Williams Tower At 2800 Post Oak Blvd.

[citykid09]

I think they fix the water wall park up like a smaller Discovery Green.

[Houston19514]

My mistake -

Galleria Tower I is on Post Oak Boulevard (where Wachovia Securities is located) and Galleria Tower II is on Westheimer. Thank you for the correction.

As for Williams owning 50% of the building is a detail I learned from some Williams employees and the security guards, so again apologies if the number is inaccurate indeed. I'm not positive the occupancy is as little as 16% but I will give the benefit of the doubt to you rather than a rent-a-cop.

Lastly, the Waterfall being shut down hasn't been publicly announced yet. To my understanding, my clear understanding -- A client of mine who is part of the CB Richard Ellis transaction team for the Hines buy out mentioned the detail to me. He said Hines repurchased the building back but the deal still left the waterwall in question.

I will definitely find out more as soon as I can.

Well, to be precise, Williams does not now and never has owned a single square inch of the building. They are merely a tenant. My information regarding Williams' occupancy of 16% of the building is from an SEC filing made by Hines, so I think it's pretty accurate and reliable.

Regarding the waterwall, I think someone has been pulling your leg. First, Cushman & Wakefield handled the transaction on behalf of the sellers. I think Hines handled their own end of the deal, so I'm not sure that CB Richard Ellis had anything to do with it.

More to the point, the deal did not leave ownership of the waterwall in question. In the transaction, Hines bought a 47.8% interest in the waterwall. And another Hines entity already owned the other 52.2% interest. End result: It's 100% owned by Hines. Given that it is part of the package that makes Williams Tower one of the very best buildings in Houston, it's a little hard to imagine Hines tearing down the waterwall.

[Subdude]

As nostalgic as the shopping center was, I don't considered it a historical landmark.

The waterwall is a completely different icon. It is a landmark on it's own, a beautiful modern masterpiece that was unfortunately built on private property.

The city should try to buy it before it is too late.

I would be hard pressed to argue that the waterwall is more "historic" than the shopping center.

The theater was the only thing worth saving. And even so, only fanboys would use that theater to see artsy movies, Rocky Horror, and the Academy Awards. I like my stadium seating movie theaters.

Implying that it's OK to demolish the oldest extant theater in the city because it is only used by "fanboys" to see "artsy" movies is about as shallow as it gets. Don't worry, there will always be plenty of multiplexes with stadium seating catering to people who think like that.

Or maybe the River Oaks should just start showing more Jim Carrey comedies, or Bruce Willis action flix. You know, real crowd pleasing movies, not that "artsy" stuff. Then it might be worth saving.

[lockmat]

I would be hard pressed to argue that the waterwall is more "historic" than the shopping center.

It may not be more "historic" but I bet tons more people care more about the waterwall than they do the theatre.

[Pumapayam]

I would be hard pressed to argue that the waterwall is more "historic" than the shopping center.

Implying that it's OK to demolish the oldest extant theater in the city because it is only used by "fanboys" to see "artsy" movies is about as shallow as it gets. Don't worry, there will always be plenty of multiplexes with stadium seating catering to people who think like that.

Or maybe the River Oaks should just start showing more Jim Carrey comedies, or Bruce Willis action flix. You know, real crowd pleasing movies, not that "artsy" stuff. Then it might be worth saving.

I will set up a HAIF poll in a new thread then so we don't digress as to which landmark is more valuable, and it should give you an idea which is important to most people.

The waterwall is on private land, but people treat it like a public park. Everyone knows about it, and everyone in Houston has been there at least once.

River Oaks Theatre is only used by an elite few who appreciate the old charm that the theatre has, but most people prefer to see movies with digital picture, sound, and stadium seating. Even those theatres are starting to show some of the more unknown films to attract all types of customers.

River Oaks Theatre does not hold a candle to the Williams Waterwall. I have a stronger connection with the waterwall than an old theatre.

Vote in the poll here.

[musicman]

everyone in Houston has been there at least once.

false.

