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Drove by last night and my gosh this thing makes such an impact!!! So happy to see Montrose being loved and taken care of...i get so excited by all that is going on, especially at what i consider the main intersection and heart of houston...it really is such a cool area 🏆 and just a note: i just want to say that it SEEMS we are reaching an almost kind of end to all this pandemic mess, so hey, thank YOU everyone here for making the last year or so not only bearable but interesting, informative and fun...this has been such a comfort to come to on days of stress, storms, flooding, winter freezes, covid, etc. I really mean it when i say i love you guys and this site 🙂

If you start at 10 stories from the pool deck I count 45 stories with 1 more to go.

Oh I need to defend that pedestrian bridge edit: there i did it

This is the latest version, yes?

I am so in love with the design of this building. It's like nothing that is being built in Texas. The abstract lines make this project so unique and FINALLY a cool homage to this city. Can't wait to see it completed!

Looks like demo units are being built out.

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

I hate this project so much. Bad location ✔️ Dumb purpose ✔️ Owner who doesn’t give a crap about putting up a suburban monstrosity in a historic neighborhood ✔️ I hope area residents boycott it, the company goes bankrupt, they implode it, and turn the lot into a park. (Extremely unlikely, but one can dream!)

^^^ @gene you are indeed correct my pal, it has truly been a tumultuous couple of seasons with all of the pain and strife of COVID-19, and related horrors. however, we have all seem to have made it out unscathed. THANK YOU for the kind sentiment and love! keep calm, and carry on...

Your post and the prior one rather step on your point. ;-) In any event, it's a little short of "welfare" to lease a building out to someone at a price that will fully repay the costs (and at the end of the lease, the City still owns the land and the building).

Unfortunately

...did you look at the PDF? There are multiple confirmed and pending tenants: Salon Lofts Golf Academy (pending) General Dentist (pending) Tin Drum Asia Cafe Maldives Nails? (pending)

It looks they want to do Washington at least in 2 phases. They can add protected bike lanes, nicer bus stops, curb bulb-outs, etc relatively quickly. Expanding the sidewalks along the whole street would require a complete rebuild of the street and take quite a bit of time and money. I would rather see them do something better than what's there now sooner and plan to upgrade it in the future than wait who knows how long for a full rebuild.

In case you forgot..... :-)

Not the best pic but they had the lot with Khyber blocked off. Sampling?

The HEBs you list are my go-to ones, but as far as Central Market being better? Depends on what you want, personally, I like: -More bulk spices (which become comically cheap in normal commercial quantities) -More bulk tea/coffee -Based deli (and lets not forget the meat and lox "ends" that make for the best/cheapest lunch you can get in town) For me, Central Market fills this wild void between "special occasion" shopping (like the butcher counter) and "staples shopping" (deli, spices, etc.)

Disagree. Two towers gained a few floors and the tallest tower became a little less funky. And the pedestrian bridge *which was always a bit gimmicky* went away. As value engineering goes, this is not bad at all.

Corporate welfare, the only welfare in America that's not demonized.

I don’t think it could get any worse.

It’s going to be a French-themed nightclub named Discothèque Krogeré (pronounced KRO-JHER-E). 😝

Project: Warehouse District Address: 850 McKee Houston, TX 77002 Architect: W Partnership - Wallace • Wilson Architects Information: 4-Story multi-family with parking at level 1. Total residential space is 28,840 SF with 31 units. Outdoor amenity decks at level 2 and 4. 6 unit terraces at level 2 and 3 unit balconies at level 4. The building exterior is comprised of masonry and fiber cement siding. Project: Warehouse District Address: 813 McKee Houston, TX 77002 Architect: W Partnership - Wallace • Wilson Architects Information: 5-Story multi-family with parking at level 1. Total residential space is 244,314 SF with 273 units (all 1-bedroom). Outdoor amenity deck at level 2. Lobby and Coffee Room at level 1. 11,500 SF courtyard terrace and separate outdoor kitchen and fitness area (4,000 SF) at level 2. The building exterior is comprised of masonry and fiber cement siding with a small amount of metal panels. There will also be a total of 11 art walls at the North and West side of the building (20' high).

Man, some of those are nice. The future that Demolition Man saw for us is coming to be.

