Nice trespassing. Should have slipped that model in your pocket.

Thanks for the updates photolith.

I dunno about you guys but these residential buildings, while tall on paper, always seem squatty to me in real life. Anybody else feel that way?

^
What are you talking about, what project?

the one on the old turnberry site is Hine's One Waterwall: http://goingupcity.blogspot.com/2012...waterwall.html

The 20-story residential building in near the Galleria. I think it's on Post Oak.

Houston seems to have a lot of dead threads. Ive always had a love for Texas, and its to bad to see such ( Building threads ) empty and un-used in some case for 3 years. Whats the point in keeping them here?

The only active Houston thread on here is this one. Everyones over at HAIF, I wish they would abandon that site and come over here.

I rode my bike past the Carter Building downtown on Main and they are gutting the bottom floor where that Dominoes used to be and it looked like they were starting to remove that crap 1960s cladding, giving light to the old bricks underneath.

http://swamplot.com/ashby-highrise-t...comment-269250

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8285/7...35e5352f_b.jpg
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=talle...:14,s:51,i:347

New render for Ashby highrise.

^errr. . . what??? That's a proposed building in Dubai. . . perhaps I'm missing something???

. . .

Because its a joke.

The people that live around where this tower is getting built have been flipping the f out for years over it and have these stupid yellow signs in front of their lawns that have a picture of a giant like 50 story building with huge scary arms reaching out over their neighborhood and they are saying this building will create traffic jams and overall they have just been really douchey about the whole thing. About 2 months ago their neighborhood organization came out with a letter saying that if this tower gets built they will do everything in their power to make the new tenants feel unwelcome in their community and will send them letters in their mail saying how much they dislike them. Heres some of the douche things they will do.

•As soon as we can identify your investors and lenders, we will appear at their places of business and their homes to demonstrate our opposition.

•We will appear at the places of business and homes of the contractors and other service providers who agree to work on your project and demonstrate our opposition

•If anyone leases your space for a laydown yard or contractor parking, we will appear at their places of business and their homes and demonstrate our opposition

•We will scrupulously monitor the construction of the project and we will report and seek relief for every violation of every applicable requirement.

•If you nevertheless succeed in constructing this project, we will not stop our opposition, and we will take every lawful action available to us. It is important that you, your investors, and your construction and permanent lenders understand this

•We will picket your leasing office. Not once or twice, but at all times it is open.

•We will identify your tenants and send regular communications to them at their units and their places of business to let them know that they are not welcome in our neighborhood.

•We will appear at the homes of the owners, investors, and chef of your restaurant tenant and demonstrate our opposition to their presence in our neighborhood.

•We will post unfavorable reviews of your restaurant tenant on dining websites.

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsde...egun-to-fight/

Sounds like outright harassment. . .

. . .

Sounds like their asking for a lawsuit, I can guarantee if those things start to happen it's going to get ugly real quick.

Come on everybody! Get happy!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2191/...05acd10fcf.jpg
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=stop+...9,r:2,s:0,i:81

Just because you live in or near that neighborhood doesn't give you the right to turn it into a quarantined zone under your control. I live only two miles from the propsed site and I get my groceries among all of the anti-Ashby people on a weekly basis which gives me at last a tiny bit of exposure to them. Oddly enough I've never experienced any of them acting so pretentious and controlling as with this singular issue. I drive the same streets they do and I am not getting the traffic argument. The only large traffic issue there is caused by the traffic lights covered by trees and the metro buses. Extra cars here and there due to the Ashby highrise is not going to make that much of a difference and there are so many side streets that these people could easily offset their routes while only adding a minute to their trip.

Yes, the traffic argument makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I honestly really dont know why these people are so hardcore against a 22 story building. Id welcome it over those crappy 1970s styled apartments that occupy the site now.

They live in the middle of the city. Neighborhoods like that can't look like Leave it to Beaver forever, especially when they are in the middle of the city. At least the tower is going to be ON Bissonnet instead of Hazard or some other quiet side street.

If they hate towers and density so much they should move to Katy or Kingwood and languish there.

those residents are ok with strip centers and large buildings being built in other residents' neighborhoods but are up in arms when it hits closer to home. i say to hell with them; with the power and influence these folks have, they could have lobbied for stricter dead restrictions or even zoning.

