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Brava: 46-Story Residential High-Rise At 414 Milam St.


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32 minutes ago, Nate99 said:

Big crane being assembled in the hole. I'm guessing the red steel segments stacked up are for a larger piling drilling rig, but don't really know. 

 

You are correct. They are part of the red crane for mud rotary installation of pilings. 

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https://www.kaneinnovations.com/preston-high-rise-residential-community-feature-railings-kane-innovations-sterling-dula-brand

 

Kane Innovations recently secured work on The Preston, a multi-family residential project located in Houston, Texas. 



 

Constructed into a 45-degree rotation, The Preston aims to capture the striking illusion of a sail being stretched by the wind.  The tower's slender profile - thanks to its twisted balcony edges and unique orientation - has earned it the nickname, "The Glass Sailboat". 

 

The Preston will feature Kane Innovations' Sterling Dula brand railing on 150 of their spacious, eight-foot-deep balconies.

 

Structural glass railing, Chesterfield-style railing, privacy dividers and gates will be placed on and around the building's exterior living spaces. Upon completion, a total of 3,065 lft of Kane Innovations product will be installed on the building.

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I'm just going to throw this out here, as I haven't read anyone else specifically ask about it on this forum.  But, why is the magic "ceiling" in downtown not exceeding 50 "stories" any longer ?  Is there some sort of exponentially higher costs associated with adding floors at 50 and above ?  Don't get me wrong, I'm very appreciative of all these mid height tall buildings we've gotten in the past 8 to 10 years, without a doubt.  But, seems strange that every time something is proposed at 50 plus stories, it either sits on the table for years and dies, or is cancelled altogether.  Cases in point, El Museo Tower 54 floors (although not in downtown, but further south) and the new Chevron Tower right at 50 floors, still pending with no movement on the project in at least 5 years now.

I know the 1980's were a different time in Houston and America in general, and there were some high powered forces that allowed us to get our "super tall" buildings downtown at the time, but I really can't imagine what is keeping these sorts of taller projects from happening again, especially at this time in Houston.

Just my two cents and maybe someone in this forum has some factual insight on this.  I would love to see a move toward some super talls downtown soon, especially like they have been doing in NY and other international cities where they are pretty skinny, but very tall.  Seems like that would be a money saver in and of itself?

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ekdrm2d1, were you talking about the area just to the top of the blue hauler? In some of the more recent images it does appear they have roped off this altered area. 

Looks like they might have done some concrete work or something. I'm sure, but someone will know or we'll find out soon.

 

 

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55 minutes ago, ArtNsf said:

But, why is the magic "ceiling" in downtown not exceeding 50 "stories" any longer ?  Is there some sort of exponentially higher costs associated with adding floors at 50 and above ?

 

I seem to recall reading here a year or two ago that one developer (Hines maybe?) said that with typical office floor plate sizes (presumably in the 25-28k square foot range), 45-50 stories or so (assuming that includes a parking podium of 10-12 stories with its own separate elevators) was the limit of a conventional 3-bank elevator system.  If you want to go higher, you need to start doing more complicated elevator systems (such as skylobbies or dual-floor elevators), though maybe the new elevator systems where you select your floor when calling the elevator (for increased efficiency) could allow taller buildings with just 3 elevator banks.  So I think their point was that making a building more than about 45-50 floors will make the price per square foot go up enough that it's harder to justify in Houston.

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Who are supertalls for exactly? They're basically just bragging rights, and some of the greatest cities in the world don't have anything close to height of our own Chase tower.

 

I genuinely don't get the fascination, because is has *zero* impact on actually living in the city. I absolutely do understand the appeal of limiting height restrictions and avoiding a DC or Paris situation, but I don't remotely care whether a tower is 40 stories, 50, or higher.

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37 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Who are supertalls for exactly? They're basically just bragging rights, and some of the greatest cities in the world don't have anything close to height of our own Chase tower.

 

I genuinely don't get the fascination, because is has *zero* impact on actually living in the city. I absolutely do understand the appeal of limiting height restrictions and avoiding a DC or Paris situation, but I don't remotely care whether a tower is 40 stories, 50, or higher.

