Australian Developer Planning Five High-Rises for Midtown

[Angostura 1250]

AKAIK, where CoH holds sway, they've mostly been removed. Where TXDOT has jurisdiction, they're allowed to stay.

[Highrise Tower 33201]

I always get sidetracked when going up S. Main towards Midtown.  I stop at all the TMC projects first which takes an hour.

 

Probably heading toward Caydon here shortly.

[Highrise Tower 33201]

Picture day

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HoustonIsHome 1626]

I'm loving it

[phillip_white 1910]

https://skyrisecities.com/news/2018/08/district-transform-three-block-site-midtown-houston

 

Renderings are out again. This article is stating two highrises bookending a podium.

[Twinsanity02 1283]

15 minutes ago, phillip_white said:

https://skyrisecities.com/news/2018/08/district-transform-three-block-site-midtown-houston

 

Renderings are out again. This article is stating two highrises bookending a podium.

Good Job. 

[Highrise Tower 33201]

48 minutes ago, phillip_white said:

https://skyrisecities.com/news/2018/08/district-transform-three-block-site-midtown-houston

 

Renderings are out again. This article is stating two highrises bookending a podium.

 

I see 3 high rise towers with a podium? The one being built doesn't look like the other two?

[TheSirDingle 1474]

Would this confirm the 166m and 192m heigts for the towers? 

[Twinsanity02 1283]

I would think so. That is what the article states. There is one under construction ( 328 feet) and two planned at 544 and 630 feet.

[Sanjorade 270]

Does this mean leon’s Lounge, etc. are gone? 

[jmitch94 2020]

630 Is very tall for midtown, also has very contemporary design. I'm loving it!

[dbigtex56 1211]

The renderings show the northbound Red Line station relocated from the center of Main to the east side. 

Are there plans to shut down this section of Main? Otherwise I don't know where or how northbound vehicular traffic would be accommodated.
edit: No, wait...that would be the southbound station...but it's described as heading towards downtown? Are those Aussies confused or is it me? Maybe they've forgotten that we drive on the other side of the road.

Edited August 19, 2018 by dbigtex56
add info

[Purdueenginerd 1490]

wow, a potential 600 footer for midtown. 

[bobruss 4986]

This means the Art supply building is gone for sure. Not Leons lounge. I believe all of the future development is north of the current construction

[HoustonIsHome 1626]

13 minutes ago, bobruss said:

This means the Art supply building is gone for sure. Not Leons lounge. I believe all of the future development is north of the current construction

It looks so. It looks like the podium and 2 towers are north of the current  construction and separated by a promenade with a food truck. Does that count as ground floor retail? 

 

Anyway this looks really good. They should have been in charge of developing the property across the street. A couple towers well integrated with the park would have looked so much better

[houstontexasjack 2344]

42 minutes ago, HoustonIsHome said:

Anyway this looks really good. They should have been in charge of developing the property across the street. A couple towers well integrated with the park would have looked so much better

Now that Trammel Crow is out of the Museo Plaza project, I’d be delighted if they could work with Dr. Mann to develop the non-medical office building components of that project.

[Moderators 30]

A magnificent project and it took Australians to see the potential of

Midtown. Now maybe the local developers will stop hem hawing, saying should we build or should we not. 

Perhaps the Hines (who should be the

front-runner in developing Midtown) & The Fingers, Farbs, Randall

Davis.Should get out there and beat the Aussies at they're own game. If they do, Midtown in a few years will be awesome.

[bobruss 4986]

Lets keep Randall out of Midtown.

[Texasota 2933]

Agreed. Midtown needs pedestrian-friendly ground floors, not enormous ugly parking garage blocks.

[CaptainJilliams 1148]

Welp, looks like the renderings at the link were pulled again or the website has an error, take a look:

 

https://skyrisecities.com/news/2018/08/district-transform-three-block-site-midtown-houston

[thatguysly 1173]

Dang I missed seeing them

[swtsig 2929]

how did nobody save them???

[Avossos 2281]

20 minutes ago, swtsig said:

how did nobody save them???

 

i left the page open on my phone and i saved the pictures just now. however i haven't uploaded anything before... if they took the site down, i doubt they would want those pictures up.

 

super amazing tho... would be on par or better than hines' designs for their 2 blocks downtown.

[H-Town Man 4989]

It was an amalgamation of stuff we've already seen and heard. Nobody from Caydon was quoted and there was no news, so I am assuming the article was based purely on internet research, probably from this site.

 

[phillip_white 1910]

Oops... too bad for them that Google still has a cache.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:skyrisecities.com/news/2018/08/district-transform-three-block-site-midtown-houston

[phillip_white 1910]

Also, click this link and look for "7 renderings" on the left under the first picture. Click on the grid icon.

