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Sparrow

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Everything posted by Sparrow

  1. Sparrow
    I respectfully disagree. Dr. Khator stated in the State of the University speech that "down the road" they intend to build a "community-based" medical school. The intent is not to copy the existing medical schools, but to "focus entirely on community-based research and training." With as many gains as the University has shown with it's ambitious master plan, it would be a disservice to build a satellite medical school. When UH comes around to building a medical school, I have high confidence it will be within the campus sphere to better serve the communities of the Third Ward and the East End--not to mention the thousands of students living on campus.
  2. Sparrow
    No word yet on when and where the upcoming TCR/TxDOT public meetings will be, but surely when these happen over the next month or so we should have a much clearer picture of precise routes and potential station locations. Starting to feel like the process is taking longer than TCR intended--thought we were supposed to have more route details several months ago.
  3. Sparrow
    Talk about a schizophrenic design--this one is all over the place. Why an attempt to conceal the parking levels on the freeway side (as poor as the treatment is), but no attempt whatsoever on the neighborhood side? No attempt whatsoever to integrate the parking levels into the overall design. Not even an attempt to use the bridge characteristics as a model for the building design--if there going to name it after something they might as well incorporate said model into the design. One of the worst designs around these parts in a while. Maybe a large mural can improve the large Montrose facing wall??? A great piece of public art would keep everyone from looking at the building itself.
  4. Sparrow

    METRORail Green Line

    Sparrow replied to a topic in Transit

    Any chance the turnouts could be used for route flexibility? I mean if they find after several years that a large percentage of say North Line passengers transfer to the East End line and vice versa, why not just change the green line to the East End connecting with the North Line? End the Red Line at the Central Station if such were the case. They should have had them directed south instead of north so either the purple line or the green line could have continued south all the way to the Fannin Park and Ride to provide multiple service options to the areas that surely will be highest in demand (Downtown, Midtown, TMC, and NRG Park).
  5. Sparrow
    While many seem to want office towers or mixed use or condos, wouldn't it be something if UHD was able to use the Hardy Yards to make an actual campus instead of being scattered about? Don't stop at just creating housing. Any chance the Main Building can be repurposed as, oh I don't know, let's get crazy, a high speed rail station or anything like that? HSR folks finance some new buildings up at the Hardy Yards, and in doing so buy the well located building that already has a rail line running thru. Building a few more rail bridges over Travis and Milam wouldn't be difficult at all to create several platforms--assuming the building could be repurposed. It already has it's own light rail stop. Fairly decent highway access to 45, 59, and 10. Sure would have great potential for a transit terminal--especially if they plan on making a south canal touristy "riverwalk" a few decades from now. And what a great view to present of our city to arrivals. It's a win-win for UHD and HSR.
  6. Sparrow
    McMansion is to suburbia as McSkyscraper is to city.
  7. Sparrow
    Seeing as how this is an architecture forum, how would one characterize the style that the University of Houston has adopted for the surge of new construction we have seen over the past several years? Does the university have established design guidelines?
  8. Sparrow
    "We don't want our involvement in this project to be clouded by rail versus bus".......therefore I will make you declare that this will not someday, somehow be changed from one mode of transit to another.... I don't get it Mr. Moseley. Does METRO need to pinky swear that they won't make them into bike lanes one day as well? How about a blood oath that the lanes won't be fashioned as pedestrian sidewalks if the whole transit thing doesn't work out?
  9. Sparrow