 

The only reason why we have some of the tall skyscrapers we do is from the purely speculative building markets and practices of the 1960's - 1970's and all the way till the early 80's before the big oil crash. I mean look how much land we have out here. Not exactly a need to build high around here. We do seem to like building high regardless of this fact. Its debated in circles, but some have thought that because we lack a geographical landscape that has some elevation to it we almost in a sense construct our own to fill that void. There is a need for buildings that high though. NYC is a perfect example where the limited amount of space is pushing buildings ever higher. Again, that comes from an actual need rather than the simple want for height. You just aren't ever going to have that problem here (or at least not for a very long time) until then the only reason why you will get really tall buildings is due to ego or simply the desire to have some kind of elevation that we don't get naturally here.

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45 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Who are supertalls for exactly? They're basically just bragging rights, and some of the greatest cities in the world don't have anything close to height of our own Chase tower.

 

I genuinely don't get the fascination, because is has *zero* impact on actually living in the city. I absolutely do understand the appeal of limiting height restrictions and avoiding a DC or Paris situation, but I don't remotely care whether a tower is 40 stories, 50, or higher.

 

I think if you are a person who likes skyscrapers in general, then especially liking supertalls pretty much follows. It's the age-old fascination with height. When the people of Beauvais built a taller cathedral than all the other French cathedrals, probably some folks grumbled about the vanity of height, but most of the townsfolk were probably happy about the situation.

 

Would you be cool if Dallas had a taller building than Houston? How about Austin?

 

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I wouldn't really think about it unless someone brought it up. It's such an abstract thing - I definitely feel the difference between a downtown like ours that has tall buildings and one like DC's that doesn't, but another city having a building slightly taller than the tallest building here? Why would I care about that? 

 

I'm excited about this building because it's an interesting (though definitely not perfect) design. Four extra stories wouldn't make it any more interesting to me. 

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2 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

I think if you are a person who likes skyscrapers in general, then especially liking supertalls pretty much follows. It's the age-old fascination with height. When the people of Beauvais built a taller cathedral than all the other French cathedrals, probably some folks grumbled about the vanity of height, but most of the townsfolk were probably happy about the situation.

 

Would you be cool if Dallas had a taller building than Houston? How about Austin?

 

Thank you for putting it the way you did here.  And, NO I would absolutely NOT be okay with dallas or austin having a taller building.  It's a Texas thing I suppose down here, but that would so not be cool at all !

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I’m with Texasota on this. Building just for vanity is a bad idea. A supertall when it’s not needed could actually damage the real estate market. Too much unused square footage is a very bad thing. Financially responsible development is better than ego development. We shouldn’t be concerned about height. Occupancy rates, unemployment rates, real estate prices and the price of oil are the numbers that really matter.

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3 hours ago, rechlin said:

 

I seem to recall reading here a year or two ago that one developer (Hines maybe?) said that with typical office floor plate sizes (presumably in the 25-28k square foot range), 45-50 stories or so (assuming that includes a parking podium of 10-12 stories with its own separate elevators) was the limit of a conventional 3-bank elevator system.  If you want to go higher, you need to start doing more complicated elevator systems (such as skylobbies or dual-floor elevators), though maybe the new elevator systems where you select your floor when calling the elevator (for increased efficiency) could allow taller buildings with just 3 elevator banks.  So I think their point was that making a building more than about 45-50 floors will make the price per square foot go up enough that it's harder to justify in Houston.

Your ideas definitely make sense if the elevator situation is what sets the limit here locally.  I do recall working in the First City Tower (back when it was known as that) and touring the Transco Tower (way back when as well), and they have multiple elevator shafts that stop going up at various levels, and that also begin at certain floor levels, more than two or three if I remember correctly in Transco, which is 65 stories (and an incredibly beautiful super tall building).  I guess the cost was easier to cover back then before prices for just about everything went up faster in some areas, not so fast in other areas, but still a steady rise overall - over 30 years now, including construction materials and labor.  However, I know for a fact that Houston has some mighty wealthy developers and locals just like any other city, even the 3 larger cities in America that are bigger than Houston, and you know, prestige and bragging rights do come to mind.  In Texas at least, that makes a HUGE difference to most of us architecturally minded people.  It almost becomes reminiscent of a sport - go figure...  I hope Houston will always remain the biggest and best city in Texas as it already is, but adding more taller buildings would be some mighty tasty frosting on the cake, indeed !