New Fortune 500 list out today. Houston metro area has 23 (up from 22 last year) on the list (21 in Houston, 1 in The Woodlands, 1 in Katy). 13 of the 23 are oil & gas industry, 2 chemical companies. In 2014, we had 23 companies in the Fortune 500 and 18 of them were in Oil & Gas. In reality, we have 24; they still list NRG (#333) as being headquartered in New Jersey, but it is now fully-headquartered in Houston. So our concentration in Oil & Gas is now just barely above 50% (13 of 24). Phillips 66 Sysco Enterprise Products Partners Hewlett Packard Enterprise Plains GP Holdings Baker Hughes ConocoPhillips Occidental Petroleum Waste Management Halliburton Kinder Morgan Quanta Services EOG Resources Group 1 Automotive Cheniere Energy CenterPoint Energy Targa Resources Westlake Chemical NOV Huntsman Crown Castle International KBR Academy Sports & Outdoors Calpine dropped out because they are now privately-held. Apache (now known as APA) dropped to #595. New to the list for Houston are Academy Sports & Outdoors (went public), Hewlett Packard Enterprise (relocated from California) and KBR (up from #501 last year). We have an additional 16 in the Fortune 1000. 9 of the 16 are oil & gas industry. APA (Apache) Insperity American National Group Service Corp. International Par Pacific Holdings Marathon Oil Comfort Systems USA Western Midstream Partners MRC Global LGI Homes Southwestern Energy Stewart Information Services Crestwood Equity Partners Kirby Murphy Oil ChampionX

The Toyota center may seem not so big on the outside, but people don't realize is that it sinks into the ground like the Astrodome and the Compaq Center. Thats why the Astrodome isn't so tall as the Reliant Stadium. I think its a real good idea with the Hilton putting pedestrian bridges across to the convention center and the arena. I wonder what someone will do with the patch of grass next to it? I hope somone builds a little pond/reflecting pool/park there.

The new design forces everyone exiting northbound to the far right lane, which will also be shared with some of the traffic exiting southbound. So moving forward, any incident on 59 southbound near that area (or the 59 south ramp itself) will affect people on 610 still trying to exit 59 northbound as well. Those who are unfamiliar with this area are going to cut in line by default as they will only have a mile or so notice of their exit if they go by the signage...and by then, traffic is often already backed up to that point. When they finish the ramp for 59 southbound, traffic flowing from 610 southbound to 59 northbound and southbound will be better than it is now, but it'll be worse than it was before construction began...unless like 3 million people move out of Houston between now and then.

I'll withhold judgement until it's complete, but does anyone else feel the glass on the Pavilion building seems really cheap and does not look that great? I run BBP a few times a week and always notice it. I hope I'm wrong, but have never seen it mentioned on this thread and am curious if I'm the not the only one in this camp.

That's correct. This same ramp was 2 lanes exiting 59 northbound before. And not only will it be one lane moving forward, that lane will be shared with some of the traffic exiting 59 southbound. So basically, TxDOT is taking 6 years to rebuild *the ramps* at the busiest intersection in the state...and the end result for this part of the intersection will go from having 2 lanes before to one now. Traffic is going to be how it is now until they finish the ramp for 59 southbound, and even then, it's only going to be marginally better and worse than it was before construction. We're also taking the far right lane to exit north where we used to use that same lane to exit south. They switched the alignment. They've actually done that in a few places around town lately with traffic realignments (some of which have been beneficial) and left exits. The 610/I-10/290 area and 288 corridor come to mind. I want public transit as much as anyone (higher speed transit that doesn't interfere with street traffic, at least), but this ramp has no impact on anyone's home in the area. The only entity I'm aware that was affected by this project was the Chick-Fil-A. Just to be clear, I don't think the guys who I spoke with in that web conference are in on an official conspiracy. There's really no need for conspiracies when you can routinely get away with stuff like this with little to no accountability. I doubt there's an actual script or itinerary here. The "conspiracy" is pretty much in the job description at this point. It's passive participation. It's maintaining an obviously flawed status quo. It's the "it is what it is...this is just how we conduct our business" narrative and it's their reluctance to change that, even when it's clear that their product is unacceptable. They don't want to ruffle any feathers and risk losing their job, so they go along with it...and that in itself should shine a light on the root of the problem. Hence, the interference ever lower-level employees give citizens when they even politely voice legitimate concerns that they know they have no legitimate answer for. That said, not unlike the business world, there are people higher up at TxDOT who are well connected and know how to keep both their employees and the public indoctrinated with the idea that everything is working great even when they know it's not. The photo ops with the executives holding shovels, the ribbon-cutting, balloon-releasing "ceremonies" for projects that have minimal, if not negligible impact on traffic, the marketing for those projects ("the new West Loop"), etc....just your average, run of the mill, standard line of public relations BS that many people have become so numb to, they've given up hope...which is exactly what some of these higher ups want. I'll believe they're counting on people (from within TxDOT or otherwise) to either be discouraged, asleep, or not care enough to demand accountability before I believe they "don't know" something as basic as this project (and many others, for that matter) turning out to be the cluster **** the rest of us can clearly see it's going to be (and already is). If you think that the planners and project engineers at TxDOT are incompetent to the extent of actually thinking that taking away a lane from the 610 southbound to 59 northbound exit ramp is going to improve traffic, I would ask how do you explain that? As much as everyone from TxDOT seems to have wanted me to believe otherwise in my experiences with them, this isn't rocket science. I mean, my 10 year old niece and nephew would scratch their heads upon hearing this. I totally get and agree that people are generally stupid, but there's no way I'm going to believe that any functional adult truly believes that taking away a lane here is an upgrade if you talk to them one on one in a serious conversation with no strings attached...much less one who works for TxDOT...much less the person who approved this project for TxDOT. I think *that* is complete BS and am inclined to question how anyone living in America for longer than 10 minutes would be skeptical to the idea of cronyism here in one of our most important industries. Time and time again, industry has lobbied its way to get what it wants, even at the expense of human life. Hopefully it won't happen, but I can tell you right now that this ramp design increases the chance of loss of life, and it most certainly will affect millions of people's lives in a variety of ways over time. The slowdowns alone will cause accidents, it will delay millions of people over time, it could be the difference between life and death for someone having a medical emergency. They advertise "end the streak of Texas deaths" while they're throwing banana peels all over the city. Whether it's corruption, incompetence or (most likely) both to some degree, everyone involved in that process should be forced from their positions just based on the impact the design they came up with and approved is going to have for millions of Houstonians moving forward, and it shouldn't take an MIT grad...or even a GED to see that. There needs to be accountability when shit like this happens...and this is closer to the norm than the exception with TxDOT. Speaking of which, isn't it about time they repave Westheimer again? At this rate, there could be a pothole forming by the year 2050 at the intersection of GFY Houston Blvd. I don't know about you, but I would hate to see that get overlooked.

