Texas Tower: 47-Story Office Tower At 845 Texas Ave.

[Highrise Tower]

 

[editor]

On 2/6/2019 at 8:34 PM, Montrose1100 said:

We tend to get bigger structures that are a decade behind the design curve.

 

While not ideal, being a decade behind the world's leading design trends puts Houston a decade ahead of most of the rest of the country.

 

Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago are going through something of a skyscraper surge right now, and the results are... merely whelming.  

 

Still, I'd take a rust-stained brutalist abstraction over a surface parking lot any day.

[bobruss]

2 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

 

 

So Jones Hall will be surrounded by Hines development. Five of a kind!

Chase, Pennzoil, Republic Bank, and Calpine, along with the Texas Tower makes a Flush

[j_cuevas713]

19 hours ago, bobruss said:

So Jones Hall will be surrounded by Hines development. Five of a kind!

Chase, Pennzoil, Republic Bank, and Calpine, along with the Texas Tower makes a Flush

This is truly a new golden age for Houston. A boom this massive hasn’t happened since the 70’s and 80’s. 

[Montrose1100]

On 2/8/2019 at 9:09 PM, editor said:

 

While not ideal, being a decade behind the world's leading design trends puts Houston a decade ahead of most of the rest of the country.

 

Seattle, Los Angeles, and Chicago are going through something of a skyscraper surge right now, and the results are... merely whelming.  

 

Still, I'd take a rust-stained brutalist abstraction over a surface parking lot any day.

Welcome back!

 

Personally I think LA is up one level from us. Chicago is two or three floors. Although the original Vista rendering was a crime, Chicago has produced some fantastic structures.

 

All certainly have their share of the new international style. Post Internationalism? Where are we exactly?

[Luminare]

Just now, Montrose1100 said:

Welcome back!

 

Personally I think LA is up one level from us. Chicago is two or three floors. Although the original Vista rendering was a crime, Chicago has produced some fantastic structures.

 

All certainly have their share of the new international style. Post Internationalism? Where are we exactly?

 

To put it straight.....its complicated.

 

I've often compared Post-Modernism to one with a hammer that goes around and breaks things into millions of tiny pieces....but does nothing to replace it or put it back together. The discipline of architecture, aesthetically speaking, is currently incredibly fractured. While its very interesting, and there are some unique movements in the discipline right now, there isn't exactly a "high" architecture, or one school of thought as was the case with Modernism. Don't get me wrong, there were always other subset movements that competed with Modernism, but it was the big boy in town. Post-Modernism destroyed all of that. (By the way, this is the current situation in every single field of art. Not just architecture.)

 

There are almost to many different movements, and numerous different classifications to mention on here. One person recently tried to corral a bunch of architects through a "political" compass diagram. Was an interesting exercise. Link below:

 

https://www.archdaily.com/801641/architectures-political-compass-a-taxonomy-of-emerging-architecture-in-one-diagram

 

I would say if you are interested in looking into the "state" of architecture today its a good place to start. The person that did this was a bit too esoteric for my tastes, but did a solid effort here.

[Montrose1100]

3 hours ago, Luminare said:

 

To put it straight.....its complicated.

 

I've often compared Post-Modernism to one with a hammer that goes around and breaks things into millions of tiny pieces....but does nothing to replace it or put it back together. The discipline of architecture, aesthetically speaking, is currently incredibly fractured. While its very interesting, and there are some unique movements in the discipline right now, there isn't exactly a "high" architecture, or one school of thought as was the case with Modernism. Don't get me wrong, there were always other subset movements that competed with Modernism, but it was the big boy in town. Post-Modernism destroyed all of that. (By the way, this is the current situation in every single field of art. Not just architecture.)

 

There are almost to many different movements, and numerous different classifications to mention on here. One person recently tried to corral a bunch of architects through a "political" compass diagram. Was an interesting exercise. Link below:

 

https://www.archdaily.com/801641/architectures-political-compass-a-taxonomy-of-emerging-architecture-in-one-diagram

 

I would say if you are interested in looking into the "state" of architecture today its a good place to start. The person that did this was a bit too esoteric for my tastes, but did a solid effort here.

All lovely and fine Lum, but is this not international design by definition? These “colorless” blue glass prisms are everywhere and interchangeable. Place this Hines tower in Denver or Chongqing and no one would be the wiser.

