HOUSTON | Houston Ballet Center for Dance

AstrosFreak · #1 Posted: **Sep 4, 2009, 5:07 AM**

The Houston Ballet has begun construction on a new facility in downtown Houston to house executive offices and practice facilities, across the street from the Wortham Center, which it will connect to by sky bridge.

Renders and extra info courtesy of Swamplot:

Quote:

When the building is finished in 2011, what will wayward pedestrians poking past the new Houston Ballet Center for Dance from the intersection of Congress and Smith streets Downtown be able to glimpse of the action inside?
. . . the architects . . . envisioned the granite like a proscenium stage, framing views from the street through windows on several floors of the north and west facades.

Those windows, [Gensler managing principal James] Furr added, are like a “billboard for dance,” enabling passersby to see classes and rehearsals.

Furr spoke to the Chronicle’s Molly Glentzer, and Gensler provided more-up-to-date images of the 115,000-sq.-ft. facility, which will be clad in black granite on one portion and “a light plaster” on the other.

AstrosFreak · #2 Posted: **Sep 14, 2009, 4:09 PM**

Webcam:
http://www.oxblue.com/pro/open/houst...centerfordance

SouthmoreAve · #3 Posted: **Nov 23, 2009, 2:34 PM**

Sorry for the quality, its usually a good webcam update, but there had been some rain yesterday, and some fog this morning.

Wattleigh · #4 Posted: **Nov 23, 2009, 7:26 PM**

Here's a photo I shot over the fence yesterday afternoon.

Rothwell · #5 Posted: **Dec 9, 2009, 2:27 AM**

Very nice

SouthmoreAve · #6 Posted: **Dec 15, 2009, 2:12 AM**

I like the fall foliage thats peeking out in the corner.

SouthmoreAve · #7 Posted: **Dec 18, 2009, 10:47 PM**

SouthmoreAve · #8 Posted: **Jan 2, 2010, 5:03 PM**

Webcam Update....

SouthmoreAve · #9 Posted: **Jan 7, 2010, 1:37 AM**

Complex01 · #10 Posted: **Feb 3, 2010, 5:38 AM**

I like the fact they are using steel for this project. Its rising up...

AstrosFreak · #11 Posted: **Mar 2, 2010, 11:17 PM**

Construction Cam grab, courtesy of SouthmoreAve

Golyadkin · #12 Posted: **Dec 14, 2010, 3:10 AM**

Sorry if this is reviving such an old thread, but here's an updated picture, taken from the OxBlue Construction Camera:

photoLith · #13 Posted: **Dec 14, 2010, 3:20 AM**

That looks pretty sweet, Ill have to go downtown tomorrow and see it. Its a hell of a lot better than a parking lot.

JoninATX · #14 Posted: **Mar 24, 2011, 7:32 AM**

Looks good... should be opening soon.

Tumbleweed_Tx · #15 Posted: **Mar 24, 2011, 10:21 AM**

the Grand Opening is April 9

Obey · #16 Posted: **Mar 24, 2011, 10:54 AM**

Can someone take another picture of it? It doesn't seem to look like the renders

patriotizzy · #17 Posted: **Mar 24, 2011, 7:50 PM**

Someone should take picture from ground level, from all sides. Please!

MichaelJ · #18 Posted: **Apr 10, 2011, 5:07 PM**

Recognized for designing some of the world’s tallest buildings, architect Marshall Strabala has designed the Houston Ballet’s sleek new “Center for Dance,” one of his smallest buildings ever. The 115,000-square-foot facility opened in April 2011 and the Houston Chronicle has said that it “could be the most exciting new architecture Houston has seen in decades.”

Located in Houston’s downtown theatre district, the six-story structure was designed with sustainable features and boasts nine dance studios, a dance lab that seats 200 for presentations and rehearsals, and artistic, administrative and support facilities for Houston Ballet and its academy.

Strabala previously designed another noted performing arts venue, the LG Art Center, a 1103-seat auditorium in Seoul, Korea, for which he won a USITT Architecture Award.

Strabala, who has said the Houston Ballet is his favorite work to date, designed the building while Director of Design at Gensler. He now leads 2DEFINE Architecture, a global architectural firm with offices in Shanghai, Seoul and Chicago.

Strabala is perhaps best known for designing three of the world’s tallest buildings: the Burj Khalifa (which he did with Adrian Smith); Nanjing Greenland Financial Centre in Nanjing, China; and the 128-story Shanghai Tower, now under construction in Shanghai’s Pudong district and slated for 2014 completion.

Learn more about the Houston Ballet building at:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artatt..._wh_1.php#more

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsde...hall-strabala/

Find out more about architect Marshall Strabala and his firm at:

http://www.flickr.com/people/architectural-design/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/archite...n/collections/

http://www.define-arch.com

MichaelJ · #19 Posted: **Apr 10, 2011, 5:09 PM**

MichaelJ · #20 Posted: **Apr 10, 2011, 5:23 PM**