1661 Tanglewood: Condominium High-Rise At 1661 Tanglewood Blvd.

[CREguy13]

3 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

I wouldn't get too excited. The same firm did Market Square Tower. Won't be nearly as romantic as the render. Also won't be as terrible as anything Randal Davis.

My only push back here is the total project cost is significantly higher and these condos appear to be priced at $3m+.  I would expect the materials and overall design to remain very high-end if these prices stay relatively the same and they're able to secure their pre-sales goal.

[Highrise Tower]

Site visit today.

[Luminare]

On 8/13/2021 at 5:11 AM, Valhalla said:

if this is the beginning of a neo-classical skyscraper renaissance, I'm here for it. 

The capital of on this one with the tall columns for the penthouse, as well as the metal panel above it to hide the HVAC on top looks pretty classy, and the same time not over done.

[Skyboxdweller]

I live in a 2690 sq. ft. unit at Four Leaf,  a quarter of the floor, which was the standard 3 Br, 3 and 2 1/2 bath unit for the top 18 floors designed 40 years ago.  A 10K sq. ft. unit in this new tower will be a whole floor, the 5K a half, etc. The only reason it will demand fewer public services is that there will be 100 people living there, and if its marketed to those overseas, many apartments will be empty for most of the year. I live alone with a cat, and this apartment is too big for my needs at the moment.  With digital media, there is no need for a library or a wall of shelving to house one's lp collection.  I"m not sure how residents are going to fill up 10K sq. ft. of space, even giving the servants a wing of their own.  In Four Leaf, we have residents who live in Mexico and who spend a few weeks a year here . They own more than one apartment and travel with their servants.  I guess in the new condo, when they ring a bell, the staff will respond more quickly, not having to ride the elevator to attend to the needs of their employers. 

[Highrise Tower]

Plumbing permit this week.

[Urbannizer]

https://1661tanglewood.com/
 

 

 

[monarch]

^^^ gorgeous.

[ZRFkris]

It looks taller than the Post Oak.

[thatguysly]

The columns. All brick. Love it.

[Luminare]

For those that don't know, Jackson and Ryan Architects do a lot of work in Houston. They did One Park Place, Market Square Tower, and Museum Tower which are all skyscrapers relevant to this project type. They've always been somewhat Historicist, but always leaned more into abstract representations of classical forms and motifs. There early works were more post-modern.

Let me tell you what, this looks to me to be there most focused work in regard to highrises. Its been a long long long time since I've seen proper classical detailing, and proportion applied to highrises of this type. Normally elements, for the sake of costs and lack of knowledge in classical detailing, results in these revival styles coming off as wonky, overly abstract, and then once you apply "value-engineering" (or as a friend in my office calls it "quality-abatement"), cheap.

Thus far I'm impressed by the representations. Like the base with the bigger stone, cornices are pretty substantial, surrounds on the windows, the Doric columns match the simplicity of everything else, so thats right, and even how they manage the penthouse for all the mechanical works well as a nice "hat" at the top. Looking forward to this one breaking ground. Hopefully they don't go cheap on the materials. That will be key. Yeah it would look nice from far away, but the moment you get up close the cheap materials really stick out. If one is a resident in Tanglewood, at the very least if a skyscraper is next door it could have been worse. At least whats next to you will aesthetically be pleasing.

Edited January 9, 2022 by Luminare

[arche_757]

3 hours ago, Luminare said:

… "value-engineering" (or as a friend in my office calls it "quality-abatement"), cheap.

I like that!  Going to use it for sure.

[Luminare]

7 minutes ago, arche_757 said:

I like that!  Going to use it for sure.

Go ahead! Spread it far and wide. I'd rather use this term which is us describing what is actually happening, and not simply seceding territory or narrative to contractors.

[tangledwoods]

Quote

Go ahead! Spread it far and wide. I'd rather use this term which is us describing what is actually happening, and not simply seceding territory or narrative to contractors.

as one of those contractors, I am calling it: here is the stuff I can actually find in 2022.  So much material right now is backordered, long lead, no longer made, etc. We aren't even really doing VE, its just triage to get the building built.  FWIW, most of us hate VE, its more work for us and we also get blamed when it doesn't go well.

[Luminare]

5 hours ago, tangledwoods said:

as one of those contractors, I am calling it: here is the stuff I can actually find in 2022.  So much material right now is backordered, long lead, no longer made, etc. We aren't even really doing VE, its just triage to get the building built.  FWIW, most of us hate VE, its more work for us and we also get blamed when it doesn't go well.

Totally get it. For us we need a term which at least gets a dialogue going between both sides, or at least signals to the client to not jump the gun on taking something out of a project.