River Oaks Theatre is only used by an elite few

false.

[Pumapayam]

false.

I post my response to this here.

[swtsig]

Well, to be precise, Williams does not now and never has owned a single square inch of the building. They are merely a tenant. My information regarding Williams' occupancy of 16% of the building is from an SEC filing made by Hines, so I think it's pretty accurate and reliable.

Regarding the waterwall, I think someone has been pulling your leg. First, Cushman & Wakefield handled the transaction on behalf of the sellers. I think Hines handled their own end of the deal, so I'm not sure that CB Richard Ellis had anything to do with it.

More to the point, the deal did not leave ownership of the waterwall in question. In the transaction, Hines bought a 47.8% interest in the waterwall. And another Hines entity already owned the other 52.2% interest. End result: It's 100% owned by Hines. Given that it is part of the package that makes Williams Tower one of the very best buildings in Houston, it's a little hard to imagine Hines tearing down the waterwall.

i'll agree and say insofar as i know, CBRE acts only as the landlord rep for williams tower... not sure if they've been part of any sale transactions.

Edited June 13, 2008 by swtsig

[sanguine entity]

and yet another new member... hello

I work in Williams Tower for HOK architecture firm as an architecture/design technician. I've spoken with a few old timers here in the office about this topic and here is what I have found out.

Wachovia hardly compares as a big time tenet in Williams Tower. They claim they own four floors and how that is a big deal... square footage wise they probably don't have more than HOK's three floors. Williams is on the 1st, 2nd, 34th and 35th floor. The first floor is split with Knoll and the art gallery giving them barely a 1/4 of that floor. The 2nd floor is also split with three other groups giving them less than the first. 34th and 35th to my knowledge are the only completely leased floors.

HOK has 3 complete floors currently but will probably drop to 2 1/2 by the end of this year... Hellmuth Obata Kassabaum Tower hahaha

So if the name should be changed to anything besides Williams... it surely wouldn't belong to Wachovia. As far as I understand this situation, Wachovia pays more for the prime space it has and ensures that the Wachovia logo is greatly seen upon entering the building... it is still hard to see amongst all the art typically in the lobby and more so difficult when Knoll has 10,000 sq feet of furniture exhibit just begging for people to come in.

Well, to be precise, Williams does not now and never has owned a single square inch of the building. They are merely a tenant. My information regarding Williams' occupancy of 16% of the building is from an SEC filing made by Hines, so I think it's pretty accurate and reliable.

Regarding the waterwall, I think someone has been pulling your leg. First, Cushman & Wakefield handled the transaction on behalf of the sellers. I think Hines handled their own end of the deal, so I'm not sure that CB Richard Ellis had anything to do with it.

More to the point, the deal did not leave ownership of the waterwall in question. In the transaction, Hines bought a 47.8% interest in the waterwall. And another Hines entity already owned the other 52.2% interest. End result: It's 100% owned by Hines. Given that it is part of the package that makes Williams Tower one of the very best buildings in Houston, it's a little hard to imagine Hines tearing down the waterwall.

Williams at a time was the largest tenet (may still be technically) and as far as I can tell, never wanted to "own" the tower. But as the largest tenet it had a say on the name change when the ownership switched last. Hines, also does not own the building. A long long long time ago when cars looked completely different Hines owned this building. No one in this office is sure of exactly who owns the building now but is definitely a middle eastern developer, probably someone associated with Nakheel. Hines for nearly a decade has been the manager of the building. Not the owner. This is probably easily confused since almost everything with the building from our security badges to many of the memos laying around say Hines.

On to the ludicrous idea of the Waterwall being demo'd. This is most definitely a fly-turned-elephant situation with something passed down through at least twenty people. Someone with Hines probably said "the repairs on the waterwall aren't worth a damn" (and they're not, the waterwall is seemingly always under maintenance now) and there was probably a delivery person in the office that heard that little bit of venting and carried down the 64 stories of elevator rides back to the loading dock where a group of people on a cigarette break all collaborated around the delivery person with "hot" gossip. This group then dispersed and one of them probably ran into a Wachovia employee on the first floor and continued to mention the gossip further. Thus bringing us to the Wachovia water tank gossip that brought it to this page.