    METRORail Green Line

    Sparrow replied to a topic in Transit

    Why does there need to be vehicle lanes on the bridge?
  10. Sparrow
    The western third of SWV is Klein ISD. The eastern two thirds--including EM and CityPlace--is Spring ISD. Parts of The Woodlands are Tomball ISD and Magnolia ISD as well. Ike did do quite a bit of damage to the pines up there. Entergy didn't get power back to some folks for over two weeks. That said, I get the humor.
  11. Sparrow
    What are the chances the same team who did #1 are the same folks working on #2 and perhaps when they finish that one they will move on to #3? It seems to me that this developer is all about saving money with smart logistics. In keeping with that trend, a 2015 start date would seem rather reasonable.
  12. Sparrow
    Doesn't matter to me what they build on the roof of the GRB, but that's ~8 acres of prime real estate that should have something be it solar panels, Top Golf, soccer fields, park, helicopter landing pads, parking spaces, apartments, train station, botanical gardens, or whatever other ideas they can come up with.
  13. Sparrow
    Maybe a future Dallas--SA line would skew the T to the East instead of West as the original Texas T-Bone plan laid out. Hang a right at US 79 as you head up 35. Make the "CS area" stop the junction instead of Temple. Why run it through the middle of the countryside you ask? Because it's flat. Because it is the middle of the countryside--land is cheap. Because there will be fewer constituents to fight for either rerouting or demanding a local stop that doesn't make financial sense.
  14. Sparrow
    If a stop closer to Madisonville is "just East" of College Station I'll wait on drawing conclusions of what "near" the Galleria means.
  15. Sparrow
    Go big or go home... ...Largest indoor Net-Zero Energy park. Air condition the Dome without being tied to the grid. <dramatic pause> Let NRG employ solar panels, solar chimneys and a myriad of natural ventilation designs, and whatever other "green" technologies they can come up with. We have the greatest concentration of energy companies in the world--challenge them to recreate the Dome with all of its amenities Zero-Net Energy once operational. Why would they want to spend their profits on such a crazy suggestion? PR and R&D. Largest Indoor Park, that's cool. Largest Indoor Park with a bunch of cutting-edge technology, now that's awesome. Turn the NRG parking lot into Expo 2025. Make Houston 2025 synonymous with Chicago 1893. Let the New Dome be the focal point of a much larger, much grander plan. Take RFP with minimal criteria that must be met with the winning bid getting use of the land free of charge for X number of decades after the World Expo, at which time the ownership reverts back to the county. What's the benefit to the county? Zero cost to redevelop the Dome because someone else will do it for you, and future sales taxes. Parking, park land, storm water, hotel rooms, cow pens for the Rodeo, energy consumption, anything and everything--spell out what all criteria must be met and let them have their fun, an XPrize sort of competition. Astrodome XPrize anyone?
  16. Sparrow
    It would be ludicrous to imagine TCR not building a downtown area station. Any other stations would have to be in addition to a downtown station. That being said, I wonder if they have any intent to create a commuter rail service themselves. Is there any legal hurdle for them to do it here in Houston? Does METRO or other government bodies have the exclusive rights to local transit service or anything of that nature? Why not build three stations in the Houston metro region as they have spoken of in the Metroplex? Run the Dallas--Houston route, but also run a "local" train just between the three local stations. They should maximize the use of the rail line they will construct. The Woodlands to Downtown in 10 minutes. Downtown to Galveston in 20 or so. I'm sure quite a few people will pay the necessary price to make it profitable. Galveston would be the big winner (or loser I suppose depending upon your viewpoint) in such a scenario. Think of how many new condos can be sold if the island is suddenly 20 minutes from downtown instead of an hour. The island would see a real estate boom! Additionally the trains can be commissioned for hurricane evacuations as they would be able to ferry tens of thousands of people in a reasonably short time frame in an emergency.
  17. Sparrow
    If I were going to build a HSR rail station/TOD development on the north side of Houston, I'd build it at Springwoods Village (i.e. the Exxon development). Right at the major highway intersection of 45 and the future GP. The gray section in the Springwoods Village conceptual plan would be ideal with the rail line bisecting the land. Take the route from downtown up the Hardy and veer west at Old Town Spring. This could be the North Houston/Woodlands stop. Then continue on up the right of way along FM 149 and FM 1486 and onward north. Springwoods has grand plans--a HSR station would fit right in line with what they hope to accomplish. If nothing else I'm sure those execs up at the Exxon HQ would make use of the new line to visit the new campus (and perhaps TCR would find an unlikely investor ). www.springwoodsvillage.com/images/large/100920_Springwoods-Village-Districts.jpg
  18. Sparrow
    Perhaps the angle to go to privately finance a HSR line is by making it more of a real estate venture. Short reference to TOD angle in Texas Tribune article. www.texastribune.org/2014/08/18/bullet-train-could-change-everything/
  19. Sparrow
    I wonder if they could somehow use the roof of the GRB as a location to grow a new lawn to be replanted at DG? I mean if the plan is to use the lawn so heavily, it would be beneficial to replant sod every so often to maintain park standards. Having the transplant grass nearby seems like it would make for easy maintenance. Even if not something as radical as on the roof, what's from keeping the city from growing a replacement lawn for up keep?
  20. Sparrow
    Impact News article quotes Eckels as saying "stops are being considered near Bryan-College Station and possibly along Beltway 8 or the Grand Parkway." http://impactnews.com/houston-metro/spring--klein/environmental-study-on-high-speed-rail-from-houston-to-dalla/
  21. Sparrow
    Going way back here y'all, but instead of the suggestion of putting all traffic onto one massive roadway to the east of Downtown as some suggest, why not provide an outlet for traffic to bypass the bottlenecks? Downtown has freeways on all sides, perhaps it would be the most direct solution for the Pierce would be to do the same for Midtown as JLWM8609 suggested. Cut-and-cover a Spur extension all the way to 45. (The inner cartographer in me loves the idea of Midtown being defined fully by clear boundaries on a map.) As an immediate fix perhaps even a simple change in signage could reduce bottlenecks. Have SB 45 traffic wishing to exit 288S/59S do so by taking I-10 EB north of downtown and take the 59S exit behind the GRB--they'd avoid the Pierce altogether. Same for 288NB/59NB exiting to 45N, sign for them to exit I-10W and then join exit 45N. Some of us do this already depending upon traffic one day to the next. TxDot could potentially reduce the Pierce bottleneck simply by providing alternative exit routes. Perhaps label "thru" route exits via the east side of Downtown and keep the current exits labeled as "local"?
  22. Sparrow
    Perhaps this is why the downtown Hyatt Place was cancelled??
  23. Sparrow
    TxDot has said tunneling isn't an option, but if they really wanted to provide better neighborhood connectivity why wouldn't they consider cut-and-cover? Cut-and-cover the Spur under Bagby/Brazos/Smith and do the same for the 45 main lanes under Pierce/St Joseph/Jefferson. All in all wouldn't be that much of a pain during construction with the many parallel options downtown/midtown provide for local traffic. Freeway traffic would maintain the status quo until the new tunnels are completed. If the "lack of space for shoulders" is the issue as TxDot has said in the past, why not just build two levels of tunnel and just split the traffic? That might even be better to separate local and thru traffic. Austin has a split and so does San Antonio. And don't tell me you can't tunnel in Houston because it would flood. All tunnels require pumping stations, Houston would do the same. Both Midtown and Downtown would see big benefits with a Spur extension and below grade freeways. TxDot could even sell of the valuable land the Elevated currently occupies after they are done dismantling it.
  24. Sparrow

    METRORail Green Line

    Sparrow replied to a topic in Transit

    Any word on when the two new LRT lines will open? Is it just the downtown finishing touches holding them back now?
  25. Sparrow
    Instead of making a mini dome they ought to consider placing the museum aspect of the plan underground. The excavation work was already done decades ago. Gateway arch in St. Louis has their spacious visitor center underground and is quite nice. I would think that modification would allow for a larger space with lower cooling costs and potentially lower construction costs as well.
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