Houston has been in a hayday regarding construction and industry for many, many decades. It's not just "its turn" now. There was a period in the 80s where the place went bust, but otherwise, it's been a prosperous, growing city.

If you're talking about where I think you are, I know what you mean. The area I'm thinking of has too many new complexes that look like typical apartment complexes, plus the tin-sided buildings that are supposed to be trendy (I hate them). There are parts of Midtown, though, that have some really sharp looking medium rise condos. That's the kind of infill (that plus high rise) that is good for the inner city.

^
Yes, thats the old 4th Ward, its the worst offender of suburban styled bullshit and its right next to downtown. The entire area pretty much is covered in apartments styled like the crap you would find off 59 in Kingwood or any suburb America. Infill in urban areas should not be gated apartments and houses, they should be dense sidewalk oriented stuff. Hopefully mid-town does it right and keeps doing infill projects like the ones you see going along the light rail from the Museum District towards downtown. Real urban infill, not suburban schlock.

Wow, this is badass. That is AWESOME. And for it to be 1 floor TALLER than the original tower makes my mouth water over. Awesome Awesome AWESOME.

^
The Woodlands with this tower is going to be getting a pretty sweet skyline. Its amazing what they have done there. 10 years ago, the Woodlands was just another generic suburb for the most part. Now, it has a kinda dense "downtown" and will have two skyscrapers over 400ft tall, and tons of mid rises. I dont know if there are too many other examples of exurbs having largish skylines in the US. Im so glad that Anadarko is building scrapers and making the area more dense rather than do what Exxon is doing by building large suburban low rise campuses.

And to think that there is still the idea of a 20-story condo highrise still in the works in The Woodlands. So here's what we have:

3 Waterway will begin construction soon. Survey equipment already on site. Tower crane to be erected.

Anadarko Tower II: clearing lot to begin this week. Tower crane in a few weeks.

Research Development: Construction imminent. More tower cranes.

Exxon-Mobile: MANY tower cranes already erected. The Woodlands area will be a crane farm in the coming weeks. How cool is this??? :cheers: :banana: :tup:

The Woodlands has officially passed Sugar Land, imo. I wonder why SL never got any significant towers up like The Woodlands. Maybe its because TW is the isolated one? Kind of on an island...

I'm not sure and I'm certainly no expert on the subject matter but here's some ideas. The reason, imo, that SL hasn't blossomed and prospered like The Woodlands is because:

1)Taxes. Are taxes in Fort Bend County higher than that of Montgomery County?

2) The Woodlands is very close to IAH. It is convenient to many biz districts like Greenspoint, Downtown and Greeway via The Woodlands Express.

3) PERCEPTION. In college one of the few things that I actually learned is that perception is reality in many people's minds. The PERCEPTION maybe that The Woodlands is safer? More to offer? This sounds racist, but it's "white." That sounds bad and please don't take it the wrong way, but reality of it is that The Woodlands is a very, VERY white community and therefore, in some people's minds, automatically means safety. Also the perception that The Woodlands has money, an oppulent <sp> community, also gives a certain since of security to some people's minds? I dunno.

4) I'm not sure why so many large companies are relocating to The Woodlands. The only thing I can come up with is money and taxes. Again, I am no expert.

^
The Woodlands is mostly in Montgomerry County and taxes there are much lower than in Harris. Also, the woodlands is like a brand and it's pretty much one large master planned community. Katy and Sugarland are just amorphous blobs of suburban protoplasm that just grows uncontrollably. The Woodlands on the other hand is mostly owned by one developer, The Woodlands Corporation; which was sold in 1997 to some other huge development corporation.

The Houston Chronicle confirms swamplot. Construction on the Anadarko Tower II to begin in a few weeks.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/...ampus-to-grow/

I believe Sugar Land is second in GDP in the metro now. The Woodlands has most of its employment locked up in one centralized area, plus it's taller. Sugar Land on the other hand has a chunk of employment in the vast industrial parks north of 90/Main St., in scattered office parks, new hospitals, and Sugar Land's smaller Town Center.

Anadarko building new office tower
Houston Business Journal by Jennifer Dawson, Reporter
Date: Thursday, January 19, 2012, 6:30am CST
Enlarge Image

Rendering courtesy of Anadarko.
Anadarko’s new 31-story building will have 21 floors of office space over 10 levels of parking garage space.


