Discovery West: Mixed-Use Development Downtown By Skanska

[Texasota]

I actually think too much importance is placed on "historic" parts of the city. Just existing, regardless of any apparent "historic" value, provides potential for reuse. And specifically, quick, low-cost reuse. 

[Nate99]

[Nate99]

On 10/28/2022 at 12:20 PM, Ross said:

Frost Town did not extend as far South as MMP. MMP is on the site of Union Station. Here's the 1944 aerial, with Frost Town circled in red

Late coming back to the discussion, I was recalling another photo of the neighborhood just south of Union Station that you can see in the arial shot, I didn't realize that wasn't contiguous. 

[Big E]

Me, I'm not torn up about what was torn down, so much, as what was planned and never came to fruition. Its the lost potential that bothers me more than anything else. Which is why I really want this Discovery west project to get off the ground and succeed. That potential is still there, and what Skanska is promising is one of the most exciting projects I think downtown has seen in years

[bobruss]

I'm glad it never went through. The overall design looked like a 32 block walled city. It was very brutalist and not very inviting. It did the same thing the tunnels do in my estimation. Take people off the streets! It was a poor decision to just come in and take everything down like they did, And I'm sure we lost some great little buildings that would have created a nice human scale area for retail, dining and entertainment.

I know Ive said this many times, but we lived at the corner of Crawford and Franklin in the PPG building in front of the Wagon Works, before the stadium was built. It was so dead around there before they built Minute Maid, George Brown and discovery Green. When I was very young in the early fifties my dad would take me with him to go to the musicians union hall over on Chenevert near the train station, and then over to the Rice hotel to set up his drums in the club. Then we'd go down to Main and go to James Coney Island, the original off main, and  get some ice cream next to the Metropolitan theater. It was booming back then. Then Sharpstown opened and everyone headed for the suburbs. No-one stayed downtown.They built the freeways and the race to the edge started, and has never stopped. I drove by Katy where as a kid we would go watch a million ducks and geese feed on the rice fields. Now its mega box stores and behemoth warehouses. It's change and it will continue to happen.

 

 

[cityliving]

 

 

Edited November 8, 2022 by cityliving

[Nate99]

[MidCenturyMoldy]

On 10/12/2022 at 1:32 PM, cityliving said:

 

 

What is it you have to do to get an exemption from the FAA’s 200ft altitude limitation in that area? And even the general 400ft limit elsewhere, like near the Allen? 

Edited November 9, 2022 by MidCenturyMoldy

[cityliving]

You have to apply for a special Commercial license with the FAA.

[phillip_white]

2 hours ago, MidCenturyMoldy said:

What is it you have to do to get an exemption from the FAA’s 200ft altitude limitation in that area? And even the general 400ft limit elsewhere, like near the Allen? 

Technically you don't need an exemption if you take off and operate within 400 ft of a tall building. The ceiling is measured from the top of the structure, not ground level. Since cityliving appears to be flying at around 1,000 ft, they should have notified (and received approval from) the FAA regarding day/time and flightpath.

[MidCenturyMoldy]

47 minutes ago, phillip_white said:

Technically you don't need an exemption if you take off and operate within 400 ft of a tall building. The ceiling is measured from the top of the structure, not ground level. Since cityliving appears to be flying at around 1,000 ft, they should have notified (and received approval from) the FAA regarding day/time and flightpath.

I know a drone pilot must have a Part 107 license to fly 400 feet higher than a tall building as long as it’s within 400 feet of said building, but I thought that was only in unrestricted airspace. 400 feet being the ceiling in all unrestricted space. 
 

My Mavic Air 2 won’t even let me take off in my own backyard without LAANC authorization because I live in a 0 feet restricted area. That’s what I get for buying a know-it-all drone. 😄
 

Come to think of it, I’m not sure LAANC authorization will even cover it in a 0ft restricted zone. 

Edited November 9, 2022 by MidCenturyMoldy

[MidCenturyMoldy]

2 hours ago, cityliving said:

You have to apply for a special Commercial license with the FAA.

Yes, a Part 107 license. But I was thinking Part 107 pilots still had to observe ceiling restrictions and can exceed the ceiling limit only when flying within 400 feet of a building… so I thought you got an exemption and I was wondering how that was done.

[MidCenturyMoldy]

On 10/31/2022 at 11:14 PM, aachor said:

This is clearly a massive deathray mirror designed to torch the Embassy Suites using the light of the setting sun.

My idea was Embassy Suites would close that location and Skanska would buy the dirt and tear down the building. I like your idea better. 

[bobruss]

I'm trying to find the Hines Texas Tower thread and have gone through all 9 pages back and forth several times and didn't see it. Maybe I'm going blind or was looking for the wrong title. I just saw it last week in Going Up. Can someone tell me what page it is on? Thanks!

[hindesky]

42 minutes ago, bobruss said:

I'm trying to find the Hines Texas Tower thread and have gone through all 9 pages back and forth several times and didn't see it. Maybe I'm going blind or was looking for the wrong title. I just saw it last week in Going Up. Can someone tell me what page it is on? Thanks!

It was moved to the Downtown section.

 

[Brooklyn173]

[hindesky]

[cityliving]

[Triton]

 

[gene]

well dang, i haven't been to discovery green in so long and have never looked at this thread! holy crud! 😮 i love discovery green so i am glad it just keeps getting better (and growing!)

[Avossos]

Words cannot express how awesome this building is.