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29 minutes ago, ArtNsf said:

Your ideas definitely make sense if the elevator situation is what sets the limit here locally.  I do recall working in the First City Tower (back when it was known as that) and touring the Transco Tower (way back when as well), and they have multiple elevator shafts that stop going up at various levels, and that also begin at certain floor levels, more than two or three if I remember correctly in Transco, which is 65 stories (and an incredibly beautiful super tall building).  I guess the cost was easier to cover back then before prices for just about everything went up faster in some areas, not so fast in other areas, but still a steady rise overall - over 30 years now, including construction materials and labor.  However, I know for a fact that Houston has some mighty wealthy developers and locals just like any other city, even the 3 larger cities in America that are bigger than Houston, and you know, prestige and bragging rights do come to mind.  In Texas at least, that makes a HUGE difference to most of us architecturally minded people.  It almost becomes reminiscent of a sport - go figure...  I hope Houston will always remain the biggest and best city in Texas as it already is, but adding more taller buildings would be some mighty tasty frosting on the cake, indeed !

I'm not greedy, only want three or four One Vanderbilt Place Skyscrapers preferably in the downtown.

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3 hours ago, Texasota said:

I wouldn't really think about it unless someone brought it up. It's such an abstract thing - I definitely feel the difference between a downtown like ours that has tall buildings and one like DC's that doesn't, but another city having a building slightly taller than the tallest building here? Why would I care about that? 

 

I'm excited about this building because it's an interesting (though definitely not perfect) design. Four extra stories wouldn't make it any more interesting to me. 

 

It's sort of like, why would the Olympics care that Usain Bolt ran a few hundredths of a second faster than someone else? Why don't they just give them all a participation award?

 

Don't worry, I get your point.

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7 hours ago, bobruss said:

ekdrm2d1, were you talking about the area just to the top of the blue hauler? In some of the more recent images it does appear they have roped off this altered area. 

Looks like they might have done some concrete work or something. I'm sure, but someone will know or we'll find out soon.

 

That was filled with concrete and has now been covered up it looks like.

 

Ih5K1Hl.jpg

 

5f7eu6F.jpg

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Supertalls, even in cities as Dense as NYC are rare.

 

NYC only has 12 buildings that are over 1000 ft and 3 of them are what I would consider hyper rich residential ego trips.. As far as skyscraper breakdown, Wikipedia provided a nice table. (no idea how up to date it is) 

 

Rank City ≥1,000 ft
(305 m)
≥900 ft
(274 m)
≥800 ft
(244 m)
≥700 ft
(213 m)
≥600 ft
(183 m)
≥500 ft
(152 m)
≥400 ft
(122 m)
Total
1 New York City 12 9 14 35 69 150 255 544
2 Chicago 6 2 6 8 27 68 101 218
3 Miami 0 0 1 9 9 32 36 87
4 San Francisco 1 0 3 2 4 13 32 55
5 Houston 1 2 0 7 8 18 22 53
6 Los Angeles 2 0 1 6 9 10 17 45
7 Seattle 0 1 0 3 3 12 23 42
8 Las Vegas 0 0 0 1 8 7 25 41
9 Atlanta 1 0 2 2 6 5 24 40
10 Philadelphia 1 2 1 3 1 6 18 32

 

Right now, Houstons office market cant really support a thousand footer and our residential market isnt hot enough for gazillionares to fork over investment for 1000'+ Condo high rises.

 

My personal wishlist, build a beautiful 1200' building on Block 142. Then infill every other surface lot downtown with 10-15 story buildings-- same for midtown.

 

Also, Dallas has a 1000'+ on the drawing board right now: https://www.papercitymag.com/real-estate/dallas-smart-district-tallest-high-tech-skyscrapers-amazon-headquarters/

And for my own City Pride, I'd like Houston to retain the taller skyline :)

 

Edited by Purdueenginerd
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7 hours ago, TheSirDingle said:

Man, Wikipedia needs to update their figures, we have around 40 152m+ buildings. Los angles has a lot more than 10 too, Wikipedia needs to step up their game. Unless I'm looking at it wrong.