Jennifer Dawson
Reporter - Houston Business Journal
Email | Twitter
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has announced plans to construct a 31-story office building next to its headquarters in The Woodlands to accommodate planned growth.
Anadarko (NYSE: APC) is beginning site work this week on the project, which will rise on land it already owns at the corner of Woodloch Forest Drive and Lake Robbins Drive. The building will have 21 floors with a total of 550,000 square feet of office space located above 10 levels of parking garage space, said John Christiansen, a company spokesman.
The building was designed by Gensler , and will be constructed by David E. Harvey Builders Inc. Employees learned about the new structure last week.
Anadarko’s existing tower in The Woodlands is 30-stories tall and has a total of 818,000 square feet of office space. The company also leases nearby office space, which will no longer be needed once the new building is complete in the spring of 2014.
“We’ll be able to bring them on the campus,” Christiansen said. “You create some business efficiencies when you’re able to get all of your employees in one place.”
Anadarko has more than 4,700 employees worldwide. Between 2,200 and 2,300 of those people work in The Woodlands. While the company continually adds employees, a estimation of the number of new hires is not available.
“I couldn’t speculate,” Christiansen said. “A lot of that is yet to be determined.”
The time is right to add new office space because of the company’s growth opportunities in shale plays and offshore natural gas, Christiansen said.
Anadarko announced Jan. 17 that it discovered 777 total net feet of natural gas off the coast of Mozambique, its largest find in the area.

Found this as well....this is the Town Center of The Woodlands. A couple of things stand out immediately:

1. The expansion of The Woodlands Mall (near Dillards) and behind Cheesecake Factory.

2. Another large office tower on the other side of Lake Robbins from the Anadarko complex.

3. No condo tower. Interesting.

http://pippamac.activerain.com/image...8409035583.jpg

sorry, double posted.

Wow, thats incredible. They will have an amazing "downtown" whenever all that stuff is built out.

Yes, this is all incredible.

I have been following this thread since 2007, and I work in the commercial construction industry. It is extremely exciting to see large projects coming back off the shelves.

There are more towers and large urban developments in the works. That's all I can say for now. You will probably know when they are confirmed to go before me.

^^^^^^^
The Woodlands is actually a wholly owned subsidiary of a $3.0 billion dollar development company headquartered in Dallas called The Howard Hughes Corporation.

The Howard Hughes Corporation was spun off from General Growth Properties after it went through a reorganization in late 2010; then the newly formed The Howard Hughes Corporation selected Dallas as its headquarters city in February of 2011 as its base of operations.

Dallas-based The Howard Hughes Corporation took control of The Woodlands around mid-year 2011:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Howard Hughes buys up The Woodlands

Dallas Business Journal by Jennifer Dawson, Reporter
Date: Wednesday, June 29, 2011, 11:59am CDT

The Howard Hughes Corp. — owner of the Bridgeland master-planned community — has agreed to buy out the remaining interest it did not already own in The Woodlands for $117.5 million.

Dallas-based Howard Hughes (NYSE: HHC) said Wednesday it has a definitive agreement to acquire Morgan Stanley Real Estate Investing’s 47.5 percent interest in the 28,000-acre master-planned community north of Houston.

The deal consists of a cash payment of $20 million at closing and a $97.5 million non-interest bearing promissory note due December 1, 2011.

Howard Hughes, and its predecessor companies, have owned a majority interest in The Woodlands since 2004.

Howard Hughes will own all unsold property in The Woodlands, which as of March 31, amounted to 1,372 acres of unsold residential land, representing 4,532 lots, and 936 acres of unsold land for commercial use.

The Woodlands also has full or part ownership in 434,000 square feet of office space, 203,000 square feet of retail and service space, 865 rental apartment units. It also owns a 440-room conference center facility and 36-hole country club.

The acquisition is anticipated to close July 1, 2011 at which time The Woodlands will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Howard Hughes.

Howard Hughes Corp. was spun out of Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc., after GGP emerged from bankruptcy protection in late 2010.

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/ne...woodlands.html
.

