bobruss Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 (edited) I'm sure whatever they're planning, it will be his signature piece. I'm just not sure if it will be as tall as everyone hopes. I don't know of him trying to one up the other. He just develops great buildings no matter how tall, but we can hope. I hope its a super tall, but he doesn't necessarily plan that way. I'm sure whatever becomes of this space it will be magnificent, site worthy and a show stopper. Edited May 29, 2017 by bobruss 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxman Posted May 29, 2017 Share Posted May 29, 2017 I'm not sure a supertall on this block would be aesthetically appealing or have much of an impact. Chase Tower is 75 stories and it would having a supertall butted up right next to that would steal some of the glory away from each one I think. I still say the Bank of the Southwest Tower block would be most fitting for Hines' signature piece. Unfortunately that's not the block that's in question. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinkaidAlum Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 It's not going to be a super tall.  Just ate dinner with a principal at the firm and asked him about this block. He said there are no plans and when I told him of this thread and a wish for a super tall, he said, point blank, "Hines won't build a super tall in Houston anymore because the economics do not work in the market." He then went on to gush about 609 Main and all of the praise and accolades that are flowing in as well as how tenants are liking it.  So, look for another 609 Main/BG Group tower.  I'm fine with that. 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmitch94 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 30 minutes ago, KinkaidAlum said: "Hines won't build a super tall in Houston anymore because the economics do not work in the market."  I was told something similar by someone high up in the industry. I personally would rather have a great urban feel on the street than some super tall. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstontexasjack Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 I'd still love a 'fraternal twin' to the Chase here. Â That being said, I saw 3 WTC going up in New York and found it to be a bit boring, despite crossing the super tall threshold. Â An out of the ordinary crown (Houston has few spires I can think of) could add a lot here. Â Some streetscape artwork would be neat. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobruss Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 I still think a super tall we'll eventually be built in the vacant block in the middle of skid row, between Milam and Smith. No time soon though. Perhaps in the next 5 years, after absorption makes it plausible to build again.  2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samagon Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 On 5/28/2017 at 8:25 AM, Sunstar said: I expect nothing less than an 80 story building for this site.  How about 80 parking spaces?  22 hours ago, Twinsanity02 said: Of course this is Mr. Hines land,  but I can wish.  I wish he would put a signature skyscraper on this spot. Houston needs a signature structure that automatically says "Houston".  The Astrodome used to fill  that niche. Among North American cities NYC,SF,DC, Seattle, all have signature structures.  Nevertheless I am sure anything he puts up will be top notch. I suspect this lot will not remain empty very long.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_America_Center_(Houston)  Maybe this is just me, but this building is just Houston. The color, the cut of the roof, it's unique, and because of where it is, it will never be hidden behind other buildings from the typical west side skyline shot. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 25 minutes ago, samagon said:  How about 80 parking spaces?   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_America_Center_(Houston)  Maybe this is just me, but this building is just Houston. The color, the cut of the roof, it's unique, and because of where it is, it will never be hidden behind other buildings from the typical west side skyline shot.  Agreed on both. We have, by my count, about four signature towers in this town. (Transco, BoA, Pennzoil, Wells Fargo.) A supertall would be nice, but isn't going to happen until our residential and/or hospitality markets reach the point where a mixed-use tower like the Wilshire Grand is possible. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstontexasjack Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 Would the building at this location need to be designed so that it's most eyecatching features face west? Â One Market Square is just to the north and could substantially obscure north-facing features of this block if and when One Market Square ends up getting built. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 1 hour ago, houstontexasjack said: Would the building at this location need to be designed so that it's most eyecatching features face west? Â One Market Square is just to the north and could substantially obscure north-facing features of this block if and when One Market Square ends up getting built. Â If it's eye-catching features face west, wouldn't they be equally obscured by 717 Texas ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstontexasjack Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 2 hours ago, Houston19514 said: Â If it's eye-catching features face west, wouldn't they be equally obscured by 717 Texas ? Â The Calpine Center (717 Texas) is only about 453' tall. Â If this building were comparable in height to 609 Main, a substantial portion of it should be visible above the Calpine Center. Â Plenty of space to show off something above the Calpine Center. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twinsanity02 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 According to emporis Captain, 609 Main is exactly 299 "Earth feet" above 717 Texas. Â Thank you Mr. Spock 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyt36 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 On 5/29/2017 at 10:47 AM, bobruss said: Sounds like a troll to me. Idiotic statement and something he would never say. he developed all of downtown after he built the galleria.   Wow, a fine Houston welcome to the forum.  Yep, I'm definitely an idiotic troll, that's why I wrote what I wrote with a QUESTION MARK.  I do remember reading years ago, I thought in connection with Transco, that someone had pronounced downtown as dead, but, in retrospect, you're right, doesn't make much sense.  