[Luminare]

6 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

All lovely and fine Lum, but is this not international design by definition? These “colorless” blue glass prisms are everywhere and interchangeable. Place this Hines tower in Denver or Chongqing and no one would be the wiser.

 

By definition. No.

 

The International Style is but a part of Modernism as a whole. The style, for it to be a style, has to adhere to all if not most of the components that make up a style. The problem comes when people conflate "Modern" with a capital M, which is a movement with ideals and specifics, with "modern" with a lower case m, which literally means something that is new or right now. Its modern because its in the now, but its not Modern in style. Most buildings built today pull elements and ideals from Post-Modern. While Modernist skyscrapers typically would have bands of continuous windows, post-modern in an effort to further abstract everything essentially said....why not make the whole facade windows. We actually have the very first post-modern building here in town and that is Pennzoil Place. Notice how it is all windows, and you can't notice the repetition of detail as its one continuous facade.

 

With that being said, Post-Modern is a very complicated movement that plays a lot of tricks by abstracting elements of other styles and movements in order to mimic and poke fun at. Its why right next to Pennzoil Place we have Bank of America Center which isn't all glass, but a facade with all punched in windows and Gothic themes that were completely at the whim of the designer (because that was the point of post-modernism. Everything was arbitrary and no one interpretation of something was better than the other.)

 

I'm more than willing to dig into this deeper if you are interested, but don't want to risk further going off topic.

 

To wrap this all up. Most skyscrapers today are more decedents of Post-modern rather than Modern. The all glass box is a mainstay of Post-modernism and not The International Style. If you really want to know exactly what the definition of International Style is I would look into the original MOMA exhibition held in the 1930's? that exhibit the "up and coming" Bauhaus style which was termed "The International Style". The only thing that makes this building "modern" is in the adjective used to describe it as being "new" or "in the now".

Edited February 10, 2019 by Luminare

[hindesky]

[Urbannizer]

Website launched:

 

https://texastower.com/

[rechlin]

[Nate99]

[hindesky]

The southwest side ramp is being demolished so they can continue the mat for the diagonal section of the high-rise.

[hindesky]

Working on and unloading the rebar on Sunday. I wonder where and how many tower cranes this will have. My guess would be 2 of them and probably on the wings on either side of the high rise.

[MarathonMan]

The gridwork of rebar to that goes into the mats for high-rise towers is pretty amazing!

[TexasGeneral]

I am surprised the foundation isn’t deeper than this. 

[Timoric]

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Edited July 12, 2019 by Timoric

[TexasGeneral]

I am surprised the foundation isn’t deeper than this. 

[Nate99]

4 hours ago, TexasGeneral said:

I am surprised the foundation isn’t deeper than this. 

 

The retaining wall/forms are 8-10 feet tall, and the hole is really deep, probably 30-40 feet. 

 

I'm wondering how they are going to get the crane out of the hole. I'm guessing they will build another dirt ramp after the mat pour. 

[J Money]

On 2/6/2019 at 12:47 PM, lockmat said:

Anyone else not in love with this design?

 

I’m trying really hard to be excited for it, but it’s just not doing anything for me. I know it’s better than an empty lot, and it’ll try to engage the ground level and have great amenities. But I worry this is the last large office tower we may be seeing in awhile, and I feel like this design is a missed opportunity. 

[brijonmang]

13 minutes ago, jmosele said:

 

I’m trying really hard to be excited for it, but it’s just not doing anything for me. I know it’s better than an empty lot, and it’ll try to engage the ground level and have great amenities. But I worry this is the last large office tower we may be seeing in awhile, and I feel like this design is a missed opportunity. 

 

I think the renderings given so far don't do the best at making this building look as refined as it will be when built.  I was recently shown a closer and more detailed rendering and I think this building is going to look great when finished.  Very excited to see it go up.

[Twinsanity02]

It may not be One Vanderbilt, but I like it and am happy about it.

[jmitch94]

7 hours ago, jmosele said:

But I worry this is the last large office tower we may be seeing in awhile,

 

What makes you say that? 609 is already 93% leased and this was like a third full before it even broke ground. 

[HoustonBoy]

If anything, I feel like 2019-2021 will be an exceptional time for Houston office and residential construction. I have no concrete reason to believe this, but I just have a feeling that a supertall could be in the works. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but the near and long term future of Houston is very bright from downtown, midtown, med center and everything beyond. I’d put the next supertall in the Galleria, hopefully a mixed use beauty with a spire.

