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Showing content with the highest reputation on 12/03/2019 in all areas

  1. There is no logical reasoning behind opposing this. The area has largely been abandoned for close 25 years. It not displacing and existing residents. To be perfectly honest most people from third ward have not considered that area part of third ward in decades. Not since the early 2000s at the latest, so even before than. I honestly dont see how this effects third ward as a whole.
    8 points
  2. "Preventing housing Development"
    8 points
  3. I'm sorry im.a proud former resident of third ward. But this feels like nothing more than black nimbyism
    7 points
  4. I think we should wait to pass judgement until the building is open and we have had a chance to walk through the galleries and see how well the building displays the art, which is it's main function. I also think that once the building is complete and landscaped we might have something better to judge. I always find it hard to see the building as planned with all of the construction equipment, fences, barricades and things that get in the way scattered around the site.
    5 points
  5. and once the bridges are complete, that's 30 years of uninterrupted flow that is overall better than it was before, not just for car traffic, but for bike/jogging.
    4 points
  6. I know how frustrating it is for the bike paths to be blocked , but the work that is being done on the bayou will have a much more positive affect on the neighborhoods that front the bayou, and hopefully mitigate some of the flooding that occurs regularly. Once these projects are finished everything will be much better. With the addition of another detention pond on Brays at 610 this should really help in the recurring flood issues and I'm sure that the landscaping and bike trails will be improved. I know they are adding new trails east of 288 all the way to Calhoun. This is all for the good of everyone.
    4 points
  7. Some movement on site this morning. Looks like they were tearing down the old facade wall from the other site?
    4 points
  8. For me, the success of a new museum building is how well it displays the artwork within, not in making some striking statement from the outside. Take the Beck and Law buildings. Mies' Law building is generally considered a better architectural statement. But the second floor gallery and Cullen hall are both large difficult spaces requiring a lot of intervention: extensive "temporary" walls, drapes to mitigate light, security challenges (why Van Gogh was moved to the other building), etc. The Beck building is the opposite. Nothing much to look at from the outside, but the top floor galleries are really quite remarkable in both their scale and use of natural light. Yes, I'd like the best of both worlds and I'm still quite confident this will be a striking new building for Houston. But it's what happens inside the building that matters most.
    3 points
  9. This is where the reintegration of alleyways could make this even more efficient. Then you can just drive into the alley and even if its a small residential lot turned into a business they could probably configure a system that is 3 spaces wide, but 3 spaces tall to fulfill their requirements. Really like the diagram. In fact I've been thinking a lot about the implications of such mechanics for small sites. Ideally we don't want to have sites or the city at large subservient to the needs of cars, but image someone wanted to build a small apartment on a small residential lot or 2 combined. They could then build it in the way other cities build them where its from property line to property line, and then throw the mechanical automated lift in the back that actually takes you up to the unit that you live in with this puzzle system. That would be fascinating.
    3 points
  10. That's very interesting. I just spent some time looking at this solution provider: https://cityliftparking.com/solutions My thinking is that surely there would have to be significant size requirements for an automated system to work, but this may not be the case. IIRC, this site was originally rendered to have parking on the roof before some design changes, so they clearly thought that there was a shot at having some expensive/extreme parking options to add more retail. That's still a huge chunk of the lot on parking with none of it covered. I wonder how much this design could be changed to integrate more retail space even with houston's parking requirements. The only system that CityLift offers that might work is the Puzzle Mechanical Parking. Spec sheet I think this style requires you to have one open space on each level except for the pit and the top level. This is a four level with pit example, so I think you would get 10 spots in the space of 3. They offer a tandem version (double thickness) so it might even be possible to have a system that allows for tandem parking just above certain levels which would allow to to effectively park cars on the roof. You could end up with something a little bit like this. Green would be additional retail space. An increase of about 40-50%. There's 50 parking spaces I think, so lets say you need about 75: It's probably feasible (assuming you could get pickups to fit), I just wonder what the ROI would be getting one extra tenant and everyone getting some extra SF.
