GDI
Commercial Drywall, Inc.
Craftsman
m 5 No. 1
November_1983___
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Ubi Grteemway Plaza
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ODG to tegBo w©ir[k ©oi [Htastto Design CDI crews will soon be active on Greenway Plaza’s newest and most unusual building, the Houston Design Center. The 10-story, 500,000 square foot HDC is being billed as a “designer showcase” for commercial and residential furnishings. As a showroom facility, HDC will be a departure from the conventiona design of either an office building or a shopping center. It will feature a variety of shops opening onto a stairstepped atrium. This stepped interior core will run diagonally through the center of the building where a series of escalators will connect each floor.
The building’s exterior will likewise be unusual. Rather than a predominantly glass exterior, HDC will incorporate less than 20 percent glass in its exterior curtainwall. The remainder will be a highly, polished black Impala granite imported from Italy with one and one-half foot accent bands of a Canadian gray granite encircling the building at each floor level. HDC is designed to serve the needs of the Southwest’s architectural and interior design community by housing manufacturers and sales representatives of lightings, furnishings, accessories, wall and floor coverings, and wall and ceiling systems.
The 10-story Houston Design Center will offer Greenway Plaza a unique architectural style. As the project’s Interior contractor, CDI will begin construction on the showroom facility in mid-December.
The architectural design represents the work of Cambridge Seven Associates and Lloyd Jones Brewer Associates. The building is a joint venture of Century and the Mischer development companies. For CDI, the project will be built for general contractor, Texas Construction. CDI activity on HDC is scheduled to begin in mid-December and will be under the supervision of Paul Hering. Paul is presently wrapping up the Operations Center in downtown Houston where he has been for the past year. Prior to that he supervised the core portion of the Gulf Tower. Contract sales manager, Mike Holland handled sales on the project. According to Mike, the project will be in part like a basic core project and at the same time much like a shopping mall. “There’s the typical core part of the building but beyond that it starts to look like a Galleria or something. Each floor has about 600-700 lineal feet of furrdowns in the atrium area,” says Mike. “There’s no tenant buildout per se as so much of the work will be the drywall in the atrium. “One unusual part of the project is a monitor on the top of the building. It’s actually a skylight with sides and a top, which well have a part in building,” says Mike. “Because it is an unusual building, we’ll be doing some other specialty items other than drywall.” Project management for HDC will be provided by Wayne Lueckemeyer. “Paul and I worked together on the Gulf Tower and the Operations Center,” says Wayne, “and I have a lot of respect for his abilities. I think the Design Center will be an interesting job for the both of US.