JW Marriott At 806 Main St. & Expansion Into Battlestein’s - 812 Main St.

[mollusk]

While I am no expert, I have seen this building with my own eyes and ........

I like it.

Others are free to agree or not. But I do like it.

 

The painted on beige, brick-esque substance looks like painted on, beige, brick-esque substance.   Soylent beige, if you will.  Surely there is some way to at least simulate texture.

 

I don't know? Anyone?

 

People will all be whisked in by cabs and rail.  

 

Seriously, it's prolly going to be valet - just like the Icon, Magnolia, Sam, etc...

 

edit:  And for that matter, the Hyatt, with its giant attached garage.

Edited May 8, 2014 by mollusk

[Purdueenginerd]

I like it. It may not be it's 1940's self, but its leaps and bounds ahead of that international black and white style it was before...

 

A little weathering may do it some good. 

[Nate99]

This was in the Houston Club tunnel closure/demolition article in the Chronicle. They have the JW Marriott mislabeled as 712 Main, but you can see in their diagram a set of escalators or stairs in to the lobby right where it connects to 801 Travis (mislabeled as 501 Travis, nice QC). If you go through there now, you can see a construction project going on behind temporary walls. 

 

It will be interesting to see how it all comes together in to the lobby.

 

 

Odd, when I hotlink the image, the text does not come through, maybe they are editing out the errors.  The article link has them, at least in my cache. 

Edited May 9, 2014 by Nate99

[mollusk]

That map shows how 801 Travis and the future JW Marriott are currently linked.  The steps on the left lead to 801's lobby; the other set go up half a flight to reach the current basement level of the JW.  

 

The JW is putting a bunch of facilities in 801's basement.  I got a memo earlier this week telling us that the tunnel east of the stairs and tunnel elevators will be closed beginning on the 15th for construction, and that people trying to get in from the Walker @ Main garage, etc. are going to be stuck with the street for a while.  I strongly suspect that the stairs between 801 and JW are somehow going to get turned into something ADA compliant.

[Nate99]

Spotted at the Houston Center food court...

 

[rechlin]

Here's what Hines had to tell us about the new tunnel amenities under 806 Main, which will be closed for 2 months starting Monday, May 19 for the renovations:

 

[monarch]

props for sharing!

[Triton]

[Nate99]

They could be done with the exterior very soon. 

[aarosurf]

Awesome, can't wait till they start the cladding on the lower floors.

[monarch]

geeeeeezzzz triton, that edifice is simply gorgeous!  props for sharing.

[fkp5]

This is actually looking better than I thought it would.

[Nate99]

Green backer board going on the lower floors...

 

[Avossos]

in the pic above... the brick looks kinda authentic? Are my eyes deceiving me?

[mollusk]

in the pic above... the brick looks kinda authentic? Are my eyes deceiving me?

 

With you, at least, they've succeeded in their nefarious plot to create a convincing illusion of brick.   

[rechlin]

I haven't provided any updates lately since there hasn't been much to update on, but finally we're seeing a little more progress so I figured I'd share another photo.

 

Today they started taking down the main construction elevator, now that the mast climbers have been gone for a couple weeks.  This photo taken in the morning shows it down about a quarter of the way; by late afternoon it was down about half way.

 

Also, they put a giant tank on the roof, and then built a frame around it, and then put panels on it and painted it beige; you can see it right in front of the Esperson cupula in this photo.

 

You can't see it in this photo, but the first floor of the penthouse has now been painted beige to match the upper two floors (which were painted months ago).

 

They're now almost done installing windows, too.  As of mid afternoon, they had installed window frames all the way down to the eighth floor in the unfinished section on the right side of this photo.

 

Curtains and bathtubs are visible in some of the windows in this photo, too.

 

[rechlin]

And tonight around 8:30 I caught them disassembling the construction elevator.  They had to take breaks whenever a train came nearby, because the forklift had to go onto the tracks to get at the elevator.  Getting really close to being able to finish the façade!

 

[Triton]

2014-06-05 14.12.41 by marclongoria, on Flickr

 

2014-06-05 14.12.51 by marclongoria, on Flickr

 

2014-06-05 14.14.34 by marclongoria, on Flickr

 

2014-06-05 14.14.43 by marclongoria, on Flickr

 

2014-06-05 14.14.47 by marclongoria, on Flickr

[Chi-Char-Hou-Dal]

Thumbs up - and meet me in the alley if you want to hate on this project. OH BOOOOO - go play sim city haters!!!!!!!!!!!!! or move!

[Chi-Char-Hou-Dal]

The one alley in Houston - I'll be there ready to fight 1114 Texas Ave. All you weinies who cry about how this or that project doesn't fit your perfect world I will fight you with my keyboard!!! No seriously, my dad called me today from Chicago, a furniture dealer closed a $55 million dollar deal here in Htown (cough cough West Beltway). This would be a entire year for any other city in the country. You can't make the rules or tell people where to build, just be happy you don't live anywhere else.

 

 

Rant over - but seriously if someone complains about the stars one more time... I'll be in the alley....

[Montrose1100]

Love that last shot. BG Group place melts into the sky.

[ArchFan]

Agree.  Nice photos!

[monarch]

great job triton!

[Nate99]

They have added something of an "eyebrow" to the top of the unfinished section. Not sure how much of it you can make out in the picture here. There will be a ledge right below the 4th floor windows. 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2014 by Nate99

[Nate99]

They have blocked off Main completely in front of 806. I'm presuming that they will be doing work on the entryway extending nearly to the street. 

 

[mollusk]

There was a chain link fence between the driving lane and the rail track for quite a while; this barrier appears to be more substantial.

 

Warning:  wild speculation alert.

 

Perhaps a laydown area for real stone to clad the bottom floors?  They don't have a whole bunch of room on the Rusk side, what with the rail line being right up against the sidewalk.  

 

(we now return to sourced material...)

 

There will also be a pretty good sized canopy on Main, with a smaller one on Rusk, plus a second ledge - http://www.jwmarriotthotelhouston.com/

 

As per that website, they're looking at an August opening.

[aarosurf]

Looking at the official Google+ page, the clock has re-appeared in one of the photos - I hope it gets installed i think it will add a lot of character (note that these were both uploaded on May 22)

 

[monarch]

wow.  timeless.  simply beautiful!

[aarosurf]

I walked past this morning and they were starting to put up cladding on the Main St. side (only foam-type material so far). I will try to put up a photo after work.

[Howard Huge]

Credit to Hbj for the pics..