PAC

Why would Hines render someone else's project - I promise you its the Block 42 development only.  

1) the building is 735’ tall.

2) the rendering on the left is Block 42 residential (it’s one building not two).  

8 hours ago, wxman said:

Wow, i like it. It sort of remind me of of one of the high rises in Pittsburgh. 

 

This will be a a great addition to the skyline but what’s with the ceiling of 47-48 stories? 

The ceiling is that 36-37 office floors (on top of 10-11 parking levels) is the maximum you can build with 3 elevator banks without going to a sky lobby setup (which no tenant wants).  Hence ~50 stories is the maximum you’ll see for a long time.

A few more

Another image that shows profile a bit better. 

The glass breaks like a car windshield.  It just shatters into a 1000 pieces but stays put until you remove it.  

Piece of glass got broken in the tower -  they had to close the street to make sure glass fragments didn't fall on people.  

By the way - what you see on the Fannin side of the top is a large frame that is a giant skylight.  The skylight will be part of the top 2 floors of the building with dynamic glass that darkens with a touch of a button (not unlike a 787 Dreamliner).   It will be a feature that is very cool, but rarely seen.

I won't lie - I love this building's shape and style.  If it had floor to ceiling glass and the shades, I think it would be exceptional.   The skyscraper that the main characters in the movie Inception lived in...it was very similar to this on the outside and was very cool.

All of the glass installed to date is spandrel glass since its a garage, and that glass is exactly like the spandrel on 717 Texas and very similar to glass at bottom on BG Group Place.   Spandrel glass has no film on the exterior, but does have a translucent paint on the back side of the glass.  

What's amazing to me is how some projects, with three tower cranes in a small footprint no less, can only muster up one floor every couple of months, while other projects in Houston seem to rocket skyward overnight.

This is solely tied to the types of floors being poured.  The floors being poured now are garage floors, which are much slower due to ramps, slopes, etc.  Tower floors, which are much simpler, take 5-7 days per floor.

Here are two of the marketing videos, which were released this week.  Enjoy!

http://www.609main.com/themovie

By the way - that rendering of level 47/48 shows the east side of level 47.  Level 48 is a full floor that is ~23,000sf.  The stacking plan that is shown is very old and does not represent the loft floor that is now part of the project at the top.

End of 2016 is substantial completion date.

755' to the top of the crown

The webcam is up and running - this view should be very interesting over the next 36 months with a lot of projects being in the background while 609 goes up.

http://oxblue.com/open/Hines/609Main

609 Main broke ground yesterday for full construction - activity on site will soon be very noticeable.

Rumors are rampant that this project is on hold for at least 12 months....

How do you reuse Macys while excavating next 20-30' down to do tower mat foundations AND keep the project economically viable?  

609 has a bunch of retail spots.  A large 7k-8k sf space along Main, and two medium size spaces on Capitol & Fannin.   There will be a conference center on the 2nd floor overlooking Main and a fitness center overlooking the corner of Fannin & Capitol.  

As for the height - BG Group Place is 630' and 609 is ~750' tall.

Love the Whataburger reference too!

Asbestos abatement and demolition start first week of November. I assure you this tower is real, tunnel connected via Chase Center (and potentially other secondary locations) and the coolest building in the south.

I assure you that their interest in the block at Main and Texas is as strong as ever.

No problem. Just trying to help.

"I don't always post on HAIF, but when I do, I prefer apologies"

Furthermore - if you are Hess and your new headquarters just had a piece of a wind turbine fly off of it and hit something (and recognizing that the turbines produce less than 1% of the buildings energy), would you knowingly allow them to be put back onto the building you 100% occupy? The answer is probably no, because if it happens again and hurts someone, you have a major PR crisis on your hand.