Bank Of The Southwest Building

[Dakota79]

I think it is crazy that we don't have a super tall.  We have been stuck with a 75 story as the tallest since 1983.  That's crazy.

[Houston19514]

20 hours ago, Dakota79 said:

I think it is crazy that we don't have a super tall.  We have been stuck with a 75 story as the tallest since 1983.  That's crazy.

 

It would be moderately crazy if we didn't have any supertalls.  But we have two.

Edited May 31, 2018 by Houston19514

[dbigtex56]

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

 

It would be moderately crazy if we didn't have any supertalls.  But we have two.

According to Skyscraper Dictionary a supertall is "a skyscraper that is at least 300 meters or 1,000 feet tall".
JP Morgan Chase Tower is described as being 974' or 1002', depending on the source, so it might qualify. What other building did you have in mind?

[Dakota79]

5 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

According to Skyscraper Dictionary a supertall is "a skyscraper that is at least 300 meters or 1,000 feet tall".
JP Morgan Chase Tower is described as being 974' or 1002', depending on the source, so it might qualify. What other building did you have in mind?

Thank you.  I'm sure @Houston19514 knew exactly what I meant.  Maybe in Beaumont TCB tower would be considered super tall. We haven't had a signature high rise since the 80's, and certainly no super tall like Chicago is getting.

[Houston19514]

 

The widely accepted international definition of super tall is 300 meters.  Both Chase and Wells Fargo exceed 300 meters.  http://www.ctbuh.org/HighRiseInfo/TallestDatabase/Criteria/tabid/446/language/en-GB/Default.aspx.

 

https://www.archdaily.com/780348/the-world-now-has-100-supertall-buildings

 

 

Edited June 1, 2018 by Houston19514

[nonenadazilch]

Does anyone know the ownership history for block 142?  It'd be interesting if someone like Nancy Sarnoff could find out what the owner's intentions are, if they've had any inquiries from developers, or if they simply see the future of such prime real estate as a parking lot.

[WakeUpHouston]

707 MCKINNEY ST aka Block 142 Houston Inc. filed as a Foreign For-Profit Corporation in the State of Texas on Tuesday, May 25, 1999 according to public records filed with Texas Secretary of State. A corporate filing is called a foreign filing when an existing corporate entity files in a state other than the state they originally filed in. This does not necessarily mean that they are from outside the United States.

Owner Name & Mailing Address:
BLOCK 142 HOUSTON LP
455 N CITYFRONT PLAZA DR STE 2400
CHICAGO IL 60611-5518

[Urbannizer]

https://www.netcredit.com/blog/unbuilt-america-cities-could-have-looked-like/

 

 

[Subdude]

I hate to quibble, but quibble I must.  Had the BoSW Tower been built, it would have been on the block directly behind One Shell, to the south of Two Shell.  Otherwise, cool photoshops.  

[mollusk]

2 hours ago, Subdude said:

I hate to quibble, but quibble I must.  Had the BoSW Tower been built, it would have been on the block directly behind One Shell, to the south of Two Shell.  Otherwise, cool photoshops.  

 

Feh... who needs a main library anyway?

[Naviguessor]

Someone is playing Chess with downtown

[mattyt36]

My father gave me a prospectus for this building over the holiday . . . I haven't scanned it in yet, and I'm not savvy on how to post a PDF.  If a smarter and more capable person would volunteer their e-mail I will scan it this weekend and send it your way for sharing on the forum.

[Purdueenginerd]

@Subdude Fixed it. Expert photoshop skillz

[mkultra25]

8 hours ago, mollusk said:

 

Feh... who needs a main library anyway?

 

I hear tell all them books are on teh interwebz now. Bulldoze it!

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

and it would have been turned 45°

[ChannelTwoNews]

23 hours ago, Naviguessor said:

Someone is playing Chess with downtown

 

Don't know what board they were using, but that last rendering in the piece sent the tower to Manhattan.

 

[dbigtex56]

2 hours ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

that last rendering in the piece sent the tower to Manhattan.