Maybe it was Kenneth Schnitzer with Greenway Plaza.  Wait, I don't want more tomatoes flung at me.  Maybe it was Kenneth Schnitzer with Greenway Plaza????????????????? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyt36 Posted May 30, 2017 Share Posted May 30, 2017 And, for the record, isn't Hines's HQ in Williams Tower anyway? Â 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 (edited) 16 hours ago, mattyt36 said: And, for the record, isn't Hines's HQ in Williams Tower anyway? Â Â Larry McMurtry wrote that he was done writing Western novels, the genre was tired out... then wrote Lonesome Dove. People say these things. If Hines said that circa 1970 about downtown being dead (which I can believe), he was accurate inasmuch as downtown's proportion of total Houston area office space was at the beginning of a long secular decline, which it still hasn't really begun to climb back from, although it remains the most desirable office market judging by rents, and still the place for big statement projects. Â He also may have been referring to the retail market (which would make sense if he was promoting the Galleria), in which case he couldn't have possibly been more accurate. Â Â Edited May 31, 2017 by H-Town Man 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 ^ Â Yeah, IFÂ Hines said it (and that's a big IF), he was almost certainly referring to downtown retail. Â And he very likely was referring to downtown retail more globally (or nationally), not just Houston. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattyt36 Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 28 minutes ago, H-Town Man said: Â Larry McMurtry wrote that he was done writing Western novels, the genre was tired out... then wrote Lonesome Dove. People say these things. If Hines said that circa 1970 about downtown being dead (which I can believe), he was accurate inasmuch as downtown's proportion of total Houston area office space was at the beginning of a long secular decline, which it still hasn't really begun to climb back from, although it remains the most desirable office market judging by rents, and still the place for big statement projects. Â He also may have been referring to the retail market (which would make sense if he was promoting the Galleria), in which case he couldn't have possibly been more accurate. Â Â Â That was the point of my post, which got off the rails because my memory may be fallible. Â IF he did say it, isn't it great/ironic considering before (again IF) that downtown was dead. Â Then I got called an idiotic troll. Â If anything, I would think there would be a thread of 20 posts calling it Hines Tower, with Hines Interests as the lead tenant! Â I will probably read the quote again sometime in the next couple of decades and can put the mystery to rest. Â Agree wholeheartedly upon retrospect there's a good chance it wasn't Hines. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted May 31, 2017 Share Posted May 31, 2017 14 minutes ago, mattyt36 said: Â That was the point of my post, which got off the rails because my memory may be fallible. Â IF he did say it, isn't it great/ironic considering before (again IF) that downtown was dead. Â Then I got called an idiotic troll. Â If anything, I would think there would be a thread of 20 posts calling it Hines Tower, with Hines Interests as the lead tenant! Â I will probably read the quote again sometime in the next couple of decades and can put the mystery to rest. Â Agree wholeheartedly upon retrospect there's a good chance it wasn't Hines. Â People get emotional on here. I don't understand it myself sometimes. Didn't think you were attacking anything. Â 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post bobruss Posted June 1, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted June 1, 2017 (edited) When I was in architecture school at U. of H. back in the late sixties and early 70's I worked nights as a janitor for two semesters. My wifes uncle was in charge and let me work until I found something more lucrative. The first semester I was working in the Humble building and my job was cleaning the massive computer floors with hundreds of large units where they ran all of their reports. I'm not a computer geek, but these were floor to ceiling units that had to have special, air conditioning and cleaning so I went around doing this. Then I got promoted to their newest site which was the Post Oak Towers in the Galleria. I can remember the first night I showed up and he took me to the 22nd or 24th floor of the building and as the elevator opened I walked into Gerald Hines offices where I spent the next 6-9 months cleaning the whole floor including Gerald's office. By the way he had a gold colored phone. The offices were remarkable with large scale models of new projects all over the open floors. There were ancient artifacts in display cases and wonderful art works on the walls. As you can imagine I almost peed myself right there. Gerald Hine's is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. He started with such small beginnings on Richmond between Buffalo Speedway and Kirby with Harwood Taylor designing his early two story projects and then all of a sudden he blew up. I really don't think you will find that quote uttered from his mouth. It's just not his style. The man has more gravitas than that. He's also a genius.  Edited June 1, 2017 by bobruss 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted June 1, 2017 Share Posted June 1, 2017 14 minutes ago, bobruss said: When I was in architecture school at U. of H. back in the late sixties and early 70's I worked nights as a janitor for two semesters. My wifes uncle was in charge and let me work until I found something more lucrative. The first semester I was working in the Humble building and my job was cleaning the massive computer floors with hundreds of large units where they ran all of their reports. I'm not a computer geek, but these were floor to ceiling units that had to have special, air conditioning and cleaning so I went around doing this. Then I got promoted to their newest site which was the Post Oak Towers in the Galleria. I can remember the first night I showed up and he took me to the 22nd or 24th floor of the building and as the elevator opened I walked into Gerald Hines offices where I spent the next 6-9 months cleaning the whole floor including Gerald's office. By the way he had a gold colored phone. The offices were remarkable with large scale models of new projects all over the open floors. There were ancient artifacts in display cases and wonderful art works on the walls. As you can imagine I almost peed myself right there. Gerald Hine is one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. He started with such small beginnings on Richmond between Buffalo Speedway and Kirby with Harwood Taylor designing his early two story projects and then all of a sudden he blew up. I really don't think you will find that quote uttered from his mouth. It's just not his style. The man has more gravitas than that. He's also a genius.   