 

 

Using Emporis, between 500 and 600 feet buildings, Houston has about 18 completed high rises on that website(not counting under construction and transmission towers). At a cursory level, looks like wikipedia is mostly correct albeit their table is slightly misleading.   he table should have a range, but they just put greater than or equal to. So yes, Houston has more than 18, 500 footer buildings, but between 500/600 the table is correct. 

https://www.emporis.com/city/101031/houston-tx-usa/status/all-buildings/2

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I'll put my two cents in. If the choice is between numerous mid size buildings ( 20 to 50 floors)  to a one or two super (300 meters+) or mega tall (600 meters+), I prefer the midsize skyscrapers. These mid size skyscrapers have done a nice job of filling up our downtown and adding to the skyline. The Hines buildings are wonderful examples of this as are several others.   Nevertheless I would love a few supertalls like One Vanderbilt in the downtown. I understand the market doesn't justify it, but one can dream. 

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2 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said:

I'll put my two cents in. If the choice is between numerous mid size buildings ( 20 to 50 floors)  to a one or two super (300 meters+) or mega tall (600 meters+), I prefer the midsize skyscrapers. These mid size skyscrapers have done a nice job of filling up our downtown and adding to the skyline. The Hines buildings are wonderful examples of this as are several others.   Nevertheless I would love a few supertalls like One Vanderbilt in the downtown. I understand the market doesn't justify it, but one can dream. 

absolutely my point too, agreed.

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3 hours ago, Purdueenginerd said:

 

Using Emporis, between 500 and 600 feet buildings, Houston has about 18 completed high rises on that website(not counting under construction and transmission towers). At a cursory level, looks like wikipedia is mostly correct albeit their table is slightly misleading.   he table should have a range, but they just put greater than or equal to. So yes, Houston has more than 18, 500 footer buildings, but between 500/600 the table is correct. 

https://www.emporis.com/city/101031/houston-tx-usa/status/all-buildings/2

I see what they did, sorry just looked at the graph wrong. Also didn't know Vegas had that many big boys.

 

Edited by TheSirDingle
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21 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

I think if you are a person who likes skyscrapers in general, then especially liking supertalls pretty much follows. It's the age-old fascination with height. When the people of Beauvais built a taller cathedral than all the other French cathedrals, probably some folks grumbled about the vanity of height, but most of the townsfolk were probably happy about the situation.

 

Would you be cool if Dallas had a taller building than Houston? How about Austin?

 

I think Austin has a a 60 plus story tower in the works but they may get a taller build since they're popping them out of the ground like crazy.  Houston lacks a signature tower like some other global cities.

Edited by htownbro
correction
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14 minutes ago, htownbro said:

I think Austin has a a 60 plus story tower in the works but they may get a taller build since their popping them out of the ground like crazy.  Houston lacks a signature tower like some other global cities.

*Cries in Bank of Southwest tower*. I mean you could say the old BOA tower is pretty signature, but it does lack the height when in comparison to the skyline. Maybe even Wells Fargo Plaza? It definitely has a good amount of height, but it does lack something.

Edited by TheSirDingle
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1 hour ago, htownbro said:

I think Austin has a a 60 plus story tower in the works but they may get a taller build since they're popping them out of the ground like crazy.  Houston lacks a signature tower like some other global cities.

 

The question was more rhetorical. We have a few signature towers, Transco probably the best, but for national/international attention, it has to be around 1,500 feet these days. I don't think the general public is even aware of buildings like Transbay Tower in SF or the Wilshire one in LA.

 

Edited by H-Town Man
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700 Louisiana (formerly Bank of America Center, neé NationsBank Center, neé NCNB Center, neé RepublicBank Center, almost neé Houston National Bank Center) is a signature building if national recognition is a criterion.  I can tell people who have never set foot in Houston that it's "the big pink building with all the peaked roofs with spikes on them" and they know exactly what I mean.

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3 hours ago, htownbro said:

I think Austin has a a 60 plus story tower in the works but they may get a taller build since they're popping them out of the ground like crazy.  Houston lacks a signature tower like some other global cities.

 

I head once that zoning in Austin pretty much limits towers to only downtown so that's a big factor. 

 

54 minutes ago, mollusk said:

700 Louisiana (formerly Bank of America Center, neé NationsBank Center, neé NCNB Center, neé RepublicBank Center, almost neé Houston National Bank Center) is a signature building if national recognition is a criterion.  I can tell people who have never set foot in Houston that it's "the big pink building with all the peaked roofs with spikes on them" and they know exactly what I mean.

 

700 Louisiana was in Simcity 3000 you betcha it's an iconic tower! 

 

Edit: was able to find this 

0*6G-eqca1OhnPl1Ft.png

 

 

Tried my darndest to find an image of it from the game but you can see it listed here. 

Edited by jmitch94
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