Catalyst: 28-Story Residential High-Rise At 1475 Texas Ave.

[Urbannizer]

Still planned to break ground next month according to the HBJ:

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/breaking-ground/2014/04/new-apartment-high-rise-on-tap-for-downtown.html

[Urbannizer]

And a better look:

 

[Howard Huge]

And a better look:

Urbannizer......you ARE Haif.......Wayne should pay you for all the content you bring to the site. I salute you.

[swtsig]

i really like this project but let's be honest - almost all of these new highrise apartments look exactly the same, which isn't to say i don't like the way they look because i do.... just calling a spade a spade.

[HoustonIsHome]

I wouldn't say the same but they do resemble each other.

Walking around disturb you do see many buildings that do resemble each other.

It is just the period that they were built.

There are a few Cotton exchange era building, there are a few that resemble the Rice Hotel architecture, the Texas Tower (609 main) looked similar to others etc.

Every tower cannot be a signature tower. There are only so many things you can do to stand out.

But I agree with you. Handsome buildings but this one, Block 98 And Hines resemble each other

[BigFootsSocks]

i really like this project but let's be honest - almost all of these new highrise apartments look exactly the same, which isn't to say i don't like the way they look because i do.... just calling a spade a spade.

Nah you're right there's no literally no variety

[shasta]

If we have too little of anything downtown...it is residences with balconies. So I say bring them on and the more the merrier...it will help to create a different type of synergy downtown.

[monarch]

by all accounts, this is an essential, and yet very glamorous component, as per this particular area of downtown.  "minute maid park" vs "marquette place" a home run indeed...

 

And a better look:

 

 

[j_cuevas713]

Oh and if this project is for real, then this along with the Market Square residential is going to be amazing. Is there an exact start date, or can we just expect something next month?

Edited April 22, 2014 by j_cuevas713

[Nate99]

Oh and if this project is for real, then this along with the Market Square residential is going to be amazing. Is there an exact start date, or can we just expect something next month?

 

Sounds like someone here heard something specific enough to know next month. 

 

A few months back I took a picture of the soil sample drill truck doing its thing on this lot, so it is most certainly more than a rumor, whether the rendering is 100% accurate, who knows. 

[Urbannizer]

I just removed 37 childish comments from this thread.    In the future please learn to either report, or ignore.

[Timoric]

-

Edited July 8, 2019 by Timoric

[Nate99]

One big thing I wonder about all of this stuff is the climate.  Houston is hot, humid, and rains a lot in the summer.  With wide spaces between buildings, lots of asphalt and concrete, maybe some landscaping, trees, etc can be developed at each place to create shade for walkers and city parks etc can help as well. I really like that bricking on the road I saw on another thread.

 

This block actually has a number of oak trees surrounding it. One of the plan views of the rendering shows them attempting to keep a number of them, hope that works. 

 

The shaded walk in front of the Rice Hotel is actually fairly decent even in the summer, though perhaps only relatively because you just walked out of blazing direct sun on asphalt. In any case, it would be a nice thing for designers to emulate. 

 

It has been said before here, but with this building, 500 Crawford and 609 Main going up, Texas Street will be a really visually unique city street. If something were to go up on the block across from this one, you would have nice stuff from the bayou all the way to the ballpark. 

[H-Town Man]

One big thing I wonder about all of this stuff is the climate. Houston is hot, humid, and rains a lot in the summer. With wide spaces between buildings, lots of asphalt and concrete, maybe some landscaping, trees, etc can be developed at each place to create shade for walkers and city parks etc can help as well. I really like that bricking on the road I saw on another thread.

If they just put that drive up entrance on the west side on Austin St then they could keep the mature oak trees along Texas and not cut through the sidewalk. Texas probably has the second most potential after Main downtown as a walkable urban street. Shame to see it mistreated.

Edited April 22, 2014 by H-Town Man

[jgriff]

When I used to walk in downtown daily I just chose the side of the street that had shadows from the surrounding buildings. If there are enough buildings around you can walk a long distance almost never being exposed to the sun.

 

Trees are much better than no trees though.

Edited April 22, 2014 by jgriff

[Timoric]

-

Edited July 8, 2019 by Timoric

[j_cuevas713]

Yeah I went ahead and checked a couple of development websites and they all say May 2014, lets keep our fingers crossed, this would be huuuuuuuge!

[Nate99]

I posted a pic in the wrong residential tower thread. 

 

With so many, it's hard to keep them straight. Whodathunkit? 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2014 by Nate99

[Urbannizer]

Well, we now know why it looks like the other towers.

 

Marquette Cos. has been active in Houston for a while, buying and renovating various smaller apartment complexes, but the Illinois-based developer is closing on a piece of prime downtown property in June to develop its first high-rise multifamily project.

