PaperCity Magazine

February 2015 - Houston

Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/452972

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 71 of 71

through a manpowered system of ropes and pulleys. Et voilà, the first elevator. A less titillating but equally significant discovery took place in the 1860s. Gardener Joseph Monier, frustrated by flimsy clay flowerpots, strengthened his containers with imbedded iron mesh. Monier exhibited his invention at the Paris Exposition of 1867. That same year, he obtained his first patent on iron- reinforced troughs for horticulture. Monier subsequently obtained numerous patents, among them iron-reinforced cement panels for building facades (1869) and reinforced concrete beams (1878), both essential to the skyscraper building boom that swept New York and Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s. By the 1880s, the island of Manhattan was running out of land. As the commercial center grew increasingly congested, vertical living, previously relegated to the rickety tenements of the working class and poor, was embraced enthusiastically by middle-class and well-to-do New Yorkers. One of the first luxury high-rise apartment buildings in the country was The Dakota, erected in 1884 on the western edge of Central Park in New York. With its 65 suites, some with as many as 20 rooms, the Dakota came with a wine cellar, a gymnasium, and croquet and tennis courts, and included central heating, elevator service, and an electric generator. Houston acquired its first luxury apartment building, the seven-story Savoy, a generation later in 1909. The Beaconsfield, now in the National Register of Historic Places, soon followed, but Houstonians' enthusiasm for a vertical lifestyle was tepid at best. Unlike New York, Houston had no natural boundaries. As its commercial center expanded, Houston's elite and middle class abandoned downtown living altogether, preferring new suburban communities that pushed farther and farther out from the city as the years passed. Houstonians remained resistant to vertical living until the 1980s, when even "The City with No Limits" began to question the environmental consequences, congestion, and unrelieved monotony of boundless suburban sprawl. Atlanta, grappling with its own uninhibited growth amid forecasts that it could engulf the entire southeastern U.S. in one megalopolis, coined a term for it: "Sprawlanta." By 2000, Houston's "aha!" moment had arrived. In a generational shift, Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers reversed gears and flocked back into town, sparking a building boom that included residential high-rises inside Loop 610 and the conversion of historic downtown commercial buildings into residential dwellings. As we enter 2015, luxury and middle-market high-rises are multiplying in Houston's urban centers: Uptown District, River Oaks, City Centre, downtown Houston, and the Texas Medical Center/Museum District. Drawing a blueprint for the near future, residents and potential buyers are requesting that buildings up their game by including New York-style services such as restaurants, hairdressers, dog-walkers, state-of-the-art fitness centers and instructors, lifestyle consultants, outdoor spaces, steam rooms, game rooms, private bike storage, and cold-storage rooms. At the highest luxury level, hotel condominiums are growing in popularity. Residents may access all complimentary hotel luxury services, including housekeeping, with the option to access fee-based services such as spas, 24- hour in-room dining, on-site laundry/dry cleaning/pressing, and wireless Internet. Established examples include Houstonian Estates, which shares the campus and amenities of the Houstonian Hotel; Four Seasons Place, part of the Four Seasons Hotel; and the lease residences of Hotel Granduca and Hotel Sorella. Thinking "vertical, vertical, vertical" will shape the future for all Houstonians, regardless of where — and in what manner — they choose to live. The demand for single-family housing in and around Houston will always be strong. This is Texas; it's in our DNA. But as Houston builds "up," the pace of sprawl will slow, reducing the conversion of woods and farms to housing developments and highway extensions, and lessening the demand to expand city services to small towns that become city suburbs. johndaugherty.com The list of planned residential high-rise buildings in Houston is impressive: 100 Waugh Dr. 100 Waugh Dr., 77007 1616-1670 Post Oak Blvd. (previously Courtyard at Post Oak) NW corner of Post Oak and San Felipe 2021 Westcreek 2021 Westcreek Lane, 77027 2929 Weslayan 2929 Weslayan, 77027 Lease 6750 Main 6750 Main St., 77030 Lease Astoria 1405 Post Oak Blvd., 77056 Condo high-rise Azalea Court (Streetlight at Midlane) 4200 Westheimer, 77027 Belfiore 1275 S. Post Oak Lane @ South Wynden Dr., 77056 Condo high-Rise Block 98 900 Crawford, 77010 Brazos Towers at Bayou Manor 4141 S. Braeswood, 77025 Bunker Hill Bunker Hill at Katy Fwy, 77024 Camden Conte I 1521 Austin St, 77002 Lease Camden Conte II 1404 Leeland St., 77002 Lease Catalyst 1423 Texas, 77002 (Block 52) Lease Gables Westcreek River Oaks District — just south of San Felipe, north of Westheimer on Westcreek Ln Lease Galleria Mall high-rise Corner of Sage and West Alabama Hanover Montrose 3400 Montrose, 77006 Lease Hanover Post Oak 1750 Sky Lark Lane, 77056 Lease Hanover River Oaks West of Kirby — directly across from Whole Foods Market Lease Hanover South Hampton 5122 Morningside, 77005 Lease Landmark Tower BLVD Place, 77056 Market Square Tower 777 Preston St., 77002 Lease Marlowe 1211 Caroline St., 77002 Condo high-rise Old Texaco Bldg. + New Tower (Texaco Residential Tower) 1111 Rusk St., 77002 Lease One Market Square (Residences at Market Square) 900 Preston, 77002 Lease Pelican Builders high-rise Westcreek Lane, 77027 Condo high-rise Regent Square North Tower and Regent Square West Tower South of Allen Pkwy / north of W. Dallas (between Waugh Dr. and Shepherd Dr.), 77019 SkyHouse Houston 1625 Main St., 77002 Lease SkyHouse River Oaks 2013 Westcreek Lane, 77027 Lease The Ashby 1717 Bissonnet, 77005 Lease The Carter 4 Chelsea Blvd., 77006 Lease The Kirby Collection 3320, 3212, and 3200 Kirby Dr. The Millenium Tower 1911 Holcombe Blvd., 77030 Lease The Palazzi at Uptown Park 77056 Lease The Perennial (BBVA Compass Plaza) Post Oak Blvd., north of Westheimer Hotel and residential The Southmore Block of Caroline, Southmore, Oakdale, San Jacinto, 77004 Lease The Sovereign 3233 West Dallas St., 77019 Lease The Tower at Hermann Place (Parklane II / Helix Tower) Hermann Dr. northwest of Parklane, 77004 Lease The Tower at Uptown Park Uptown Park Blvd. at Post Oak Blvd., SE corner Lease Uptown Park Redevelopment (7 towers) Right off the west loop in Uptown West Houston Master Plan Between Wynden & Post Oak Timber, east of S. Post Oak, 77056 Hotel and residential condos A special thank you to Chris Lexmond for the list of planned high-rises. For further information, visit this website. It also has an excellent map. http://devmap.io/cities/houston 1. Highland Towers, Built 2010 2. The Huntingdon, Built 1983 3. Four Leaf Towers, Built 1982 4. 2727 Kirby, Built 2008 1. Continued from Front Cover 2. 4. 4. 3. 2.

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

Archives of this issue

view archives of PaperCity Magazine - February 2015 - Houston