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


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On ‎3‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 8:53 AM, bobruss said:

They might even follow Heritage Plazas lead and design a garage that would eventually be structurally capable of handling a skyscraper. My source said they could possibly look at that plan for a short term money making solution. He wasn't sure about it but it has been discussed.

 This is  across the street from Hines, Texas Commerce/Chase building, so it will be interesting to see how they respond to the tallest building in Houston.

The juxtaposition of two supertalls  would create an interesting mass. It would also put a lot of people on the streets in a two block area.

Fortunately the parking for Chase is on the Main street side so the cars wouldn't all be emptying on to the same streets.

 

Is the Chase Tower garage the one east of the tower across the street? The gray building.

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I drove up and down Travis and Louisiana between Prairie and Texas and the sense of sheer power and energy emanating from Market Square all the way down tp Skanskas block is buzzing with construction activity and leaving Chase tower completely uncovered. Its like downtown superblock +Chase. Three blocks of construction and cranes right there around the tallest building in Houston." I feel the earth move under my feet." C.K.

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  • 3 weeks later...
47 minutes ago, Nate99 said:

Anyone else have the thought that after the whole tunnel access lawsuit that Hines is going to make the folks in the next block navigate a maze to get through?

Wonder if they could do anything to mess with folks' depth perception--similar to the tunnel going into the MFAH below the street from the parking garage across the street.  That thing always throws me off-balance.

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Separately, I wonder how Hines goes forward with this lot?  The excavation is now below street level.  Once the tunnel-area is settled, does Hines just pile dirt on top of it and pour asphalt over to have a surface lot?  I can't imagine they'd want to start marketing a new office tower here until 609 Main gets leased up closer to capacity.

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24 minutes ago, houstontexasjack said:

Separately, I wonder how Hines goes forward with this lot?  The excavation is now below street level.  Once the tunnel-area is settled, does Hines just pile dirt on top of it and pour asphalt over to have a surface lot?  I can't imagine they'd want to start marketing a new office tower here until 609 Main gets leased up closer to capacity.

 

With the Lamar Hotel block they didn't even remove all the foundation - just demolished deep enough and poured asphalt on top.

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They are definitely engineering some kind of order in to the dirt below grade on the chronicle block (the "lazy river"), separate and apart from what looks like the tunnel path closer to Travis Street.  That seems unnecessary for a surface lot, but what the heck do I know. There is still a fair amount of the old foundation "tub" around the edges. 

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On 5/8/2017 at 5:24 PM, houstontexasjack said:

Wonder if they could do anything to mess with folks' depth perception--similar to the tunnel going into the MFAH below the street from the parking garage across the street.  That thing always throws me off-balance.

 

The James Turrell tunnel? That's between the Beck building and the Weiss Law building.

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Thats what my source said that I quoted earlier in this thread. This is  a prime parking  location and  they'll make a fortune for very little expense

with a surface lot. They're going to sit on it for a few years unless something spectacular happens. Thats also from my source.

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On 5/13/2017 at 10:15 PM, bobruss said:

Thats what my source said that I quoted earlier in this thread. This is  a prime parking  location and  they'll make a fortune for very little expense

with a surface lot. They're going to sit on it for a few years unless something spectacular happens. Thats also from my source.

I expect nothing less than an 80 story building for this site.

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You know that Hines has someone working on land use mockup studies and perhaps an inside competition with the many great firms who he's worked with in the past. I'm sure they'd all love to win that competition to design his signature piece, front and center complementing everything that surrounds it, knowing  that for the most part Gerald Hines is responsible for all of it. Thats why I think he wanted this block because it would be totally surrounded by his other projects.

Jesse Jones may have been the single person who put Houston architecturally on the map , but Gerald Hines has refined it into a remarkable jewel of a downtown.

Houston is his legacy and a lot of it is in downtown. He's laid out his still life and now going to add the definitive piece.

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, bobruss said:

You know that Hines has someone working on land use mockup studies and perhaps an inside competition with the many great firms who he's worked with in the past. I'm sure they'd all love to win that competition to design his signature piece, front and center complementing everything that surrounds it, knowing  that for the most part Gerald Hines is responsible for all of it. Thats why I think he wanted this block because it would be totally surrounded by his other projects.

Jesse Jones may have been the single person who put Houston architecturally on the map , but Gerald Hines has refined it into a remarkable jewel of a downtown.

Houston is his legacy and a lot of it is in downtown. He's laid out his still life and now going to add the definitive piece.

 

 

 

 

It's just so ironic because isn't he the guy who pronounced downtown "dead" after developing the Galleria? (I suspect mostly for selfish reasons. That, more than anything, made Gerald Hines--I'm sure he had a large portfolio of cheap land surrounding it. From the seeds of that development probably sprung the modern multinational company.  From the Galleria springs the Transbay Tower!)

 

 

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7 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

 

It's just so ironic because isn't he the guy who pronounced downtown "dead" after developing the Galleria?

 

I would be curious to see where Gerald said that.. Hines was building the 50 story One Shell Plaza in downtown at the same time as the Galleria.

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6 hours ago, cloud713 said:

 

I would be curious to see where Gerald said that.. Hines was building the 50 story One Shell Plaza in downtown at the same time as the Galleria.

Yeah, me too, it's definitely ironic he continued to shape the downtown skyline in the following decades.

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Of course this is Mr. Hines land,  but I can wish.

 

I wish he would put a signature skyscraper on this spot. Houston needs a signature structure that automatically says "Houston".  The Astrodome used to fill  that niche. Among North American cities NYC,SF,DC, Seattle, all have signature structures.  Nevertheless I am sure anything he puts up will be top notch. I suspect this lot will not remain empty very long.

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