Marquette Cos.  will break ground this quarter on a 364-unit, 29-story apartment building with approximately 7,700 square feet of ground floor retail space in downtown Houston, a block from the Houston Astro’s Minute Maid Park. Ziegler Cooper is the architect and Pepper-Lawson Construction LP, the Texas division of Chicago-based Pepper Construction Group LLC, is the contractor. The cost of the project was not disclosed.

 

The apartment high-rise, dubbed Block 52, will include a 589-space private parking garage situated above the retail space and below the residential units, as well as two floors of amenities including a resort-style, rooftop pool. Rental prices will range from $2.70 to $2.80 per square foot for apartments ranging in size from approximately 600 to 1,800 square feet.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2014/04/future-office-construction-inspiration-for-new.html

 

 

 

 

[Triton]

You'll have to remind me, what over projects has Ziegler Cooper done... or will do, I should say?

[arche_757]

Google them.

[fernz]

I'm all for using local architects, but it would be nice if they were more creative. Three towers in close proximity from each other (Hines, Marquette and Trammell) and they all look very similar. Fail!

[HoustonIsHome]

Fail? Compare those to what Camden released for that block near root square and that crap that Alliance is throwing up north of skyhouse

If Marquette, Hines MS and block 98 see fails then I don't mind Houston failing that way.

All three buildings are lovely. I like the other MS residential tower too.

Edited April 23, 2014 by Subdude

[fernz]

I never said the buildings don't look good. The failing is in regards to the creativity of the architects. To come up with one design style and spread it around town is failed creativity.

Btw, your examples are mid rises, can't really compare. Sky house, Hanover towers, Chelsea st and OPP are all good looking high rises, yet they have very different styles.

[bluecar(a.f.f.)]

it seems many of the trees are planned to remain and there's a generous pedestrian zone at the SW corner

 

 

 

[Urbannizer]

it seems many of the trees are planned to remain and there's a generous pedestrian zone at the SW corner

Now that the project has been officially announced, can you post a new rendering of the building?

[HoustonIsHome]

I never said the buildings don't look good. The failing is in regards to the creativity of the architects. To come up with one design style and spread it around town is failed creativity.

Btw, your examples are mid rises, can't really compare. Sky house, Hanover towers, Chelsea st and OPP are all good looking high rises, yet they have very different styles.

I never said you said they were ugly.

I offered that they were beautiful, and that if beautiful building are failures then I welcome more failures.

And I most certainly can compare midrises. The very fact that those suckers are squat midrises make them much better examples of failures than those you gave.

Again, my point is if I were to point out short comings in residential buildings, the two market square buildings, The Marquette and Trammel Crow buildings would be late on my list. Alliance, The early Camden renderings, Fingers and the one on St Joseph would all get a tongue lashing before the other 4

[j_cuevas713]

I wish this was breaking ground tomorrow. Sigh    

[Triton]

Google them.

Thanks.

 

For anyone who really wants to answer my question, I'm talking about the Ziegler Cooper designed projects in Houston. Does anyone know the other ones?

[fkp5]

Thanks.

 

For anyone who really wants to answer my question, I'm talking about the Ziegler Cooper designed projects in Houston. Does anyone know the other ones?

 

The Sovereign, Residences at Market Square, Block 98 tower, Hanover Southampton, One Lake's Edge in the Woodlands, 2229 San Felipe, and 800 Bell Redevelopment. There are probably a few more I'm missing.

[fkp5]

I was re-reading this thread, and on the first page, it mentions that Marquette has plans to build a couple of high-rise projects in Downtown. Does anyone know where their second project could be?

[bluecar(a.f.f.)]

I'm pretty sure ZC also designed Highland Tower and 2727 Kirby....among others

[arche_757]

Thanks.

 

For anyone who really wants to answer my question, I'm talking about the Ziegler Cooper designed projects in Houston. Does anyone know the other ones?

 

No really, look them up.  Ziegler Cooper actually has a website.  You would have found the buildings listed below (or above) if you had done that already.  It would have taken you ~1 minute to look that up.

 

I figured most people on here usually do look up Houston firms frequently just to see what each office is doing.

 

http://zieglercooper.com/urban-residential/

Edited April 23, 2014 by arche_757

[BigFootsSocks]

I figured most people on here usually do look up Houston firms frequently just to see what each office is doing.

 

Why do that when we have you to do it for us?

[ArchFan]

The Sovereign, Residences at Market Square, Block 98 tower, Hanover Southampton, One Lake's Edge in the Woodlands, 2229 San Felipe, and 800 Bell Redevelopment. There are probably a few more I'm missing.

