Discovery West: Skanska Downtown Mixed-Use Development

[Luminare]

3 hours ago, phillip_white said:

Somebody get that robot a hard hat!

They need to put him with the tree at the top out ceremony. That would hilarious. Lets put this robot to work.

[hindesky]

So I was talking with a guy from Embassy Suites who I assume was a manager, he mentioned that Skanska was going to remove the huge Oak tree across the street in the parking lot and move it to this project. It will supposedly cost them $150,000 to move it.

[tangledwoods]

Fun Fact:  Skanska has a bit of a history with heritage oak trees.  On their first project in town they put in a big oak tree (3009 Post Oak) and then their next job at West Memorial Place had a few large oak trees.  Cap Tower doesnt really have BIG trees outside but they do have some cool ones in the Understory not to mention the whole rooftop garden.

Yes it is a bit of greenwashing but its pretty cool that they have brought in serious landscape budgets to all of their developments. 

[sapo2367]

Save the trees!! Goodness knows downtown needs more shade in the summer.

[kbates2]

I noticed that they took down a number of trees downtown on Main and on Travis in the last month or so.  I assume that they were dead from the freeze but it seems like we never have a chance for most of the street trees to mature in DT.

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

One of the two pile drilling machines was loaded out.

[hindesky]

Talked with the site superintendent, he told me that the 2 tower cranes will both be luffing cranes due to the 2 hotels nearby. One tower crane will be in the southeast corner and the second on the northwest corner. Maxim crane will supply the tower cranes. Hopes to finish with the last big core drilling machine next week. They are 14' deep now but will go to 32' total but have to do it in sections due to the Embassy Suites. Mat pour is scheduled for Nov. 20th.

[hindesky]

One of the 2 luffing tower cranes will go in this area.

And the other will go in the street were the bike path is/was.

[bobruss]

I was driving around this part of downtown this morning, and south of the convention center and to the east every street in that area has 72" pipe parked on both sides of the street for countless blocks. Obviously this is staging for a major water project. I haven't found anything on this and thought someone could enlighten.

Thanks

[hindesky]

12 minutes ago, bobruss said:

I was driving around this part of downtown this morning, and south of the convention center and to the east every street in that area has 72" pipe parked on both sides of the street for countless blocks. Obviously this is staging for a major water project. I haven't found anything on this and thought someone could enlighten.

Thanks

I created a topic about them in the Downtown section and in the Montrose section, I believe the 2 are related.

[H-Town Man]

1 hour ago, bobruss said:

I was driving around this part of downtown this morning, and south of the convention center and to the east every street in that area has 72" pipe parked on both sides of the street for countless blocks. Obviously this is staging for a major water project. I haven't found anything on this and thought someone could enlighten.

Thanks

I think they found evidence of oil and gas at the construction site and are going to go ahead and frack the site before proceeding further with construction.

 

[hindesky]

The superintendent also told me they won't have their own chillers but will tie into the downtown Enwave Energy Corp's system through tunnels.

https://www.enwave.com

[cspwal]

That system still has excess capacity? 

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

hah, northern cities have a steam system, we have a chiller system.

[sapo2367]

Does chiller = AC or is it something different? 

[tangledwoods]

Enwave has plenty of capacity and they are always happy to expand if they can lock in a new client.  FWIW the other Skanska building downtown is also on district cooling.

"Does chiller = AC or is it something different? " short story yes.  Longer story: Chillers make cold water by a magic process involving a cooling tower to reject some heat and then some weird compression thing happens and stuff gets colder (again magic).  Longest Story: I am not an engineer so you will need to go to wikipedia to learn the dark arts of heat rejection and mad science of delta T.

 

[hindesky]

The 2 luffing tower cranes.

Edited October 20, 2021 by hindesky

[Eastdwntwn]

[hindesky]

@Eastdwntwn I rotated your pic....my neck was hurting.

[Amlaham]

Any chance that power station on the right (or whatever its called) will get covered like the one Seattle just completed? 

[Eastdwntwn]

14 hours ago, hindesky said:

@Eastdwntwn I rotated your pic....my neck was hurting.

I tried to fix it on my end and just gave up. I figured I should probably get back to work lol

[Houston19514]

3 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

Any chance that power station on the right (or whatever its called) will get covered like the one Seattle just completed? 

That's really cool. Apparently it was publicly funded.  Send the idea to the Mayor's office, Houston First, Central Houston, Downtown TIRZ

Here's some more info:

New public artwork rises at the new City Light Denny Substation

May 9, 2019 by Erika Lindsay Leave a Comment

Denny Substation is now home to two incredible new public artworks, the towering Transforest by Lead Pencil Studio and a kinetic piece, Switchwall, by Ned Kahn. The Office of Arts & Culture (ARTS) worked with Seattle City Light to incorporate artworks and cultural planning that supports the utility’s mission and goals at the Denny Substation.

