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.