 

https://skyrisecities.com/database/projects/district

[Triton 11778]

These are the same renderings we've known about all along.

[Sanjorade 270]

Looks like the third tower will butt up behind leon’s Lounge, etc. This may be the most impressive development in Houston, overall. 

[houstontexasjack 2344]

From what I can gather, Caydon closed on all the land (not just the Art Supply store but also the eastern side of the property owned by RSB Ventures) in the middle block at the end of July.  I could understand the desire to take down the renderings before, as their presence in the public sphere could drive have driven up the land prices.  I'm really puzzled as to why they'd want the renderings down now. 

 

 

Edited August 20, 2018 by houstontexasjack

[Diaspora 37]

Because the extent of the northern block is still under negotiation.

[Angostura 1250]

Very reminiscent of Vancouver-style podium towers: a mid-rise podium provides an engaging, human-scaled streetscape, with relatively narrow laneways between them and lots of ground floor retail, while the towers provide residences with a view and add to the skyline. Best of both worlds, and infinitely better than tower-in-a-parking-lot style highrises.

[Brooklyn173 818]

I'm still pretty new to Houston, so this is an honest question.

 

The two Skyhouse apartments near the Bell Street light rail station seem to be to be roughly the same height and bulk and density to the ongoing Caydon project. However, the Skyhouse buildings do not seem to have had a dramatic effect on the surrounding neighborhood. The ground floor retail for the two buildings is still underdeveloped. Across the street is still vacant with no (?) rumors of development.

 

Understanding that, while the two sites are probably just a mile or so apart and there is certainly a difference in the surrounding existing residential and entertainment development (i.e., bars), why is there such a consensus that Caydon will so dramatically change the Midtown area while Skyhouse hasn't had much impact on its neighborhood? And yes, I understand that a long-planned residential tower on Main Street is also now under construction just a few blocks away. To me, the Bell Street Station site seems more similar to the McGowen Street Station site than not. Bell is closer to the Downtown attractions while Caydon is closer to the more developed Midtown residential area. But beyond that, how different are they?

 

I'm asking to be educated.

[cspwal 3903]

Having lived in both Houston House (which is behind the twin Skyhouses) and Skyhouse, they have had an impact on the area in a big way - there's more people walking on the street, it feels more developed (as it would with 3 full blocks of parking replaced with buildings), and the ground floor retail has slowly all filled in - there's now only one small space open in the Skyhouse Houston garage.  The Zydeco dinner is now open longer hours, and places in Greenstreet seem to be getting more traffic on the weekends.

 

That being said, McGowen will feel more developed, because it's remaining parking lot will always be full of new Cadillacs, and the rest of the blocks all have buildings on them.

 

[Twinsanity02 1283]

Brooklyn 173, Is the long planned residential tower you referred to 1810 Main or something else?

[houstontexasjack 2344]

1 hour ago, Diaspora said:

Because the extent of the northern block is still under negotiation.

Ah. The renderings suggested the Greensheet Building and others (e.g. Kim Tai) would stick around.  However, I guess it makes sense Caydon would push for that land if it could get it at a reasonable price.

[H-Town Man 4989]

1 hour ago, Brooklyn173 said:

I'm still pretty new to Houston, so this is an honest question.

 

The two Skyhouse apartments near the Bell Street light rail station seem to be to be roughly the same height and bulk and density to the ongoing Caydon project. However, the Skyhouse buildings do not seem to have had a dramatic effect on the surrounding neighborhood. The ground floor retail for the two buildings is still underdeveloped. Across the street is still vacant with no (?) rumors of development.

 

Understanding that, while the two sites are probably just a mile or so apart and there is certainly a difference in the surrounding existing residential and entertainment development (i.e., bars), why is there such a consensus that Caydon will so dramatically change the Midtown area while Skyhouse hasn't had much impact on its neighborhood? And yes, I understand that a long-planned residential tower on Main Street is also now under construction just a few blocks away. To me, the Bell Street Station site seems more similar to the McGowen Street Station site than not. Bell is closer to the Downtown attractions while Caydon is closer to the more developed Midtown residential area. But beyond that, how different are they?

 

I'm asking to be educated.

 

This is much higher quality development than Skyhouse, which builds the same building over and over. This also synergizes with the Superblock park and the nearby bar and treatment center district. With downtown, you have high parking demand which makes those blocks hard to develop with anything other than towers.

 

[Brooklyn173 818]

2 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said:

Brooklyn 173, Is the long planned residential tower you referred to 1810 Main or something else?

3300 Main

[bobruss 4986]

Just north of MATCH.

