Tag Archives: Downtown Houston construction

Houston

Houston Visitors Center Moves to Convention District

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For many years, the official Houston Visitors Center has been a mainstay at City Hall, welcoming tourists and residents alike.

But on June 1st, the center opened its doors at a new location in the George R. Brown Convention Center, just steps away from the rapidly rising Marriott Marquis hotel. Here’s the information from Houston First Corporation, via Houston First News…

…Something new this week in our Downtown Convention District. The Houston Visitors Center… quietly opened its new doors on Monday June 1st. A grand opening is planned for July. The Visitors Center is housed just across from the George R. Brown.

The now vacated space at City Hall will be converted into event facilities.

The relocation is the latest in a sweeping transfiguration of the Convention District.  When complete in 2016, the George R. Brown will be the only convention center in the state connected to 2 1,000-room premium hotels.  Also under renovation, the GRB will feature a new promenade with at least 7 street-level restaurants facing Discovery Green, a flagship Starbucks Coffee shop at the Hilton Americas and a whole host of other signature amenities.

With all of these big moves aimed at improving the Downtown tourism experience, it only makes sense that the Houston Visitors Center be near all of the action, and closer to tourists hungry for Bayou City Swag.

HVC City Hall

The Houston Visitors Center in its former location at City Hall.  The new address is 1300 Avenida de Las Americas.  

(Photo credit:  Waymarking.com)

 

Houston

Crane Insane: Downtown Houston Construction Update

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By now, most Houstonians are used to seeing the occasional crane in downtown, and even more so in the Texas Medical Center. There is always something being built anew in the Bayou City these days.

But as we enter the latter part of 2014, Downtown construction is about to go from a small group of projects to insane with cranes. This rapid growth, the largest growth spurt seen in Houston since the 1980s, will also have it’s fair share of growing pains. As Swamplot reports, traffic can get tricky…

IF YOU’RE wondering what the late-night traffic holdup is in and around Main St. and Texas Ave. over the weekend, here’s your explainer: 180 mixing trucks are going to be lining up to pour a continuous stream of concrete onto this site surrounded by Main, Texas, Fannin, and Capitol streets downtown, where D.E. Harvey builders is putting together a little office building — now slated to rise 48 stories — for the Hines CalPERS Green development fund. The action starts at 7 pm on Saturday and should finish up around 3 in the afternoon the next day.

Weekend street closures are just the beginning. If you are a frequent visitor to downtown, start planning some alternate routes now. By the fourth quarter of 2014, downtown should see 15 simultaneous projects (possibly more) entering the high construction phase. That translates to a lot of blocked streets!

The motivation behind the copious construction is in part due to the business community’s self-imposed deadline of having a new and different downtown by the 2017 Super Bowl. Hopefully everything can get done by then, but for the meantime, Houstonians are definitely going to notice the changes.

Here are some pictures of the 609 Main construction this weekend, along with a preview of the coming rail stations…

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Here is the crane base for 609 Main 

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A view of the assembly crane (needed to construct the primary cranes) with a second project crane in the background.

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Some projects will be completed this year, like the Houston MetroRail expansion. Here is a view of Central Station for the Green and Purple Line. 

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Here is the Main Street portion of Central Station. Houston’s new rail transit services should start in December 2014

 

 

 

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Downtown Houston’s Construction BOOM

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If you haven’t figured it out yet, Houston is a city and metro that is growing… FAST. Today, Harris County has swelled to a staggering 4.25 million people. everywhere you look in and around Houston, construction is happening… apartments, townhomes, new shops and stores seem to be starting every day. 

But now, the Central Business district is about to heat up as fast as the greater metro. Starting in 2014, Downtown Houston is about to enter it’s greatest period of simultaneous construction activity since the late 70s and 80s. Chevron just announced the coming construction of a new 50-story tower, which would be the 2nd tallest construction project in Texas since the 80s. And that’s not even the half of it… Hines is set to announce an even taller skyscraper than Chevron in the near future. 

However the CBD’s growth is much more than mega high rises. The flurry of construction will be all over downtown. Besides the completion of the city’s three new rail lines in 2014, here’s some other projects that are underway or soon to commence… 

Marriott Marquis– a new 1,000 room hotel in the convention district 
JW Marriott-an historic restoration of 806 Main St. Converted into a 325 room hotel 
HSPVA– the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts

Nau Center for Texas Cultural Heritage

500 Crawford– a seven story residential complex

The Savoy restoration/ Hotel


And lots more. 


From the Downtown Houston marketing initiative, here is their latest attempt to try and keep up with all of the construction, plans and rumors. It’s going to be an exciting few years in downtown.