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strickn

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Everything posted by strickn

  1. strickn
    What missjanel said was, "What I learned from the process though was that the homeowners association still had the original blueprints on file ... So I began to wonder what happens to the blueprints when a home gets torn down -- I'm pretty sure the HOA just throws them away."
  2. strickn
    If you'll help me know how to go about it, I'd love to be part of the researching and writing team. Full disclosure: I have one semester left of college in the North and don't know whether that will be fall or spring.
  3. strickn
    Fantastic and just the sort of thing to spur deep appreciation and cause people to take time to reconsider treating places cavalierly.
  4. strickn
    The people buying and choosing to scrape are people who already have enough resources that they could do a really neat residential project independently. Often in Houston, and Texas in general, and the Sunbelt in general, unfortunate decisions are made that further the goal of putting rooves over the heads of and jobs in the hands of lots of people as rapidly as possible. To have achieved that for so many families is an admirable thing. But most of the most disheartening midcentury residential teardowns are merely to replace one house with another. Like I said, people who are financially capable of doing that are capable of doing something neat quite apart from it. Upper-class mentality is all about presentation; many people want to live in a house that is a statement being made about themselves, and they want it to be in a certain part of town, but aside from that, they couldn't care less about the existing home and how it fits and reinforces its surroundings, and how their new one will fail to do anything but take advantage of the surroundings. If we could reach them, it's possible that a fashionable 2000s neighborhood could be assembled that would be a more impressive and enticing place for them to build than the traditional prestige spots which are being steadily eroded by teardowns. Maybe no one outside our discussion group will have stopped to care that these houses tell us how to work with the landscape and setting: the preference lately seems to be contempo-tropical, like 5750 Main - the sort of thing you would see in an enclave of Filipino technology magnates (unless they are off imitating European styles), a style which makes a statement about the owner's place in a 21st-century modern global setting rather than weaving the place into our local setting. But even if we can't convey to them that we as a community need what these houses tell us, need it in order for people to continue to appreciate Houston's worth and decide to pour themselves into supporting it, we can at least try to help people understand that... hmm... any ideas? On the subject of reasons for things: There is great value to attach to a nice tree, a nice yard. But no one objects to lawns being mowed; no one, I believe strongly, would object to pecan trees or live oaks being culled or mangled if they grew up overnight like mushrooms instead of taking fifty to one hundred years to fill out. That single fact commands our full consideration. We can be cavalier even less with historic places - especially ones from eras when buildings were built with attention to the landscape instead of merely set in it - because, unlike century oaks, even if you were to reacquire the cleared lot and spend millions to recreate what was lost, the vintage original house simply cannot be replaced.
  5. strickn
    And this is another why we are glad it is not downtown.
  6. strickn
    If the parking floors are counted in the 25, then it would be shorter than expected on paper. Still doesn't explain the visual part - why it appears not to be any shorter than Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza from so many distant sideways vantage points where perspective should not make much of a difference. Thanks for looking. I designed an instrument to read me off building heights, but I won't be able to put it together until after I finish writing my thesis paper, so I probably won't get to make my own measurement until Christmas. I just answered your question over in the other hospital high-rise thread. Good subjects we've got here. Neil
  7. strickn
    Well, for sort of a disappointing comparison, since the building stands in the shadow of Transco, I can tell you that it won't be as tall as Marathon Oil Tower, the brown one on San Felipe.
  8. strickn
    Since no one seems to know, I would be grateful to anyone who would take a fun little trip down to the area with a friend and a tape measure, measure them and stand them so that the top of their head perfectly aligns with the tip of St Luke's, and then construct like triangles and figure out the height.
  9. strickn
    I believe that there was some confusion between T&C and the downtown rendering, so I'm going to confirm that they were both tentatively called City Centre. Along that line, I have heard a number of times that Memorial City is the geographic center of Houston. Much as some people will disagree, I have every happiness that Houston didn't, like Chicago, funnel everything into one critical mass.
