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HOUSTON | Main Place | 630 FT / 192 M | 46 FLOORS
There are 4 office tower projects planned for downtown Houston right now will all 4 set to open in 2010 if things go as planned.
Main Place will be the name of Hines' latest development. Located at 811 Main Street, the building will contain 1 million square feet of space in 46 floors. It will be LEED certified-silver and stand 630 feet tall. Here's the first rendering I could find; http://images.chron.com/photos/2007/...ineGallery.jpg and another http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/1...galleryey0.jpg other projects include the following; Discovery Tower 30 floors of office space fronting the new 12 acre park with an adjacent garage connected via skybridge. Gensler's design will be LEED Certified as well and contain 871,000 square feet of space on 30 floors. Trammell Crow is the developer and the building will feature ground floor retail. Ground breaking is set for January 2008. 6 Houston Center Crescent's newest addition to their Houston Center project will rise about 2 blocks from the Discovery Tower on the Eastside of downtown. The tower will contain just shy of 584,000 square feet and rise 29 floors above ground. Ground breaking is set for February 2008. HKS Architects of Dallas is the firm of record. Additionally, Brookfield Properties is floating plans for 2 other downtown towers. The first would be located at 1500 Smith Street and contain anywhere from 35 to 42 floors. The second and most likely to get built tower is being called the "Gateway Tower" since it will be developed on the far Southwest side of downtown and can never lose its Western views due to Sam Houston Park. The Gateway is proposed to have 30 floors and an rumored tenant has surfaced in Devon Energy. |
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Very good looking tower. Going to be a great addition to Houston's skyline... :yes: |
Can't wait for the other renderings to come out. MainPlace was the last proposal, but first to produce a rendering. Here is a Chron article written today:
Hines project hits home The Houston-based developer's 46-story office tower is one of four being planned for downtown By NANCY SARNOFF Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle Hines, the Houston-based firm that develops real estate across the globe, is planning its newest building in the heart of its hometown. The new project, to be called MainPlace, will be a 46-story, 1 million-square-foot office building at 811 Main St. between Walker and Rusk, the company said Tuesday. The modern glass tower will replace a series of worn-out structures, including the Montagu Hotel, situated on "one of the most blighted blocks in downtown," the company said. "We believe there will be a tremendous outpouring of improvement on adjacent blocks," said Mark Cover, an executive vice president with Hines. Plans call for the building to be completed by late 2010. As the company begins to prepare its site this week for construction, at least three other developers are moving forward with plans for their own top-class office towers. While none of the firms has secured a main tenant for any of the buildings — once considered a prerequisite to breaking ground — each has expressed confidence in its abilities to do so. "There's certainly enough demand to fill more than one building," said Matt Khourie, president of the U.S. central region for Trammell Crow Co., which said it will break ground early next year on a 30-story tower near Discovery Green, downtown's new park. "Whether there's enough to fill all four buildings, the market's going to have to dictate that." Expressing doubt Some experts have doubts. Given the recent credit crunch that has made it more expensive for companies to borrow money, "I think that some of these plans are being floated probably somewhat prematurely," said Ralph Howard, CEO of the Houston-based Situs Cos., a real estate consulting firm. "I would think if you had to speculate today, not all of those will get off the ground as soon as they were anticipated to." Still, developers said downtown office buildings are running out of space, creating pent-up demand. The vacancy rate for top-of-the-market buildings here has risen to 91.4 percent, according to CB Richard Ellis. Trammell Crow said it will start construction in January on its two-block development at La Branch and McKinney, bordering Discovery Green. Playing off the name of the park, the company's Discovery Tower will have 871,000 square feet of space. A parking garage will be built on an adjacent block to the north. Designed by Gensler to attain a rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, the project will have retail space on the ground floor and is expected to have a sky bridge connecting it to another building with tunnel access. "We really feel Discovery Green is going to be a difference-maker for downtown, just like Millennium Park in Chicago and Bryant Park in New York," Khourie said. Downtown advantage Despite Houston's strong economy, David Wolff, founder of Houston-based real estate firm Wolff Cos., isn't convinced that all four towers will be built, but developers with strong downtown tenant bases will have an advantage. Paul Layne of Brookfield Properties said his firm has been meeting with companies that could be tenants in its proposed tower near its Allen Center complex. And Crescent Real Estate Equities Co., the Fort Worth firm that was recently acquired by affiliates of Morgan Stanley Real Estate, is also moving forward with plans for a new tower at the Houston Center project on the east end of downtown. The proposed 29-story building, designed by HKS of Dallas and to be named 6 Houston