It is slated to be JW Marriott Hotel. I believe they plan to restore the original exterior.

Wow. This sounds like a typical NIMBY neighborhood in Austin. I wouldn't expect it in Houston. When the Spring condo in Austin went before the city council several years ago some NIMBY lady got up and said that such a tall building had no place near a greenbelt and that New York didn't even have such tall buildings near Central Park. Spring is only ~430 feet.

Anyways sorry to cut this Ashby highrise conversation for a few but there's a couple of updates, N90 style.

First one I'm sure we've all heard by now but I wanted to bring it up to switch the focus to this question. Why is Houston all of a sudden becoming more attracted to mixed use developments on water settings? Buffalo Bayou master plan, Woodlands Riverwalk, Lake Woodlands, Springwood village, Pleasure Pier, and developments like the ones I'm going to post in a second. I think its cool but has anyone else noticed it too?

Waterway Square Development:
http://www.bisnow.com/archives/houst...landing_sm.jpghttp://www.bisnow.com/archives/houst...landingone.jpg
Source: http://www.bisnow.com/real-estate-ho...ay-square-2-0/
The Boardwalk at Towne Lake:
http://www.bisnow.com/archives/houst...ttownelake.jpg
Source: http://www.bisnow.com/real-estate-ho...ore-mixed-use/

Anyways back to the Ashby highrise for a minute. I think its just NIMBYism at its finest. Vote for zoning if you don't want these things to happen, residents only have to put the blame on themselves. No complainers. As for me personally, I admire the way Houston is to be honest. I was driving on Gessner earlier yesterday near Memorial Drive and it was beautiful with the super tall tree's, very very lush green leaves (IN AUGUST!! Our summers are back to somewhat normal, last year was wayyyy to dry!), and some beautifl old styled brick homes, and BAAAM all of a sudden a 27 story lone skyscraper for apartments. LOL sorry for sharing this but what I'm really getting at is that to some Houston may seem f***ed up but to me its the way its growing up that's unique about the city. In 20 years from now, all the infill and weird looks due to the lack of zoning will give this beast of a city a whole new look compared to most American cities.

Anyways while all this is happening, I just want to say that having the pleasure to go to school in Austin and coming home for the holidays in Houston is an experience. A fun one. In Austin I always see construction on campus and in nearby downtown. It's exciting to see the skyline and downtown transform right before our own eyes. Also fun to see all the events and name marketing success that Austin's getting lately. Houston, stuff going on downtown but it pales in comparison to the stuff going on everywhere else, midtown, museum district, Memorial City, Energy Corridor, Neartown, Greenway, Uptown, EaDo, The Woodlands, Galveston (pleasure pier, skyscrapers on the beach), Clear Lake area, Katy, Sugar Land, the area near airport, Greenspoint, Conroe, areas near Lake Houston, & Lake Conroe. So much stuff happening on a metropolitan level for Houston, something we don't see enough of in Austin (besides homes and neighborhoods and stores opening up with new areas). Both will like great by 2030 (along with Dallas & San Antonio).

The Woodlands is getting ANOTHER highrise! While the article doesn't give the floor count, it states that 10 Waterway will be 600k sq. ft!!! The 32-story Anadarko Tower currently under construction is 550,000 sq. ft (20 stories on top of a 10 story garage.)

http://app.newsletter.bisnow.com/e/e...dc32a86f82d594

"....There's treasure buried somewhere on this map. Paul tells us demand for office space is particularly strong. In fact, 3 Waterway Square is 90% preleased nearly a year before delivery. As for the retail portion, Paul tells us it’ll focus on vibrant restaurants and entertainment but steer clear of soft goods. (There’s plenty nearby.) Gensler is handling design, and Colliers’ Bob Parsley and Norman Munoz are leasing the office space. Next on Howard Hughes’ agenda: Developing 600k SF 10 Waterway."