Very cool story. It kind of works as a blank verse poem.  4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cloud713 Posted June 2, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted June 2, 2017 On 5/30/2017 at 4:19 PM, mattyt36 said:  Wow, a fine Houston welcome to the forum.  Yep, I'm definitely an idiotic troll, that's why I wrote what I wrote with a QUESTION MARK.  I do remember reading years ago, I thought in connection with Transco, that someone had pronounced downtown as dead, but, in retrospect, you're right, doesn't make much sense.  Maybe it was Kenneth Schnitzer with Greenway Plaza.  Wait, I don't want more tomatoes flung at me.  Maybe it was Kenneth Schnitzer with Greenway Plaza?????????????????  I agree that the "welcome" could have been worded better. You'll have to forgive us. We tend to put Gerald up on a pedestal (as we should) for all of his great contributions to the development of our city. Admittedly, that claim does come off as a pretty silly, given that like I mentioned previously, while Hines was developing the Galleria in Uptown, they were also developing their first skyscraper in downtown. The Trasnco era would make even less sense for that claim. It could very well have been the Greenway Plaza guy though..  On 5/30/2017 at 6:07 PM, mattyt36 said: And, for the record, isn't Hines's HQ in Williams Tower anyway?   Yes, on the 50th/51st floors if I'm not mistaken. Been a few years since I've been in their office. But their southwest regional HQ is in 609 Main (they moved over from BG Group Place). At any rate, I'm not sure where the HQ is located really matters given the huge investments Hines has made in both downtown and uptown.  To tie this discussion in with this thread topic, here is a picture I took the other day looking across the Chronicle site. *Something of note - Every building in this picture, with the exception of Jones Hall at the bottom, was developed by Hines.  10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 (edited) "The Hines Sector" Â Here's a thought; why is their tagline not "No unruly fines with Hines" Edited June 2, 2017 by BigFootsSocks 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Urbannizer Posted June 14, 2017 Share Posted June 14, 2017 http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Developer-seeks-reimbursement-in-downtown-tunnel-11217734.php  After more than a year of legal proceedings, the owner and developer of the downtown tract that formerly housed the Houston Chronicle's main offices is suing an adjacent property owner over the cost of building a "cocoon" around its basement during demolition in order to provide court-ordered protection for underground facilities.  Theater Square LP, an entity affiliated with the Linbeck construction family, said it intended to develop its property into a high-rise tower and wanted to protect access to downtown's extensive underground tunnel system through the section at 801 Texas. It filed suit, citing a 2007 contract with Hearst that granted it limited rights to the section of tunnel there.  On June 29, 2016, the court issued a temporary injunction order prohibiting Block 58 Investors from damaging the corridor for the tunnel system through the Chronicle basement. Two weeks later, the court assigned Theater Square responsibility for the costs incurred to protect the basement while the building above was dismantled.  Late last month, a judge ruled in favor of Block 58 Investors, deciding the group has the right to demolish and temporarily close the so-called Prairie Tunnel, and ruled that Theater Square LP is "solely responsible for restoring the Prairie Tunnel after demolition."  On June 2, Block 58 Investors filed a list of claims against Theater Square, demanding reimbursement for costs incurred by protecting the tunnel corridor during demolition of the Chronicle building, and other costs incurred during legal proceedings.  Attorneys for Block 58 Investors did not respond to queries. A spokesman for Hearst did not return a call for comment. Theater Square declined to comment. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post hindesky Posted July 5, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted July 5, 2017 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate99 Posted July 5, 2017 Share Posted July 5, 2017 Looks like it is going to be a classy parking lot, not just your run of the mill throw some asphalt on the rubble of whatever you knocked down type jobs. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollusk Posted July 5, 2017 Share Posted July 5, 2017 ^^ True - it's even more permanent looking than Block 142 (where Bank of the Southwest was going to be). Â Let's hope it doesn't stay vacant for anywhere near as long. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phillip_white Posted July 5, 2017 Share Posted July 5, 2017 8 hours ago, Nate99 said: Looks like it is going to be a classy parking lot, not just your run of the mill throw some asphalt on the rubble of whatever you knocked down type jobs. Â Based on some of the progress pics, it also features a subterranean drainage system that connects directly to the sewer. Fancy, indeed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 Dammit, Hines does stuff right, including parking lots. I bet there's even an electric car charging station. Couple of them. Â 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted July 6, 2017 Share Posted July 6, 2017 28 minutes ago, H-Town Man said: Dammit, Hines does stuff right, including parking lots. I bet there's even an electric car charging station. Couple of them. Â Â They do. But I think self interest is a big reason as to why they're making this so nice, since so many of their properties surround it. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted July 31, 2017 Share Posted July 31, 2017 Unfortunately this project for the surface lot looks too nice, lots of money being spent which doesn't bode well for a future high rise anytime soon. Â 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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