Center, will have 583,582 square feet of rentable space, said Joseph Pitchford, a vice president of Crescent. Groundbreaking will occur in February with completion expected in the first quarter of 2010, Pitchford said. While the national economy will be modestly affected by the tightening of credit, overall demand for energy and commodities will continue to rise, putting Houston in a strong position, Hines' Cover said. The company is even looking into the future beyond MainPlace. Hines is locking up a second location on Main Street, between Texas and Capitol, where it's considering another office building. "It's a great opportunity, whether it's this cycle or the next," said John Mooz, a vice president for the company. Meanwhile, its current focus is on MainPlace, which will be the company's "most sustainable effort in the city." Going green Hines said the building will be pre-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council with a silver rating through the group's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — Core and Shell program. The council awards points to buildings with features such as air-cleaning systems, individual temperature controls, recycled building materials and purified water systems. The tower will be clad in horizontal sunshades of glass and aluminum that will wrap around the buildings' curved north and south facades. The west facade will be shaded from evening sunlight by vertical glass fins, which will soar 630 feet from Main Street's sidewalk to the building's crown. It will also have a recessed "sky garden" on one of the top floors and a parking garage with a "green" or landscaped roof. "We want to make sure this building serves as a benchmark of what urban architecture should be," said Jon Pickard of Pickard Chilton, the building's architect. Rental rates will be in the low $30-per-square-foot range, Cover said. Hines wouldn't reveal the project cost. Spurring more projects The company said it believes the project will spur further redevelopment in that part of downtown. Wolff, who is also chairman of the city's transit authority, said the rail line has started paying off in terms of development along Main Street, which was not a "good business address" before the transit improvements. "It was a very unattractive street, and it really divided downtown," he said. "Now it's the center of downtown instead of being a divider between east and west." http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...s/5073679.html |
Good luck to Houston. It's about damn time it's got some more of those impressive tower slabs that the city is famous for.
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Hines puts up some quality projects, we're pretty pleased in Chicago with their 300 N. Lasalle (u/c) and 200 N. Riverside (anchor tenant signed, set to start around 2008). Good-looking stuff in Houston, too.
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Shouldn't MainPlace have its own thread?
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Oh, hell yes. That tower will stand out for sure in the old part of downtown on the east side. From the west, though you won't even notice it with that 700 to 1,000 foot curtain of skyscrapers. *Sigh* I love Houston. :)
Love that notch, that is some quality architecture. |
That is a sharp looking tower. Too bad it will be buried behind so many other buildings. A problem few cities really have.
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it would really go good with the Texas @ Main tower if its built =X
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You make a good poiint c4smoke, CityCentre and this one will really modernize our skyline.
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Awesome tower!!!
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Here is another rendering. Taken from the site http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/...c=11978&st=450
http://i12.tinypic.com/4r7a4j8.jpg |
^^^That is a really beautiful rendering...Can't wait til this baby starts growing on the skyline
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Amazing design and shape !
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That is a really sharp looking building. Great design.
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Sweet. I hope that rendering is correct with the reflection of the Gulf Building on its facade. Very nice tower. I'm loving the lighting design!!
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Corner Store being cleared out on site, should all be torn down for construction over the next 3 months..
Info from PAC on HAIF... image of the store going down is there also.. http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/...dpost&p=202152 |
i actually drove by this weekend and saw they started tearing some stuff down. Very kewl...
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They are making progress with the clearing of the block. The first portion to go has been entirely cleared out and is used as an entry point for the workers to continue their day-to-day work. A scaffold is up around the 6-story New West Building as well as the old storefronts along Main Street.
The last part to go will be the Old Montagu hotel, and that will be imploded in Early January. I'll get some photos of the site soon. With that said, this building will have more of an impact on the south & east views of the skyline, especially with a number of the projects proposed around the Discovery Green area. That view should be the one to watch over the upcoming years I think. There is also an official website up for the building, though it is extremely minimal (rendering & email) at the moment |
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