Hidden corner of downtown to get new life
Starting next year, a long-dormant part of downtown’s Bank of America Center will be redeveloped into a restaurant
A curious corner of downtown’s Bank of America Center will be transformed into a restaurant topped by a floor of new office or conference space that could open by the end of 2018.
Acurious corner of downtown’s Bank of America Center will be transformed into a restaurant topped by a floor of new office or conference space that could open by the end of 2018.
Houston-based M-M Properties tapped Sydness Architects to find a way to utilize the former Western Union building that was wrapped inside the bank tower when it was constructed. That space, at 700 Louisiana at Louisiana and Capitol, was completely hidden by a granite facade. It has not been used for sending telegrams for decades.
“By ’83, when we did this building, it was still cranking away as a transfer station for Western Union,” said Jeff Sydness, principal of Sydness Architects, who worked with Philip Johnson and John Burgee on the original design for developer Gerald D. Hines. It opened in 1983 as RepublicBank Center across from Pennzoil Place, another Johnson-designed icon.
Bringing the longdormant Western Union building into the open will be part of a $15 million project that could add up to 30,000 square feet to the 56-story skyscraper. Sydness said work is to begin in February or March.
A second phase, which will add two floors of glassencased offices above the Bank of America’s expansive lobby along with tenant amenities in the lobby, will begin after the namesake tenant vacates in 2019.
Originally, Hines had pre-
ferred to clear the block bounded by Rusk, Capitol, Smith and Louisiana but could not easily relocate the Western Union building or, more importantly, the equipment and miles of cable around it without disrupting service. The costs would have run into the millions of dollars.
Rather than build around it, the building was incorporated into the larger design.
“That building housed the heart of Western Union,” a Hines spokesperson was quoted in the Chronicle as saying in 1982. “It contained all the machinery and wires, components and all that was needed to send telegrams.”
Some of the gabled building’s red granite, from Sweden, will be replaced with windows in the restaurant area as well as additions above the bank lobby, according to Sydness. The new restaurant space will have an entry on Louisiana and be accessible to tenants from the lobby. Walls currently shared with the lobby will be opened up and glassed in, retaining the structural granite columns.
Other amenities such as a coffee shop will be added to the lobby to make the building more marketable to today’s tenants.
“It will be a lot more friendly as a building on the streetscape than it has been,” Sydness said during a recent tour of the building.
A tenant for the restaurant has not been finalized, Sydness said. The ultimate build-out and design on the space will be determined by the restaurant that leases it. M-M Properties, which recently refinanced the building with its institutional partner, previously said it is envisions a “white tablecloth” restaurant.
TransCanada, which recently expanded its space at 700 Louisiana, is the building’s largest tenant. Bank of America will consolidate its three downtown offices to nearby 800 Capitol in 2019.
Phase II of the renovations will add two floors of offices with glass walls and railings, and new elevators and stairs. The transparent offices will be visible from the lobby of the 100-foottall banking hall.
“We’re just going to kind of slip in these two floor slabs,” Sydness said.