Originally Posted by Ziegler Cooper

Ziegler Cooper won an invitation-only competition for the extensive renovation of the Humble Oil Headquarters building. The 44 level structure, completed in 1962 and located in the southernmost portion of Houston’s Skyline District at Milam and Bell Streets, was once the tallest building west of the Mississippi River. When the original tenant – now ExxonMobil – vacates in the second quarter of 2015, a complete transformation of the building will begin, bringing it up to compete with other Class A+ properties in downtown Houston.

Ziegler Cooper’s winning design will include deepening the current lease depths to 42 feet to add over 100,000 square feet of new rent-able area, bringing the building gross square footage to 1.4 million square feet. In addition, the owner plans to redevelop the grand plaza along Bell Street, tie in the downtown tunnel system, renovate the lobby, re-clad the building in high-performance glazing to meet LEED Gold standards and create an illuminated, iconic crown that will mark 800 Bell as a striking new addition the Houston skyline.

Originally Posted by Swamplot

Redo of Classic ExxonMobil Tower Downtown Will Eat Fins, Fatten Up

AN ENTRY posted over the weekend to the website of Ziegler Cooper Architects indicates that the local firm has won Shorenstein Properties’ invited competition to remake the soon-to-be-former ExxonMobil Building (at right), a prominent, bristly, and standoffish figure on the southern edge of Houston’s Downtown since 1962. The redo, which will be far more extensive than a simple reskinning, removes the most distinctive feature of the building, originally designed by L.A. architects Welton Becket for Humble Oil: the 7-foot-deep shades, cantilevered from marble-clad columns, that help shield sunlight from all but the top of the tower’s 44 stories.

The fate of those sunshades may explain why Shorenstein selected Ziegler Cooper’s design for the building on the block surrounded by Bell, Milam, Travis, and Leeland it bought from ExxonMobil earlier this year : The airspace formerly occupied (and cooled) by the shades won’t just be surrounded by a new glass skin; the newly enclosed area will be swallowed and captured for additional floor space, according to the architects’ drawings and description. That’ll fatten up the floor plates to a now-popular 42-ft. depth and increase the structure’s gross square footage by more than 100,000 sq. ft., to 1.4 million sq. ft.

In place of those unshaded top 2 floors at the top, now home to the Petroleum Club, the new building, referred to now by its address of 800 Bell St., will show off its new fancy light-up forehead. At the base, a new plaza facing Bell St. (above) will at long last tie the building into the downtown tunnel system.

ExxonMobil is currently leasing the building back from Shorenstein; renovations are scheduled to begin in 2015, after the company moves its last downtown employees to its new suburban North Houston campus headquarters.

Originally Posted by Urbannizer (Post 6334489)

This is how the building looks today:
http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/H...Jan08-010a.jpg

Originally Posted by toxteth o'grady (Post 6349836)

I think I like the lines of the original building better. The remake looks a bit too much like an old-style stereo woofer and appears to have borrowed from the form of the Hess Tower.

But someone will snap it up.

Originally Posted by Yackemflaber69 (Post 6349886)

I think they should leave it the way it is.

Originally Posted by Yackemflaber69 (Post 6349886)

I think they should leave it the way it is.

Originally Posted by JayPro (Post 6633411)

This is just me from up here on Long Island (i.e. maybe not qualified 100% to feel the architectural pulse of a completely different metro area) but...
...the author of the above piece doth protest too much. Were there people in her particular setion of the Fourth Estate similarly decrying the "eventual death of 'when-men-were-men' building design" when during the '80's oil boom years they were putting up highrises that back in the day were considered (at least by conservative critics) almost wildly ahead of their time in terms of form and shape? I wist not unless proven otherwise.
To be honest, I don't care if it's Houston, Dallas, LA or even New York. '60's highrise design was given the title of Brutalist for a reason. This building's original façade is quintessentially so, and I really must admit to not being too sad to see it go.

Originally Posted by Urbannizer (Post 6633238)

Originally Posted by Chron

In surprise move, Parker now looks to lease justice space

City Council members are questioning Mayor Annise Parker's surprise announcement late Wednesday that the city may move its police and courts operations into the Exxon tower downtown.


A deal is far from done, officials cautioned, but the city may lease the 45-story building at 800 Bell from Shorenstein Properties, which has launched a joint venture with Griffin Partners for the "possible redevelopment" of the tower, a Griffin press release said, to house courtrooms and other city needs.

The announcement comes two weeks after Parker pushed the council to vote on the future of the city's police-and-courts buildings, offering a choice between constructing a new "justice complex" or repairing the city's crumbling facilities. With both options ranging from hundreds of millions of dollars to more than $1 billion, and with both requiring voter approval and perhaps even a tax increase to fund, the council balked, punting the item back to Parker.