In my mind, it would be absolutely insane for the current building manager, Hines, to even think about demoing the waterwall. First, they claim nothing but the upmost respect for architecture and great architects as one of HOK's clients. Williams/Transco/something middle eastern Tower is a Phillip Johnson building. PJ designed the building and the waterwall as "campus beautification". Most all great towers have some sort of plaza, sculpture, oddness that is beautiful or accepted to all the people who smoke by it. To take down the waterwall would not only disrupt/uprage the laymen of Houston who have grown to love the mysterious water wall, it would make PJ turn in his grave as he shouted at the desecration of his thoroughly thought out site! Secondly, Hines owns/manages many starcatect buildings and prides itself in keeping these great pieces of work intact. Taking away the waterwall from Williams Tower would be looked down from every architecture historian in the country and probably some abroad as the dumbest thing any manager could have done to this site. Thirdly, most importantly... the waterwall is currently undergoing a major overall in its infrastructure. Hines would not be paying so much to have its pipes carefully maintained if it were planning on destroying it. Just last week I noticed a large amount of piping being replaced on the west side of the waterwall. If you go there today you will see dirt all along this side where they had been working.

It is fact that the waterwall is a pain to keep up. During the movie shooting (Tree of Life) where Sean Penn and Brad Pitt were here, a lot of maintenance was occurring on the site for the waterwall. Since it is quite a large structure I'm sure keeping this lug pristine is a bit of work and a lot of dough and most importantly... endlessly worth it ; )

[travelguy_73]

and yet another new member... hello

I work in Williams Tower for HOK architecture firm as an architecture/design technician. I've spoken with a few old timers here in the office about this topic and here is what I have found out.

Wachovia hardly compares as a big time tenet in Williams Tower. They claim they own four floors and how that is a big deal... square footage wise they probably don't have more than HOK's three floors. Williams is on the 1st, 2nd, 34th and 35th floor. The first floor is split with Knoll and the art gallery giving them barely a 1/4 of that floor. The 2nd floor is also split with three other groups giving them less than the first. 34th and 35th to my knowledge are the only completely leased floors.

HOK has 3 complete floors currently but will probably drop to 2 1/2 by the end of this year... Hellmuth Obata Kassabaum Tower hahaha

So if the name should be changed to anything besides Williams... it surely wouldn't belong to Wachovia. As far as I understand this situation, Wachovia pays more for the prime space it has and ensures that the Wachovia logo is greatly seen upon entering the building... it is still hard to see amongst all the art typically in the lobby and more so difficult when Knoll has 10,000 sq feet of furniture exhibit just begging for people to come in.

Williams at a time was the largest tenet (may still be technically) and as far as I can tell, never wanted to "own" the tower. But as the largest tenet it had a say on the name change when the ownership switched last. Hines, also does not own the building. A long long long time ago when cars looked completely different Hines owned this building. No one in this office is sure of exactly who owns the building now but is definitely a middle eastern developer, probably someone associated with Nakheel. Hines for nearly a decade has been the manager of the building. Not the owner. This is probably easily confused since almost everything with the building from our security badges to many of the memos laying around say Hines.

On to the ludicrous idea of the Waterwall being demo'd. This is most definitely a fly-turned-elephant situation with something passed down through at least twenty people. Someone with Hines probably said "the repairs on the waterwall aren't worth a damn" (and they're not, the waterwall is seemingly always under maintenance now) and there was probably a delivery person in the office that heard that little bit of venting and carried down the 64 stories of elevator rides back to the loading dock where a group of people on a cigarette break all collaborated around the delivery person with "hot" gossip. This group then dispersed and one of them probably ran into a Wachovia employee on the first floor and continued to mention the gossip further. Thus bringing us to the Wachovia water tank gossip that brought it to this page.

