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"An ambitious plan to expand Buffalo Bayou Park eastward to East End and Fifth Ward neighborhoods gets its official launch Monday with the announcement of a $100 million catalyst gift from the Kinder Foundation. Both the Houston City Council and Harris County Commissioners are expected to sign off on final documents this week." https://www.houstonchronicle.com/food-culture/article/Kinder-Foundation-100-million-gift-fast-tracks-17457977.php#photo-22967751

The TMC now has a commercial website! It focuses on showing off their 4 campuses. The new website features a 4-minute video of a TMC3 animation that we've never seen before. I'll post a bunch of new renderings from the video. The aggressive facades are just beautiful. A dream!! Really amazing stuff here. https://texasmedicalcenter.com/

A few screen grabs from the YouTube video.

East side streetfront de-scaffolded on Main.

I got this shot of the site the other evening:

Last weekend I was riding along Buffalo Bayou and there were a bunch of pleasure craft tied up along Allen's Landing. Evidently privately owned leisure boats are not allowed along the ship channel, but this group has been able to get a waiver once a year. I do think East River had talked about doing a ferry to downtown at one point but they more recently mentioned adding some kind of street car I believe.

Newest render on the Arch-Con website.

One Discovery Way: Parcel B: Two Discovery Way: Parcel J: Collaborative Building: Catalyst Street: Helix Park: Mixed-Use Garage:

Here's the skyline views from the Buffalo Speedway/Holmes Road bridge. Very good views!! Hopefully there will be a mid-rise or a high-rise involved with this development so they can see the skyline views of the TMC and Uptown. Pardon the dirty lens, still trying to figure that out.

State of TMC is now up on YouTube

More info here: https://buffalobayou.org/our-vision/buffalo-bayou-east/

Yes, 2 huge surface parking lots.

Maybe we should rename Bush into Kinder International Airport 😂, I feel like this family has done A LOT for Houston!

Also, the area across Old Spanish Trail has a couple of parking lots that are set for redevelopment and more green space too.

Arch-Con worker said the tower crane will be placed in the middle of this excavation. TAS concrete workers have showed up including Jake, their supervisor who was working the Binz II building but has moved over to this project.

Progress!!

Texas A&M President Kathy Banks confirmed today in her State of the University address that the Texas A&M portion will be a $200 million building developed with UH.

Progress:

Attendance is up ~50% from 2014, it was even higher in 2018. Win a few pennants and even the folks from Tomball will figure out one way streets!

I see a lot of trees and shade structures in there (and the renderings show young trees; they will get bigger over time...)

This thread is a blast from the past. Remember when that Development Map from Downtown was all we looked forward too? This city, in particular downtown, has come a long way.

John M. O'Quinn Law building at the University of Houston.

Some more thoughts: Another aspect of this is that TMC is moving ahead with this while quite a few developers and such are slowing down because of global market fears, among other things. To me, this indicates a type of market resiliency that, in Houston, has only really happened for oil and gas and that was many years ago. Its the kind of event that may show a real shift in what will make the gears turn in Houston, both economically and politically in the next decade or so. Plus, while oil and gas is still wrestling with hybrid work schedules and increased parental leave and just general HR stuff that brings them in line with the types of benefits their engineers would see from more tech oriented employers, TMC just has its foot on the gas. TMC isn't perfect, and they've had some real issues over the years, but this is a massive flexing of their muscles that shows Houston isn't just an O&G town anymore.

Really love this tower. Front: Back:

Hi all! I have been begging for a www.houstonbcycle.com location in Uptown for awhile now and of course just on or off Post Oak Blvd was the desired location...and lo and behold they have installed one now at 1500 Post Oak Blvd in front of the BHP building! Last night they had both regular bikes and e-bikes at the location. Just thought i would let everyone know!

Work has started on clearing out the trees and vegetation on the southern lot. Lots of civil equipment at the site, dozers, rollers, front end loaders and track hoes in both lots.

I do love a majestic live oak, but they take so long to mature that I hope they rely on a wide variety of trees, including other Oaks. Sends like they plant these Oaks that are already 4, 5 years old and you come back in 5 years and the are not much bigger. In my back yard, squirrels bury Red Oak and Water Oak and the ones I leave alone are 15 to 20 feet tall in about 4-5 years. Sycamores, Ash and Elm turn into sizable trees in just a few years too. A native tree that I just love that should be used more is the Yaupon holly. Again, I don't think they should skip live Oaks altogether, someday they will be majestic, but there are tons of other trees that will give you quick shade and once the live Oaks get bigger these other trees can be thinned out. Native Persimmon, Sweet Gum and Pistache usually have brilliant fall colors.

Houston needs more of this type of destinations. Yeah it's a Biomedical complex but it has a sense of place. Too often we focus on the building itself and not with the interaction with the area. We have beautiful buildings but then we have to be artful in the way we snap it because it is next to a delapidated strip mall, an old apartment complex or a dated drive through. Even in downtown or Uptown you don't get that sense of continuity because a lot of buildings have blank walls or are car garages so the interaction doesn't give off the sense of being a cohesive place. TMC is sort of different in that the landscaping does sort of unify the area. But TMC Helix park is all cohesive. I do hope it all ends up as shown and future improvements pay homage to the original plan.

