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PureAuteur

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Everything posted by PureAuteur

  1. The rendering looks fanastic. It's about time we see some architectural/artistic achievement in this century. It looks unlike anything I've ever seen.
  2. "A large portion of the concrete block has been tranformed so maybe that will continue." I'm glad you mentioned this. There has already been transformation to the mall's parking lot, so there is a chance we'll see further transformations, even bolder, in the future. I think the chances of tearing down the mall are slim at this stage, but the more the area gets transformed, the more you'll have that intangible pressure to get rid of the mall itself. I really think it would help the Town Center. They could rebuild the mall at 2978, which is experiencing tremendous growth, which would make it more accessible to Woodlanders and people in Magnolia/Tomball. I hate to be classist, but most of the people I saw using the mall on Sunday will probably never have the desire to eat at Flemings in their lifetime. Furthermore, I hate to include human beings when I critique the Town Center's ambiance, but in order to have an aesthetically pleasing and uniform ambiance, you need to have more consistent demographics with adults over 30 far outweighing children and teens and less "takeover" from outsiders. Gosh, I really sound like a snob, and I don't even live in the Woodlands, so I guess I'm an outsider too. The way I talk about things though, I may as well be a resident.
  3. I was at the Woodlands Mall Sunday at around 4pm, and it felt strangely different than it did the last time I was in there. I almost didn't feel like I was in the Woodlands, but rather somewhere in Houston, like Northline Mall. Do the native Woodlanders just not shop there anymore? Has this mall been "discovered", and if so, why are people from Houston driving so far just to shop at a mall? Another thing I noticed was that there were way too many poser teens, and not just halfway serious, but embarassingly serious poserism. Are these kids raised by televisions and malls? They would realize how stupid they looked if they had a better frame of reference and interacted with adults more. Which leads to my question... Does the mall really fit in the Town Center anymore? It seems like it just perpetuates the typical mall culture, and thus is not very progressive compared to the rest of the Town Center. Also, it seemed like only about 50% of the people in the mall that afternoon actually lived in Woodlands proper. When I went to Market Street, it was the same way, although there were no teen posers. Because of the demographic diversity of Market Street and the mall, I am wondering if the concept of "town" in the town center is being lost. I really felt like I was in a true town when I went to Market Street about a year ago, but this time there was no community feel, like I was just in a place where people were coming from all over to visit. It is too focused on the retail and commercial, but should instead feel like a public space. I said once before that getting more locally owned businesses would help this problem. The layout is already perfect for local Woodlanders to relax and enjoy their town. Going back to the mall, I just think it detracts from the "mature" feel of the town center. I think it should be redeveloped or torn down. They could expand a grid system of streets that connects to Market Street to make the Town Center look more like an actual town, then build more high-rise office buildings mixed with street-lined stores like you'd see in a small town like San Marcos. This is just an idea I've been pondering lately. Anyone else have an opinion on this?
  4. Rodeo Drive? I was expecting something a bit more down to earth.
  5. They don't fit this city at all. Uptown Park looks more out of place than that neon-blue Ferris Wheel in downtown Houston that the Landry fellow built adjacent to his Aquarium. The Vintage-Kickerillo neighborhood looks so boring, like something that's been done thousands of times before, and I wouldn't even consider looking for a home there. I'd rather buy a custom home designed by Rick Perry himself than to live there, and yes, I mean the governor. Using Italian names for apartments and subdivisions is about as tired as using mix-and-match with nature words to create names. It's stuff like this that makes me want to go live in the Heights or even the Oak Forest/Inwood Oaks area where there is no new development going on constantly and the commercial markets are relatively quiet.
