Hess Tower
Gilbane Building Co. of Houston began construction on the 29-story “Discovery Tower” office building in downtown Houston in March 2008 for Trammell Crow Co. of Houston and Principal Real Estate Investors of Des Moines, Iowa. In January, the developers announced that Hess Corp. of New York had signed a long-term lease to occupy the entire 844,763-sq-ft building and renamed the building Hess Tower.

Image: Courtesy of Gensler

A renderning of The Hess Tower, which features 10 rooftop wind turbines.

“The success of the lease proves the triple bottom line works,” says O’Neal Furr, LEED AP, an associate with Gensler’s Houston office, which designed the building to achieve LEED-gold certification and to meet the Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star standards. “By doing well for the people and planet, you can also make a profit. The building does all of that successfully.”

Aaron Thielhorn, principal of office development for Trammell Crow, announced in a written statement that the Hess deal was one of the most significant leases signed in Houston over the past several years.

“Hess considered a number of factors when we decided to select Discovery Tower as our new location,” says Maripat Sexton, spokeswoman for Hess. “The decision was based on space availability, technological capabilities and location. The fact the office will be LEED-certified was definitely a factor in the choice to move to…[the] tower.”

Texas Construction previously reported project cost estimated at $156 million. Neither Trammell Crow nor Gilbane would confirm the cost.

The first two levels contain retail space and a lobby. It is topped with 27 levels of Class A office space. An 8-ft-thick mat foundation, surrounded by 120-ft-deep drilled piers on three sides of the perimeter, supports the cast-in-place tower. A combination of spread footings and drilled piers support the cast-in-place garage.

Two levels of basement parking sit below the tower, and a two-story entry pavilion offers access to one of two structural-steel pedestrian bridges, connecting the building to Houston’s skybridge system. Another bridge links the tower with its 10-level, 420,000-sq-ft parking garage, which is across the street to the north.