Vaughan Posted November 5, 2007 Share Posted November 5, 2007 It's for the Westin Hotel which will also have for sale condos on the top floors.There will be a Westin next to the hospital tower on the southwest corner of Gessner and I-10, a Four Points where the Radisson was on the southeast corner of the Beltway and I-10 near the new City Centre at Town & Country and a Sheraton on the east side of the Beltway just north of I-10 next to Baseball USA.Sorry if this is repetitive of something else already posted. Here's some links:http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/sto.../19/focus3.htmlhttp://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/sto.../05/story6.htmlhttp://www.starwoodhotels.com/fourpoints/p...propertyID=3109http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2007_1s...andComplex.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChannelTwoNews Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 I haven't gone by the Memorial City site, but I can say that the other Sheraton along Clay Road is under construction as well. There's a tower crane there and they've got the a number of the pilings set into place at this point. Kinda surprised they and the Four Points redevelopment have pages before the Westin Tower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinkaidAlum Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 Bummer that the Sheraton is only 6 floors. I was hoping for something taller in the 12-18 floor range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pm91 Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 im sorry, but arent westins supposed to be really nice? and if so, why build one next to a hospital with sirens? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandLakes Posted November 6, 2007 Share Posted November 6, 2007 They are building it next to a hospital because of the demand for hotel space in the area. This area has been envisioned as the next medical center of Houston. Because of that, you are going to have patients from all over the country coming to this area for treatment and they will need a place to stay. In addition, the family of people in the hospital will need places to stay and this will help accomplish this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpringShadows Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 Courtesy of mbgriffith1 at SSP. They've started on the buildings adjacent to the main building now. I drove past the open gate yesterday and had a clear view of what appears to be multiple buildings that can be seen in the above rendering. As much as people have said the building doesn't look like this rendering, I challenge them to drive by at night... it is actually very accurate. The artist simply replaced the tan "fake stucco" with a blue nighttime hue. It really is a very accurate depiction of the structure. Also, people should looks at some of the detail work in this building like on the back. The center portion has a faux granite portion with different colored blue windows. Once they finish the beacon and the glass corner skirts as well as surrounding structures this thing will look great. It will never be William's Tower but it will look nice, mark my words. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strickn Posted November 8, 2007 Share Posted November 8, 2007 What?While it will never be very close to pleasing proportions,The cone tapers too rapidly to look correct in concert with the blocky chunks beneath it...the cone continuing upwards may serve as a foilyet, even if it looks too tacked on, the very fact that it's there...that distracts the mind enough to let therather than nothing being up there to provide any relief from the slab...strong horizonal shoulder line of the building's unusual bulk associate visually with the ground from a distancecould, in fact, draw and focus an onlooker's eye so much of the time that the bland width below is made less distinct and more abstract,* as something is when you spend your attention on something elsewhere in your field of view... * how 'ground' is opposed to 'figure', blending in because the cone is standing out; as well as ground meaning the low-lying city* therefore less plainly ugly than the massing actually is before it's interpreted by a distractable viewer who doesn't behold everything at once, or at all.(by virtue of its visually unexpectedly low height below proportion to its unexpectedly broad extent).[able to be] abstracted, that is, in the direction of what the top of the rectilinear bulk already has in common (figuratively and physically parallel) with the ground's horizon line vastly more than other skyscraper 'figures' do: namely, that it spreads sideways more than expected; and the flat wings sticking out too far, once abstracted thanks to the small but spiky cone, connect the building at a distance to its horizontal surroundings.---------------------In other words, the thing may not wind up merely ungainly for the sake of flashiness; because its parts are dissociated more than any other vertical shaft's are, once the eyecatcher is done the part that's so blandly different might - because of certain odd factors - succeed in actually relating to the flat panorama of which it is a part. Apart from Memorial Hermann Memorial City ca. 2008, Midtown Manhattan, and *part* of Hong Kong, there is never anything on a high-rise visually that is characteristic of the environment of which it is a part - skyscrapers don't characterize as much as punctuate it. Good luck,Neil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandLakes Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 So I thought this building was going to be 34 floors but from my office view it looks like they have completed adding floors to it - stopping somewhere around 28. Any idea what is going on with that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChannelTwoNews Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 So I thought this building was going to be 34 floors but from my office view it looks like they have completed adding floors to it - stopping somewhere around 28. Any idea what is going on with that?I saw some workers moving around the curved portion that is now at the top of the building, and one of the large crane was working as well... Is this supposed to be the start of the crown or a design feature that will be integrated into some upper floors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 I saw some workers moving around the curved portion that is now at the top of the building, and one of the large crane was working as well... Is this supposed to be the start of the crown or a design feature that will be integrated into some upper floors?So has anyone heard if this thing was scaled down? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