  10. strickn
    On Tuesday, March 21st, 2006, KinkaidAlum posted: "The antenna at One Shell Plaza reaches to around 1,000 feet. There are several photos on emporis.com that show the antenna to reach almost the exact same height as Wells Fargo. The one building that has always confused me is the St Luke's Medical Tower. It's official height is listed at 316 feet. Apparently, the needle spires aren't counted in the height, but even without them, 316 feet seems way too short. Especially when you consider that the nearby Marriott Hotel is listed at 265 feet. There's NO WAY St Luke's is only 51 feet taller than the Marriott even without the spires!" I checked this out from multiple angles tonight. The question is not whether or not St Luke's is over 316 feet; it is whether or not (including spires) it is under or over 440'. With the spires I am certain that it is no shorter than the recent Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza. Edit: skyscraperpage and E______ both quote 316/25st., but Baylor College of Medicine says 29 storeys. The architect's website doesn't indicate one way or the other, saying only, "The Tower is a sophisticated, state-of-the-art medical facility and teaching hospital which captures the spirit and character of Houston and the adjacent Texas Medical Center. Twin octagonal towers respond to this dual frontage and help define the urban environment. The circular roofs and spires bring each tower to a dynamic terminus." There's a nice picture, though, of St Luke's as the only building visible from Hermann Park. A much more personable presence than the hulking Memorial Hermann.
  11. strickn
    11 April - eight floors in place 13 June - thirteen floors in place 8 August - nineteen floors in place Tonight, I drove over there after the Eco Cities public forum at the Museum of Fine Arts auditorium, because I hadn't been able to see it on the skyline yet on my way into town; however, I found that they are pouring the columns to reach the twentieth floor, so this is coming along quickly all of a sudden. This is about three hundred feet up, now. It would be reaching the surface in the Med Center skyline about now. Texas Children's is also planning a major campus in West Houston. Hopefully these projects will actually allow the Med Center to keep doing more and more of what it makes the most sense to do in the nucleus of the medical community.
  12. strickn
    Gizmo, glad to hear. The area has gone from almost three and three quarter million, when you left, to almost five and three quarter million today, while preserving its place as one of the best and only major cities where lower income families can get a foothold without paying an arm and a leg in the process. Come on back and add to it once you're free to do so. The skyline, however, is not the place to look for the action (despite the exciting proposals). http://www.globest.com/news/964_964/houston/162890-1.html "With construction costs so high, the current rental rates can't support the newer buildings," he says. "We'll have to see much higher rental rates for those buildings to get built. And tenants need the space." David Lee, senior vice president for Houston-based Transwestern, not only agrees, but points out replacement costs for new product will need to have nearly $40-per-sf gross quotes [and the top rate downtown just hit $30, it says in the opening of the article, although it's hard to say how far downtown is from the $40 benchmark, because the $30psf is not a gross quote, it's a triple-net rate] to justify costs. It's a matter of economics. "When in a condition of limited supply, rates will increase closer and closer to the cost of the new replacement product," Lee says. "This is something we've seen before." That doesn't mean that nothing is going to move forward after all, but don't hold your breath for news on these other proposals.
  13. strickn
    http://www.globest.com/news/964_964/houston/162890-1.html Don't count on it. "With construction costs so high, the current rental rates can't support the newer buildings," he says. "We'll have to see much higher rental rates for those buildings to get built. And tenants need the space." David Lee, senior vice president for Houston-based Transwestern, not only agrees, but points out replacement costs for new product will need to have nearly $40-per-sf gross quotes to justify costs [this article is spurred by the first building in the city hitting $30]. It's a matter of economics. "When in a condition of limited supply, rates will increase closer and closer to the cost of the new replacement product," Lee says. "This is something we've seen before."
  14. strickn
    http://www.globest.com/news/961_961/gsrsou...t/162780-1.html Almeda Mall, twice as close as Baybrook, has just been sold for $40M to people who plan to be ploughing $80M into updating it and specifically adding a bunch of pad sites facing the freeway. That might cover some of these bases.
  15. strickn
    Neat find. Is it normal for houses that modernist outside to be outfitted oppositely, without streamlining, inside?
  16. strickn
    here's 2 cents, in case it's worth any more... If they're looking for suitable sites, how about coordinating with Discovery Tower?
  17. strickn
    That report says 14 floors, although there is a wing at right which has around 18 over a roof garden atop a three or four storey podium. The way these institutions are growing, I wish they would just go ahead and build a dozen floors of shell space over every fully programmed layout.
  18. strickn
    Thank you for those conceptual pictures, WesternGulf.
  19. strickn
    A neighbor who works at M.D. Anderson was walking his dog last night when I was out in the front yard, reading, and he confirmed that they still plan to demolish the Prudential Building by year's end. While it can be fitted out with renovations, they have a hold of the rationale that the ground under the structure is slowly subsiding.
