H-Town Man Posted April 19, 2014 Share Posted April 19, 2014 hmm... Do you enjoy being you? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 Soil test from today: 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 So technically this one is rising then... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 (edited) So technically this one is rising then... Hahahaha..... yes, by a foot. Edit: Picture on previous page. Edited April 22, 2014 by Triton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 Hahahaha..... yes, by a foot.I'm counting it. Guys, this project is WAAAAY ahead of schedule 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate99 Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 (edited) One more drilling/sampling action shot from today... Edited April 22, 2014 by Nate99 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted April 22, 2014 Share Posted April 22, 2014 (edited) Hey Urbannizer, that same article you linked to said this tower was at 38 storys. Edit: This one... http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2014/04/downtown-towers-abound/#22687101=0 Edited April 22, 2014 by Triton 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UtterlyUrban Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I have a sneaky suspicion that they are going to want to make this building a floor or two taller than OPP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoustonIsHome Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 (edited) I have a sneaky suspicion that they are going to want to make this building a floor or two taller than OPP.Would one or two floors taller than OPP make it taller than OPP? I'm asking cause the proposed height for Hines residential seems to be really short. At 362 ft Hines seems to be about 11 ft per floor. Since the Architect for block 98 I am assuming the height per floor would be similar. That would give block 98 a height of 441ft for 39 floors. I am hoping that the estimate for Hines is off. If the height per floor of this building is closer to OPP then this building would top out at 507ft. Either way this and the 40 floor Market Square residential both make it on the tallest 50 buildings in Houston list. Hines MS and Marquette will barely miss the cut off. They need to bring Hines up to 41 floors just to be king. Lol Edited April 23, 2014 by HoustonIsHome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
por favor gracias Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I've always found it interesting that Houston's "tallest" (by floor count) residential high rise is 40 stories while other, much smaller cities (Charlotte, Austin, etc.) have 50+ story condos. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoustonIsHome Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 (edited) I've always found it interesting that Houston's "tallest" (by floor count) residential high rise is 40 stories while other, much smaller cities (Charlotte, Austin, etc.) have 50+ story condos. austin and Charlotte are smaller cities but both have bigger downtown populations. Austins is two times as large as houston. Maybe when we get to that level we will start having 50 and 60 floor residential towers Edited April 23, 2014 by HoustonIsHome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arche_757 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 ^Austin also has a major university forming the northern edge of "downtown" as they would call it. That helps to increase residential population. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
por favor gracias Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 That's true, but those cities have only had their 50+ story residential buildings for a few years. I'm not sure about Charlotte, but Austin has always had a lot of people living "downtown." I just think it's weird that they are getting those projects while we don't (as of now at least) have anything existing or on the design boards taller than 42 stories (Hermann Place), especially considering the sheer volume of growth all over Houston. It doesn't have to be downtown here either, as the Galleria area is Houston's prime location for high rise condos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasota Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Again, there are entire vacant blocks downtown. Towers are expensive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 I've always found it interesting that Houston's "tallest" (by floor count) residential high rise is 40 stories while other, much smaller cities (Charlotte, Austin, etc.) have 50+ story condos. Another factor is that residential towers might tend to climb higher if they have a shot at being the tallest or second tallest building in town. If the Austonian were built in Houston, it would not soar above the buildings around it like it does in Austin. If you can't make a huge skyline impact, you're more apt to go with the economical height of 30-40 stories. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arche_757 Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Well, a very large percentage of Austin's highrise growth has been in residential and hospitality. Makes sense then that they would have developers trying to push things by building a 50-60 floor residential building. From a financial sense it is absurd...but then that's Austin. Never really made sense to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbannizer Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 For Austin, it's a fast growing city with a higher-demand for high-rise living. The area around UT and the Capitol building is under a height restriction of 300 Feet. Even though there are a lot of spaces still available in downtown Austin, much less lots will be available to build on 20+ years from now if the city continues to develop at the same rate as it's going now, so it makes much more sense to build tall in Austin. Meanwhile here, we can build pretty much anywhere, but I think someone will eventually build a 50-story residential tower in Houston. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
por favor gracias Posted April 23, 2014 Share Posted April 23, 2014 Good points, guys...makes sense. Appreciate the feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livincinco Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 austin and Charlotte are smaller cities but both have bigger downtown populations. Austins is two times as large as houston. Maybe when we get to that level we will start having 50 and 60 floor residential towersCharlotte's downtown population really isn't that large. Most of the growth in urban population is occurring in Southend which is essentially Charlotte's equivalent to Midtown, not Downtown (called Uptown in Charlotte). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
