BayouCityMan

WHOOOSE HOUUUSE??? COOOGS HOUUUSE!!! Congrats fellas, you earned it! H Town Takeover is real!

Much though I would love to see it, both the engineering peeps at TXDOT and the gazillions of drivers that use this road won't much appreciate it. Ideally I'd like to see those lanes cantilevered over the frontage roads and make some sort of vine covered hanging gardens of Houston. Something akin to the vine walls on 59/69 in Montrose only covering the bridges, posts, and so on.http://m.chron.com/news/transportation/article/Elevated-lanes-coming-to-Loop-610-eventually-6673795.php?cmpid=hpfc Additional coverage from The Chron

From what I gather, these will be two separate projects, not combined (at least for now). It's gonna be wild looking to see overpasses 35 feet in the air over the major intersections along the route. I guess there just isn't enough ROW along the frontage roads to cantilever those lanes over them.

http://www.txdot.gov/inside-txdot/get-involved/about/hearings-meetings/houston/121015.html Looks like the process has started for adding 4 elevated express lanes down the center of the 610 West Loop between I 10 and I 69. I am betting that TXDOT will stand a better chance of getting this built despite the likely inevitable legal challenges from the Memorial Park Conservancy and various other NIMBY organizations. Fact is, 300k+ cars use this stretch of road every day and it needs the additional capacity big time. The link has a project map and additional details.

Bring it! This campus has literally done a 180 since I graduated in '02. I hardly recognize it. Very very proud to be an alum right now.

I can't say I'm the biggest fan of this. I bleed Cougar Red and I do think UT is sliding in here for nefarious and harmful reasons. If they wanted to expand their research in the city, why not add a tower or two to the UTMB cluster in the Med Ctr and focus on what their presence here has always been about. Just saying....

Proud '02 Alum here! The wins just keep on coming!

Remember when the forum was generally "blah" to "slightly negative" about this tower's design.... And now we are begging and pleading to the Construction and Oil Gods to spare this one from the budgetary chopping block.... I do hope it gets built. Having only a garage on this block for years would be a true downer. I have a feeling Skanska won't let us down.

I couldn't agree more. Yeah it's ugly but look at it this way, it'll hopefully be buried by other taller developments soon!

I couldn't agree more. This along with 609 Main are my favorite current projects. If Museo really does happen though.... Oooweeeee

I doubt the original hodgepodge of buildings can be adequately restored at this point in their lifespans. When that cladding was put on those buildings in the 1960s, they did alot of damage to the exterior surfaces. Also, so much alteration has been done to the interior that it's all but unrecognizable in some areas. It is a shame though. The original Chronicle Building was a handsome architectural specimen for its day. It was built in 1909 and stood 10 stories tall.

Nice! Will add some signficant height to the E side of 610. Once this, Amegy, and the as-yet-unnamed hotel get done, it'll fill in perfect. Depending on the view and angle, this one would add an ascending height profile towards Williams Tower.

I'm going to guess its contamination from both the post office trucks and equipment along with the site's previous occupant, the Southern Pacific depot. Think about it... All those trains, probably some sort of maintenance facility etc. There were two separate depots there dating back to the late 1800's.

I was thinking the same thing. We may not get a dual-brand hotel tower but 20-30 floors of condos for Latin transplants with cash to burn would go well with this.

*perk* 82 stories for the one in Chicago? That means we should get at least a 40 story one then, right? ;-)