 

And, remember...with Prime, shipping is free!

[Montrose1100]

Which one of you nerds went on the website and commented about the tower orientation?

 

Just kidding. I'm pretty stumped by this article. For SF they chose a tidal energy farm on the Golden Gate rather than those island neighborhood? And how about the Chicago Spire? Far more interesting IMO.

[Subdude]

23 hours ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

 

Don't know what board they were using, but that last rendering in the piece sent the tower to Manhattan.

 

It's like Where's Waldo - The Skyscraper Edition.  Just keep hiding BoSW tower in different locations.  

[ChannelTwoNews]

 

[wxman]

Who was going to build this building anyway? Was it a Hines product?

 

I wish there was something we could do to get them to build this building. It NEEDS to be here. For as large as Houston is, our tallest building is a squatty 1,000 feet and it's not even a pretty building. 

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

they did build it in Philly, minus about 400'.

[Montrose1100]

On 5/3/2020 at 10:06 PM, wxman said:

Who was going to build this building anyway? Was it a Hines product?

 

I wish there was something we could do to get them to build this building. It NEEDS to be here. For as large as Houston is, our tallest building is a squatty 1,000 feet and it's not even a pretty building. 

That lot for a 1400' spire skyscraper would really pull it all together. 

[Clementine]

I don't think I've ever seen this posted before, but here's an article from 1984 before BotSW was canceled with a few other images of the runner-up designs and Jahn's conceptual sketches. SOM's proposal doesn't look half bad here compared to other renderings I've seen, but I still prefer the winning design.

"Great From Afar, Far From Great: Helmut Jahn's Southwest Center" by John Kaliski. Cite, Spring-Summer 1984. pp. 7-9.

http://offcite.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2010/02/GreatFromAfarFarFromGreat_Kaliski_Cite61.pdf

Some of our current woes about the perceived pedestrian "emptiness" of downtown that have begun being slowly fixed in the 2010s are reflected rather romantically in Kaliski's final paragraphs:

Quote

The user of this building, the largest building in downtown Houston, visible for miles around, confronts in the lobby a series of light wells, regulated by the geometry of the building, that open to the tunnel level below. If the intention underlying the design of these wells was to invite passersby to come in from the street and descend, their 25-foot distance from the sidewalk renders the shafts gratuitous. There is little looking-up to the street from below, and very little looking-down. The opportunity to bring the tunnel activity up to the level of the street and into the building is lost. The possibility of celebrating the arrival of visitors intent on a view from the observatory is diminished by the corporate sobriety that informs the public space. A building as prominent as the Southwest Bancshares tower could have at least a wonderful banking hall with a clear and direct relation to the street. Unfortunately, banking, shopping, eating, watching — in short, the activities that bring life to the public spaces of a city — are relegated to the basement in this building. People should expect more than a quick elevator ride up to an observatory or an escalator ride down to an orderly and sanitized mole's nest.

...

The tower strengthens the picturesque quality of the Houston skyline. The offices within promise to have spectacular views. At the level of the pedestrian, however, nothing substantially new is offered. Given the visual gesturing and the magnitude of the undertaking, too many opportunities for positive urban placemaking are being missed.

In his oft-quoted essay on the Eiffel Tower. Roland Barthes evoked the emptiness of this monument as one of its most powerful attributes. For Barthes there was only one use for the Eiffel Tower: it functioned as a symbol of Paris and France for the world. Precisely because the Eiffel Tower is empty, yet always present, "it means everything.'" The Houston skyline, though suffering from current economic conditions, is inhabited. Yet from the freeway, from the detached environment of the car, its emptiness is virtual. The Southwest Center will provide to this sensed emptiness a powerful center, a monumental focus for masses in movement, a point of reference for the confused. Houston's skyline, not its downtown, will continue to mature.

But I think one of the more interesting tidbits comes in the postscript:

Quote

As of this writing, the Federal Aviation Administration has refused to readjust its 1,049-foot height ceiling on construction in downtown Houston. The Southwest Center would rise about 390 feet above that level. Because this ceiling is not enforced by the City of Houston, Southwest Bancshares and Century Development can disregard it.

