King Owl

Agreed.. While I like the new design.. I wish it were a brand new tower and not replacing this mid century architectural icon.. Sure it could use a face lift.. Maybe a little bit of streamlining, but in 50 years are we going to be talking about how cool the renovated Exxon mobile building looks, or are we going to be wishing we had the original tower of the 60s? A condo conversion retaining the same design would be pretty cool IMO, obviously turning the fins into balconies..

(sorry...pet peeve...it's ExxonMobil.  It's not like the "mobile phone" or "Mobile, Alabama")  If you live in Houston you should be able to get this right...)

as you were.

Typical Hanover disappointment.

If that were correct then why did Chevron just buy another plot of land downtown? Does not compute, sorry.

Maybe it's being redesigned to be a 102 story twisting tower?

(sorry!)

actually this one, while an awesome rendering, wasn't as high on my list, since it's outside of one of the major skyscraper zones (downtown, Galleria, energy corridor, med center).  It was kind of a lone ranger

 

 they have frozen all projects in place , except for the mid land one( not just Houston but varies other cities) but

 They are still going thu with employee tranfers to Houston, and stated they are still bulking of their employee work force in Houston, so the tranfers are still happening.

what it sounds like to me is that they may have signed a tenet deal with one of the new towers planned. Why else would they freeze the building , but state they will go ahead witht he employee transfers

 

hmm.  If I were Shorenstein, I'd be trying to entice them over to Bell St.

hey not to point out the obvious but you might consider moving -- it looks like your apartments aren't long for this world

to be clear, does this have anything to do with the status of the strip club called St James?

i should find out for sure tomorrow.. i didnt mean to get anyones hopes up of this possibly being a supertall, but if its the height my buddies father remembers it being (~64 stories) then i could see it being ~950'.

sorry if I missed it, but why is your buddy's father credible?

is this just fanboy pumping or is this serious business

This is such a winner.  Nice job, Hines.

Camp Strake is waaaaay up north.  That would truly be an upheaval on the employees of Chevron.  ExxonMobil at least had a huge presence in Greenspoint, which isn't all that far from the new Springwoods Village location, but can you imagine all the Chevron folks who now work downtown having to commute up to Camp Strake?  Now that would be a nightmare.

The other issue is housing supply up there.  The Woodlands is already in true supply shortage mode due to Exxon, and if you added a huge Chevron campus, wow.  

The only way I'd see this working is if they moved a lot more people from outside of Houston to this campus.  People who don't already have homes inside the loop since they work for Chevron downtown.  Perhaps the San Ramon facility is on the way...

Camp Strake...

If they're going to be up there at 800+ feet, may as well really create a stir by the ornamental top to make it the city's tallest!  Maybe something like this building from China, but with the Chevron logo projected onto it (like how Continental used to do)

http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=50

Would the sloped cantilever look like a muted version of this?  Maybe without the fat base?

what's "mixed use" about it?  Is there a hotel?  It looks like a similar design to the W in Dallas...

Just to clarify, is this building being constructed for a specific tenant company (a la Chevron), or is it competing for tenants along with 609 Main, Stream/Essex, Capitol Tower, etc?

it's built for HillCorp.  I believe they're taking the whole building, but not sure

Chevron is indeed moving forward with this tower. I think you guys will like the design even more once new renderings are released. As to Arche, I would say that you should gather more information from your friend before spreading a rumor that's incorrect. I understand why others here are getting worked up, this is something pretty big for downtown. 

Have you seen the new renderings?  Can you provide us any description?  I was one of those who were most disappointed by the initial rendering...

You can't have the chevron hq too close to the plebeians...

really hard to make anything out there.  What's different about it?  Glass + some kind of vertical column on the left hand side?

can you retake the picture?

Is that the rendering of the old W hotel that was rumored during the last cycle (2008)?  Looks about in the same spot

Epsilon is the letter W on its side...

they're probably in a dogfight for tenants with the 102 story building 

it's Hanover, so expect the back side of the building to be hardie plank

lol I have to admit that the one in Chicago is way better.  It's basically the same tower, but a lot taller.  That wins.

I don't get all the "us vs. them" mentality that exists in the world of skyscrapers.  I appreciate each city on its own, and am glad Chicago has an amazing skyline.  No need to compare it to Houston's.

Designed by the world class architect himself: Ray Charles

Sounds great, but haven't they most likely already decided what their plans are?

The worst use is probably a single use office tower. But with them choosing Dallas as the spine of the retail district makes me think it will at least have retail. If it included residential that would just be awesome.

Agreed.  I was just dreaming a bit.

If Houston were to ever get a supertall again, I would suspect that there would need to be some government intervention -- e.g., massive tax benefits, coordination with hotel, residential incentives, etc.  Somewhat similar to how San Francisco is working with Hines on their new supertall -- the Transbay Tower.  

With the high profile visibility of this site, proximity to the rail, convention center, major employers, this would be a fantastic place to do it.  It could also create some excitement around convention goers over and above what "similar cities" could offer (Dallas, Atlanta) that could provide Houston a competitive advantage there.

This plot of land would be a great spot to do a hotel/office/residential combo, perhaps leading to a 1,000+ footer.  There's not a better time to do it, given the hotel, housing and office markets in Houston.  The city should pony up some huge tax incentives for this, since it's such a high profile site in the heart of downtown and at the most visible stop on the rail line.  Get it done Annise.

I'm still dying to see the "Allen Parkway view" of this building.  Please don't just be a box...