[j_cuevas713]

This will compliment One Park Place nicely and it seems to help the Embassy hotel as well. I think the hotel sitting on such a small portion of the block all alone made it seem a little out of place, regardless of the overall facade. The new building helps make up for some of those lost aesthetics.

On 11/17/2022 at 9:36 AM, gene said:

well dang, i haven't been to discovery green in so long and have never looked at this thread! holy crud! 😮 i love discovery green so i am glad it just keeps getting better (and growing!)

And they purchased the 2 lots across the street for two more buildings

Edited November 19, 2022 by j_cuevas713

[Triton]

2 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

This will compliment One Park Place nicely and it seems to help the Embassy hotel as well. I think the hotel sitting on such a small portion of the block all alone made it seem a little out of place, regardless of the overall facade. The new building helps make up for some of those lost aesthetics.

And they purchased the 2 lots across the street for two more buildings

View from Embassy Suites (photos from Google Reviews):

 

 

[MidCenturyMoldy]

On 11/2/2022 at 10:51 PM, Ross said:

Chinatown died because the people that lived and did business there moved out to the new Chinatown off of Bellaire Blvd. Chinatown was still going pretty strong in 1991 when my wife and I started dating. We would go to the Sun Deluxe Café, Lucky Inn(I think that was the name), and a couple of other places. The kung fu movies were still going strong at that time, as was Kim Son. When we moved to Midtown in 1998, we still went to many of those places, but it was becoming obvious that the center of mass was moving out West, where the larger Asian population was living. The Vietnamese places in Midtown stuck it out longer, but they eventually went West as well.

The Houston Center area was dead before the buildings were razed. The 80's made it worse. The oil bust then was worse than you could imagine. I went back to school because there were no jobs. Fortunately, when I graduated in 1989, the jobs had started to come back.

No one would have been willing to pay the taxes on buildings that made no money at all, least of all the Houston Center developers. Razing the buildings did no harm as far as I can tell.

And, let's not forget that Houston is a tear it down city. It always has been. 

I miss Sun Deluxe and Lucky Inn and the rest of old Chinatown so much. Around 1976, Sun Deluxe was the place that taught me that I actually DID love Chinese food after the terrible stuff I had when I was a kid.

[MidCenturyMoldy]

On 11/4/2022 at 10:00 AM, bobruss said:

I'm glad it never went through. The overall design looked like a 32 block walled city. It was very brutalist and not very inviting. It did the same thing the tunnels do in my estimation. Take people off the streets! It was a poor decision to just come in and take everything down like they did, And I'm sure we lost some great little buildings that would have created a nice human scale area for retail, dining and entertainment.

It would have been terrible, although it would have made a great location for filming movies about dystopian futures.

Edited November 19, 2022 by MidCenturyMoldy

[EllenOlenska]

It would have bene our very own Alphaville!

[cityliving]

[cityliving]

Edited November 29, 2022 by cityliving

[KirbyDriveKid]

I actually wasn't thrilled with the design in the renderings. I was worried it would be too plain a façade and the different "towers" wouldn't stand out enough. But... I have been so impressed as this comes together.

I am so incredibly glad to see a fully modern office tower that embraces a different color palette from Hines' blue glass.

Don't get me wrong, love the new blue glass, but was starting to get worried that architects were exclusively focusing on form and giving up on any variety in color.

Skanska proving me wrong! 

[Fortune]

This building does a great job combining the blue glass and brick of the surrounding buildings. 

[cityliving]

More glass on building and added height.

 

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

is this where I mark myself safe from having to see the Embassy Suites when I'm at the GRB or Rustic?   .

[bobruss]

Speaking of the Rustic, every time I drive by its got a fairly good crowd. Just goes to show you that it wasn't a bad location like some had suggested.

[hindesky]

My friend who is a traveling surgical tech took this today while at St. Joseph Hospital.

 

These are my pics.

[Amlaham]

This building is already looking great, I can't imagine how well its going to look when its completed!

That Tundra garage needs some serious TLC though 🤢 

[cityliving]

[mfastx]

Looks great, I really can't wait until those other two lots are developed... 🤤

[cityliving]

[hindesky]

[HoustonMidtown]

 

[editor]

December 26, 2022

[HoustonMidtown]

 

[sapo2367]

[cityliving]

[monarch]

^^^ @citylivingdude, these illustrations are superb, and exactly what i have been awaiting.  they clearly illustrate (with much clarity) the real current scope and scale of this project to date.  props for the update...

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

[cityliving]

 

 

Edited January 9 by cityliving

[004n063]

1 hour ago, cityliving said:

Nearly everything in these pictures was a parking lot 40 years ago.

[hindesky]

A tower crane operator I know DM'ed me saying there was an accident with the tower crane sometime recently. He wasn't the operator but it's a tight network and they all know each other.

"I heard one of the operators got a window rack tangled in some netting on the side of the bldg and lost the load. Job is shut down for now and has been for a few days."

He said it fell on the Hilton but I'm guessing he meant the Embassy Suites because I didn't see any damage to the Hilton and it's pretty far away for something to fall on it. I saw workers on site so I'm guessing only the two town cranes are shut down till they investigate what happened.

Edited January 12 by hindesky

[j_cuevas713]

On 1/8/2023 at 2:20 PM, cityliving said:

 

 

I keep trying to visualize the other two towers across the street from this. Talk about an impressive skyline. 

Edited January 13 by j_cuevas713