  6. MrFootball, finally we share a sentiment on something. I was thinking the same thing about how tired all the faux-Tuscan/Italian/Mediterranean developments are. When I said "organic" I meant not only that the architecture would reflect the area's people and geography, but that it would be built by people from that area. Uptown Park is nothing special. It looks nice from the freeway, but when you get in there it feels very faux-ish. Even if they did built The Vintage in German style or Czech style, it would still look like a joke. They need real Germans or real Czechs to come here and develop that parcel, and if that's not possible, why don't the residents of the Klein/Champions area go after it? I'm sure they'd be much more sensitive to the land since they are from the area, and they'd do a better job on the quality of building materials and workmanship. I just thought of something. Isn't the Willowbrook Plaza on Gessner already Mediterranean themed? Isn't it a lifestyle center with a movie theater, retail, restaurants, and entertainment? Why do we need another one of those? I wonder if it's too late to change the architectural plans, since nothing has been built yet. I say make it look like an old German village with narrow streets and authentic construction and street lamps, something similar to Old Town Spring. If you want to help me out, I'm thinking of writing a letter to the investment company explaining how much more of a profit they could turn if they change the architectural style. They already own it, might as well convince them.
  7. Where is Fall Creek? Are you referring to Market Street in the Woodlands or something else? Market Street isn't Mediterranean themed.
  8. This is really a bad idea. I'm so sick of "lifestyle centers". Why doesn't any development have an organic feel to it anymore? It's going to look nice, but I feel like it's also going to be very boring as well. I'd almost rather they built a hotel in that area. There was something in the article about an HEB. Now this is something that I'd be interested in, since I used to shop there during my college days in San Marcos, and because I've become dissatisfied with Kroger and Randalls. Right now I don't think there are any in proximity to the Willowbrook area. You have to drive out to Klein, or Gessner @ Kempwood, which is pretty far. I'll still be upset though if they build the HEB where the forest of trees runs along the right side of 249 going north at around Cypresswood Dr. I'm not sure if that's where the HEB is going or if that land is still owned by HP. Does anyone know? " Hewlett-Packard still owns the 94-acre property at the southwest corner of Cutten and Louetta roads. " I'm hoping that's the corner I'm thinking of, and that the HEB will be closer to Cutten and not right on the freeway.
  9. It's a shame that the developer of Northhampton didn't purchase the intersection of 2920 and Kuykendahl back in the 1970s to either develop it tastefully or leave it as forest land to prevent the tragedy that befell that intersection in 2005.
  10. Well, the "open field and cow pastures" description is misleading. The school serves the Northhampton neighborhood, which is very established and looks like a neighborhood you'd see inside Loop 610. This neighborhood has excellent demographics, so it would not surprise me that there are high quality teachers and administrators at Hildebrandt. Does anyone know who developed the Northhampton subdivision?
  11. All you have to do is support locally owned businesses and encourage everyone you know to do the same. Speaking of local businesses, there is a great family owned French restaurant on Eldridge near Briar Forest in west Houston called Le Mistral. If you can afford 25 dollar entrees and 8 dollar salads, I highly recommend it.
  12. I think Greenspoint has tremendous upside. After going downhill in the 90s and becoming a low-income area, it still looks great. It's a surivor, for sure. I don't know what it is about Greenspoint. The planning is very good, much like with Westchase. Streets look nice, the landscaping looks nice, infrastructure nice, and the buildings are quite beautiful to look at either at night up close or from the freeways around it. The mall would be great if they just renovated it, thus making people feel more comfortable shopping there who live in or outside of Greenspoint in those areas around Kuykendahl south of 1960. There are several new neighborhoods going in there, and GP Mall is the most convenient. The home prices are around 120 to 150k as Bachanon stated.
  13. Move to the Heights. It's very classy and cooler than River Oaks. R.O. is too established for your taste. You'll find the women beautiful and will likely want to pursue many of them, but you'd have to adopt the whole River Oaks culture, speech, lifestyle, body language, etc. so you can easily walk into a fancy party and fit in. The Heights people have money, they're classy, but most of all, they are accepting of anyone in their community as long as they are decent. I'd seriously suggest looking into the Heights. You might like some of the new architectural development.
