Leaderboard

My perspective really does not do justice to how deep this has gone. Still somehow busting out foundations but it looks like they are prepping to start the foundation.

The cars in that garage are likely on month-to-month contracts, if not daily parking. Realistically, this thing could be down in a month. My understanding was that Hines wanted both Block 42 and Block 58 to deliver around the same time, with B42 actually delivering first. I imagine this garage will be gone within 30 - 60 days.

Before construction begins.

According to HBJ, this is a go, late 2021 completion.

Nothing spectacular but a move in the right direction for RD.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/01/24/hines-planning-46-story-apartment-tower-in.html

I heard Liftime fitness is coming to Greenstreet - has that been posted here

The site layout and "urban planning" of the project, setbacks, RoW widths, pedestrian realm, ground floor transparency, landscaping, etc., are far more important than the actual architectural details. As long as you build with zero setbacks on relatively narrow rights of way, prioritizing pedestrian comfort and with plenty of street engagement (and preferentially narrow frontages), the result is going to be pretty good whether the style is steel-and-glass modern, red-brick colonial, hill-country limestone or even timber-frame.

Interesting. Their current retail leasing brochure shows a three-level, 117,000 square foot "Fitness" tenant where the bookstore used to be. Then, in further detail, it says that 117,000 square feet is comprised of: -- 37,000 square feet Fitness Space -- 35,000 square feet Coworking Space -- 25,000 square feet Spa & Personal Care -- 20,000 square feet Rootop Amenity Space Definitely sounds like Lifetime Fitness.

Now this is how you design and build a garage.

Thought the design was perfect, quite honestly. Had a warm and inviting feel to it. Looked like a place I could see myself visiting weekly. Plus it was different... wasn't another River Oaks District or City Centre.

Hard to say. There's a lot of competition. Downtown has so many good burger places, in the full range of prices, with Vic and Anthony's at the top end ($21ish with tax and tip), and then the new Craft Burger (in Finn Hall) and upcoming Shake Shack (next door), plus plenty of more affordable popular long-time favorites such as Hubcap Grill and Miller's Cafe.

I was with you until you said "hill country limestone," which is trash.

Wreck 'em

I'd just like to see boots on the ground! No Excuses.

To paraphrase part Oliver Cromwell's speech to the rump parliament: It is high time to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your ugliness and defiled by your practice. Go! Begone!

I'm wondering if they mean House+Partners is the "Architect of Record". The actual design itself was by Munoz+Albin, right? Would be consistent with Munoz+Albin's past projects since they normally finish their commitment after Design Development and then hand it off to another firm to do Construction Documents. Could be wrong though.

Oh, ok. I for one completely misunderstood the point you were trying to make. You are absolutely correct that a number of club promoters/owners, particularly in parts of Midtown, Washington, and, previously, Downtown, explicitly want white people and would turn away anyone who didn't meet their skin tone requirements. I do think it's a specific group that behave that way though. I have no idea whether that includes the Sterling House people. Anyway, I read your post *very* differently than this explanation. Thanks for the in-depth response to everyone.

Haha they were pretty bad and lazy. Not saynig I liked them but it wasn't this white wall. Either way RD has no idea what to do with garages. He's slowly improving. At least the new development on San Felipe will had Arabellas white wall on the east side.

...I think you need to revisit this train of thought. Come on. By this notion Cle and Proof are going south really quick, as well as a few bars/clubs I've been too in Montrose. Hell we should go downtown to a bunch of bars as well. Your argument is also based on the superficial notion that the clienteles skin color makes or breaks a business. I'm not going to call you names or any bs accusations like that, and I'm going to grant you that this was just simply not thought through all the way. I'm telling you that its not that superficial nor that simple. The data won't add up, and the competition for dollars in all of these markets won't add up. This business failed because it didn't understand the area it was in or themselves, and we can't lay this at the feet of any particular clientele. The customer, whether rich or poor, black or white (they could be pokadot i don't care) chooses whether a business is successful or not with their dollars. EDIT: Basically I'm not here to claim you are either a bigot or racist, because I don't know you as a person, I'm here to tell you that you are lazy. You can do better than this.

I've been thinking about the negativity about the 80s some have expressed in this thread. I remember when I was a kid someone explaining to me nostalgia meaning "remembering the good and forgetting the bad." I'm not sure what the word is for the opposite of nostalgia (forgetting the good and remembering the bad), but I think that's what's going on here. Things really didn't get bad until 1986, and by 1988-89, they were picking back up again. Every decade has its low point, and condemning an entire 10 year period for a 2-3 year nadir is a bit unfair. On the issue of Houston's murder rate, this was happening at a time when crime was at an all-time high around the country (peaking in 1992). Still, white flight had already largely occurred, most murders were happening in low income areas within the city limits, so the average middle class and above Greater Houstonian wasn't worried about being murdered in his own backyard. Unlike cities like LA and Miami, where the crime was more evenly distributed. My grandfather, for instance, was pistolwhipped in his own backyard in Coral Gables, the West U of Miami, in 1988. 1986 really was the watershed year for Houston, because though the price of oil had been declining since 82, 86 was the precipitous price drop, and it occurred at the same time the Tax Reform Act of 1986 eliminated the tax shelters for passive real estate development, even wiping them out retroactively. Suddenly deals done years earlier were much less, bursting the Texas real estate market bubble of the 70s-early 80s, and helping initiate the S&L crisis. So 1986, that watershed year, cleaved Old Houston from New Houston. It precipitated a lot of Old Houston institutions going out of business, like Sakowitz and Jamail's Grocers. Sadly, Houston lost a lot of its unique local character, and New Houston became culturally a lot more like most other major cities - we went from Urban Cowboy to Reality Bites, but it can be argued that this change made Houston more attractive to transplants from other parts of the country, and allowed the city to become as international and cosmopolitan as it is today. But coming back to the "pre-1986" Houston, I think it is worth reminiscing over, because it was the apogee and last gasp of high flying, unique Old Houston culture.