As far as high-rises, you can add Montebello, Villa d'Este, the upcoming Belfiore, Highland Tower, off the top of my head.  I think there are others going up, too.  Also The Austonian in Austin, which amazingly is not clad in beige brick like so many of the rest.  

 

As for mid-rises, The Gables Tanglewood, The Briarglen, and the development off Weslayan @ West Alabama (I forget the name).

 

Apologies for not just pointing to their web page (which I've visited in the past) ... but I'm just trying to demonstrate how highlight they seem to have captured that market in Houston.

Edited April 24, 2014 by ArchFan

[fernz]

Belfiore is Kirksey's

[Urbannizer]

http://zieglercooper.com/block-52/

Working with Naperville, Illinois-based Marquette Company, Ziegler Cooper has designed a 28-story 361-unit apartment tower that encompasses a full city block on the northeast side of the Houston’s Central Business District. Situated one block from the Houston Astros Minute Maid Park, the project, currently referred to as “Block 52”, is planning to break ground in the second quarter of 2014. Block 52 will include over 6,800 s.f. of retail and restaurant space at the buildings base along with a 552-space private parking garage situated above the retail space and below the residential units. The property will be a combination of high-rise and low-rise apartments with the low-rise units forming an active streetscape, concealing the garage. Block 52 encourages walkability by being only one block from Houston’s light rail system. Additionally, a large bike storage and maintenance area are provided on level 2 for residents who prefer a bicycle over a car.

The exterior architecture will be punctuated with a modern combination of brick, stone and metal accents. Floor to-ceiling windows and glass balconies preserve priceless views of Houston and the surrounding areas. A well-appointed porte-cochère incorporates dramatic water features and lighting to welcome residents and guests to the main lobby complete with concierge services.

Resident amenities are included on multiple floors throughout the property. Level 9 will feature an indoor fitness and yoga studio with an outdoor yoga “Fusion Lawn.” A Guest Suite is also included for residents with overnight guests. Also on level 9, is over 20,000 s.f. of outdoor amenities with panoramic views into Minute Maid Park. A large resort style pool boasts soaking ledges, fountains, private cabanas and covered trellis lounge areas to keep residents cool on those hot Houston days. Residents and guests can also enjoy the outdoor living room area, featuring a full kitchen, fireplace and gas grill. The game lawn will include a beach volleyball court and fire pit. Level 7 will include a dog park and pet friendly amenities. The Sky Club on the 26th floor features a Club Kitchen with spectacular views of downtown Houston. An exclusive Ballpark Club room on level 28 includes an exterior terrace for residents living on the Penthouse and Summit levels to enjoy watching the Astros baseball game.

Rental prices will range from $2.70 to $2.80 per square foot for apartments ranging in size from approximately 600 to 1,800 square feet. Marquette is utilizing the Downtown Living Initiative (Chapter 380), which is effectively a development grant provided to the first 5,000 units to be developed in downtown Houston and this project will receive a $5.5 million benefit from the grant. The building is being built by Pepper-Lawson Construction LP, the Texas division of Chicago-based Pepper Construction Group LLC. and will be delivered in Summer 2015.

[WestUdweller]

Nooiicceee!!!

[urbanize713]

Wow, that sounds like the downtown project dreams are made off. Bike storage and maintenance area! Awesome

[fkp5]

This is going to be really good for Downtown. Vancouver has a lot of those ground-level units and I always thought those were pretty neat. I think the Sovereign is going to have them too. 

Edited May 14, 2014 by fkp5

['Stonian]

Whenever I hear the construction general contractor has been chosen, I get excited. They're serious about starting this one soon.

[H-Town Man]

Damn, one year til delivery. Damn.

[houstontexasjack]

That area around the ballpark is shaping up nicely. Marvy Finger's place is going up next door. There's that other residential development on the other side of the street on the downtown development map. The Marriott Marquis will be very close, as will that parking garage with Ground Floor Retail.

 

Now, if only the Astros could on track by the time these are finished....

[lockmat]

How long has skyhouse taken? This would be less than a year, sheesh

[j_cuevas713]

This and the Market Square project are my favorites right now

[kbates2]

Skyhouse was just about a year.

[UtterlyUrban]

How long has skyhouse taken? This would be less than a year, sheesh

Skyhouse took a little over a year, I think. I seem to recall the crane go up right about this time last year.

This project: "q2 2014 to summer 2015" would be, say 15 -16 months? Assuming they started in June and finished in say, September (still feels like "summer" in Houston)! Doable? I have no idea. But it sounds like about what skyhouse did.

[Urbannizer]

http://polizzottodevelopment.com/portfolio/block-52/

[BigFootsSocks]

When does this one start construction?

[aarosurf]

Awesome, I'm glad this "gap" between the ballpark and the business district is filling in.