As far as "here is the stuff I can actually find in 2022" you are right, and I've experienced this on projects I currently work on and describing this process as a "triage" is spot on. Heck I'm familiar with a job where a contractor literally took stuff off of one job just so they could fill a need on another. Its ridiculous. If anyone after hearing what is going on in construction right now thinks the economy is "okay" they I have serious doubt they have the ability to think critically. No reason why a particular gas burning fireplace for an outdoor portion of a clubhouse should take 6-12 months in lead time...

[Highrise Tower]

1661 Tanglewood Sales Center going into the Uptown Park - West Shopping Center.

[Highrise Tower]

Sales center building permit.

 

[Urbannizer]

Sales center expected to open mid year.

https://www.papercitymag.com/home-design/1661-tanglewood-houston-high-rise-kendall-miller-randy-powers/#388562

[Highrise Tower]

Extremely tall signs have been posted. Makes a huge statement!

[Avossos]

I love it. Build!!

[Paco Jones]

Information:

35-story residential tower with 3 Levels of parking below grade.  Total of 60 residential units totaling approximately 339,297 SF, with a building area of 471,384 SF (garage not included).  Indoor pool and outdoor terrace deck located at Level 34.  Golf simulator, sauna, fitness center, and billiards room located at Level 33.

 

 

 

 

[Montrose1100]

Thanks Paco!

Grew 2 floors. 521'11" will make it the 30th tallest building in the city, just after Pennzoil Place and in front of Devon Energy Tower.

[kennyc05]

Did they slightly change the design?

[arche_757]

Looks like they added a black box.  That’s great, we will know what the hell happened in the event it plummets back to earth.

[Houston19514]

2 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

Thanks Paco!

Grew 2 floors. 521'11" will make it the 30th tallest building in the city, just after Pennzoil Place and in front of Devon Energy Tower.

I come up with 32nd tallest (counting Pennzoil as two buildings), just after Pennzoil I and II and in front of Two Allen Center (we haven't had a Devon Energy Tower in Houston for about ten years).

[strickn]

Dominion Post Oak's classical villa penthouse was a far cry from 1661's.  Thanks for the fine update.  Do you think there might be any way to increase the colonnade's height (not necessary to increase the interior ceiling height) by 15' or so, masking more of the black box's vertical faces, so that it doesn't look undignifiedly short underneath the visual mass of the tophat?

7 hours ago, Paco Jones said:

Indoor pool and outdoor terrace deck located at Level 34.  Golf simulator, sauna, fitness center, and billiards room located at Level 33.

Edited June 21, 2022 by strickn

[Paco Jones]

15 minutes ago, strickn said:

Dominion Post Oak's classical villa penthouse was a far cry from 1661's.  Thanks for the fine update.  Do you think there might be any way to increase the colonnade's height (not necessary to increase the interior ceiling height) by 15' or so, masking more of the black box's vertical faces, so that it doesn't look undignifiedly short underneath the visual mass of the tophat?

That’s a fine idea and something I wouldn’t mind seeing as well. 
 

I would be willing to bet that the mechanical penthouse, along with the level below, get changed for the better.  This is the first real round of budgeting and design review, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed. 

[Montrose1100]

14 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

I come up with 32nd tallest (counting Pennzoil as two buildings), just after Pennzoil I and II and in front of Two Allen Center (we haven't had a Devon Energy Tower in Houston for about ten years).

Ah. Memorial Hermann Tower is only listed as 500ft on SSP. Guess it's not the most reliable source. And you're right about Pennzoil being 2 buildings ;)

[Highrise Tower]

Waste water application permit was pulled yesterday.

[Urbannizer]

Anyone have access?

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/lifestyle/home-design/article/1661-Tanglewood-planned-as-a-tower-of-mansions-17450241.php

[monarch]

'A tower of mansions' comes to Houston's Tanglewood area in new $300 million high rise

For nearly 70 years, the Farrington/Miller family has handled its development and property management business from an unassuming brick building with a prime address – 1661 Tanglewood. Next spring, those offices will be demolished to make way for construction on what will be the city’s newest luxury condo high-rise, a $300 million building aptly named 1661 Tanglewood.

Kendall Miller, the youngest of the four children of Mary Catherine Miller, a fifth-generation Texan whose father, William Farrington, developed Tanglewood in the late 1940s and early 1950s, said that he and his siblings, Bill, Michelle and Jim Miller, are working together on a project that will launch a new chapter – business-wise, anyway – for the family.

“We started working on it seriously in the summer of 2020 – it was time to refocus the company and make a big transition,” Kendall Miller said of their decision after disposing of some family properties following their mother’s death in 2018. “This is much more in the spirit of the founding of the family business, developing, creating and selling rather than just managing assets. We’re so proud of this. We feel like it might be a crowning achievement, something to send along with the next generation.”