While I don't remember the pre-bust era of the late 1980s, I do know that that was a time when Houston was BOOMING and our skyline as we know it today emerged. I don't recall a time, until now, when so much is going up or being planned at the same time. I wonder how long we can expect development like this to continue? Would the pipeline to Houston only aid in construction? I mean just off the top of my head we have:

UNDER CONSTRUCTION:

Exxon Campus - Woodlands
Anadarko Tower - Woodlands (31-stories)
BBVA Tower - Galleria (22 stories)
The Horizon - Galleria (21 stories)
Westheimer & Sage Tower - Galleria (22 stories)
BLVD Place - Galleria

CONSTRUCTION IMMINENT:

Five Oaks Place (30 stories)

PLANNING STAGES:

State Grille Condo Tower - near Greenway (35-stories)
Convention District - Downtown
Hines Development - Downtown (blk 69) (30 stories-ish)

I'm sure there are others---like the one near Montrose and the Sw Frwy but it's pretty amazing to see so much under construction again in Houston. Thoughts?

Construction costs in downton Houston
 

Would anyone be able to answer a few questions about development in Houston?

1. What is the average per-square-foot construction cost for high-rise office building in the CBD? Steel vs concrete?

2. What is the average per-square-foot construction cost for a high-rise residential building in the CBD? High-rise vs mid-rise?

3. What is the average per-square-foot construction cost for an above-ground multi-storey parking structure.

Thank you very much for the assistance. I am competing in an urban design competition and our subject site is in Houston's downtown area.

Went out this morning to get some pictures of the construction around Uptown.

BBVA building

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22021.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22018.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22017.jpg

Westheimer & Sage (next to the Walgreens) Does this one have a name yet?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22008.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22006.jpg

Gables San Felipe & Bering
Not much has happened, but there is equipment on site.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22009.jpg

Gables Post Oak

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22016.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22015.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22012.jpg

The Millenium 2525 McCue
I think the garage that is going up is for these apartments right? I had initially thought it was for BBVA, but looking at HCAD it seems to be on this piece of land. So unfortunately I didn't get a pic of it. There's not much going on at the rest of the site.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...onjan22023.jpg

Uptown seems to be booming. I forgot to go by the Skanska site, and Five Oaks Place might be starting soon. Hopefully BLVD Place too. I'll probably try and go around some of the construction in the inner loop in the next few weeks.

^
I saw them building another building next to the bbva and asked a construction worker what it was and it's just a parking garage for an apartment building.

And I don't know the name to that apartment building next to the Walgreens but one of the construction workers said it was going to be 6 stories tall but then he said it will be on top of a parking garage. So I'm not sure if he meant there will be a few floors of parking and then 6 floors of apartments or what. So I surmise it will either be 6 stories or 9.

He might have meant the parking garage component would be 6 stories. The whole building will be 22 stories (although it seems to be 23 if you count from the back half). Here's a link to the post on HAIF with the renderings.
http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/h...ost__p__391884

Kind of hard to tell how it will turn out. I think it might look decent if they use high quality materials. Guess we can call it 5250 Brownway for now. Also it looks like there will be 300 units.

^
Oh wow, thats great news.

This is going in behind the Carrabba's on Kirby:
http://http://www.houstonarchitectur...9358_thumb.jpg
from http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/h...9358_thumb.jpg

Houston Airport System breaks ground on new IAH terminal

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/n...ks-ground.html

NBC Sports seeks incentives to put studio downtown

http://www.chron.com/business/articl...wn-2653814.php

When I was down in Galveston this weekend, a long time abandoned 1920s hotel I found out is being converted into apartments or mixed income stuff. I saw workers rewiring the interior on Saturday. Its been abandoned for at least 20 years, probably longer than that.

http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/c...rland/g101.jpg

I took this photo of it last August. I snuck into it Saturday night as they had forgot to lock the gate and the interior was completely gutted, nothing left at all. Im very glad they are not tearing this building down though and anything that helps out downtown Galveston is amazing, as it needs it. I heard rumors that part of the building will be used for mixed income housing, so I hope it doesnt bring some ghetto trash into downtown though, as that would for sure not help the situation out at all. Most of the public housing in Galveston was torn down after the hurricane and hasnt been rebuilt anywhere since. So, theres a massive need for public housing but the place for it is not downtown.

Lovely.