The end of the North Line extension, right by that newish Walmart and the Transit Center north of 610.
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8295/7...a8f5943f_b.jpg

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7139/7...e2096a03_b.jpg
A long elevated stretch of the North Line over a railroad track. Theres two elevated sections of this extension, so thats pretty sweet.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8436/7...755ab0d0_b.jpg
Just the rest of that elevated stretch from above.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8306/7...d3dc4e4d_b.jpg
So, work is for sure underway on this historic building which will become a Marriott supposedly. They have gutted the entire lower floor and have started to take off the crap paneling which covered up the beautiful brickwork below.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8437/7...1b55ef71_b.jpg

wish they'd do the same with the downtown sears...pull off the craptastic 50's erea cladding.

Are they planning on fully restoring the building? Any pictures of the building in its original state?

^
I believe they are planning on completely restoring it but not quite sure.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8448/7...ef8a372b34.jpg
http://www.cardcow.com/290703/carter...houston-texas/

Can you believe that POS used to look like this? I really hope they restore it to what this photo shows, but dont keep your hopes up, this is Houston after all. But I think the current building had more floors added onto it at some point, probably during the 20s or 30s. So, I doubt they will restore it to this photo but rather how it looked during the late 20s.

Well, nevermind, I found a render of what it will look like.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8300/7...f9c5e883_b.jpg
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&s...t:429,r:51,s:0

For some reason, some of their projects on that list are in Latin, so thats strange.

This kind of a cool tid bit of history, the building was known as "Carter's Folly" because it was the largest building to be built at the time (16 stories) and no one thought that bricks could be stacked that high. Guess they never visited NYC in 1911.

Beautiful.

Does anyone have any new & current information on 5 Allen Center, I heard on another site that it is nearing the needed occupation level for construction.

Wow, fantastic photos, photoLith. Thanks for sharing!!!

Great to see progress on the rail lines, and I love the design of the downtown building that is being restored.

Oh really? Which site?

Hey! There is no harassment on those people. There is nothing wrong with it.

Yeah, don't worry about that one. Be happy! :)

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/14/54/75.../3/628x471.jpg

Construction has begun on this 21-story tower off Allen Pkwy!!

A long-delayed residential project near downtown, primarily targeting well-paid professionals with upscale apartments and condos and a cluster of retail, entertainment and offices, is finally under way.
More than five years after announcing plans for the 24-acre Regent Square project off Allen Parkway, GID Development Group has begun construction on the first building, a 21-story apartment tower called The Sovereign.
It represents an important milestone for GID, which had planned to break ground before the national economy went into a tailspin.
"We went through a tough cycle in the real estate market and the overall economy," said James Linsley, president of Boston-based GID.
The project was one of several that were shelved or canceled as demand for space dried up and lenders stopped financing major commercial real estate projects.
GID said it remains committed to Regent Square, which is to go up in multiple phases on land abutting Allen Parkway near Dunlavy and Dallas, on the site of the old Allen House Apartments. The development could take 10 years to complete.
Plans include about 400,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and entertainment space; more than 1,500 residential units; and 250,000 square feet of office space in what the developer refers to as an "urban district" where residents can walk to everything. The walkable nature of the project extends beyond its borders, Linsley said, with a pedestrian trail around Buffalo Bayou and high-end shops and a new Whole Foods a short distance away.
Additional construction could begin in about a year as the company is "moments away" from signing up a major retail tenant, Linsley said.
The project is being built with financial assistance from the city of Houston, through the Memorial Heights Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, or TIRZ.
City assistance
In the spring of 2009, the Houston City Council voted to assist the project with up to $10 million in reimbursements for public improvements the developer agreed to make. At that time, the project was being pitched as an $850 million development.
The agreement was later amended to include the public infrastructure around The Sovereign. Linsley said that includes burying overhead utilities, upgrading drainage in the area and creating wide sidewalks with mature street trees, but he would not discuss the monetary details.
Mayor's support
In a statement, Mayor Annise Parker expressed her support.
"This project is yet another reflection of Houston's economic upturn, which the rest of our nation is still trying to achieve after a severe recession," Parker said. "It shows the city's dedication to continuing to bring jobs and economic growth to Houston."
The apartment tower will be built at 3233 W. Dallas and include 290 units. It was designed by Houston-based Ziegler Cooper Architects to achieve a LEED Silver rating from the U.S. Green Building Council.
Initial occupancy is slated for March 2014.
The apartments will start at the ground level to help create a pedestrian-friendly environment at the sidewalk. Units in most high-rise buildings start above the garage.
The developer said the apartments will have top-of-the-line finishes, such as kitchens with wine refrigerators. The eighth floor will be The Sovereign Club and include such amenities as a yoga studio, a massage room, a catering kitchen and private dining rooms.
Unit sizes will range from around 590 square feet for a studio apartment to 1,415 square feet for a two-bedroom unit. The average size will be around 1,000 square feet.
GID would not say what it plans to charge for rent.
"We will be priced near the top of the market," Linsley said.
"The primary market audience will be well-paid 25- to 45-year-old professional singles and couples renting as a lifestyle choice," he said. "They may be a little bit averse to homeownership."

