning and some beautification do go a long way. I can't think of a single more transformative project in the last 25 years than the East side of downtown. I remember going there in the early 80s and seeing the utter dereliction. I credit MMP somewhat and Discovery Green mostly. The GRB was all alone out there previously and never really did anything for that side of downtown. My only lament is that Discovery Green isn't twice as large.

 

Absolutely agree 100%, I remember moving to Waco for about 4 years (so happy to be back in Houston), and during this time Houston was barely in its beginning phases to redevelop downtown. I believe the Cotswold street projects were the beginning of the transformation back in 1995 up until about 2000 right before Minute Maid Park was built. Since then, I've seen a complete transformation of downtown before my eyes. From rooting for the Stros and Rockets to stay in Houston, to hoping and praying that Pavilions would get built. We went through the phase where all these bars and clubs were trying to capitalize on the recent improvements, and once that phased out (thank God) we are now beginning to see a more stable downtown. The businesses that have survived are those that economically were meant to survive according to the demand downtown. It's been a beautiful thing to witness since then. Anyone else remember the Cotswold streetscape projects?

Edited by j_cuevas713
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Yes I do. The original plan was to convert at least one street into a waterway (why imitate San Antonio, sheesh). The rest were to become narowed tree-lined pedestrian friendly thoroughfares with head-in parking. For the most part, I actually liked the original design, save for the waterway. I would have preferred one East-West street closed to all traffic and turned into a linear park-scape to link the convention center area to the West side of downtown. Main Street (which should be closed to vehicular traffic IMO) would have been the natural North-South linear. Anyways, they did implement parts of Cotswold by narrowing some of the streets (mainly E-W ones) and adding some head-in parking, street lights, better signs, and so on. An ambitious idea that ended up getting watered down (budget or lack of vision, take your pick), but still a good one that is paying dividends today.

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Anyone else remember the Cotswold streetscape projects?

I remember.

I was real excited about it, because they were showing "attention" to my beloved downtown. I think a couple years later they added the tall square brick posts with the aluminum tops that had cutouts of artwork drawn by houston elementary school kids, right down by the bayou behind the grand opera building. I think that was sort of the "beginning" of the buffalo bayou beautification/bayou walk, what have you. I thought it was so cool and clever.

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I was a member of the original group of stakeholders who worked with Guy Hagsttette on the Cotswold project.

It was initially planned to turn one of the northern most east wets streets into a waterway. This was shelved but everything else was built as planned. There were three issues which altered the downtown while Cotswold was being built.

The metro rail line with water feature on Main St.. Every north south street from Smith to Austin were totally rebuilt, and it was found once excavation started on Prairie next to Cabo's in the test block, some of the water lines were still made of brick which they hadn't planned on replacing and ironically they had to remove the remnants of the old trolley lines.

Everything else including signage, trees, parking and lighting were finished as originally planned. It was a very interesting chance to see things from behind the scenes.

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I was a member of the original group of stakeholders who worked with Guy Hagsttette on the Cotswold project.

It was initially planned to turn one of the northern most east wets streets into a waterway. This was shelved but everything else was built as planned. There were three issues which altered the downtown while Cotswold was being built.

The metro rail line with water feature on Main St.. Every north south street from Smith to Austin were totally rebuilt, and it was found once excavation started on Prairie next to Cabo's in the test block, some of the water lines were still made of brick which they hadn't planned on replacing and ironically they had to remove the remnants of the old trolley lines.

Everything else including signage, trees, parking and lighting were finished as originally planned. It was a very interesting chance to see things from behind the scenes.

Sorry, I hit send twice.

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I remember.

I was real excited about it, because they were showing "attention" to my beloved downtown. I think a couple years later they added the tall square brick posts with the aluminum tops that had cutouts of artwork drawn by houston elementary school kids, right down by the bayou behind the grand opera building. I think that was sort of the "beginning" of the buffalo bayou beautification/bayou walk, what have you. I thought it was so cool and clever.

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Actually, the brick towers along the bayou next to the Wortham theater were part of the Sesquicentenial park designed by a couple of U. Of h. Arch. Students in a competition to create the park that now exists. One of the members of that group was Guy Hagstette.

The Aluminum towers with the cutouts that were drawn by elementary school kids was the art project by a very well known Houston artist Mel Chin. He is also responsible for the Palm tree and metal pyramid sculpture that unfortunately is in disrepair behind the contemporary art museum. It would be nice to see that public sculpture completely refurbished and have a more visible location.

It's a great sculpture.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Has this building really been scaled down to 37 floors? According to Emporis....Yea. Swstig? or anybody else can confirm this?

http://www.emporis.com/building/international-tower-houston-tx-usa

I added the building to the database a few months ago when that was the initial floor count reported... Just haven't updated it.

Edited by ChannelTwoNews
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