  20. strickn
    http://listings.cushwake.com/us/exclusive/...;SL=No&FS=1 says As exclusive agent, we are pleased to offer the following property for sale: 2.0 Acres Available P r o p e r t y D e s c r i p t i o n Property Type: Land Property Size: 2.0 AC Sale Price: $ 13,184,250 Description: On NEC of Holcombe Boulevard and the Cambridge Street extension (to be completed by spring 2008). Full utilities to the site. Amenities: On NEC of Holcombe Boulevard and the Cambridge Street extension (to be completed by Spring 2008); excellent potential for medical, office, residential or mixed-use; full utilities to the site.
  21. strickn
    This would be a good place to add any information that comes out on the Methodist expansion up along MD Anderson Boulevard on the way in to Baylor College of Medicine, where the nurses' dormitory has lately been torn down. http://maps.google.com/maps?q=methodist+ho...p;z=19&om=1 Meanwhile, I will mention that if any place is a candidate for robotic parking garages, the Med Center is it.
  22. strickn
    Where were you when you heard the news? http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=...&id=3251561 http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/5009880.html
  23. strickn
    I will address both because I'm really still holding out hope for some involved discussion of my previous question. Yours is also worthwhile, but I can answer it, unlike my own. Pickard Chilton can very likely be depended upon to recycle, with modifications for site and client, previous designs on which they have put in the working hours but which they unfortunately have not gotten built. When a modern Houston-styled tower did not get built as Greenway Plaza's tallest (for AIM Funds), Pickard Chilton stripped two of its four curved sides off into sheer walls and made it Atlanta's newest sensation, 1180 Peachtree, a few years later. But that is not the primary reason that I make the claim. The description of Hines 47 so far has been that it rises most of the way up and then, surprisingly, splits into two interlocking volumes. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I thought that was a novel strategy too, when I saw it proposed for 30-then-40-storey Victory Tower in Dallas as a teenager. If you go to archive.org, the March 2001 version of dallasmetropolis.com still lists it as soon to be under the crane, with completion in 2003. Now that it wasn't built and a second architect designed the Victory Tower that will be built, you get one guess as to the architect of the original Victory Tower: http://web.archive.org/web/20010309225519/.../undercrane.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20020502093444/...alctm-uc063.JPG I'm not going to embed the rendering, or one with the blue glass finished facade (although you can see it on other websites, including one that starts with an 'e'), because I'd rather the discussion not spark off in the direction of how great the tower is and how we'd better not let anybody in Dallas hear that we're getting their leftovers rather than a building that was designed for Houston with 'her own style' held in mind like we hold it. Now, about the 'one building per block' tendency:
  24. strickn
    pm91: Thank you for the tip. Yet if the other projects were Energy Center II and III, that would not only not account for there being three more, it would pose the additional blank of why someone in the know chose to say that unnamed builders would be announcing them soon when Energy Center II has already been announced and there would have been no point in declining to mention the developer. If you read the article, it was hard to think that Energy Center II was one of the unannounced buildings in question. Trae: it's really not important. But the understanding behind "I disagree" was the following. I was aware that I could use an ellipsis and cut out everything from 'Aaron Thielhorn' until 'there will be more' or 'In fact', and I chose not to, in order to allow for some helpful context that ties the real news, which is contained in the last two sentences, into what readers know about the current projects there. The fact that the context is left there doesn't turn the news that I put in the title of the thread into a duplicate post. I checked the Energy Center thread and the 13 storey building by omni thread, but it hasn't been linked in either of those, so it was my call as to whether to prepare a new post for future information on these corridor projects outside of the Energy Center.
  25. strickn
    There's one like that in Boston, too - Exchange Place. But the point is not to perform a 'facadectomy' but to conserve the existing entrances onto the street. I would like to see the structural load transferred down around the historic buildings (think Mid-Continent Tower, Tulsa - stunning) while using them as separate, boutique office-retail or other use. Blockbuster projects like to have a bombastic lobby frontage with expanses of glass and few, secure entrances; but everyone enters through the parking garage anyway. So a little bit of realism on that front, combined with the likelihood that lower floors won't earn the rent premiums that every floor higher up in the canyon can, would allow for a design that doesn't rip out the walls of the building and align floors with the bulk of the design, but instead allows them to brand a memorable second component of the project and manage to increase local traffic with it even as, in the skyscraper, they keep the 'few entrances' convention intact. Make sense?
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