Residential Height Barrier

[cloud713]

what is it with Houston not being able to break the 40 floor count in residential towers? we have the 2 40 floor Four Leaf Towers, the 40 story Huntington, the 40 story 2929 Weslayan, and now the 40 story Market Square Tower. the only residential tower weve had proposed over 40 stories is the 42 story Tower at Hermann Place, which seems to have been put on the back burner while they build the Hermann Residence midrise.

when will Houston break the 40 story barrier for residential towers? i meant all residential when i first started typing this (GFR is ok), but id even make an exception for a Hotel & Residences combo tower. maybe that 50 story proposed for Post Oak and San Felipe will be a residential/hotel combo? Dallas has the 42 story Museum Tower, and Austin has the 56 story Austonian (that will be hard to beat unless its a combo tower and/or on top of a big garage). dont get me wrong, these 40 story residentials going up now (2929 and Market Square) are fantastic. i guess im just being greedy given all the activity in this latest boom.

[towerjunkie]

I have this theory which is probably madly incorrect but I personally feel that a city establishes building trends. For example most buildings downtown, except for Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase, never break past 56, and why don't they ever break past 60 floors? Perhaps it was the building of Exxon or One Shell which established the trend to build no more than that until the two big ones were built. Now take that same theory and apply it to residential buildings, because the Four Leaf Towers, and the Huntington never broke past 40, other developers decided not to build past that number either, therefore leaving us with 2929 Weslayan, the market square tower, and the next generation of residential buildings which never seem to go past 40. Even in the Energy Corridor, most of those buildings are stubby flat boxes, coincidence? I think not! It's a trend. Which is probably not true.

[august948]

Could there be structural issues that come up after a certain height, particularly in a hurricane prone area like this, that push the costs up?  Or maybe additional safety requirements that kick in after a certain height?

[arche_757]

Costs.  Nothing to do with being in a hurricane zone - technically Houston Downtown/Uptown aren't in a heavy wind zone - unlike Downtown Miami or South Beach, in Florida - or NYC for that matter.

 

A residential tower over a certain number of floors needs a massive bank of elevators.  Imagine having to get off at a skylobby and then board another elevator to get to your home, imagine if you had to do this twice?  Residential buildings are limited and smaller than most commercial buildings.  You can sell smaller units, but your bigger units on upper floors needn't be too difficult for people to get to.  In Chicago, NYC and Toronto these things are expected.  In Houston its just silly to do something like that.  I mean a developer would have to build a 60 floor tower to claim the "tallest in the state" and what does that do?  Nothing.  In Austin it means something to live in the Austinian because it is by far the tallest building in town, where as the Austonian wouldn't even look all that big in Houston.

 

I imagine its easier to get financing for a 30-40 floor highrise than a 50+ floor highrise.  Plus, I would tend to think there is a limit in height where people would be comfortable, if 40 floors is all that is needed for a spectacular view why then would you spend the additional millions on adding a few floors?  What's more important to developers is bottom line - not spectacularly tall buildings that cause you to lose profit.