Nate99

Channel Two beat me to it. 

The Binz building garage across the street would also give some nice aerial shots of what this block now looks like.  The roof/top floor is accessible to the public and even has an elevator. I've gotten some nice shots from this location.

Why didn't I think of that?

Dang. That strip came out fast. 

The side of the tall portion facing Capitol is now completely covered in the black fabric over the scaffolding. I will get a shot of it today. 

Thanks again for the pics. That canopy structure is quite something. 

It may be just me but it seems like the SEZ won't equal the height of the NEZ. I thought the SEZ would be taller than what it is shaping up to be. Alas, they aren't done so we'll see.

 

Also, in the renderings, it appears as though there will be maroon seating---unless those are fans all in maroon shirts. There is quite the contrast between the new concrete and steal vs. the old student section. Are there plans to at least powerwash the student side or something to give it more of a newer look?

I was looking at the SEZ height myself wondering if they had topped it out with these latest extensions, but I don't think they have yet.  The renderings have a cantilevered support out to the highest points overhanging the Bright complex. 

Anyway...

I'm a fairly experienced moleman. That looks like something that existed prior to any work done on this spot recently. I'd guess some kind of storm drain pipe down to the bayou. 

The nearest tunnel connection is a long way from there (717 Texas, probably) and uphill quite a bit. 

Can you confirm if any high rise condos will be announced for Downtown? I mean, it's great that Uptown is booming, but I would hate to see Downtown get left behind. Downtown is already way behind The Central Business Districts of other comparable cities, like Seattle and Atlanta. I would hate for it to get even farther behind by not building more during these boom years.

A little help for you.

All of the blue boxes in this picture are residential. All but a couple of them are 20+ stories, and one of the shorter ones takes up three blocks.  As swtsig mentioned, DT is blowing up with active projects right now.

is that skinny building actually part of the hotel?  upon what capacity?  if it is actually part of the hotel, then what is it's history vs function?  was it annexed?  

It was being renovated concurrently. I don't think anyone ever figured out if it was previously internally contiguous with the 806 Main building (or if they did, I missed it), why it was clad in a different curtain wall than 806's 1960's reskin, or really what it's deal was in any respect. Its mystery was always part of its charm. 

They added a new stairwell up out of its roof to the top level of the 806 Main building, and there are new interior walls being constructed in it, so it's part of the hotel, not sure if there is any real difference at all, apart from the exterior.

I think they should make it a separate Super Secret Exclusive Black Label Executive Club hotel and keep with the building's obscure history. 

Noo! Not the skinny Rusk side building! Oh well.

It will never be so narrow in our hearts and memories as it was in actual width. 

Today they hoisted up the first of nine big steel structural supports that will hold up the new East side press box/canopy. The visual scale that it adds to the stadium is quite something; it will look absolutely huge standing next to it (or driving in from Houston around Greens Prairie Road (or whatever they call it now) for that matter). 

http://kylefield.com/constructioncams

Watching Foleys/Macy's go down and now the Texas Tower, I am imagining a crazy amount of rubble that they will need to move as they clear the big building off the site. 

There will be a lot of truck traffic for a long time to ship this thing out, especially without any area to work as a staging to make big piles that can be worked down. 

One more drilling/sampling action shot from today...

IIRC, the turquoise tile is still behind the brown spandrels.  I haven't walked by it lately, but I also think I remember seeing at least one of the spandrel panels missing, and there was not a gooey mess of mastic left behind.  Bronze aluminum, as described by a poster above, would have been pretty simple to apply without causing a whole lot of collateral damage.

There is one visible, and it does appear to be covered in goo...

I posted a pic in the wrong residential tower thread. 

With so many, it's hard to keep them straight. Whodathunkit? 

Very busy out there these days. This is from today.

Most of the windows on the tall section facing Capitol have been removed. and they are putting platforms across the scaffolding framework that went up a couple of weeks back. 

I was thinking about Dubai as I typed that actually.

Anyway, here's more nearly real time photos of the last days of the Texas Tower. In the third pic you can see the flying bobcat that was hoisted up to roof way back when they started has worked its way back down to the 3rd floor. 

Shiny new glass on the skinny Rusk side part...

Full shot - note the scaffolvators are coming down...

\

Far off shot...

Too bad 609 Main won't go up nearly as quickly as this building came down.

Indeed. 

I'm sure it has been written up and analyzed as to why, but this building will basically take 3 years start to finish. The Empire State Building took a little over 16 months from excavation to opening (January 1930 - May 1931).

One big thing I wonder about all of this stuff is the climate.  Houston is hot, humid, and rains a lot in the summer.  With wide spaces between buildings, lots of asphalt and concrete, maybe some landscaping, trees, etc can be developed at each place to create shade for walkers and city parks etc can help as well. I really like that bricking on the road I saw on another thread.

This block actually has a number of oak trees surrounding it. One of the plan views of the rendering shows them attempting to keep a number of them, hope that works. 

The shaded walk in front of the Rice Hotel is actually fairly decent even in the summer, though perhaps only relatively because you just walked out of blazing direct sun on asphalt. In any case, it would be a nice thing for designers to emulate. 

It has been said before here, but with this building, 500 Crawford and 609 Main going up, Texas Street will be a really visually unique city street. If something were to go up on the block across from this one, you would have nice stuff from the bayou all the way to the ballpark. 

I have to say, this does look better.

Is it currently occupied during the project? 

Oh and if this project is for real, then this along with the Market Square residential is going to be amazing. Is there an exact start date, or can we just expect something next month?

Sounds like someone here heard something specific enough to know next month. 

A few months back I took a picture of the soil sample drill truck doing its thing on this lot, so it is most certainly more than a rumor, whether the rendering is 100% accurate, who knows. 

All the pictures are awesome! Thanks! Random question, but how is the Forever 21 doing downtown? It's kind of the only mainstream retail and I hope it doesn't fail, but I've seen it empty many times.

At one point, the Books-A-Million next door was staying there essentially rent free, but their business model has issues above and beyond limited foot traffic. Not sure if the other big tenant got the same deal on the rent. 

Didn't Houston Chron say construction was to begin today? I checked Oxblue and it looks like nothing is going on. I'll swing by there during my lunch break and check it out real quick.

I walked by there myself today. Whole lotta nuthin' going on.