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woolie

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Everything posted by woolie

  1. woolie
    I was driving around today, and found myself thinking about the shopping center at Dunlavy / W. Gray. It's a *huge* site and filled with crappy, out of place stores. The parking lot is never full. The site is nearly as large as the entire River Oaks shopping center a block away, and similar to the entire West Ave development. Anyway, /end offtopic.
  2. woolie
    Whoah, Niche has a new icon. Maybe I should finally set one.
  3. woolie
  4. woolie
    I just like continuous setbacks. Walk down Fannin in the TMC. One side has nearly continuous setbacks, the other is staggered and haphazard. I'd say it's just an aesthetic preference, but I think it's important to the urban character, and basically impossible to change once it's built. So, if the change is basically no cost, I'd rather see it without the spaces on Westheimer. Edit: Yeah, and the Midtown CVS is a real annoyance that I see multiple times every day, despite the fact I never stop there. And I agree -- make it 1 or 2 stories higher.
  5. woolie
    This is great news. I go to Galveston fairly often, both for work and for getaways. It's a great example of a workable urbanism in Texas. I always hold out hope that some of my favorite abandoned buildings will find a new life.
  6. woolie
    Looks good, but the parking strip on Westheimer is yet another bad idea being baked into something that will probably be around for longer than a little strip center.
  7. woolie
    Some days I want signature towers, some days I want just good solid infill. Ask me tomorrow.
  8. woolie
    Main St. used to have a really vibrant weekend night scene. I don't go to "clubs," but I did go all the time as a (hobbyist) photographer -- sidewalks at capacity with crowds. I've been a few times recently, and nothing like how it used to be. It did give me a bit of a sad. Probably for the best -- hopefully higher rents forced out the clubs, as they're large and unproductive spaces for most hours of the week. I'd rather see a restaurant or grocery than another bar. DT finally getting a foothold on better quality retail has surprised me over the past couple years.
  9. woolie
    Haha, well, I may be exaggerating just a little bit about my expectations for Kirby. But it's plain as day to anyone that it's one of the main areas of redevelopment in the city. Anyway, I am going to take some time off from HAIF. It keeps getting in the way of some real work I need to finish. I'll be back soon.
  10. woolie
    Also, I don't drink alcohol, which limits the appeal of the concept
  11. woolie
    Well, I'm still pretty young. But I'd be surprised if Kirby has many single-story retail left within 10-15 years.
  12. woolie
    Yeah, will be great. Probably all of Kirby from University to Westheimer will be like this someday.
  13. woolie
    Yeah, different crowds. When I see a film in the theater, it's because I'm excited about the content. I also really enjoy indie and foreign film. For theaters, I prefer something in an urban setting, without screaming kids and shameless marketing. So, I've been going to Angelika/Sundance for about 10 years as my "first pick theater".. it was already a great theater, and the Sundance renovations have made it into an exceptional theater. Edwards 24 is OK, but Sundance is an entirely different experience. I've done "dinner and movie" concept before.. had a gift card to Studio Movie Grill. It wasn't something I enjoyed -- truly awful food and a bad atmosphere to watch a movie (although the movie, Hannah, was actually pretty good.. great soundtrack.) Anyway, it's hard to run a good restaurant and it's hard to run a good movie theater. It's too much to expect one establishment to excel at both simultaneously. I haven't been to Alamo, but I'm skeptical it can do much better. I'm still excited about the development, though, even if I'll probably keep going to Sundance. These things draw good sized crowds. I always thought it was a shame that Edwards 24 had a great urban theater setup, draws huge crowds, but failed by not being part of a larger pedestrian area... alot of wasted potential.
  14. woolie
    My figures were from the Wikipedia article for each zoo. I'm not saying our current zoo is too small. But could it benefit from being larger? Would a larger zoo provide more benefit than a golf course? I imagine the major draws at zoos are the large mammals -- lions, tigers, zebras, rhinos, elephants, giraffes, hippos, pandas, and so on. These mostly plains animals need large enclosures, even if in total they are only a few % of the total species displayed. Even recently, the zoo opened a large new exhibit for primates.
  15. woolie
    Houston Zoo 55 acres San Diego Zoo 100 acres Fort Worth Zoo 64 acres Columbus Zoo 580 acres Bronx Zoo 265 acres Audubon Zoo and Aquarium, New Orleans 58 acres Philadelphia Zoo 42 acres Phoenix Zoo 125 acres Smithsonian National Zoological Park 163 acres Baltimore Aquarium 6 acres
  16. woolie
    Houston hasn't run out of land. It's expanding West at 3/10ths the speed of light, according to some on this forum. But publicly own park land in the center of the city's amenities. Well, that's a pretty scarce resource.
  17. woolie
    Screen Shot 2012-05-24 at 3.53.05 PM by wools, on Flickr Yeah, from the renderings, this is clearly going on the red lot above; the green lot will still be available for future high rises. Great news! And the new renderings look much better. Still not great, world-changing, visionary architecture.. but perfectly OK. Also, amusing -- I guess they don't own that parking lot and no one would sell. It's in the renderings.
  18. woolie
    If you walk on the golf course, I can absolutely guarantee that within a minute or two, someone will come along in a golf cart and escort you off the premises. I don't see how that helps anyone find an empty space to sit and be alone. Unless of course you make the investment in clubs, drive to the course, get a slot, and commit several hours to an organized group activity. Which isn't really the same thing as quiet open space, either. ...and fyi, Discovery Green is a nice new urban park downtown. It's just a regular park, and like most other parks, it has a name. Which happens to be Discovery Green. Since it's on a small site, it's carefully designed to accomodate many uses (programs) in a limited space. Unfortunately, for reasons that no one can understand, the city did not feel it was necessary to put a golf course on this 12 acre site.
  19. woolie
    There are already two other municipal golf courses inside the loop -- Memorial Park and Gus Wortham. Both of these are in more appropriate locations for a low-density/intensity recreational activity. Hermann Park is in the very core of the city, adjacent to the very dense TMC, a major university, the tourist destination Museum District, and served by fixed route transit. I have been on the train hundreds of times and have never once seen a person carrying a set of golf clubs, despite the fact that the three stations servicing Hermann Park are heavily used. Yet, we've allocated 125 acres of prime urban park to this use. When the Hermann Park Golf Course was first laid out in 1922, it was a legitimately suburban area.
  20. woolie
    Yes, like Yakuza says. The 125 acres for the golf course is already highly programmed -- but to a very specific use that limits both the number of users (a few hundred), and the appeal of the activity (high investment, large block of time, no appeal for children.) It might as well be a polo field. Should the city use such a large block of a very precious and limited resource for this use?
  21. woolie
    Both previous renderings looked much better. Maybe they'll put up a better one.
  22. woolie
    So beautiful. And street cars. :cries:
  23. woolie
    I believe it means they're looking for people willing help to finance it through a loan (debt) and cash (partner equity.) Basically advertising investment opportunity. But yeah, this building is... not a looker.
  24. woolie
    And, off topic, Google Earth has fairly nice 3D rendering for Houston.
  25. woolie
    Approximate boundaries and land areas: Main park area (Red) 94 acres Zoo (Blue) 54 acres Museum / Botanical (Green) 26 acres Parking (Purple) 14 acres
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