Purdueenginerd

The building utilized hollow-core panels for the flooring system. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow-core_slab Which im not particularly fond of... but it contributed to some of the waterproofing difficulties with that building. Basically water would travel very easily once it got in.

Heights fire station on 12th street is also a wedding venue. Got married there in 2016 :)

Sampling minimum for strength shall be in accordance with ASTM A172 and ACI 318: Samples for preparing strength test specimens of each concrete mixture placed each day shall be taken in accor- dance with (1) through (3): (1) At least once a day. (2) At least once for each 150 yd3 of concrete. (3) At least once for each 5000 ft2 of surface area for slabs or walls. (b) On a given project, if total volume of concrete is such that frequency of testing would provide fewer than five strength tests for a given concrete mixture, strength test specimens shall be made from at least five randomly selected batches or from each batch if fewer than five batches are used. (c) If the total quantity of a given concrete mixture is less than 50 yd3, strength tests are not required if evidence of satisfactory strength is submitted to and approved by the building official. A standard concrete truck has a volume of 10 cubic yards. A "sample" is generally 2 cylinders minimum. Generally higher tier contractors will take extra incase there are strength problems. So for example, the contractor may want 1 day breaks, 7 day breaks, and 28 day breaks plus backups, and then that about 10-12 cylinders. If the concrete pour triggers provision 2 or 3, then that value could potentially double, etc. The structural engineer can also specify in excess of that. For example, the 50 cubic yard provision I rarely allow, except for relatively small concrete repairs.

Not really haha, It'll have some localized benefits to the gravity members at that level. My speculation is they put it as a staging deck for materials, etc.

Building was still visible in 1966 aerial photography. You can see the outline of the building parapet in the shadow cast on the street.

Goree does a lot of car dealerships and retail. Surprised to see them get a tilt-wall warehouse building.

Since the building is demolished and I've changed firms, I'll disclose I worked on that structure back in 2016/2017. We were working on preliminary flood design for the structure and there was whole litany of challenges that basically made it unworkable. I dont have access to the original drawings anymore. One thing I enjoyed my site visits to that building because when you walked the outside, the windows faced the kittens (there was a vet office there at the time) enclosures on the south or west face (cant remember which) and I'd always play with the kittens.

This is interesting construction photo I've not seen before and thank you for sharing. Its intriguing to me that they let their steel sub effectively complete all their work while presumable pouring or laying out 2 intermediate floors, one in the middle of the building, one near the bottom. They also have the supplementary roof framing already installed. A bit of an eye opening and unusual construction sequencing. great find @Highrise Tower

Offtopic, but building engineers need to be better about consolidating, digitizing, and backing up their drawings. Surprised to see this set up for a large building under construction in 2024. Dont know how many renovation projects I've done over the years that require me to shuffle through torn/damaged, poorly organized hard copies in the basement of the building, I could create my own instagram account of bad organization tragedies of old drawings!

These retention systems seem to be gaining popularity here. First saw these in Florida and now see them quite a bit here now.

I drive by this everyday. My assumption is that the overlay-cladding was adhered/fastened to a stone or concreteoriginal architectural façade and it damaged it in the process. Im also wondering if there are two layers of finishes that were seeing. Do we have photos of this building before the facade relift (decades ago?)

Got a few more maps in the 20s and 30s Saints street @ westheimer was picked up by the 1934. The block you photographed @Highrise Tower was clearly there by 1934. Its not developed in the 1924 map, at least to be picked up by the mappers. Somewhat unusual, theres clearly buildings there in the 1934 but it wasnt very well documented by the insurance map company, perhaps insinuating it was a separate jurisdiction at the time. Now one thing to note, the 1925 map (File 8022) of the corner of Shephard and West Dallas is the first reference to river oaks and I can find on Houston Maps. It shoul dbe noted that there is a "colored" cemetery, today this is called College Memorial Park Cemetery. I'm reaching here but if there was African American settlement in River Oaks, this might be some evidence of that. however it was not uncommon for Jim-Crowe South cities to bury African Americans far from the city... so Im guessing at that point. To further ad to your point. A the corner of Newhouse and Gross, "Nazarene Baptist Church (colored)", Green Pond School (Colored"), Free Gospel Church("Colored". The area is surrounded by residential dwellings and lightly occupied. I dont think its a stretch for me to state this area was primarily an African American community, at least circa 1925 map.... tx85804215644198599313_map.pdf tx85804215644198599287_map.pdf tx85804215544182598022_map.pdf

The 1925 map is the first map I can find with River oaks included. tx85804215544182598021_map (1).pdf

For what its worth, 1890 map of Houston doesnt extend that far west. On map 32, it shows the area west of the plant as heavy wooded forest. The Washington heights area was called "Hollingsworth" There are no volumes west of there on the 1890 map.

The PDF is a good read. 1. Mean vehicle speeds are slower on 11th. 2. Congestion is about the same during peak hours. Traffic counts on 11th are marginally lower. 3. travel times are about the same, even with slower travel speeds. 4. accidents are down, significantly in some areas. 5. Traffic counts on 10th and 12th increased some but within design limits of those roads. These are all good and intentional results of a road diet. The only conclusion of the report that I find ambiguous is the increase in pedestrian and cycling traffic on Nicholson path doesnt seem to have many days where data was collected. Would like to see more data collected on that. Personal anecdote, as a resident of the heights I find the ability to cross 11th very easy and positive. Consider me pro-road diet.