totheskies Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Another factor is that residential towers might tend to climb higher if they have a shot at being the tallest or second tallest building in town. If the Austonian were built in Houston, it would not soar above the buildings around it like it does in Austin. If you can't make a huge skyline impact, you're more apt to go with the economical height of 30-40 stories. Am I the only person that is perfectly ok with "median" height residential towers? They still fill out downtown and increase residences, and right now that is the goal. The DT residential market needs to prove it's viability in comparison to other nearby alternatives, and that's what the current projects are going to do. Can't re-invent the wheel until you've spun it several thousand times. Once we get a more people actually living in downtown, the next big leap is to do more mixed-use partnerships, a la OPP/Phoenicia. Hopefully that will provide more opportunity for "signature" towers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Am I the only person that is perfectly ok with "median" height residential towers? They still fill out downtown and increase residences, and right now that is the goal. The DT residential market needs to prove it's viability in comparison to other nearby alternatives, and that's what the current projects are going to do. Can't re-invent the wheel until you've spun it several thousand times. Once we get a more people actually living in downtown, the next big leap is to do more mixed-use partnerships, a la OPP/Phoenicia. Hopefully that will provide more opportunity for "signature" towers. I'm not NOT okay with them, but it's kinda disappointing to see all these 50-60story (and supertalls) in other cities around the nation while the best we can get is these little stumps. All in the name of growth, I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasota Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 i would vastly prefer two 20-story buildings on 2 blocks to one 50-story building on one block.We need infill more than anything else right now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 i would vastly prefer two 20-story buildings on 2 blocks to one 50-story building on one block.We need infill more than anything else right now.Por que no los dos?But seriously no, the 50 story is the better option Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasota Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Why exactly? Who exactly benefits from extra height? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arche_757 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 I'll say this: 1 - 50 floor tower is better than 2 - 20 floor towers. However, 4-5 - 20 floor towers are better than 1 - 50 floor tower. Infill with these shorter residential will allow more infill and more individual projects versus one really big tower with 500 units (or something like that). Taller buildings do have an impact on the skyline, but the smaller units will fill in the voids left blank since the late 70s/early 80s. Personally when I'm driving (or visitors are driving) through or around Downtown I would rather have most of those empty blocks filled with smaller buildings than with several larger buildings. Besides, the more small buildings the higher the demand for residential will be and that in turn will make it more likely that in 5 years we may get a 60-70 floor (800' tall) residential tower. At least that's my take on it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasota Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 I still don't understand why one 50 story tower would be better than two twenties, but then I don't particularly care about the skyline. I like our skyline, but I don't think it needs to be a priority when we should be more worried about making downtown a functioning neighborhood. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
largeTEXAS Posted April 24, 2014 Author Share Posted April 24, 2014 A couple of other reasons Austin is building tall is that, overall, it has a much smaller downtown than Houston, is a much more centralized city than Houston, and has no (real) equivalent to the Galleria, Westchase, Med Center. Austin also has a very active community of residents that protests the heck out of any new development in most of the neighborhoods surrounding downtown. Downtown is kind of the only place to develop densely, if you want to develop in the inner city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arche_757 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 I still don't understand why one 50 story tower would be better than two twenties, but then I don't particularly care about the skyline. I like our skyline, but I don't think it needs to be a priority when we should be more worried about making downtown a functioning neighborhood. Well, 609 Main is a better building than the two 20 floor residential towers proposed over by St Josephs (or thereabouts). That's all I'm saying. Now, 4-5 of those residential towers trumps that lone 50 floor building - in my opinion. I absolutely agree that it isn't the skyline we should worry about - its already great - we need a more liveable central core. Thankfully both can improve with what is currently proposed (and under construction). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texasota Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 Well, 609 Main is a better building than the two 20 floor residential towers proposed over by St Josephs (or thereabouts). That's all I'm saying. Now, 4-5 of those residential towers trumps that lone 50 floor building - in my opinion. But what does better mean? Why is it better? What benefit does the additional height provide? Is it just its impact on the skyline? I'm honestly curious because I would, personally, genuinely prefer two twenties to one 50. By far. I think 50s can end up being too out of scale when not very well designed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arche_757 Posted April 24, 2014 Share Posted April 24, 2014 But what does better mean? Why is it better? What benefit does the additional height provide? Is it just its impact on the skyline? I'm honestly curious because I would, personally, genuinely prefer two twenties to one 50. By far. I think 50s can end up being too out of scale when not very well designed. Better in the architectural sense. That's it. Does that not make sense? Again, my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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