    3 points
  11. Sad that people can mistake this construction for various places along the Bayou because of how long this has taken. Its kind of ruined these "hundreds of miles" of bike paths the city likes to talk about. Yesterday was a beautiful day to be on the bike, and met 6 or 7 people who were like "uhh we can't ride the Bayou because every mile or two there is more construction." The old-houston slow construction doesn't make much sense when you have 40 story multi-family going up in a year and a half. Just wish this would be finished soon so people can get the flood relief they deserve and the old bike system can go back to normal. Also, one of the construction workers that helped with the bayou expansion by the Cistern by buffalo bayou was saying the greenery they are planting there will be more of what will be seen over here.
    3 points
  12. Just in passing, Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao, has been cited for making Bilbao Spain, a destination. It's a truly iconic building, but as a place for exhibiting art it hasn't fared so well.
    2 points
  13. Steven Hill has designed some really great stuff. I agree totally. I think the Glassell School building is VERY cool. It’s new neighbor, not so much. I do think the roof texture is very intriguing. Unfortunately, that will remain hidden from view from the street.
    2 points
  14. When I see it, I don’t think, “WOW!” To me, the building’s lines are not very striking. Even though it’s footprint isn’t rectangular, it looks boxy. And I know that a lot of Holl’s work is boxy, but this is boxy in a not-so-interesting way. The tubes don’t Intrigue me, either. They do add texture, but the way the short tube segments are mounted, very conspicuous horizontal seams are created that disrupt the vertical flow of the walls. Hopefully they will do something to camouflage the seams. And, hopefully the illumination at night will really elevate the look. Renderings seem to indicate as much. Overall, I’m still hoping that it turns out better than my current expectation. Time will tell.
    2 points
  15. The Japanese ain't got nothing on that!
    2 points
  16. If you're working within an existing building envelope and want to maximize capacity, or if you have a height restriction, then it may be worth paying a premium for a robotic system. But if, as in this case, you're building on a greenfield, without height restrictions, then the reason to go automated instead of traditional is because of construction costs, not land costs. That is, it has to be cheaper to build and operate than a traditional garage. Estimates I've seen (granted these are mostly from parking system suppliers) put the construction costs somewhere between 60 and 100% of a similar capacity traditional garage. Here's why that's interesting: Currently, a lot of neighborhoods fall into a trap where land values aren't high enough to justify the cost of structured parking, so the spaces required by the city's parking requirements get built as surface lots. The resulting low density prevents the underlying land values from increasing to the point that structured parking is viable. If the lower end of that construction cost range turns out to be true (and it should get cheaper over time as the industry matures) then the land cost at which structured parking makes sense falls from, say $100/sf to $60/sf, and there are already plenty of neighborhoods in Houston with land values in that ballpark, which means more new retail development could include structured parking instead of surface parking, which would add to density, and in turn make the land value higher.
    2 points
  17. Pre-Construction work has already begun! Soil Testing, along with prepping various areas for the future berms and viaducts. TCR claims that they are ready for construction, and it seems all they are waiting for is final Federal approval. They further claim that they could start as early as June. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Texas-High-Speed-Train-is-Shovel-Ready-565182232.html
    2 points
  18. Yes, as of this morning, the one that caught fire was still up, but they are currently clearing all the debris from the other homes and putting them in massive trash bins. The guys on site mentioned they are looking to start site prep work before Christmas (I don't know what that means) but that seems pretty fast considering where they are and that they are quite a few older trees on this lot that I hope they figure out a way to preserve (I never thought I would type that last part).
    2 points
  19. Why did I suddenly hear a cackle in the background when I read that?
    2 points
  20. You seem determined to believe that this building is going up extremely slowly. In reality, this building continues to rise at very much a normal pace of construction.
    2 points
  21. Most work with the car parked on a little sled, and the system moves the sled around. This video isn't great, but you will get the gist.
