flatline

Re: the Pi Pizza Truck story:  kind of a buried lede that Lee Ellis and Lance Feagan have parted ways. . .

"as well as a rooftop lap pool with a cantilevered, glass-bottom appendage, extending over the street 500 feet below. . ."

nope nope nope nope nope.  No thank you.

Or they could just go the Dallas route and make it a LED wall. Times Square, here we come!

Tower crane being assembled on site this afternoon.

Big enough for HEB?

Not even close.  And in the dry zone.

There's a large hole being dug at the bend in the bayou between the HPD memorial and the skate park, on the south side of Memorial Drive.  Any idea what is? (I apologize in advance, I know, this post is worthless w/o pics. . .)

Three tower cranes across the street from one another.  Does that make a total of five downtown now (?)(with Hilcorp and Marquis), and with at least three more on the way this year? (Skanska, Six Houston, Market Square) It's not pre-Olympics Beijing yet, but that's pretty darned impressive.

Great shot.  That's First Methodist several blocks away in the foreground.  Gives a great perspective of the length of those screens.

New sign up for the Boil House on the south side of 11th near Oxford.

Chain link fencing up on the Travis Street side.  I guess it's pretty clear what you're doing when you write it on the wall. . .

What is depicted south of Highway 242 on the Site Development Plan?  That very much looks like a tri-oval, i.e. race track.

I'm absolutely dumbfounded by this.  Does Mr. Marsh have a job?  Was the fact that the Zuckers (who live at least a 1/2 mile away from him) were going to remove a bad mid 90's addition and renovate their fee simple property in a way that, while a significant improvement, was not quite up to his standards so egregious, so critical to his existence, and so important to his life that he spent a few hours at the planning commission and who knows how many other hours involving himself in the Zucker family's life and property and actively working to cause the government to exert its power to prevent the Zuckers from making decisions for their own family and property as they saw fit, and contrary to the expressed sentiments of what appeared to be the entire block of supportive neighbors who actually live near the house?

Pardon the run-on sentence, which is certainly not consistent with the aesthetic character of the topic thread. . .

That area of downtown has the very specific smell of old building innards suddenly exposed. I remember it from the WTC site when I visited in December of '01.

YES!  You hit the nail on the head!  I thought to myself as I walked past:  "The corner of Lamar and Travis now smells like my grandma's house. . ."

Anybody go down to Torchy's this morning?  How's the build-out?

I thought there was a desire to have this finished by the next final four. Twenty-six months from Q4 sounds accurate for that timetable.

Good point.  But that will be much tighter -- if "Q4" ends up being December, that's wrapping up February 2016 with the Final Four in early April.  Get cracking, Balfour Beatty! (although I'm sure BB is saying, "Wrap it up, Morris!" and "Issue the permits, COH!!")

26 months from Q4 2013?  That should be plenty of cushion before the Super Bowl, which has to be the primary driver for completion.

Marriott has the website up:

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/houdj-jw-marriott-houston-downtown/

Not many details yet.  Although nothing is listed, I would be shocked if there wasn't a restaurant/bar in there at start-up.  One interesting bit that I had not seen before:  "JW Marriott Houston Downtown also offers direct access to the tunnel system. . ."

I think Stream/Essex can tap in to the northern reaches of the tunnel via the Houston Chronicle building, which connects to the big hub at Chase.  It would change the current "cul-de-sac" tunnel, only used by Chron employees, into more of a thoroughfare.  Rather than harm street-level retail, I think this setup could turn out to be a boon for Market Square.  It would add two more air-conditioned blocks of walking in June-September for folks who work in the south and east ends of downtown (Wells Fargo, One Shell, First City, Houston Center, Bank of America, etc.) to stroll over for lunch at Market Square Bar, Fusion Taco, Niko Niko's, etc. I can personally attest that those two extra climate-controlled blocks can be the difference between simply a warm stroll, and a sweat-soaked, hot mess.

If memory serves the Chase garage tunnel runs through the west side of the block, so connecting to 609 Main might mean burrowing through their basement, which Chase might not want.  The alternative of approaching north from BG Place would mean digging under an entire block of older structures. 

That's fascinating.  A tunnel run connecting only 609 Main and BG Group (800 block) north-to-south would be a long run -- I don't see any precedent for it in the current tunnel system.  And I assume that it would have to run out in the Fannin Street ROW, since the older buildings on the 700 block (St. Germaine lofts, Houston Bar Building) would likely not be connected, and would not readily grant an easement. Using the Texaco redevelopment as a hop-scotch is a very interesting idea. 

Not a big loss. 

 

I'm still wondering how 609 Main will connect to the tunnels, if at all.

Chase Tower garage is tunnel-connected right across Main; so that seems the logical choice.  I'm pretty sure Hines still manages the Chase Tower complex, so that may already be in the works.

It's inconceivable to me that Hines would build a super-premium Class A w/o tunnel access.

Wow spectacular renderings, as always great find Urbannizer. 

I heartily concur.

Those renderings make clear it's a full block utilized - so the old building on the NE corner is a (soon-to-be) goner?

They are adding structural steel to the top of the thin building sandwiched between 806 Main and 801 Travis.

The gray material they are putting on looks more like a cement, plaster, or drywall compound ("mud").  They apply it with a masonry trowel.

I think you mean D'Amico's on White Oak.  Dacapos on 11th is still rolling along.

Shepherd is "wet" south of 16th and north of 26th.

 

There is a helpful map of the dry area here.

That's a helpful map, but it's off by a block on the eastern boundary - should be Oxford.  You can use Onion Creek as a  guidepost