ARTS worked with City Light and architects to develop a temporary art program prior to construction of the substation, and permanent art installations at the new facility that are responsive to the surrounding community and reinforce the public nature and essential function of the station.

 

[Amlaham]

3 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

That's really cool. Apparently it was publicly funded.  Send the idea to the Mayor's office, Houston First, Central Houston, Downtown TIRZ

I will do so! Hopefully they consider something similar to it 😅

[hindesky]

Found out from a worker that CapForm is the concrete contractor for this. First time hearing this company in Houston, they are from Dallas but have done work there and in Fort Worth, Austin, Miami and Tampa.

https://capforminc.com/CFI2019/

[hindesky]

Working on Sunday.

[sapo2367]

The crane has arrived 

[MidCenturyMoldy]

2 hours ago, sapo2367 said:

The crane has arrived 

I know I'm hopelessly behind on many things... but... how long has the St Joseph Professional Building had the new facade?

[hindesky]

17 minutes ago, MidCenturyMoldy said:

I know I'm hopelessly behind on many things... but... how long has the St Joseph Professional Building had the new facade?

 About 1 yr., paint job and interior work, Hoar is the GC.

Edited November 9, 2021 by hindesky

[tangledwoods]

Fun Fact of the day back in the 90s there was a large regional contractor named Beers Construction (bought by Skanska).  Back in the day Hoar and Beers at a Joint venture and no one could decide which name would look less bad: Hoar and Beers or Beers and Hoar.

[freundb]

17 hours ago, tangledwoods said:

Fun Fact of the day back in the 90s there was a large regional contractor named Beers Construction (bought by Skanska).  Back in the day Hoar and Beers at a Joint venture and no one could decide which name would look less bad: Hoar and Beers or Beers and Hoar.

I love juicy tidbits like this. 🤣 Thank you!

[samagon]

that pool is about to get pretty sucky.

[Nate99]

1 hour ago, samagon said:

that pool is about to get pretty sucky.

Sunbathing with hammering noises for a period, replaced thereafter by some dude in a cubicle. 

[HoustonBoy]

It'll be fronted by the garage, but still. 

[Nate99]

[hindesky]

City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to give the New York-based firm Skanska USA nearly $1 million in property tax breaks over 10 years for its 1550 On the Green development for green building design.

 

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Green-discovery-Houston-gives-downtown-office-16685316.php

[Nate99]

[samagon]

On 11/16/2021 at 10:32 AM, Nate99 said:

Sunbathing with hammering noises for a period, replaced thereafter by some dude in a cubicle. 

I don't know the protocol, but will they issue hardhats to anyone who ventures out onto the pool during construction? seriously though, would they even allow the pool to be open? 

[hindesky]

That tower crane placement makes me wonder if this will only get 1 tower crane instead of 2 like the superintendent told me.

[Checo2021]

Tower crane erection at 1550 on the green !

[hindesky]

Comparing the jib on this luffer to the one on the crane at the Oliver project this one is pretty small. Probably means they are getting the second tower crane but I couldn't see any evidence yet.

 

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by hindesky

[Urbannizer]

https://www.1550onthegreen.com/neighborhood/

Tower 2 - Office

Tower 3 - Hotel & Residential

[kennyc05]

4 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

https://www.1550onthegreen.com/neighborhood/

Tower 2 - Office

Tower 3 - Hotel & Residential

It's gonna be really nice to see this part of downtown fill out!

[H-Town Man]

4 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

https://www.1550onthegreen.com/neighborhood/

Tower 2 - Office

Tower 3 - Hotel & Residential

Very cool. Makes it look like they've acquired/are planning to acquire the piece they didn't own of the southernmost block.

[kennyc05]

3 minutes ago, H-Town Man said:

Very cool. Makes it look like they've acquired/are planning to acquire the piece they didn't own of the southernmost block.

Across from the main Toyota Center entrance?

[79ta]

4 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

https://www.1550onthegreen.com/neighborhood/

Tower 2 - Office

Tower 3 - Hotel & Residential

Does it look like they're going to close down part of Dallas St. for pedestrians?

 

This one alone looks great but the hotel/residential tower behind it is going to bring even more life to this end of downtown.

[Amlaham]

Wow our downtown is really exploding. How is it doing compared to other cities like Chicago/ Dallas/ LA. Is this happening nationwide, or are we a little hot?

[mfastx]

Wow, development of those two blocks would be great! 

[BEES?!]

All those retail and restaurant spaces, wow! This is really going to have a big impact on this side of town!

[stuckINdallas]

I've lived in Dallas for the past 8 years, and the development in that time span has been nonstop. The big difference is the layout of Dallas and how uptown/deep ellum borders downtown. As a result a lot of the development that would of been going up in downtown ends up in these two neighborhoods creating a high density city look that stretches for miles.