[H-Town Man]

12 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

 

What makes you say that? 609 is already 93% leased and this was like a third full before it even broke ground. 

 

It is 80% leased with leases in the works that would bring it up to 93% if all signed.

 

It is a new thing for Houston to have significant new construction with a large Class A vacancy overhang. We'll see how far the trend carries. Oil prices are still anemic, and various economic and real estate indicators suggest we're in the late portion of a cycle nationally/globally. Right now the two office developments that are poised to go next are the Linbeck market square tower and Shorenstein's redevelopment of the old Humble building. I don't see either of them happening and I will personally be glad if they don't, as I don't think either is right for downtown.

 

[bobruss]

One of the things that I really hadn't paid much attention too, is the fact that most of our downtown's class A office space is over 45 years old. 

Concepts in office design and the market tendencies have changed quite a bit in that time, and I have been listening to people on this site who seem to make it their business to know this stuff, and it makes sense, so although we have a good amount of vacant class A space, it's dated. So the way I see it is there's always the potential for a client to come along and say we want to build the new tower downtown and it's going to be our branding tool. I didn't think Hines would build on the Chronicle site for years due to the abundant quantity of empty space

in the downtown market but low and behold look what's coming up out of the ashes. So don't be so glum and look at the positives.There are plenty of vacant blocks downtown and they don't all have to be connected to the tunnel or on the west side of the downtown. Houston is evolving and who knows maybe they'll decide to add to the tunnels scope. Stranger things have occurred.

I personally think the new Texas tower will be a dramatic addition to the skyline especially coming down I-10 or 45 from the north. It will be stunning especially the way it will be set at a 45 on the block. Both of those new Hines towers will completely change the feel of northern downtown, and your mind once in place. Also the Texas Commerce building needs some of that grey covered up from the north side. It's a nice building but its main claim to fame isn't its design, or its grey cladding,  but it's height.

[Timoric]

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Edited July 12, 2019 by Timoric

[H-Town Man]

45 minutes ago, bobruss said:

One of the things that I really hadn't paid much attention too, is the fact that most of our downtown's class A office space is over 45 years old. 

Concepts in office design and the market tendencies have changed quite a bit in that time, and I have been listening to people on this site who seem to make it their business to know this stuff, and it makes sense, so although we have a good amount of vacant class A space, it's dated. So the way I see it is there's always the potential for a client to come along and say we want to build the new tower downtown and it's going to be our branding tool. I didn't think Hines would build on the Chronicle site for years due to the abundant quantity of empty space

in the downtown market but low and behold look what's coming up out of the ashes. So don't be so glum and look at the positives.There are plenty of vacant blocks downtown and they don't all have to be connected to the tunnel or on the west side of the downtown. Houston is evolving and who knows maybe they'll decide to add to the tunnels scope. Stranger things have occurred.

 

If this is a response to me, I am not glum at all. I am also aware of every factor you mentioned. My above post was pretty neutral on the outlook for more office towers.

 

[jmitch94]

I'd be nice to see some of the older class A get converted to residential. 

[bobruss]

1 hour ago, H-Town Man said:

 

If this is a response to me, I am not glum at all. I am also aware of every factor you mentioned. My above post was pretty neutral on the outlook for more office towers.

 

Actually it was to JMoselle who seemed more glum than you. My post just happened to come just behind yours, but I'd say you were right behind him in not feeling too good about the downtown market. I agree with you on the design for the Linbeck tower. I don't really care for the design. I don't see any problems with the overhaul of the Humble building(Exxon).

I can't remember if it was SWTSIG or someone else who suggested that because of the age of most of our downtown office stock , being comprised of 45 year old outdated buildings with 20th cent.tech., it makes perfect sense that some of these new potential clients are opting for new construction with 21st century state of the art design and green architecture. It makes perfect sense, and if you apply the same theory to the older class B buildings, at least they're reconfiguring them into hotels, residences and food halls.

 

2 hours ago, Timoric said:

To me, moving the skyline into new areas is the most noticeable thing and the best, this and the Hines Residential are doing that so the skyline doesn't end at Chase like in the 8os with Lyric being the step down (like the Dave Ward mid-80s skyline newscast backdrop pic if you remember that on Channel 13)

I couldn't agree more with the moving the perimeter theory. Perfect example is the Caydon development in midtown. It's spreading the downtown footprint. Its more of a trick of the eye but it definitely works.