  14. Some of the people I've met from the Woodlands were like that. Then again, they were under 25. They should get some people from the Pacific Northwest or Vermont to run the Woodlands when/if it incorporates. That would be great.
  15. Hmm, that's new to me. I always thought the Woodlands was known for its anti-mainstream tastes and a preference for locally owned businesses. I have never even heard of those three stores you mentioned. (Do you know how they're doing business-wise?) Can you tell me what businesses are, indeed, locally owned in the Town Center? Those are the ones I'd want to visit first the next time I'm at Market Street.
  16. I figured they might be doing this thing all over the country. I was hoping the Woodlands was unique with this project. Speaking of "unique", what is with all the corporate retail on Market Street? It's the same stuff you see anywhere else in Houston's sprawl limits. I want to see locally owned businesses that have character. The Town Center itself is great. They just need to hurry up and incorporate so they can make a government ordinance to prohibit chain stores from leasing at Market Street. This would be beneficial to the community in the long run. It would promote town unity and keep the Town Center from seeming fake-looking. I understand that the rents are high, but once they enact that ordinance, I'm sure it will be more affordable. Think Kaplan Ben-Hur in the Heights: independent store and a famous staple of the community. (Too bad it closed down; they sold excellent coffee). I'd use San Marcos downtown as an example. It has just the right balance of touristy gift shops and mom and pop stores that locals visit on a regular basis, for instance a pizza place, a martini bar, a shoe store, or a tobacco store. As it stands now, Market Street has basically the same stores you could find in the Galleria or in the Rice Village.
  17. What about Plano? Would that be closer to a Sugarland or closer to a First Colony? Also wanted to note, it's funny that nobody ever says they're from First Colony, they would just say Sugarland. However, people from the Woodlands do not say that they're from Spring, they say The Woodlands. So in one case, you go with the town or area, and the other case, you go with the master planned community/edge city.
  18. That clarifies things a bit, because I always thought Sugarland itself was the master planned community that evolved from its old rice and sugar town origins. Maybe that's why I was so disoriented while driving around. I never really went through any of the communities, but I was thinking it was all one big community. So, if this is the case, then Sugarland is different from the Woodlands, as I once thought they were both the same type of thing. Sugarland is more like a Katy, being an area with multiple master planned neighborhoods, while the Woodlands is one community with individual villages. By definition, the Woodlands is an edge city, but I wouldn't call Sugarland one until it finds a way to unify itself a bit more.
  19. Sugarland is no master planned community. I've driven through all of it, and it's so disorganized looking. At one point I couldn't tell if I was in Sugarland, First Colony, Sweetwater, Houston, or Stafford/Missouri City. Sugarland is basically what I'd call sprawl with an ego. I would disagree with Pumapayam about the Sharpstown comparison. Sharpstown in 1960 was a true big city neighborhood, and a really pompous one at that, where style was everything, from clothing to hats to cars to storefront signs and marquees. The concept of civic life was still being applied. The people would have considered themselves Houstonians. Go put some of the 80-90 year old residents still living in their Sharpstown homes on a bus and take them on an intimate tour of Sugarland. They will find the comparisons laughable. Sharpstown in 1960 was bustling with life and activity. It had an electricity about it that will never be recaptured. What's with all the attention given to Sugarland anyways? What about the "and areas southwest" part? I want to hear about the new Gulfton Town Center or the new Harwin Town Center too.
