j_cuevas713

What's the word on this now. Any sort of timeline? Because if this happens it will really distinguish the Montrose neighborhood. This is the type of stuff Houston needs. 

On 12/4/2015 at 3:03 PM, BeerNut said:

When will a decision be made?

Never because crap like this takes forever in this city. 

Its funny because I was just in this area today and I was like why the hell don't they make this area more pedestrian friendly... it has some elements of that but man why doesn't this city go crazy with laying sidewalks? Like consistent sidewalks with the same width from downtown and everywhere expanding from the cities core. If you added more pedestrian friendly areas for people to simply cross the damn street, you'll get a denser city with higher quality. Instead all these developments are half ass, with sidewalks to nowhere or that end out of nowhere and so much landscaping that it becomes hard to maintain all that crap. Instead if you made everything simple and just have all sidewalks come to the edge of the curb, you would find a nicer city with less maintenance. I just don't get it. And all these lots that are empty or overgrown, man fence that crap off. Is the city that strapped for money that they can't section off eyesore lots? 

7 hours ago, Nole23 said:

1810 Main

1711 Caroline

1811 San Jacinto

 

3 more midrises to cover those other parking lots. Yeah I know about these, and I'm glad they're happening but man that crater on the south side of downtown sucks.

I'm amazed to see this midrise in a sea of parking spaces. I would've hoped for maybe 3 more of these midrises during the incentives program

3 hours ago, cspwal said:

It's hard to get your bearings since there's only 2 buildings in this photo that survived, but the church on the left is pretty distinctive, and Central plaza in midtown is too

Man the Pierce destroyed some interesting parts of the city smh... seemed pretty dense too... just disappointing

Wth man, that thing looks awesome. It just adds a cool element to the city. I like the entire color jam idea. I think they finally got something right. 

Saw what appeared to be an electrician checking a breaker box today on the side of this building. 

40 minutes ago, UtterlyUrban said:

I hope that you are correct.  However, this building has NEAR ZERO left of its history except the interior floors.  The windows are new and wrong for the period.  Everything about it new is and wrong for the period.  It is possible to "historically restore" using new materials that are sensitive to the historic period in which the building was built.  That was not done here.  While unfortunate, I am fine with that.  As I have said before, they could have bulldozed this building for all I care.  I just don't like the concept of "marketing" the building as a "historic renovation" then doing something else entirely.

I do hope that you are correct.  Hopefully Houston is changing.  The Texaco renovation and a few others are promising signs.  But the recent bulldozing of a historic structure on Louisiana, the demolition of that (perhaps too far gone?) warehouse building on (Austin?) to create a parking lot, and the crushing of the Houston Club building tells me otherwise.  Time will tell and I hope that you win this debate.

 

 

I do agree with you trust me... I just think the overall trend has not only come back to people moving back in to the inner city but also with saving older structures. If any city follows what the market is doing it's Houston. It's hard in some cities to distinguish what the overall trend in the market is because of such strict regulations on how and what to build. In this city you get such a huge spectrum on what is the current move in the market and what isn't. Houston is definitely changing culturally in many ways... whether it's salvaging history or embracing a clean "green" Houston, this city is going the right way and I can honestly say that I've never in my life seen Houston take such a huge initative in heading this direction. I think the culture of anything goes and not embracing this city is finally coming to an end. The culture in this city has been changing over the past 15 years and it's very exciting to see. 

2 minutes ago, UtterlyUrban said:

Glad to see this building almost complete.  Sadly, "Historic renovation" it is not.   To me, it shows that Houston is a city where, even "civic organizations" really don't care about preservation.  If those who should at are the most don't, how can we expect those seeking profit to care more?  Houston is becoming a great city but historic preservation is simply not a core cultural competency.  We will build a beautiful city for the 20-teens and beyond.   it will not be grounded in historic structures but rather in modern construction.  And, since I can't have the former, that is fine with me.

That's really not true... historic preservation doesn't always mean maintaining every original part of a building... it's maintaining the structure as a whole... and honestly the original bricks of this structure would not have withstood the test of time... the best way was to restore it back to it's original build. And the statement that Houston isn't being built on history is wrong. There are so many structures being saved and repurposed in this city. It's becoming the trend in Houston and culturally it's becoming the norm. I work with a guy who owns Underbelly, Anvel, and a few other places and we've had the same talk but many of his partners notice the trend has changed in Houston. Whether it's salvaging and repurposing or building 100 percent green, the city is building the right way now. 

3 hours ago, tigereye said:

Looks like a race to the finish. Pic I snapped yesterday cycling through.

 

Wow they really are moving fast... well they have 5 more days 

I hope this is finished in time for the Super Bowl.

3 hours ago, tigereye said:

Looks like a fresh render ...is this waterfall supposed to be added? Cause in the years I've been at 1KM, it's never done that. 

