1810 Main Apartments

[Squirrel]

Just now, hindesky said:

What's the purpose of boarding up the first floor? Election?

[hindesky]

1 minute ago, Squirrel said:

What's the purpose of boarding up the first floor? Election?

Lots of homeless people hang out around this area.

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

[Brooklyn173]

[hindesky]

[ArtNsf]

My apologies, on the "Shell Tower" comment above on October 2nd.  I was mistakenly talking about that hideous OLD outdated in both classical and post modern terms, Humble Oil 45 story tower that has been slated for a facade makeover with glass exterior panels for several years by Shorenstein, I believe.  And I was NOT talking about the beautiful white stone covered 55 story One Shell Plaza tower with the gigantic antenna, which I and everyone I've talked have always loved right in the middle of downtown as you approach from the west.  BTW I think we have enough "homage" to post modernism in our city and therefore, refacing some of these uglier ones from the past is fine with me.  I don't think we'll ever have a shortage of these old buildings around town.  Change is good at the same time that restoration and respect for "examples" of past Houston architecture are also good.  It shouldn't always have to be one or the other IMHO.

[Texasota]

People are allowed to have opinions different from yours dude. It's going to be ok. And the Exxon/Humble building (800 Bell) is very much a Modernist building, not postmodern. A better building than One Shell Plaza, I would argue, but you don't have to agree with me on that. No one is suggesting keeping every office building downtown intact and exactly as built. Or at least I'm not. To be clear, I would sacrifice One Shell Plaza (depending on what replaced it) to keep 800 Bell intact. I also like the changes made to the Bank of America building to open it up to the sidewalk a bit more. I would actually argue for going a bit further in that direction. 

I get that you don't like 800 Bell. Nobody's asking you to like it. I'm just asking you to recognize that at least some other people *do* like it and don't think the proposed changes are worth losing its current character.

[dbigtex56]

Let's hope that the ill-advised plans to despoil 800 Bell have been thrown in the dust bin, and that it will not fall victim to an ignorant, awkward and unconvincing attempt to 'modernize' this beautiful and distinctive building. 
Consider some of the amateurish attempts to update older buildings such as the Federal Courthouse (515 Rusk) or Two Shell Plaza.
The results manage to be both tragic and laughable. Granted, that is no small feat, but surely there were better options available.

[mollusk]

18 minutes ago, dbigtex56 said:

Let's hope that the ill-advised plans to despoil 800 Bell have been thrown in the dust bin, and that it will not fall victim to an ignorant, awkward and unconvincing attempt to 'modernize' this beautiful and distinctive building. 
Consider some of the amateurish attempts to update older buildings such as the Federal Courthouse (515 Rusk) or Two Shell Plaza.
The results manage to be both tragic and laughable. Granted, that is no small feat, but surely there were better options available.

This.

I really fail to understand the logic behind the current fad for "let's reclad the bottom few floors in something that doesn't look anything like the rest of the building," of which Two Shell is the most glaring example.  It looks like it was intentionally phoned in.

[Houston19514]

2 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

Let's hope that the ill-advised plans to despoil 800 Bell have been thrown in the dust bin, and that it will not fall victim to an ignorant, awkward and unconvincing attempt to 'modernize' this beautiful and distinctive building. 
Consider some of the amateurish attempts to update older buildings such as the Federal Courthouse (515 Rusk) or Two Shell Plaza.
The results manage to be both tragic and laughable. Granted, that is no small feat, but surely there were better options available.

Did I miss something?  When was 515 Rusk updated?

[mollusk]

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

Did I miss something?  When was 515 Rusk updated?

Quite some time ago... 10 years plus IIRC.  It used to have small red glazed tiles all along the first floor exterior.  The main entrance doors were also reworked.

[Houston19514]

8 minutes ago, mollusk said:

Quite some time ago... 10 years plus IIRC.  It used to have small red glazed tiles all along the first floor exterior.  The main entrance doors were also reworked.

Ohhhh, that does sound familiar now.

 

[Urbannizer]

[toxtethogrady]

On 12/28/2020 at 1:53 PM, dbigtex56 said:

Let's hope that the ill-advised plans to despoil 800 Bell have been thrown in the dust bin, and that it will not fall victim to an ignorant, awkward and unconvincing attempt to 'modernize' this beautiful and distinctive building. 
Consider some of the amateurish attempts to update older buildings such as the Federal Courthouse (515 Rusk) or Two Shell Plaza.

Is there even a tenant in mind for 800 Bell?

[Brooklyn173]

This is a couple of weeks old.

https://imgur.com/wP5z2wR

[hindesky]

[Brooklyn173]

This project was using the long vacant bank across Travis for a field office etc. They seemed to have left that space as the fence was taken down and the building closed up. The Fairfield project is still a ways from topping out. Is this usual practice to close/move a field office as work continues? I really don't know. Or is something else going on?

My fantasy is that the Holiday Inn site is getting ready for something. I stress the fantasy aspect of that statement.

[hindesky]

4 minutes ago, Brooklyn173 said:

This project was using the long vacant bank across Travis for a field office etc. They seemed to have left that space as the fence was taken down and the building closed up. The Fairfield project is still a ways from topping out. Is this usual practice to close/move a field office as work continues? I really don't know. Or is something else going on?

My fantasy is that the Holiday Inn site is getting ready for something. I stress the fantasy aspect of that statement.

On some projects I've seen, they move the field office into the parking garage. Marquette did this in the Forth build on Navigation and so did the Kirby Collection.

[Brooklyn173]

Thanks.

I can now turn my fantasies back towards Claudia Shiffer 🙂

[hindesky]

Metal framing.

[hindesky]

Northwest corner.

[jmitch94]

Is it just me or is this progressing pretty slowly? 

[Brooklyn173]

From Monday March 1, 2021

 

[Brooklyn173]

facade going up

[hindesky]

I wonder if this metal framing is cheaper than wood? I hear wood is incredibly expensive right now.

[cspwal]

The taller Texas donuts seem to switch to metal framing after passing 4 or five floors

[hindesky]

[hindesky]