strickn Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 It hasn't been scaled down. Most skyscrapers are either spiky or slablike. This one is completely unusual in that it has a big flat roof with a cone in the middle. It is the cone that will continue up to 34 storeys and draw the eye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChannelTwoNews Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 It hasn't been scaled down. Most skyscrapers are either spiky or slablike. This one is completely unusual in that it has a big flat roof with a cone in the middle. It is the cone that will continue up to 34 storeys and draw the eye. I see what you mean now after taking another look at the rendering. The widest portion of the slab rises to the 12th floor and the rest of the standard building is floors 13-28. So will that crown just be entirely decorative or will it have specialty space? Mechanical stuff? This is what I was referring to earlier, sorry for the iffy quality of the shot.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandLakes Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 I have always wondered if the crown was just for the drawing or if it would actually happen. You are right - the upper floors that are not quite as wide go from 13 to 28 - which is where they have stopped. They are definitly still working up there but only in the middle - making me now think that they are working on that crown. Will it really be 6 stories tall though? Anybody know if it is decorative or if there will actually be offices in there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChannelTwoNews Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 A few photos I've taken over the past week... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdude Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 It seems quite different in the photo than in the rendering. The ever-present beige fake stucco certainly makes it look more "normal" than what I was expecting, though whether that is a good thing is open to debate. I would guess that the cone thing on the top might end up looking like even more of an afterthought than it does in the rendering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted November 25, 2007 Author Share Posted November 25, 2007 Well, looking from the front I think it's pretty accurate from the rendering. I'm curious on how it's going to top out, though. It should be rather interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted November 25, 2007 Share Posted November 25, 2007 The crown in the rendering looks absolutely amazing.The stucco, however, makes the building look rather old, but in a good way. Does that make sense? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandLakes Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Well, they are cranking away on the crown, and from my viewpoint it appears that the crown will have some sort of functional office space inside. The building part is 27 floors, and they have built floors 28 - 32 of the crown. If the building is really going to be only 34 floors, they are almost done with the shell. Maybe the crown will be the penthouse offices for the CEO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted December 12, 2007 Author Share Posted December 12, 2007 Really now? I would have thought it would be some sort of small viewing place for patients and/or a place to discretely mount Cell antennas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Crown images 12/18/2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdog08 Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Crown images 12/18/2007 Interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 It looks pretty nice. But I have a strange feeling that the crown, despite how beautiful it may be, will look very out-of-place on this Art Deco-feeling tower. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricco67 Posted December 19, 2007 Author Share Posted December 19, 2007 Man! That does look like it's going to be fairly large feature. With it having this many floors already, i'm VERY curious on what functionality this is going to have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxman Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Is the crown considered part of the floor count? I guess the building itself is 29 floors and the crown appears to be 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saddleman Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 I'm liking the crown so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandLakes Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 The building is 27 floors so the first floor of the crown is floor 28. That means that right now they are up to the 33rd floor and I think they have one more to go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChannelTwoNews Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Man! That does look like it's going to be fairly large feature. With it having this many floors already, i'm VERY curious on what functionality this is going to have. It most likely will be office space for MetroNational, the developer. Only 40% of the crown will be rentable since it's function is basically decorative anyway. And yes, it should be above 500ft when complete. Also, I've never seen this rendering, but it's far more tame than the "Vegas" one which has been mentioned over the past year or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 It most likely will be office space for MetroNational, the developer. Only 40% of the crown will be rentable since it's function is basically decorative anyway.And yes, it should be above 500ft when complete. Also, I've never seen this rendering, but it's far more tame than the "Vegas" one which has been mentioned over the past year or two. eeek, I don't like the look of that crown. Looks like it's about to start spinnin' and kill any bird passing by. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrothead Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 The reason for the stucco look is so that it can keep in line with the architecture of the other hospital buildings, at least, that's what I'm guessing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Owl Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Wow....I love that crown. It makes the building incredibly distinctive. What would be nice would be an observation deck up there where you could take the children in the hospital up for viewing. Nothing is more sad than seeing sick kids in the hospital - taking them up to that observation area would really be a treat for them.I wish they'd add a crown like feature to the Chase building downtown to make it more distinctive....we could turn that building into a true landmark and "icon building" with an addition like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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