HOUSTON | 1600 Louisiana | 859 FT / 262 M | 52 FLOORS

[phillyskyline]

Congrats Htown!

[Deepstar]

Sweet! another good sized tower added to Houston's skyline

[toxteth o'grady]

The State of Texas is offering $12 million to encourage this building to get built.

[Urbannizer]

A forumer over on HAIF says 1600 Louisiana is now proposed at 52-floors.

[TallBob]

Nice towers Houston... I'd change one of those twins though.

[shakman]

Originally Posted by TallBob

Nice towers Houston... I'd change one of those twins though.

There are similarities though not identically similar. The two on the right are existing structures.

[TallBob]

^ Ooops! Sorry! ^

[Urbannizer]

HAIF user Tanglewoods describes the design for 1600 Louisiana. Sounds like the design has changed from the rendering we have.

Originally Posted by Tanglewoods

I am not an architect so let me try to describe this thing....

The tower has to vertical setbacks on two sides of the building. All four faces of the building have a slight curve to them (there are no straight sections).

The coolest feature IMO is that the tower is smaller at the bottom. The lower few levels (i think its 1-3) are setback from the upper floors by 10-15 feet. There is a gentle slope up which will give a very cool view from the ground. Seeing 49 floors cantilevered above your head should be pretty cool.

The podium portion of the tower will be crazy cool. It seems like this section is still in flux but everything that I have seen is awesome

[toxteth o'grady]

Originally Posted by Urbannizer

A forumer over on HAIF says 1600 Louisiana is now proposed at 52-floors.

Eh, what's an extra couple of floors among friends?

[Urbannizer]

Construction start date has been pushed back to 2015:

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/...old/?cmpid=bna

[shakman]

Originally Posted by Urbannizer

Construction start date has been pushed back to 2015:

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/...old/?cmpid=bna

Bummer. I was looking forward for this to start in 2014.

[UTEPman]

I feel like this tower won't happen now, or at least not in downtown and probably not at 800ft.

[treblelino]

Originally Posted by UTEPman

I feel like this tower won't happen now, or at least not in downtown and probably not at 800ft.

More like 80 feet. This is Houston.

[Urbannizer]

Chevron is committed to downtown. All signs still point to them building the tower.

This was posted on HAIF, days before the announcement was officially made:

A few notes:

• Chevron has delayed the start of this project until 2015 for multiple reasons, one of them being to allow more time for the design.
• The tower will get built, there have been 0 discussions regarding cancellation.
• The height of the tower was increased shortly after the project was awarded to the GC. (they added two floors)
• With the additional time for design there are discussions regarding the desired height for the tower, nothing is currently set in stone and anyone who throws out a height figure right now needs to understand that the height of the tower is FLEXIBLE with the start of construction pushed out.

[toxteth o'grady]

Originally Posted by Urbannizer

Chevron is committed to downtown. All signs still point to them building the tower.

They're slowed down because of a $55 billion gasworks they're building in Australia. Hard to believe even a big oil company can have cash flow problems.

[Rail Claimore]

I think this tower will be redesigned for a supertall... calling it now.

[toxteth o'grady]

Another ten floors? If it happens, look for the corporate headquarters to move in.

[Urbannizer]

Chevron has grabbed another block in downtown, for future growth (another tower/HQ relocation to Houston).

Originally Posted by Houston Chronicle

Chevron Purchases Downtown Block

Chevron Corp., which last month said it was putting plans to build a 50-story office tower downtown on-hold, had recently purchased another parcel nearby.

In late November, the oil and gas giant acquired the block bounded by Milam, Travis, Leeland and Pease. The property is used primarily as a surface parking lot, but it contains a low-rise office building at its southwest corner.


A Chevron spokesman said Friday that the acquisition is part of the company's "broader effort to support future growth in downtown Houston."

"This property acquisition simply gives us additional facilities flexibility as we expand downtown," Justin Higgs said in an emailed statement. "This transaction further underscores our commitment to building the previously announced urban campus facility and continuing to expand our employee base and overall presence in downtown Houston."

This southern end of downtown has seen some significant changes of late. Projects are under construction or in the works for residential developments and a new hotel project.

Chevron's new parcel is situated between the new Tellepsen Family Downtown YMCA and the Exxon Mobil building at 800 Bell. Exxon is planning to move out of its building and into a new campus north of town in 2015. The Irving-based oil company sold its building to San Francisco's Shorenstein Properties, which is planning a major renovation of the property.

"This block benefits from all of the development around it," Central Houston's Laura Van Ness said of Chevron's new land.

Chevron purchases downtown block - Houston Chronicle

[Urbannizer]

Short-term plans call for the new block purchased by Chevron to be used as parking and lay-down site during construction of 1600 Louisiana.

http://downtownhouston.org/site_medi...te_2013-4Q.pdf

[shakman]

(delete post)