Once again confirming that the FAA has no real power to limit construction heights in Houston (or at least they didn't in the 1980s, but who knows if the City would side with them or not in the 2020s until we get another supertall proposal like this). It also means that Texas Commerce/JPMorgan Chase Tower could've probably gone through with its original 80 floor plan, but cut themselves to 75 floors for other reasons.

 

(also RIP Helmut Jahn 2021)

[mattyt36]

For those having issues with the above link, you can try this

Cite 6 | Rice Design Alliance

(Note blurb about "Texpresso" high speed rail from Houston to Dallas.)

I have a prospectus on the Bank of the Southwest Tower with the Jahn Design from The Woodlands Corp (I guess they were a potential developer . . . a Google search says they bid $24 million for the lot in the early 1980s) . . . I'm happy to scan it but have no idea how to post it on here.

Edited January 31, 2022 by mattyt36

[Houston19514]

2 hours ago, mattyt36 said:

For those having issues with the above link, you can try this

Cite 6 | Rice Design Alliance

(Note blurb about "Texpresso" high speed rail from Houston to Dallas.)

I have a prospectus on the Bank of the Southwest Tower with the Jahn Design from The Woodlands Corp (I guess they were a potential developer . . . a Google search says they bid $24 million for the lot in the early 1980s) . . . I'm happy to scan it but have no idea how to post it on here.

I don't think The Woodlands Corp was involved in the original proposed development of the Southwest Center.  And I think their bid for the lot was in the early 90s, not the early 80s.  I suspect the prospectus you have is also from the early 90s.  I recall they bid for the lot in the early 90s (and I thought bought it at the time, but not certain if the sale ever went through... it may have been dependent on getting investment for the tower -- hence the  prospectus.  There was talk at the time that they were going to try to revive the Southwest Center.)

 

FWIW, the block is apparently now owned by the same investment company that owns Pennzoil Place.  Would love to know if they have any plans or thoughts of doing anything with it.

Edited January 31, 2022 by Houston19514

[mattyt36]

59 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

I don't think The Woodlands Corp was involved in the original proposed development of the Southwest Center.  And I think their bid for the lot was in the early 90s, not the early 80s.  I suspect the prospectus you have is also from the early 90s.  I recall they bid for the lot in the early 90s (and I thought bought it at the time, but not certain if the sale ever went through... it may have been dependent on getting investment for the tower -- hence the  prospectus.  There was talk at the time that they were going to try to revive the Southwest Center.)

 

FWIW, the block is apparently now owned by the same investment company that owns Pennzoil Place.  Would love to know if they have any plans or thoughts of doing anything with it.

I unearthed it

Dated June 1990

"This confidential memorandum is being furnished in connection with the proposed formation of a partnership between The Woodlands Corporation and a potential investor that will acquire the Block 142 site in Houston, Texas."

Called "Houston Tower" and renderings are of the Jahn design.

[Clementine]

On 1/31/2022 at 11:42 AM, mattyt36 said:

For those having issues with the above link, you can try this

Cite 6 | Rice Design Alliance

(Note blurb about "Texpresso" high speed rail from Houston to Dallas.)

Oh wow. Thanks for the link to the full publication. It's full of gold. The section "Cite Seeing: Great Skyscrapers that Never Were-Or Have Yet to Become" on p.13 is amazing. I've never seen anything on the 1700 Travis 70-storey proposal before. It's reminiscent of NYC's unbuilt Larkin Building and original MetLife North Building from the '30s. And wow...that original 1981 Heritage Plaza design is absolutely horrendous. I'm glad it got postponed and redesigned (and with a height increase as well).

[ChannelTwoNews]

Thought this was an interesting piece, from a Philadelphia perspective.

https://phillyyimby.com/2021/05/bank-of-the-southwest-tower-the-precursor-to-one-liberty-place.html