Leaderboard

https://www.flickr.com/photos/23333264@N00/with/49594271026/

I obliged and took a picture of him posing

This project is Dab-approved evidently.

https://communityimpact.com/houston/bay-area/development/2020/02/26/houston-city-council-grants-spaceport-development-extra-375-million/

I actually was going to get some aerials here on Saturday after hitting the east end but I got to talking with a cop that was hanging out on site and lost the light. Next time I'm down there!

It's crazy to think that Thompson is building hotels in Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio simultaneously. The Texas market is strong!

You should go to SAKS and check out the men's shoe department to get a really good feel of where fashion is right now. Uniqlo looks like if Forever21 decided to adapt and not put prints on everything.

The news about Uniqlo is really exciting! Even my no name, rock bottom-tier, Chinese hometown village that no one's ever heard of has a Uniqlo, so it's about time Texas joins the fray and I couldn't be happier that I can walk there like I could in my hometown.

I did speak to the guy again and he said they are doing side walks.

We’re finally getting a Uniqlo yessss

Houston has really become a top luxury market especially in the Central Time Zone. I know Dallas used to be thought of as a more luxury shopping destination for this part of the country but I don't think that's the case anymore. This is especially true when you consider Houston receives many leisure travelers from Latin America. This shows what a few mixed-use developments and marketing will do to a city. Many stores now opening their first Texas or US locations in Houston more often lately than ever before.

YES! I've been waiting so damn long for a Uniqlo in Texas! This is great news I'm pumped

I don't think price per square foot is the only measure of success, but considering that we currently have light rail but not true BRT (at least not operating yet), I'm not sure there's a useful comparison to make right now. But also, some of the best mixed-use developments in the city are nowhere near the light rail. Montrose, the Heights, and everything in between have the obvious examples - think about the various massive developments being built along Allen Parkway. Or even smaller (not technically mixed-use, but less auto-oriented at least) developments like what replaced the Heights Post Office - that was going to be a strip mall but got pushback from the Historic Commission so ended up a lot better.

I was aware of Uniqlo from their sponsorships of Djokovic and Federer, but had not heard of Balenciaga, so I looked them up. Who knew I was so forward fashion thinking when I dressed like this as a geeky 12 year old kid from the 'burbs. Fashion is a strange business, more power to them, I guess.

@j_cuevas713 I agree with you but I think the center of the Houston population is closer to this than downtown. It's for that reason I think we need more projects like this near downtown. Especially live, work and play projects. The west is an employment gold mine and adding more is just fueling the spread of the city further and further. We need to balance the polarization and a job focus on the loop would aid in that. Traffic is horrible will over the city but the infrastructure for public and personal transportation is least horrible in the core. The west is already due for another highway, instead of more of these things wouldn't be wiser to spend that money improving the highways, public transportation, bike Lanes in the core? A bigger and bigger land area just means bigger and bigger budgets to maintain it all. I don't think the city should be encouraging this. What's next? City Center La Grange?

https://hopecity.com/silos/ https://hopecity.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/The-Silos-Project.pdf

Some people simply don't care about the concept of a city's "true core" Development is organic. It happens where it happens for a reason, usually to do with affordability and ability to make a profit.

So what are people hoping happens with this? Torn down and something new (just not a surface parking lot), or restoring the building and using it for something else (I assume this would be faster than a tear down)? I guess I assume, based on the listing itself, that if anything happens to it then it will be an reuse or restore. Its strange that with all the development in DT, including development in that area, that no one has taken a chance on the building. They should make it like the city museum in St. Louis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Museum . Make the top floor a bar and restaurant with all glass walls because of the view would be great, call wolfgang puck and tell him the space is his.

. . . Uniqlo is taking over the former Topshop location, which closed last year. The company is working with New Jersey-based KCG Architects to build out the two-story, 22,460-square-foot store, according to an architectural filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/retail/article/Japanese-retailer-Uniqlo-to-open-in-Galleria-mall-15086819.php

https://www.chron.com/business/real-estate/article/Hope-City-church-moving-forward-with-silos-real-15087333.php#photo-16964361

It's a few years old, but this is an interesting piece on TOD: https://www.citylab.com/life/2013/09/surprising-key-making-transit-oriented-development-work/6992/ TLDR: TOD success comes more from municipal/agency support and incentives than from any particular transit type. Example BRT lines from Cleveland and Pittsburgh are given as success and failures.

Article: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/retail/article/Japanese-retailer-Uniqlo-to-open-in-Galleria-mall-15086819.php?utm_campaign=CMS Sharing Tools (Premium)&utm_source=t.co&utm_medium=referral

To be fair, building an actual mountain may be easier than eliminating parking minimums.

This is one development I won't be telling my gf about...haha

I spoke with contractor doing interiors. He said the building will house an event space, a nail salon, and tea/coffee place. Should be opening this summer.

Your lips to developer's ears. I'd love to see HEB grab this. It's a second chance, but I'm no longer sanguine about anything but apartments coming in here once they announced they were infilling with that Prose East and Prose West. It sure seems like the perfect place for a new grocery store, which can capture both the new apartment dwellers in Hardy Yards, as well as the apartment dwellers in north downtown around Market Square.