Edit: Went outside to look, don't see any plumbing unless it's way up there. This is the closest I can get as sidewalk is blocked for Trumpet Flower's installation. 

Edit 2 Coworkers say it was a waterfall and was recently turned off. Guess it was so insignificant, I never actually paid attention to it lol

That thing has been there. It was never turned on for all these years. That is literally the first time I've seen it on. IMO I think this has to do with the recent events the city is getting. Since the Final Four is right around the corner it seems this is the only reason they turned the damn thing on. Pretty ridiculous. 

19 hours ago, Sunstar said:

I've never understood that  " AS WE BUILD OUR CITY, LET US THINK THAT WE ARE BUILDING FOREVER" element of the Main Street square fountain. Is it supposed to do something? I've never seen it work. Actually, I haven't seen any of the fountains working in the recent times I've been by there. Maybe I'm just picking windy days, but something tells me it's not living up to its original vision. 

I have never seen that particular fountain on. It was supposed to create a wall of water with images of the city projected on it. That thing has never even been turned on. 

I mean we still got a solid week and a half lol... maybe this will be done 

Just now, cspwal said:

A lot of that land is owned by Metro.  I agree that they should do something about it - though I suspect that some of the land is being banked for commuter rail station platforms and the University line station platforms.  However, right now it should be one of the busiest interchange terminals in the system and instead it feels like a place you want to leave asap.  It probably affects the ridership of the New Bus Network(tm)

I mean honestly its not as bad as it seems. I take the 25 sometimes from there and there are a lot of families, etc, that enter and exit that station but yeah its a rough patch.

2 hours ago, cspwal said:

It's difficult to get to from the freeway exits that are there, it's not super on the way for people going to/from the med center, it's not the nicest walk from Wheeler to that location, and remember a McDonald's that was at Richmond and Main closed too a while back

The city needs to really do something about that area. It would be nice if they used the space under the freeway for a nice park. I also envision the Wheeler TC to be more exciting. Like why not build a large bus depot type building with the trains entering. I could see that station being a major interchange for transfers. Idk just my opinion. 

On 2/15/2016 at 1:23 PM, OkieEric said:

The only surface parking I can tell has been lost from those renderings is in front of Baker St (former) / 55 / etc.  As it is there are just a handful of spots there now, anyway

 

That strip where Chico's is looks like it more or less has the same parking configuration as it currently does.  Actually, if you look at the google satellite view of that building you see no parking spots available along the street, but plenty of spots on the roof.  It really makes you wonder if people even realize that parking on the roof is an option:

 

I think it has more to do with convenience. Look at it like this, if you just want to get somewhere fast, you will avoid having to park on the roof and then walk down, etc. BUT if roof parking was the ONLY option, then you force people to make that their choice. That's why when suburban style development provides a walkable path off the sidewalk to the store front, people STILL walk through the landscaping edge to get to the front door. So over time that nice looking landscaping starts looking like crap because people choose the convenience of getting from point A to B fast over walking 10 more steps to the path created off the sidewalk. If you look at cities like NYC, people are given very few options to cut corners.

 

 

Got this today on the train

On 2/15/2016 at 0:57 PM, Moonb007 said:

These are horrible renderings and don't seem to show consistency for the whole project.  I love the fact they are looking to make it more pedestrian friendly, but if they are getting rid of all that surface parking then it's going to be impossible to find parking.  Already that whole area is a nightmare, but I can't image what it would be like without the surface lots.  I guess time will tell....hope the put a stop sign at Kelvin and University.

Use public transportation... you can't complain about parking yet favor more pedestrian friendly development and expect them to invest more to build a parking garage so you can neglect the transportation system you have in place to use. I ride the 36 to RedLine South every day and it's great.

YES!!!

On 3/15/2016 at 9:10 AM, htownproud said:

The Wendy's just under the freeway across the street from the Sears is now closed and boarded up.  The spray paint on the new ply wood ads to that area's charm that the final four crowds will get to see on the light rail to the stadium.  

Thank God, that Wendy's was terrible. I hope that plot of land becomes something to add to the area. 

YEEEEEES! Omg this is gonna be so cool!

1 hour ago, monarch said:

^^^ there is a small possibility that this is parking related.. since this storied edifice is now a parking garage.  however, it would be totally / completely exciting for something positive to be happening with this edifice moving forward.  why aren't we no-longer hearing anything.... why the sudden mystery...??

I mean why would they spend so much to improve a parking garage unless they expect to get some sort of return out of it. I feel it's either just updates to the garage, or prepping the garage for a retail tenant/tenants... because wasn't the original idea to demolish it for a multi-use project? Just seems odd

2 hours ago, nate4l1f3 said:

Have we heard anything on who won the bid for this building or a timeline?

I've asked the same question with little response. It seems like they are renovating the building for better street presence. I would like to know what retailer has signed on though to be the anchor tenant.