In my mind, it would be absolutely insane for the current building manager, Hines, to even think about demoing the waterwall. First, they claim nothing but the upmost respect for architecture and great architects as one of HOK's clients. Williams/Transco/something middle eastern Tower is a Phillip Johnson building. PJ designed the building and the waterwall as "campus beautification". Most all great towers have some sort of plaza, sculpture, oddness that is beautiful or accepted to all the people who smoke by it. To take down the waterwall would not only disrupt/uprage the laymen of Houston who have grown to love the mysterious water wall, it would make PJ turn in his grave as he shouted at the desecration of his thoroughly thought out site! Secondly, Hines owns/manages many starcatect buildings and prides itself in keeping these great pieces of work intact. Taking away the waterwall from Williams Tower would be looked down from every architecture historian in the country and probably some abroad as the dumbest thing any manager could have done to this site. Thirdly, most importantly... the waterwall is currently undergoing a major overall in its infrastructure. Hines would not be paying so much to have its pipes carefully maintained if it were planning on destroying it. Just last week I noticed a large amount of piping being replaced on the west side of the waterwall. If you go there today you will see dirt all along this side where they had been working.

It is fact that the waterwall is a pain to keep up. During the movie shooting (Tree of Life) where Sean Penn and Brad Pitt were here, a lot of maintenance was occurring on the site for the waterwall. Since it is quite a large structure I'm sure keeping this lug pristine is a bit of work and a lot of dough and most importantly... endlessly worth it ; )

While I agree with you on the silliness regarding the rumor the water wall will come down, Hines absolutely positively owns Williams Tower. It was purchased from Fosterlane (the Kuwaiti interest you noted in your post) earlier this year.

Edited June 24, 2008 by travelguy_73

[Pumapayam]

Hey, what happened to the rotating beacon?

I was driving home tonight and it was off.

Is this some recent energy saving consequence?

[Houston19514]

FWIW, the water wall is running again, after being down for quite a few weeks for presumably expensive repairs. Not the sort of thing one imagines an owner would bother with after "announcing", or for that matter even considering, that they are going to tear it down.

[houstonmacbro]

I caught the tail end of a story by ABC 13 saying something about the Williams Tower and all the land around it being sold. Can anybody pull the story or has anybody heard about this? Is it for development? Pardon the lack of info.

Not sure if this belongs here but has anyone ever noticed this satellite dish looking thing on the south side, about mid-way up the tower?

It seems like an odd protrusion on the building.

What is that?

[editor]

To get things started, here is a picture of one of Houston's most beloved, iconic, fundamental structures.

• Subject: The Williams Tower
  
• Location: West Loop/Galleria Area
  
• Date: January, 2008
  
• Photographer: Wayne Lorentz
  

[20thStDad]

For the first time in my 7 years in Houston I got to visit the Williams Tower today, it was great. I had a meeting on the 54th floor, the view was incredible. Well, aside from the ridiculously visible haze that our city has this time of year. Nasty. Downtown was all fuzzy, even from that close. It was still cool though, a very nice building.

[editor]

Transco Tower, originally uploaded by bilbao58.

Houston's favorite beacon splatters its pattern across the night sky. Looks like a giant movie projector!

Thanks to bilbao58 for this one.

You can see lots more great pictures, and add your own -- dive in to
the HAIF Flickr Pool.

[citizen4rmptown]

i see the light!

wow, great picture

[rsb320]

Carol-Ann, go toward the light.

Awesome picture.

[Jeebus]

Just think how awesome this building will look when dwarfed by the 89 story Deyaar tower!

[crunchtastic]

Carol-Ann, go toward the light.

There is peace and serenity in the light.

[Karick42]

Can anyone tell me if they have shut the beacon off? The last couple of times that I have seen the Galleria area at night, it hasn't been on. I tried to do some research to see if any of the news stations had any reports on it but I couldn't find anything. I just had this huge fear that because of high gas prices they might have shut it down for a while or something.