    2 points
  22. Post Oak by Marc longoria, on Flickr Post Oak by Marc longoria, on Flickr
    2 points
  23. Got this shot of the Sun peaking through the top floors:
    2 points
  24. 'Strategic' Greenway Plaza-area property acquired by Houston-based real estate firm https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/10/22/strategic-greenway-plaza-area-property-acquired-by.html
    2 points
  25. I love this damn city, amazing how progressive it's been the past 10 yrs
    2 points
  26. Just wait until they eventually redevelop those strip centers!
    1 point
  27. oh yeah true haha! July 4th duh!!! 🤪 but yeah still amazing! and well the original opposition was businesses that were going to be affected by the construction but most seemed to have survived okay and now it back to business better than before! and oh yeah...i took a photo of the new bus!!! ha! forgot about that too...i am still suffering from food coma from the long Thanksgiving 4 1/2 day weekend i had!
    1 point
  28. amen to that!!!!!!!!!! the fireworks lasted foreeeeeeeeveeeeeeer!!!! It was so awesome! and the new tree light show was great too! loved it so much and made me so proud as well as happy to see my area looking it's best and entertaining so many happy people...especially all the families with kids that were there! AND on top of that I went to watch some friends at the finish line of the Turkey Trot that morning and quite a few people were talking about how great it was and how they loved the new look of Post Oak Blvd (where the finish line was)...such a fun day in Uptown Houston!
    1 point
  29. I actually liked the building as it was as well. That time period in architectural history and design has always interested me, but the bottom portion definitely needed an update to what our standards for pedestrian design are today. With that being said, I think it would have been interesting it was white because I think the contrast between the two would have been rather interesting. Right now with it being the color it is it makes the building float in a very uneasy way?! If that makes sense. The white would have been a good way to ground the building while at the same time making it more approachable.
    1 point
  30. I don't follow this project, but a recent Instagram story has a slightly different design.
    1 point
  31. Drewery Place-Balcony View-2019-Mabry Campbell by Mabry Campbell, on Flickr
    1 point
  32. All of this is correct, which illustrates what this is really about, power politics. Does this development check the boxes: Economically = Yes Socially = Yes Technologically = Yes Politically = No This project, in the minds of these activists, doesn't check the box politically, which is the only box that matters for those who play the game of power politics. "Community" is just a wedge for those who wish to enter into the game and have influence. No community? Doesn't matter just say that there is a community here because people are sympathetic to that word, as ambiguous as it is. Not 3rd Ward? Doesn't matter just mention that 3rd Ward is close by which is dominated disproportionately with those the nation deems as "minorities" even though they make up the "majority" of that actual community. And there is the word of the day, "inclusive". Should the development pay mind to is surroundings, yes. Should it improvement the environment around, yes. All that is shown to be the purpose of this development. With that being said, I find it pointless to stall a development for the sake of shoehorning elements of, what some are calling, the DIE religion (diversity, inclusivity, and equity) or what I have come to call "The New Catholic". Its not necessary. Especially when an organization such as Rice is already hyper-sensitive to this elements already, but it seems that is exactly why these people are putting up such a stink. Their insertion into something that doesn't deal with them at all is ridiculous.
    1 point
  33. Value of community? What community? This is a bunch of parking lots and an old Sears building that apparently wasn't supported by the "community." The only community in this area is homeless people living under 59 and yuppies living in the apartments to the north. Who decides what the community is? And even if there was a community, why should they get to dictate development on land that someone owns? Does the Humble community tell the airport how it should design the new International terminal? Does the Clear Lake community tell NASA what it should do on its campus? No. You don't get to demand groceries from a developer. There are plenty of other grocery stores in the area.
    1 point
  34. This is a really bizarre rendering to me
    1 point
  35. Tower crane was hanging patio handrails on the north side of the building when I went by.
    1 point
  36. 1 point
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