'A tower of mansions' comes to Houston's Tanglewood area in new $300 million high rise For nearly 70 years, the Farrington/Miller family has handled its development and property management business from an unassuming brick building with a prime address – 1661 Tanglewood. Next spring, those offices will be demolished to make way for construction on what will be the city’s newest luxury condo high-rise, a $300 million building aptly named 1661 Tanglewood. Kendall Miller, the youngest of the four children of Mary Catherine Miller, a fifth-generation Texan whose father, William Farrington, developed Tanglewood in the late 1940s and early 1950s, said that he and his siblings, Bill, Michelle and Jim Miller, are working together on a project that will launch a new chapter – business-wise, anyway – for the family. “We started working on it seriously in the summer of 2020 – it was time to refocus the company and make a big transition,” Kendall Miller said of their decision after disposing of some family properties following their mother’s death in 2018. “This is much more in the spirit of the founding of the family business, developing, creating and selling rather than just managing assets. We’re so proud of this. We feel like it might be a crowning achievement, something to send along with the next generation.” Though few homes or businesses actually have a Tanglewood Boulevard address, that street has long been the most desirable to live directly off of, Miller said. “We’re leading with the address because we’re proud of it, and because we believe it’s one of the great boulevards in the city, a wonderful promenade. It bridges the suburban feel of Tanglewood and the urban feel of Post Oak,” Miller continued. While William Farrington launched Tanglewood before Miller was born, he and his siblings have strong memories of growing up in the neighborhood. In fact, after Farrington died, Mary Catherine Miller moved into his house with her family. After she died, Kendall Miller – who has worked for the family business, Tanglewood Corp., for 30 years – moved in. “There were tall pine trees and football games in the yard. I would ride my bike to the office to steal a Dr. Pepper on the way to a friend’s house. Sometimes I’d get sent to buy Frito’s for dad – that was a fun errand to get sent on. I was always dropping by,” Kendall Miller said. Condo listings for 1661 Tanglewood will go online Tuesday with Martha Turner Sotheby’s International Realty. The building’s new sales center at 1880 Uptown Park opens Oct. 3 by appointment only, and its exterior façade mimics the future building’s aesthetic. The 1661 Tanglewood project will be an elegant, 33-story condo tower with 59 residences on the 1.3-acre parcel at the corner of Tanglewood and San Felipe. Its residences will range from 2,800 square feet to around 12,500 square feet – with most around 5,650 square feet – making it feel less like a stack of downsizing condos and more like a tower of mansions. Designed by Houston-based Jackson & Ryan Architects with interiors by J. Randall Powers Interior Decoration, the building is meant to evoke the classical forms, symmetry and strict proportion of Palladian architecture, Mary Catherine Miller’s favored style. Tellepsen Construction will be the general contractor and the building is expected to be finished 33 months after work begins. Jackson & Ryan projects are well known around Houston and elsewhere in Texas. The firm designed the Children’s Museum of Houston, San Antonio Museum of Art, Rice University’s Brockman Hall, Strake Jesuit’s STEM building and Episcopal High School’s Academic Building. They also designed the South Shore District in Austin and animal shelters in Houston, Galveston and San Antonio. With an exterior façade of brick and limestone, the slender building with Neoclassical details will appear to have a crown on top, with tapered columns surrounding walls of glass. Inside the walls of that top floor will be a 75-foot pool and spa with immediate views of Uptown, extending to downtown. Powers decorated the sales center with the same finishes he insists on in his residential projects all over the country. Its walls are covered in luxurious fabrics and the bathrooms and kitchen are covered in gorgeous stone and filled with Waterworks plumbing fixtures and hardware. MORE FROM DIANE COWEN: Architect Michael Hsu returns to Houston with thoughtful modern style While high-rises in Houston generally have residences on the smaller side, 1661 Tanglewood's larger units are meant to appeal to people who still want sizable homes, but without the hassle of maintenance such as pool cleaning and lawn care. “I did a penthouse (in another high rise in Houston) for a couple moving from a house in River Oaks. I sat down with them and the wife said ‘I have 140 pairs of shoes and a grand piano and I’m not getting rid of any of it,’” Powers said. “There’s such an interesting dynamic about high-rise living. People love the idea of the security, being in a building where you’re protected … but they still want a dining room where they can seat 12 at any given time. A lot of high-rise condos don’t have room for a dining room that can seat 12.” In addition to designing the sales office, Powers will design public spaces in the tower and has had an influence on the floor plans of each residence. He’ll finish out four residences – furniture, kitchen ware, bedding and all – for buyers who want a move-in ready home. “I can fill it with Tiffany flatware, Baccarat glasses – I can even put two Mercedes Benzes in your garage if that’s what you want,” Powers quipped. “Think of someone from Central America or Dubai or someone who just got divorced (and is starting over). We can just make it happen.” For finishes throughout the building, Powers offers appliance packages of French La Cornue or Wolf, Viking and Sub-Zero brands, 9-inch French white oak flooring and Chesneys of London stone fireplace mantels. The beautiful kitchen in the sales center shows off gorgeous stone counters, solid walnut cabinets and a stainless steel La Cornue range, all finished out by Palmer Todd of San Antonio. The sales center – not usually a space completely filled with luxurious finishes – custom-made furniture, 18th century antiques, Stark carpets and three different bathrooms. For the tower’s lobby, Powers has chosen a variety of marble and onyx, limestone pilasters, Rose Tarlow furniture and custom-made Voisson Paris crystal chandeliers. “We’re showing people exactly what they’re going to get in the sales center,” said Powers, who also grew up in Tanglewood and has decorated many homes there. “You’ll see museum quality lighting, solid walnut cabinets – not veneers. You can see Waterworks products right there, not just look at them in a brochure.”