Ooo nice to hear. Very Kewl...

:yes:

Hmmm I just drove by this site yesterday, didn't look like anything was going on. Guess I'll have to check again. That's great news though.

The Woodlands may be getting 1 MILLION SQ. FT of office space in 3 buildings at Hughs Landing.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/m...eveloping.html

Some random updates from today with my 50mm lens after I destroyed my 14-24 lens :(

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8289/7...654051ab_b.jpg
Post Midtown Lofts new phase.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8294/7...d09d16b5_b.jpg
A different section of almost complete Post Midtown Lofts. It even looks like there will be ground floor retail and such. Dont know about that doofy ass looking crown they have going on, I dont know why but for the past 6 years or so it seems that developers love putting these weird crown like things on top of their buildings. This is really evident in Austin, and it seems to have spread from there to other cities. Dont know where it first started though. Im sure in the future architectural historians will call this strange style something and look back and think, what the hell were they thinking?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8428/7...fd56e382_b.jpg
5 story urban development on West Grey and Gillette St.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8306/7...3205fe97_b.jpg
This is the huge urban themed Fingers development next to the Whole Foods in Montrose. It will be massive and about 5 stories tall once completed. They completed part of the ugly parking garage for it so far. Hopefully they cover it up in something nice and its not just bare concrete.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7252/7...22813636_b.jpg
It looks like they have started construction on that 21 Story building, which is pretty effing sweet. Its right across from the New Whole Foods. This will be nice to watch go up. It will be the only high rise that I know of going up at the moment inside the 610 Loop.

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/14/54/75.../3/628x471.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8438/7...84ecf2a3_b.jpg
Then another mid rise on the corner of W Gray and Waugh Dr. Its built where The Tavern and crap tons of parking used to be, and a few old bungalows unfortunately. This is the backside of the development thus far. I havent seen any renders of it, but Id surmise like most other projects going up on W Gray St., it will be around 6 stories tall probably. Hopefully there will be some ground retail, but it doesnt look like there will be at this point judging from the construction, but I could be wrong.

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-tr...ns-texas-2020/

I'll believe it when I see it.

I'm not sure if this is redundant, but

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/...ergy-corridor/

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/...08/MacHaik.jpg

I hate those crowns, too. That and anything that resembles a castle. There are some new homes in Austin with castle-like architecture, including one in Crestview on Woodrow Avenue. Can't stand that kind of architecture.

Is there something planned for corner of Timmons Lane and West Alabama? Friend of mine that lives around there says buildings there now are due to be knocked down.

There are a few highrises going up in the Med Center right now.

^
True, and only one right now though, forgot about it. Its not near as tall is this building will be though.

Thanks for all the photo updates Lith. Everyone who can't get around to seeing all of these are very appreciative I'm sure!

I saw this pop up on HAIF:

Bordering Birdsall, Venice, and Knox in the Rice Military area:

http://www.sunriseluxuryliving.com/w...012/05/apt.png

http://www.sunriseluxuryliving.com/w...iew-Aerial.jpg



http://www.sunriseluxuryliving.com/d...al-apartments/

^
Sweet I ride my bike past that crap a lot. It will be good to see it go and that area gettin more dense.

Yeah but my inner real estate developer thinks that ground floor retail on such a quiet street is a bad idea. There isn't enough traffic and I would be willing to bet that it stays empty.

per HAIF thread, Finger Ballpark apts will have retail on the Crawford/Texas corner

It would be great, though, if it was just the right kind of retail that would attract neighborhood residents. Hopefully the develops have done their research.