Thanks!

Edited September 2, 2008 by Karick42

[Pumapayam]

Can anyone tell me if they have shut the beacon off? The last couple of times that I have seen the Galleria area at night, it hasn't been on. I tried to do some research to see if any of the news stations had any reports on it but I couldn't find anything. I just had this huge fear that because of high gas prices they might have shut it down for a while or something.

Thanks!

I asked the same question here.

I got no answer, but I have seen the beacon turned on and rotating at night since that post. So it is hit or miss, but it is still on at random times.

[Karick42]

I asked the same question here.

I got no answer, but I have seen the beacon turned on and rotating at night since that post. So it is hit or miss, but it is still on at random times.

That's crazy that you asked the exact same question! I had no idea. Thanks for the reply though.

[jaskerr]

I worked for a company in Transco/Williams for about two and a half years. Was in an office area on the 56th floor close to the northeast corner.

The elevators on 1 will take you to 51, then switch to access 52-64. The ones on 2 take 3-50. Taking 1 to 51 took around 45-50 seconds.

Being that high up was great, you wouldn't believe all the people who had binoculars or, in a few cases, telescopes. If there was a wreck on 610, you could walk down the east hallway and see everyone standing at the windows looking through their binoculars down onto the accident. They were also good for bikini watches at the half dozen or so hotel swimming pools that you could see from there.

When I started, 51 was still open to the west side, but by the time I left the company, Hines had installed a conference room that took up 98% of the window area facing towards the west. The east side was office space...some financial consulting firm I believe.

Unfortunately I never tried to go higher to the other floors. Once, when a buddy and I were bored, we tried to race all the way down the stairwell. Being out of shape, I was ready to collapse before we gave up around the 20th floor. Had to keep going down to another floor before we could exit the stairwell without using a cardkey. We never had to evacuate during a fire drill, only had to wait by a stairwell. I just couldn't imagine the chaos that would ensue if they tried to evacuate the building that way.

Edited September 10, 2008 by jaskerr

[Karick42]

Unfortunately I never tried to go higher to the other floors. Once, when a buddy and I were bored, we tried to race all the way down the stairwell. Being out of shape, I was ready to collapse before we gave up around the 20th floor. Had to keep going down to another floor before we could exit the stairwell without using a cardkey. We never had to evacuate during a fire drill, only had to wait by a stairwell. I just couldn't imagine the chaos that would ensue if they tried to evacuate the building that way.

That was pretty funny! I busted out laughing in my office. It must have been really cool to go there every day to work.

[Metro Matt]

Can anyone tell me if they have shut the beacon off? The last couple of times that I have seen the Galleria area at night, it hasn't been on. I tried to do some research to see if any of the news stations had any reports on it but I couldn't find anything. I just had this huge fear that because of high gas prices they might have shut it down for a while or something.

Thanks!

Hmm

Was it after midnight when you saw it?

The beacon usually comes on right at dusk & shuts off exactly at midnight.

Maintenance maybe?

Edited September 15, 2008 by Metro Matt

[travelguy_73]

For anyone curious, I was told by a building maintenance manager that the beacon atop Williams Tower was pretty badly damaged in Ike. So it might be a while before we see her light again. Other parts of the building fared much better, with water damage mainly in the corner offices.

Edited September 16, 2008 by travelguy_73

[Karick42]

Hmm

Was it after midnight when you saw it?

The beacon usually comes on right at dusk & shuts off exactly at midnight.

Maintenance maybe?

No, this was at around 9 or 10. I don't know if it's maintenance because this will be about each week or so. It could be but I'm not sure. I haven't seen it on in a while though. I tried to see if it was on the other night 9/17 and it wasn't on.

[travelguy_73]

I mentioned this in another Williams Tower thread, but the beacon was damaged by the hurricane and it will probably be a while before any of us see if shining.

[arisegundo]

I saw one helicopter shot on 26 that showed some gaping holes in the pyramid structure at the very top of the tower, but I haven't seen or heard anything else about it.