Though few homes or businesses actually have a Tanglewood Boulevard address, that street has long been the most desirable to live directly off of, Miller said.

“We’re leading with the address because we’re proud of it, and because we believe it’s one of the great boulevards in the city, a wonderful promenade. It bridges the suburban feel of Tanglewood and the urban feel of Post Oak,” Miller continued.

While William Farrington launched Tanglewood before Miller was born, he and his siblings have strong memories of growing up in the neighborhood. In fact, after Farrington died, Mary Catherine Miller moved into his house with her family. After she died, Kendall Miller – who has worked for the family business, Tanglewood Corp., for 30 years – moved in.

“There were tall pine trees and football games in the yard. I would ride my bike to the office to steal a Dr. Pepper on the way to a friend’s house. Sometimes I’d get sent to buy Frito’s for dad – that was a fun errand to get sent on. I was always dropping by,” Kendall Miller said.

Condo listings for 1661 Tanglewood will go online Tuesday with Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty. The building’s new sales center at 1880 Uptown Park opens Oct. 3 by appointment only, and its exterior façade mimics the future building’s aesthetic.

The 1661 Tanglewood project will be an elegant, 33-story condo tower with 59 residences on the 1.3-acre parcel at the corner of Tanglewood and San Felipe. Its residences will range from 2,800 square feet to around 12,500 square feet – with most around 5,650 square feet – making it feel less like a stack of downsizing condos and more like a tower of mansions. 

Designed by Houston-based Jackson & Ryan Architects with interiors by J. Randall Powers Interior Decoration, the building is meant to evoke the classical forms, symmetry and strict proportion of Palladian architecture, Mary Catherine Miller’s favored style. Tellepsen Construction will be the general contractor and the building is expected to be finished 33 months after work begins.

Jackson & Ryan projects are well known around Houston and elsewhere in Texas. The firm designed the Children’s Museum of Houston, San Antonio Museum of Art, Rice University’s Brockman Hall, Strake Jesuit’s STEM building and Episcopal High School’s Academic Building. They also designed the South Shore District in Austin and animal shelters in Houston, Galveston and San Antonio.

With an exterior façade of brick and limestone, the slender building with Neoclassical details will appear to have a crown on top, with tapered columns surrounding walls of glass. Inside the walls of that top floor will be a 75-foot pool and spa with immediate views of Uptown, extending to downtown. 

Powers decorated the sales center with the same finishes he insists on in his residential projects all over the country. Its walls are covered in luxurious fabrics and the bathrooms and kitchen are covered in gorgeous stone and filled with Waterworks plumbing fixtures and hardware.

MORE FROM DIANE COWEN: Architect Michael Hsu returns to Houston with thoughtful modern style

While high-rises in Houston generally have residences on the smaller side, 1661 Tanglewood's larger units are meant to appeal to people who still want sizable homes, but without the hassle of maintenance such as pool cleaning and lawn care.

“I did a penthouse (in another high rise in Houston) for a couple moving from a house in River Oaks. I sat down with them and the wife said ‘I have 140 pairs of shoes and a grand piano and I’m not getting rid of any of it,’” Powers said. “There’s such an interesting dynamic about high-rise living. People love the idea of the security, being in a building where you’re protected … but they still want a dining room where they can seat 12 at any given time. A lot of high-rise condos don’t have room for a dining room that can seat 12.”

In addition to designing the sales office, Powers will design public spaces in the tower and has had an influence on the floor plans of each residence. He’ll finish out four residences – furniture, kitchen ware, bedding and all – for buyers who want a move-in ready home.

“I can fill it with Tiffany flatware, Baccarat glasses – I can even put two Mercedes Benzes in your garage if that’s what you want,” Powers quipped. “Think of someone from Central America or Dubai or someone who just got divorced (and is starting over). We can just make it happen.”

For finishes throughout the building, Powers offers appliance packages of French La Cornue or Wolf, Viking and Sub-Zero brands, 9-inch French white oak flooring and Chesneys of London stone fireplace mantels. The beautiful kitchen in the sales center shows off gorgeous stone counters, solid walnut cabinets and a stainless steel La Cornue range, all finished out by Palmer Todd of San Antonio.

The sales center – not usually a space completely filled with luxurious finishes – custom-made furniture, 18th century antiques, Stark carpets and three different bathrooms.

For the tower’s lobby, Powers has chosen a variety of marble and onyx, limestone pilasters, Rose Tarlow furniture and custom-made Voisson Paris crystal chandeliers.

“We’re showing people exactly what they’re going to get in the sales center,” said Powers, who also grew up in Tanglewood and has decorated many homes there. “You’ll see museum quality lighting, solid walnut cabinets – not veneers. You can see Waterworks products right there, not just look at them in a brochure.”