One (actually three) I don't see on the list - the small fountains adjacent to the Labyrinth on the University of St. Thomas campus.

you would have to pair it with vastly improved public transportation that would serve that path - which is only in the concept & early design phase.

I feel like Washington Ave has such potential to be a nice bike/transit corridor, especially with all the density that is coming up lately.

I use it everyday and its terrible. It works well, yes, if you exit Westheimer and then use the separate entrance. Once the Galleria/Westheimer/San Felipe street traffic is back to normal, its maybe at 60-70%, I don't know if that'll stay true. But on Saturdays, and any work day from 4-6, its worse than before. Its actually excellent, maybe even fantastic, for people leaving the Galleria/Uptown, which I suspect is a bit of the reason for the reconstruction. And yes, as @texas911 notes, the biggest reason is for linecutters, but that's basically everyone that gets in that lane. I'm one of the comparative few that takes it North, so its maddening to sit there and watch it unfold as 20-30 cars sit behind the person trying to cut. And like half of the line behind that car are also trying to cut as well. I've had more close calls in terms of "is he/she going to hit me?" since that opened than I did in the 4 years before. Edit: not trying to be aggressive or anything, its just the 59S flow has always been greater than the 59N and the construction did nothing to address that and in fact made it worse for both. Going 59S is just as slow if not worse. It may be faster slightly for the 59N crew, but it comes with constant slamming on your brakes as the car in front of you is trying to cut the line with no signal. I'd rather go slow.

https://www.tdhca.state.tx.us/board/docs/books/210513-book-210506.pdf

I'm always impressed with the downtown views from this area or the East River development :)

I think Montrose Collective is going to help us get over the hump in terms of denser more pedestrian focused development. This might be a good example of the impact it's going to have on the entire Montrose area.

Not sure what this means but it's being called "Fairview Collective" https://plattracker.houstontx.gov/edrc/DocDefaultReports.aspx?myAppId=67308&MyURL=xxx.houstontx.gov/2021/Applications/&myNumb=/2021-0850/SubdivisionPlatPDF_FAIRVIEW COLLECTIVE PLAT.pdf

Live Nation.

WOAH! That was my go to spot! Any idea what's going here?

https://www.hpiproperties.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/the-interpose-retail-leasing-opportunities-10-mb.pdf

Speaking of Ziegler Cooper, look who's been spotted in the lobby of their Camden Downtown residential tower! 😆 https://zieglercooper.com/projects/camden-downtown/ https://littleredridingbag.tumblr.com

https://zieglercooper.com/projects/granduca/

@HOUCAJUN The white office building on the left. https://zieglercooper.com/projects/autry-tower/

it would be cool to have a little park with benches and a fountain in it.

That would be a good idea. A lake would be the best choice to me.