Watermark District: Mixed-Use Development By Midway

[hindesky]

I worked with a guy whose dad worked for Exxon and lived in Clear Lake who was going to have to work at the new Exxon campus and he was seriously thinking about retiring early since he only had a few years left anyway. And talked with a gentleman whose wife was going to have to transfer there but they lived in the Heights, I asked if they were moving up there and he said hell no.

[HoustonIsHome]

On 8/5/2018 at 8:43 AM, cspwal said:

 you're right I forgot 

 

new list:

1. Office within a 5 minute walk but not in your house
2. work from home
3. close by (aka in suburb near you)
4. downtown or other central location
5. suburb faraway
6. Dallas

This ^^^ 

 

My Dad for example.

He lives in Sugarland.

Absolutely hates driving to downtown.

But would work downtown in a heartbeat if the other option was to commute or move to or near The Woodlands.

 

Moving from another city to a suburban location  in Houston is ok I guess. There are always good affordable housing stock that workers would move to. But like the poster said, moving established workers from a central area to a more polarized location of the metro is extremely lame. How would you like an extra 45 minutes added to your commute?

[Nate99]

Commuting sucks, but it happens everywhere there are concentrated jobs.  The tradeoffs are fairly well established, you pay in money or time for any upside to your living situation.  If you can tolerate downsides that other people won't, for whatever reason, you can enjoy some bargains.  

 

 

[BEES?!]

I didn’t see a topic on this, but looks like Midway purchased the 68 acres in total (former conoco phillips campus) from Howard Hughes in December.

Here’s a link

 

It’s not too far from CityCentre along I-10. 
 

so, hype time?

Edited March 2, 2022 by BEES?!

[august948]

3 hours ago, BEES?! said:

I didn’t see a topic on this, but looks like Midway purchased the 68 acres in total (former conoco phillips campus) from Howard Hughes in December.

Here’s a link

 

It’s not too far from CityCentre along I-10. 
 

so, hype time?

That's interesting.  Not sure it's hype time yet, but certainly something to keep an eye on.  What would Midway likely build there?

[Highrise Tower]

This will be a mixed use development called Watermark.

At the hospital so cannot post renderings. I’ll post a rendering in an hour.

[hindesky]

"Midway plans to redevelop the former ConocoPhillips’ corporate headquarters site into Watermark District at Woodcreek. Watermark will become a mixed-use destination surrounded by waterfront views and outdoor walkways. 

Located just north of I-10 at Dairy Ashford and North Eldridge Parkway in the Woodcreek development, the site consists of 16 three-story office pavilions connected by bridges above ponds and grassy areas. Midway plans to repurpose a portion of the 70-acre site’s existing infrastructure to introduce new office and multifamily, high-end retail, and boutique hotel opportunities to the West Houston corridor. A variety of restaurants, cafes and bars with waterfront views are also being planned. 

Midway has assembled a project team for Watermark including OJB Landscape Architecture, Jacobs and PDR, among others. Construction is scheduled to commence in the first half of 2023."

https://www.connectcre.com/stories/midway-plans-houston-mixed-use-project-at-old-conocophillips-hq/

https://www.midway.team/places/watermark-district

 

Edited October 20, 2022 by hindesky

[Highrise Tower]

Here's the rendering.

[ChannelTwoNews]

https://watermarkdistrict.com/

Leasing brochure: https://watermarkdistrict.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/221020-Watermark-Brochure.pdf

Looks like part of the existing campus will be demolished, but some will be retained. It's actually a pretty interesting use of space in terms of design IMO. 

An archive from the architect Roche/Dinkeloo has a bit on it: http://www.krjda.com/Sites/ConocoInfo1.html

Cite had a good 1989-era review of the project: https://offcite.rice.edu/2010/03/FloatingOfficeConco_Stern_Cite23.pdf

Edited October 20, 2022 by ChannelTwoNews
link

[79ta]

It seems that Midway knows what they're doing given their projects at CityCentre and East River so I'm interested to see how this develops. It's a little more than 3 miles west of CC. So, is there enough demand to support more mixed-use high end retail and hotels this close to Memorial and CC?

[toxtethogrady]

It looks like they are going to change the exteriors a little, but the footprint, in terms of square footage, will not change.

[Skyboxdweller]

I recently visited Columbus, Indiana, a small city of 50,000 that Cummings Engine calls its headquarters. Columbus has been the beneficiary of a program that ran during the last half of the last century to hire world-class architects to design churches ( Eliel Saarinen), the library ( Pei), shopping center ( Pelli), private estates ( Eero Saarinen), a corporate building for the local newspaper ( SOM), schools, a local bank, post office ( Roche) and Cummings Engine's global hq (Roche). The program had mixed results. Columbus felt like a small college town with some interesting architecture during  summer break , thus absent students and the lively culture that I associate with college life.

The program was sponsored by the Miller family, which founded Cummings and owned the local bank and a multitude of other  holdings in Columbus.  It provided sophisticated contemporary design for public and commercial buildings not often seen in small town America , but failed to address bringing more residents downtown by providing housing. This was driven in part by racism, as the city opposed ( and the Millers supported)  Fair Housing ordinances and zoning changes that would have allowed a diverse group of people to reside there. (Slum clearance resulted in a nice riverfront park with a memorial to the neighborhood of run down housing that was home to a diverse group of people).  It seems that Columbus did not get the best work out of these architects and many of the buildings seem dated, and dreary, especially the Roche designed post office. Without a local population the mall was not a success and was demolished. The newspaper closed and its building now houses a school of architecture. The local bank building sits vacant.  The Cummings HQ ( picture attached) is another of Roche's sprawling mega-structures that extends several city blocks and wraps around an historic industrial building that was surreally placed in the middle of a reflecting pond.  To me, it looked like a metastasized structured parking facility, and was dehumanizing from the street level. I can't imagine how diminished an employee might feel driving into one of its tiered parking lots and then parking his or her rear in one of the thousands of  workspaces in one of the office modules. Many of these  low-rise one tenant corporate campuses have become white elephants and hard to reuse once the corporation is sold, merges or otherwise changes its business model. It's nice to see that Midway has found a way to find new  uses and a second life for this one. 

Edited October 27, 2022 by Skyboxdweller

[Highrise Tower]

Another rendering provided by WS Bellows.

https://www.wsbellows.com/project/conocophillips-woodcreek-campus-renovation/

[Texasota]

That's a photo of the existing complex.

[EllenOlenska]

We are the future Baudrillard warned us about

[Moore-to-it]

https://secrethouston.com/houston-japanese-fishing-village/