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The tower crane is already getting close to the concrete pump boom.

London House River Oaks a Boutique Midrise. I’ll post the graphics banner later tonight. How long was this property on the market? After 2 weeks RD scooped it up. Incredibly fast!

Cherry is at the scene! The garage demolition at 6929 Main St. should start this weekend. The Horizon Tower will dominate that corner. Can't wait!

TDLR Project Details. September 2021 start date. Around the corner!

Building will be down in a few days.

They are digging a hole on a portion of this, looks about 3' or 4' deep so far.

"This 3-story, 93 unit Teen Transitional Housing Community" Yep, need a huge parking structure for those transitioning teens

New Randall Davis condo with 23 units https://londonhousehouston.com i couldn't grab a picture but he’s go a banner on the property too. Only 23 residences are planned for this boutique midrise condo in the heart of River Oaks. The timeless design is inspired by the neighboring townhomes and the elegant houses of London. This soon to be treasured development will have expansive views of The Galleria, Downtown, and overlooks the finest neighborhood in Houston.

Law Center has officially topped off. It's also 38 days ahead of schedule, I guess they're pushing for that fall 2021 opening rather than fall 2022 😆. Source: https://www.law.uh.edu/news/summer2021/0604ceremony.asp Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLWn8OJpZVw&t=66s

Crawler crane to assemble the precast parking garage.

Looks like they got about 80% of the building down.

No tower crane going up today, I wonder if the forecast made them put it off.

Okey-dokey, oil is pushing $70 a barrel. Is it party time again?

Medical School. Hilton. Law School.

Adding glass to the round bit.

I don't know if there needs to be a maximum width, but if you plat at 25-ft or 33-ft frontage and sell lots individually, a lot of development is going to happen on one or two-lot parcel. Yes, at least for uses other than single-family residential, minimum width is 50 (or 60) feet. Recall that a typical downtown or EaDo block is only 250 feet between rights of way. So you can never really have more than 5 different façades on a given block face. Add in the 5000 minimum size for non SFR reserves, and the most different façades on the block face around the corner is three.

This project was cancelled maybe?

Interior shots from Loopnet. https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/3720-Westheimer-Rd-Houston-TX/21423676/

Looks good.

There is now way they finish this for Fall '21. Possibly Spring '22 but I doubt that too.

Showroom is now empty.

New Wins and Project Starts Reinvigorate EYP's Growth https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-wins-and-project-starts-reinvigorate-eyps-growth-301177962.html ALBANY, N.Y., Nov. 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- EYP, the leading architecture and engineering firm developing new ideas and design solutions with mission-driven clients in higher education, government, healthcare, and science and technology, wraps up a challenging year for the architecture and building industry in a strong position going into 2021. In 2020, the firm has embarked on several new projects, including modernization of the historic U.S. Customs House in Philadelphia, PA for the U.S. General Services Administration, re-start of Centennial Tower at Texas Medical Center and Sugar Land Hospital expansion for Houston Methodist Hospital, and design of a new science research and teaching lab building for Texas Tech University.

Pardon me if I'm wrong, but to my knowledge from prior research most highway projects are funded mostly by bond money which is raised, and then is paid back over a few decades. The money that doesn't have to be paid back is if you get grants from the Feds for certain projects or interstates (because interstates are federal). TCR will most certainly see most of its funding from private backers, but honestly would it really be that bad if they borrowed money through the form of government bonds? I don't see that as a bad thing. I've kind of lessoned my tone on this over the years as I've generally become more pragmatic. If you have the opportunity to dip into a resource of money which is at your disposal for said purpose then take it, and handle the problems with it down the road. Would it be great if it was all private money. You bet. Could that still happen? You bet. Does it absolutely need to happen for this to be a success or is it practical? No.

Temporary Parking sign has been posted.

I love that retail will be coming. Let me also go out on a limb.........I believe “drawing” in customers is a high priority to success. Besides the myth of Montrose acting as a magnetic of sorts; I have my own “pie in the sky” solutions to bring in more people. Why not have small unleased spaces have a courtesy display ( developers waive rents) of artifacts about “what things were before”— maybe the artifacts from Mary’s. Or maybe COH historical artifacts? Perhaps the “M” statue ? Change displays ever 2 months are so.....pack all up if space gets leased.....move to new courtesy space....draw more people....repeat. if successful, try small experiment in empty downtown spaces? An example : These plaques ( somewhere archived at COH) explaining the Obedience Smith land grant. I’m not sure what costs implement a program like that but perhaps TIRZ, COH, Civic clubs and Grants could defray costs.

Some of us are so damned old we still think of it as the Humble Building. My dad worked there when it opened in 1963. I got a molded plastic model of it from the Mold-A-Rama machine on the top floor. I was disappointed...I wanted a model of the "Domed Stadium" instead. I vaguely remember being in the car when my mom picked my dad up at the old Humble Building on Main at Dallas. The owners need to leave the building as it is. Maybe even replicate the cool space-age fountains it originally had out front. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/The-Humble-Oil-skyscraper-stripped-of-its-Mad-5579787.php#photo-5530951

Minimum lot width needs to go away or at least be reduced. I believe the minimum lot width for non-residential lots in Houston is 50', which is absolutely absurd and totally at odds with this kind of traditional commercial development. You can get around it with variances, having retail on corner lots, or a single lot with multiple tenants of course. But it's the kind of development restriction that strikes me as pretty arbitrary and totally at odds with what the City should be prioritizing.

The walkability of a neighborhood is pretty tightly correlated with the average parcel size within it. Any parcel as large as a city block is as likely as not to be complete crap. Compare this streetscape: ...with this one: If this area was to have any hope of being an interesting, walkable, horizontal-mixed-use neighborhood, the plot of land that eventually became the Target would have had to be replatted, continuing the street grid from the other side of Sawyer, into parcels with, say 25 to 50 feet of frontage each, exempted from setbacks and parking minimums. 20 years later, you would have had a neighborhood within a 10-minute bike ride of downtown, filled with half-million-dollar townhouses, small mid-rise apartment buildings, and street-level retail, and you could grow it west and south as other warehouses came on the market. This is basically how the Heights came about (except greenfield instead of brownfield.) But in a world where it's pretty easy to finance a huge multi-acre development there's not much reason to develop in this way anymore.

There are still plenty of large warehouses along Shepherd/Durham just north of I-10! Perfect for Lowe's. The sheetflow from the parking lot can dump straight into White Oak. No problemo. And I'm still waiting on that 945-pump Central Houston Buc-ee's. I hope all these developers leave 20-30 acres for that.