[MarathonMan 1157]

3 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

This is much higher quality development than Skyhouse, which builds the same building over and over. This also synergizes with the Superblock park and the nearby bar and treatment center district. With downtown, you have high parking demand which makes those blocks hard to develop with anything other than towers.

 

In addition, there’s the simple difference in physical scale between Downtown and Midtown to consider.  Because Downtown has so many tall office buildings already, the two Skyhouse towers (along with the forthcoming Camden, Marlowe, etc.) end up almost invisible.  They don’t make a big impact.  Conversely, Caydon and District I & II (600’+ and 400’+ tall, I think) will have a huge visual impact in Midtown because they’ll be the big kids on the block, so to speak.

[Sanjorade 270]

The street enclaves with restaurants, etc. remind me of some of the developments in Singapore. 

[MarathonMan 1157]

1 minute ago, Sanjorade said:

The street enclaves with restaurants, etc. remind me of some of the developments in Singapore. 

I hope it becomes the “standard” for future development in Midtown and beyond.

[bobruss 4986]

I was reviewing the renderings and it appears that the development stretches across Main Street.

The reason I say this, is it appears there is some kind of structure overhead that runs across the rail line on Main. It would have to be connected to another part of their development. I just don't see where they could connect. Something has to be be screwed up with the first rendering, that shows the two beams running above the rail line and across Main Street. The only open lot on Main is the parking lot between HCC office building on Elgin and the park in the Camden development.

Anyone have an answer?

[phillip_white 1910]

2 hours ago, bobruss said:

I was reviewing the renderings and it appears that the development stretches across Main Street.

The reason I say this, is it appears there is some kind of structure overhead that runs across the rail line on Main. It would have to be connected to another part of their development. I just don't see where they could connect. Something has to be be screwed up with the first rendering, that shows the two beams running above the rail line and across Main Street. The only open lot on Main is the parking lot between HCC office building on Elgin and the park in the Camden development.

Anyone have an answer?

To me it looks like they are just creating a covered walkway across Main. The mostly likely reason would be to connect their retail development to the huge retail-less Camden McGowen Station. With regard to the rail station looking different, keep in mind that Midtown may be in the early stages of considering closing Main to vehicular traffic. And one of the renderings (https://cdn.skyrisecities.com/sites/default/files/images/projects/33510/33510-114337.jpg) shows Kim Tai and the Greesheet buildings dwarfed by that gym/parking/office/rooftop park building. Also, I never noticed the hotel component before...

[HoustonIsHome 1626]

On 8/20/2018 at 8:51 AM, bobruss said:

Lets keep Randall out of Midtown.

I actually don't mind Randall in midtown.

 

My grief with the superblock project was that it was a super block and it got squandered.

 

The Aussie took 3 separate blocks and proposed a district.

 

It's like they wanted the super block to match the Camden Travis development instead of a development geared to the future of the area they developed to what was there years before.

[bobruss 4986]

Midtown is definitely going through a huge growing spurt and one of the good things is that it has finally started developing on the east side of Main Street.

I wish that they had done a better job with the use of the super block but I think it will take some time to see how this incredibly dense area and what will come with all of this growth i density. I only  wish the Cadillac dealer didn't own all of the blocks surrounding his dealership. 

[TheSirDingle 1474]

Wasn't able to snap a Pic, but the high rise is becoming pretty prominent from i-10

[H-Town Man 4989]

1 hour ago, bobruss said:

Midtown is definitely going through a huge growing spurt and one of the good things is that it has finally started developing on the east side of Main Street.

I wish that they had done a better job with the use of the super block but I think it will take some time to see how this incredibly dense area and what will come with all of this growth i density. I only  wish the Cadillac dealer didn't own all of the blocks surrounding his dealership and wasn't an a-hole. 

 

fixed it for ya

 

[quietstorm 1260]

Was in Sydney a couple weeks ago, and this rendering really does reflect the "look and feel" of their architecture.  

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by quietstorm

[bobruss 4986]

Thanks

[MarathonMan 1157]

4 hours ago, bobruss said:

Midtown is definitely going through a huge growing spurt and one of the good things is that it has finally started developing on the east side of Main Street.

I wish that they had done a better job with the use of the super block but I think it will take some time to see how this incredibly dense area and what will come with all of this growth i density. I only  wish the Cadillac dealer didn't own all of the blocks surrounding his dealership. 

For whatever reason (probably short-term economic) Camden doesn’t design for the greatest good of the neighborhood.  Rick Campo could have at least taken a note from the Post residential/retail at Bagby and Gray, but he didn’t.  Apparently the ROI for residential-only development is higher, but it does nothing for the vibrancy of the neighborhood.  He’s got several developments in Midtown and they’re all lifeless.  I hope Caydon’s concept becomes the new standard for development in this town, because it’s superb!