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The Woodlands Towers At The Waterway


bachanon

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  • 4 weeks later...

First of all, I agree that the The Woodlands will not see a "death spiral" within most of our lifetimes.  And it's not because Exxon just moved 10,000 jobs to the area.  And it has nothing to do with location near the airport.  And it has nothing to do with The Woodlands Development Corporation and what they may have done right or wrong.  And it has nothing to do with housing values or household incomes.

 

It has everything to do with all those f*cking trees we have here.  Those trees!  There has to be a 100-to-1 ratio of trees-to-people The Woodlands.  Even after living here 7 years, it's just so much more damned beautiful than everywhere else.  I've been looking for 7 years for the next place I might someday move to.  I've looked all over the country.  And I can't find anything that looks prettier.

 

In the last few years, all the rage in architecture and interior design seems to be greenery.  I see green roofs, green walls, skyscrapers with greenery growing all over them, moss-covered bathroom mats, you-name-it.  But The Woodlands has been there for nearly 50 years.  In a zoning-less city like Houston where billboards line early every foot of I-45 and strip malls have eradicated nearly every last tree on FM-1960, The Woodlands stands out.  It's a fairy tale land.  It's a bubble.  It's a Disney World.  Even after all these years.  I'd love to hate it.  But I can't.  It's like trying to hate New York's Central Park.  You can't do it.  It connects with us on a primal level.

 

Looking at the new Anadarko Tower, I'm underwhelmed.  No green stuff growing on the exterior?  No balconies with covered with trees like the Bosco Verticale in Italy or the Flower Tower in France?  Do we live in a damned backwater?  We're the 4th largest city in the richest country on earth!  Why the heck aren't we blazing the trail in these new green buildings?  Why are we looking at cheap glass boxes going up around town that look like they could have been built in 1980?  And why in The Woodlands of all places?

 

And just when will more communities follow The Woodlands lead?  Never?  There will never be any more communities planned like The Woodlands?  We can't preserve a natural greenbelt along our roads?  We can't force home builders to keep trees before they lay foundations?  We can't have parking lots with protected strips of trees?  Why is The Woodlands the only place in America that seems to have its head screwed on properly?  After 50 years no less?  In the midst of a vibrant ecological revolution going on worldwide?

 

P.S. And how the heck has HAIF survived all these years?  I thought Facebook killed all sites like this.  And sorry I haven't dropped in lately.  I guess it has been about 5 years since I posted last.

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  • 4 weeks later...

i'm imagining a twenty story tower to the right of anadarko II (10 waterway) and a 40ish story tower (rumored to be on the east super block) in between anadarko I & II from this perspective.  not to get off topic, but with that view i thought it worth mentioning.

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It's the Fort Worth of Houston---or looks like it anyway.

 

after a quick check: ft. worth's CBD contains 9.9 million square feet of office space; the woodlands development contains 7.9 million square feet of office space.  although not an apples to apples comparison, the whole of the woodlands' office space will come close to the size of downtown ft. worth in the near future.

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Nah, that would be Galveston. The Woodlands is more like Plano or Irving.

 

Plano & Irving are both 2-3 times as big as the Woodlands.

 

Actually per Wikipedia,  The Woodlands is right behind San Angelo.

 

 

 

So that could be their slogan.   "We're the San Angelo of Houston!"

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yep.  plano is huge.  almost 300,000 people.  i found a 150,000,000 office building with hotel about to be built......way out of the woodlands' league (for now ;) )

 

there are two other locations near anadarko on the south side of the waterway that do not appear to be owned by the woodlands development company.  office building are planned to go their, but i do not know who owns them.  it would not be a surprise to find that anadarko does.

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yep.  plano is huge.  almost 300,000 people.  i found a 150,000,000 office building with hotel about to be built......way out of the woodlands' league (for now ;) )

 

there are two other locations near anadarko on the south side of the waterway that do not appear to be owned by the woodlands development company.  office building are planned to go their, but i do not know who owns them.  it would not be a surprise to find that anadarko does.

 

A 150,000,000 dollar office/hotel project for Plano?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Would somebody be kind enough to snap a few photos of the progress on this as well as the Waterway building across the street.....and if there's time, the Nordstroms location at the mall? I'm sad that nobody cares about a 32-story building going up in The Woodlands :(

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Excellent pictures!!!  I hate to follow those, but I snapped a couple for wxman today too.

 

 

 

912018_10200896037904303_1927986802_n.jp

 

912344_10200896030264112_2129529393_n.jp

 

912327_10200896010263612_1989437698_n.jp



......the last one is from the new nordstrom's construction site.  you can see a remaining wall from sears on the lower left.

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Bachanon! Thanks so much! Anadarko's building is more ''ho hum'' than I thought it would be. I guess I expected it to be ''broad shouldered'' like the first tower. This one looks frumpy compared to the first tower. Thoughts?

 

i think the finished product will be attractive, at least on the waterway side.  it has a notch towards the top that we do not see in the construction yet.  it does look thinner than some of the renderings appear, but i think that makes it look sleek.  the woodlands needs a tall tower closer to lake woodlands as a bookend to the forming downtown area.  of course, nothing 30 stories or so are planned, that we know of, on that side of town center.

 

i heard that a second type of water taxis are in the works to connect hughes landing on the north end of the lake with the waterway.  because the waterway with the current water taxis is at a higher level, the new "thing" will have to be completely separate from the existing waterway taxis.  hughes landing is about to break ground on tower number two.  kona grill is going in on the first floor of 4 waterway square, right across the street from anadarko II.  

 

the hotel at waterway square is supposed to break ground this year and as soon as a tenant is signed for 10 waterway ave, that's going up too.  there's so much going and many people are being "mum" on coming announcements.  i see a lot of zipped lips and half smiles lately when new things "that aren't ready for publc consumption" are mentioned.

 

i hope that the developers do not get over-confident and continue to use restraint as the woodlands has managed to do in the past.  i digress.......anadarko II, i think, will be a better finished product than it appears at this time.

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Thanks for the kind comments all. 

 

wxman-- When I saw your post, it gave me an excuse to get out of the house make a wine run.

 

I shot all those photos in about 20 minutes.  From Research Forest, I went South and took a couple shots from the car.  Next, I U-turned at Rayford and went North over the Woodlands Parkway overpass (don't try this at home kids).  Next, I took a right on Woodloch forest and got out of my car on Waterway square to get the fourth shot.  This is my favorite.  It's hard to believe this is The Woodlands.  Got back in my car, parked in the Hubble and Hudson parking garage, got out, and walked to Crush wine bar.  The last shot was from their rooftop patio.

 

What's not so obvious, is the energy around Waterway.  The entire area is alive with people of all ages and different cultures.  The square had an outdoor band.  It feels like a mix of San Francisco and Barcelona.  I love The Woodlands.

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

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