Not to mention VooDoo Queen right around the corner, Giant Leap's planned move to adjacent to How to Survive on Land and Sea and the industrial warehouse space on Milby just south of Harrisburg. There's a cool district forming before our eyes and it's kind of awesome.

Getting close.

Going to go ahead and post the boards from Kevin Daly Architects entry. I think its a good window into just how much work gets put into a competition like this, and the drawings that go with it including drawings that don't often get posted on here which are extremely important to understanding our work in Architecture, and how a building comes together. Most only get to see the pretty picture or "money shot" image, but there are so many great drawings that go unnoticed or just don't get released. For me, one of my favorite drawings is the Section Perspective, and there is a really good one on the last board. I still think that the KDA entry is the best, but looking at the Olson Kundig entry, it reminds me why I was hoping they would come out on top. As someone who prefers regionalism of the critical variety, I like how they paid homage to bayou construction done recently, and their approach to materials. Schaum/Shieh's entry makes a lot more sense now as well when you look at their boards. They were very inward focused in their design choosing to develop a finely crafted interior space with interesting networks instead of projecting outwards like the other entries, but due to this the outside just feels a little too incognito for what this building should be. If people here want to see all the boards just go to the link posted above, but if people are feeling a little lazy then just let me know and I'll grab all the boards and post them below. Below are the Kevin Daly Architects boards:

agree wholeheartedly. love that design exactly for that reason. which isn't to say i'm not happy w the design chosen.

Deborah Perke Partners: https://competitions.malcolmreading.com/houstonendowment/finalists/deborah-berke-partners Olson Kundig (listed as ‘honorable mention’) https://competitions.malcolmreading.com/houstonendowment/finalists/olson-kundig Now that we see all the finalist entries I personally wish they went with Olson Kundig. The design ties in with with existing structures at Buffalo Bayou.

New stores announced for The Galleria: Uniglo (first location in Texas) Balenciaga (first location in Houston) Gianvito Rossi (a high-end luxury footwear brand - first location in Texas) Golden Goose (an Italian brand that primarily sells sneakers - first location in Houston) https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2020/02/25/two-massive-international-brands-coming-to.html?ana=e_ae_set4&j=90488491&t=Afternoon&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTkdNME56UmtNbUkwT0dZNSIsInQiOiJDN29IaEwxelg1WHF3UjYzTFptRHJWVU05czdEejJWakpoZ3ptNFpVdmdWQ1ZaK3VPUnJVT0tDZTNPdUcyditrMVVWNXpYR1QrMjczN25WZGh2VEFUMkZWOG9zZmlaMG5FaTgwRUdSRlNZSlBaWDBcL0lSMDN5MmN3ZFwvTFduYjdjIn0%3D

Weingarten CEO Drew Alexander said the property along West Gray at Shepherd will continue to densify, though plans are still in the early phases. "We see multiple towers there," Alexander said. https://www.chron.com/business/real-estate/article/Weingarten-Realty-announces-two-changes-to-tenant-15086077.php?cmpid=hpctp

I would have loved to see this built in Midtown or East End. You're right, the location is terrible. I'm a creative, and my friend has her company here. The problem is I don't see many creatives wanting to drive 30 mins from the city center just to work in a spot in the long term. I mean it's def exceeding expectations but this would have been so cool near downtown.

They've started drilling piers.

If it pleases you, m'lord.

First response: Cool! What is it? After reading the pdf: *backs away slowly...*

"Substantial completion date" is April 24.

I went by this the other day and the dump trucks were using it for a queuing area for the excavations at the Fairfield residential site (sorry for the run on sentence). So I am assuming that this is just lay down area and a construction site office (there was a new generator hooked up for the old bank building). Sadly, probably nothing of permanent value. But hopefully interested eyes might be turned to the old building now...

WTF.

Midtown, Downtown and East DT have the most mixed-use developments in all of the City? I'm skeptical. There are mixed-use developments existing and planned throughout this city, many of them much larger than any of the mixed-use developments in Midtown, Downtown, or EADO. Without trying very hard, I came up with 21 that are no where near any rail line.

Well, that's not entirely true. Pittsburgh is a good example of a bus corridor (the East Busway) that's at least correlated with a successful corridor. Most major cities in this country haven't implemented true, high-quality BRT lines, so it's hard to really predict what kind of impacts Metro's plan will have. I linked the article earlier because it suggested that what really matters is less any particular transit technology, and more the support (financial, regulatory, and otherwise) of as many local agencies, authorities, non-profits, public-private partnerships etc as possible. Given how Metro seems to be approaching this, the direction the Planning Department has been moving, the mayor's public statements, and the City's recent hiring of a Chief Transportation Planner, I am *genuinely hopeful* that transit and TOD will get that support.

The Texas project is also ~ 1/2 the length of the California system as well. That helps a lot.

Tried to get some industrial aerials this weekend and this was one of the spots I stopped. Figured you guys might appreciate this view. It's a vertical panorama of 5 images so downtown is definitely distorted but you get the idea!

Startin to peak thru

One of the first people I met in Houston was Jay Hollyfield (of the Hollyfield Laundry/real estate family) who grew up on Westheimer. Their house was located where Sakowitz was built. At that time, Westheimer was a dirt road west of Post Oak. Imagine that.