  20. Did Life Forms ever build inside the loop? The houses on Diane Street around Old Timbergrove and Heights Annex look similar to the one in the photo. I'd like to see some homes built in the late 1970s to see how the style compares to my old neighborhood, Woodland Trails West, off Fairbanks White Oak. Many of these homes, including my old home, have been bought out by the county and removed. They got hit with three big floods in a 6 year period, which forced many of the homeowners to move. Now there are many cleared lots where houses used to be. The entire neighborhood was custom homes, and each one seemed to be unique. When I was a kid, I always knew exactly where I was just from looking at the houses. You can't do that in neighorhoods built in the 90s/00s, where the houses all seem to look the same, no matter how different the floor plan. They re-routed the White Oak Bayou over there, and did some things to where the flooding shouldn't be as bad in the future. Does anyone familiar with that area know if they'll ever rebuild the subdivision? Or will all the homes eventually get taken down? It's really a shame, because it was good land with lots of tall pine trees. I wasn't sure if I should go to "Great Northwest" or "Other Houston Neighborhoods" to post something about this.
  21. Those Life Forms homes look awesome. They have dimension and character/substance unlike most of the cheaper non-custom homes found all over suburban Houston that feature gables, those little accent things, arched windows, and lots of brick all over the front of the house. My house is a great example of this sort of thing, only it's not as bad as most of the others, because the brick is an unusual peach color, and the design is unique, with a super high single-columned arch front porch and windows making up most of the house's front side. Of course, once I move to the Woodlands, I'll either try to get a Life Forms house, or if I can't find one on the market, I'll just do the urban living thing and get an apartment or condo/townhome close to Town Center.
  22. I couldn't believe it when I actually saw the Chronicle article. I wonder if there is anything we can do. My mother was involved in a neighborhood coalition a few years back that actually stopped a Wal-Mart from building a store. If a bunch of suburbanite moms can stop Wal-Mart, why can't an entire city stop this from happening?
  23. I think it would great if they went with a real world theme, but I'm not sure the "Southwest Houston" theme would be very popular with the developer's intended clientele. They could make the hotel look like a fire-gutted apartment complex on Bissonett or Fondren. They could recreate the authentic look of a southwest Houston night club storefront, or perhaps a used hubcap store. They could also open up a grill shop where upper middle class white baby boomers will be able to get a true taste of Houston culture by getting some diamonds and gold on their teeth. Then they could also mix in a freeway sign clutter theme, in which the pedestrian walkways are lined on either side with authentic looking billboards and signs, just like you'd see on Interstate 59! Seriously though, they should build a Houston History Museum inside the dome, which would give tourists and even most non-Houstonian Houston residents a tour of the history of this city, allowing them to see what it was like in every decade since it was founded. They could put so many things on exhibit in one unified way, artifacts which are currently all over the place. Anything salvaged from Astroworld would be an example of things you'd put in this museum.
  24. How can you be supportive of the tear down of the River Oaks Theater, yet you want the Astrodome to remain untouched?
  25. Pumapayam, you're starting to upset me with the things you say. The people who enjoy going to the River Oaks Theater could care less about its lack of Stadium Seating, its lack of THX sound system, and its lack of DLP projectors. Too much technology is not always a good thing, and it detracts from the theater's intention, which is to be an alternative to the megaplexes and their crappy movies. I'm not saying every movie they show is good, but it at least keeps its focus on the idea of "cinema" rather than gimmicks. Belongs in a small town? How long have you lived in Houston? It fits perfectly in that location. You say it "doesn't belong in such a great location"?! The theater is part of what makes the location so great. I'm sorry if I sound rude, but unless you're a native Houstonian, you just wouldn't understand. Back in the 1980s/1990s, anyone who even brought up the idea of destroying the theater would be criticized. I guess in today's Houston, with all its non-Houstonian residents all over the city, something truly great and locally significant can be criticized because it's not modern enough. It's an historic landmark, and people enjoy it for what it is. It's something you can never re-create again; definitely of the last remnants of evidence of civic life in Houston. It's not like an AMC 30 that you can just build anywhere, regardless of the city or area. It would be an insult to re-invent it into whatever high-rise property is built in that space. I'm hoping the rumors are not true, and if they are, that the project is met with much resistance. First Astroworld, then Cactus Music, now this? People need to stand up for their city.
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