^
I know that doesnt sound nice, but lets face facts. Public housing and low income housing lowers property values all around it. Downtown Galveston needs all the help it can get, and this does not come in the form of lowering property values and making the place an undesirable place to live. Anyone knows that areas around public housing do not do well. It may not be pc to say, but oh well. There are plenty plenty plenty of other areas on the island to build public housing. Yes, people with low to no income need places to live, but as I said before, the already struggling market of downtown Galveston is not the place for it.

Yes because ghettoes of exclusively low income public housing has been so effective in the past.

If they're selective about who they let in, it should be ok. There are plenty of people on fixed/ low incomes who don't live like animals to assume low income housing will always adversely effect an area. They just need to filter out the trash and ensure the residents they do let in adhere to set of minimum set standards.

Can anyone name one successful public housing project? Anywhere? I can't think of any.

I'm not in Houston and can't help you. But a word of caution. You're almost guaranteed to get apples-to-organges comparisons. Even though you're specifying construction cost only (not soft costs, land, etc.), there are huge variables in what's reported, based on:

--Published figures being rounded up or down depending on the owner's preference. Sometimes the number is massively off.

--Taxes included or not (in my city, construction pays 9.5 sales tax).

--Buildouts included or not. An office building might be 2/3 of the final built-out space cost.

--Wide variations in finish levels.

--A large cost range depending not just on steel vs. concrete, but the many variations of each. (Which relate to not just cost, but also factors from floor thickness to availability of materials to speed of construction to vibration control, the latter being a key to labs for example)

--Whether parking is included, and how much. Big variable if an equivalent-sounding office building has 500 spaces or 1,000.

--Confusion between net rentable space and gross square footage. Even net rentable can be defined differently...for example if one tenant occupies the whole building, even the corridors might be in their rented space.

--Any other costs associated with the building. Houston seems to have a lot of grassy fringes and driveways associated with new buildings, which will normally be reported as part of the building cost.

--Soil conditions and related types of footings, shoring, etc.

That's a partial list. Speaking as a PR guy for a contractor.

SFUVancouver, are you doing Hines' Urban Land Institute/Student Urban Design Houston 2012 gig (@Downtown Post Office siting)? If so, best wishes!

If you're talking about my comment I was being sarcastic with photoLith's usual rigid reactionary statements. Public housing or projects are a failure. The role models are non-existent and there is little motivation to not continue the cycle of poverty because most lifestyles around do not liberate individuals from their circumstances. With mixed income housing atleast individuals have an opportunity to find themselves by not hanging around the same bums.

http://assets.bizjournals.com/housto...a-Exterior.jpg

Ta da! I give you the 23-story Astoria! I wouldn't get too excited yet. The land this is to be built on isn't even purchased yet and is in the middle of the BLVD Place development.

Another condo tower proposed for Uptown but yet none for downtown.:(

where did you find info on that condo tower? link? doesnt even fit in withe design of BLVD place at all.

I found this while searching google maps.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/...acy/wilson.jpg
http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/...town-building/

Does anyone know if this project started?

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/p...rising-on.html

Landry’s set to unveil Galveston Pleasure Pier plans

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/n...galveston.html

They've had a sign on that building for like a year now, and nothing yet has been done to it, or at least nothing that's visible from the outside.

Looks like Metro is asking for comments on the Central Main Station Design Competition which will be the station in downtown where the red and the east end and southeast line intersect. There are some pretty sweet and bold designs, looks very promising.

Shop Architects has the best proposal, I hope we choose that one if we can afford it.

In order it's 1, 5, 4, 3,............................2.

Any of them would achieve the purpose, but #3 is the only one having a design I like (although the color isn't great).

Historic Galveston Amusement Pier to Rise Again
 

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...81393663_n.jpg

http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/10/32/44.../3/628x471.jpg

http://ww1.hdnux.com/photos/10/32/44.../3/628x471.jpg

http://ww4.hdnux.com/photos/10/32/44.../3/628x471.jpg

Full Article

^
Oh man, that will really be amazing for Galveston! I hope that it wont be admission at the gate and more like how you can walk around Kemah and just pay to get onto certain rides and whatnot. Its really amazing that they put the money into and felt like Galveston could support such an ambitious project again.

The Woodlands is going to become its own city in 2014 I believe. Not sure what Howard Hughes Corporation's role in it will be like then. Never seen a city owned by a company before (unless you're talking about that one city near Disney World...Imagination, Florida?).