As consolation, everyone else loses views of 3/4s of the Cosmo.

This thread turns 12 next week. This project has been on the drawing board through the housing crisis in 2008/9, the oil boom in the early 2010's, the oil crash in 2015-7, and now the recovery from that crash. Whatever this project is an indicator of, economy-driven development cycles ain't it.

Another hotel proposal for this area. Anyone have more on this one? Here's whats on the site as of now. SubdivisionPlatPDF_VHA15031_PLAT-.pdf

Cool! I will need to check it out!

Midway acquired the Pavillions in 2012, I think. In the last 7 years midway has created lots of pretty pictures and installed some grass on some roofs and some patch of AstroTurf called a “lawn” to hold events on. They have also built a hotel. the pretty pictures that they published look nothing like what they built. Remember that grand hotel edifice and the “value engineered structure” that they actually built? Meet me in the Sky lobby, anyone? How about those expansive dry goods shopping spaces? They own the property and they are free to do as they wish. And I am free to not believe that they will ever do anything at this property remotely like what they describe in their pretty pictures and flowery prose. oh, and I hope, I desperately hope, that one day, they prove me wrong.

From today

Current state of affairs.

Yeah the project is dead to me until I see a bulldozer on site. Maybe an updated site / renders.....maybe.

They could always attach something to it...like some kind of metal grid or maybe even grow some dang vines on the base....But yeah...something...hopefully the new building sufficiently covers up most of that blank view...

I think he was missing the point of how rail is important to lay down as a spine for a transit system for buses to feed off of. Even if that system is BRT. And I also think he fails to realize that commuters would rather have a simpler way to travel than worry about how many stops there are. I surely didn’t think that when I was in Seattle. I was just happy I didn’t need my car. As long as people can conveniently get to their destination, they’ll figure it out.

That's how a lot of great buildings were built. I would also credit something to a sense of civic benefaction, especially with the (formerly) public observation deck.

You'll enjoy Joel Barna's book "The See-Through Years" about Texas architecture in the 1980s. It's very thoughtful but also has the fun anecdotes about glass skyscrapers with no interior walls because no tenants. Fantastic urbanism or big egos only take you so far, however. The spot price of West Texas Intermediate crude rose from $3.56 in spring '73 up to $14.85 in spring '78, then to $39.50 in spring and summer 1980 when many towers were or had already been greenlit. Dirt downtown was also a sort of futures market for the value of being the oil capital, remembering that in the 1950s and '60s Houston had only been one of many regional oil capitals. Its relatively sudden emergence over Tulsa as the city who you could bet on for value creation in energy expertise, AFAIK had relatively little to do with cosmopolitanism or ambition and much to do with offshore oilfield development and New Orleans' old-guard complacency.

Maybe he meant the stone cladding. Hines' Block 58 building and 609 Main are both pretty much in the same category of building as the Bank of America Center; close enough to be "like" Bank of America Center in size. Bank of America Center: 780 feet, 1.268 Million Square Feet 609 Main: 752 feet, 1.060 Million Square Feet Block58: 735 feet, 1 Million Square Feet

I guess as far as terrain then yeah we're a giant marsh/swamp. I mean I've been to LA and they have gorgeous mountains but the city itself is moo

Yeah never get that whole Houston is ugly thing. IMO Houston is actually a pretty nice city.

^ Hey don't blame Houston if you're too poor to buy a bus ticket back to whatever shithole you came from.

Aside from a change is the façade over the garage levels, I cannot identify any other significant changes.

Looks complete.

It's coming along pretty well!

More progress.

Once upon a time children shared bedrooms, even in the best neighborhoods.

This hotel construction is coming along pretty fast. Passed it today as I was heading home from work.

Give Flickr a try, much easier to use.

Very much u/c with steel out of the ground.

107 Rooms according to this document: http://hiltonworldwide.com/assets/pdfs/disclosures/Home2-Franchise-Disclosure-Document-us-2016.pdf

Demo report indicates this will be a Hilton Home2 Suites http://swamplot.com/daily-demolition-report-great-sage/2017-01-23/

Approved plat is online, indicating this one is taking steps behind the scenes to begin. The entity behind this is "Bay Area Hospitality LP". HotelonSageApprovedPlat.pdf A better look at the site, currently an auto shop. The property also includes this driveway on Richmond that leads to the auto shop.