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Skyboxdweller

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  1. Skyboxdweller
    too bad they couldn't' repurpose the old bank facility as a restaurant. I like places that still have the old vaults as a private dining room. Although I hated what they did to the Manufactuers Hanover branch on 43rd and Fifth, NYC that is a landmarked mid-century modern masterpiece. I guess they were both bank branches but the comparison ends there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturers_Trust_Company_Building
  2. Skyboxdweller
    It's owned by Apacne and is probably not going to get developed until Apacne flips it to another owner. It's investment in a new Permian gas field has not paid off and it just announced lay-offs, etc. I view this as excess property held for investment and couldn't imagine mgt. putting cash into an office building development when it is struggling to keep its shareholders fat and happy with dividends and stock buy backs. Would make most sense for Hanover to own as it could design a complex that wouldn't totally destroy the value and views of the two buildings it already built and the building it will put up on the site it owns next to the one with its HQ.
  3. Skyboxdweller
    Scaffolding for outdoor concert?
  4. Skyboxdweller
    I think the shape of the tower is as courteous as possible to the Cosmo, while still making economic and aesthetic sense. The pool/roof garden area is going to wrap around the western side of the building, with a pool set in the corner of San Felipe and the parking lot of adjacent strip center. Based on where the columns are being set and some of the renderings that are available, I think the tower is going to get wider as it moves back from San Felipe towards the Cosmo, and that the elevation facing the Cosmo is going to have angled corners to push the views out beyond the Cosmo. The tower stops about three columns in from the northern side of the podium. They are framing and pouring the 6th level now , which is the last parking level. In about 3 weeks the tower floors should be under construction.
  5. Skyboxdweller
    I like it too!~ I think the landscaping at Uptown looks great as well.
  6. Skyboxdweller
    Re: New Uptown color scheme: the beigery I noticed this trend last year as wll. The Uptown park was repainted, as was the strip mall on the corner of Post Oak and San Felipe, and the Camden apt slab. Out are the ochres, peaches and yellows , in with the greige and beige. Not sure if this was coordinated or unconscious parallelism.
  7. Skyboxdweller
    Forms for decktop pool dropped in this morning.
  8. Skyboxdweller
    You would think that this would be an ideal time to run a two-lane Bus Rapid Transit through the park connecting with the Uptown line at Post Oak . The mentality is still very car oriented and is already outdated from a regional transportation perspective.
  9. Skyboxdweller
    Well, I gutted th place and rebuilt it to accommodate my wife disease, multiple system atrophy - cerebellar, which is rare, degenerative, progressive and always results in death.She has the master bedroom to herself, with a large closet with no doors and with an attached bathroom with no barriers and a roll in shower,. When we first moved in she was independent and used an electric scooter and was able to scoot into the shower, transfer to a bench and bathe herself. For the last two years she has been immobilized and I have a staff of three aides who clean her, feed her, etc. Until recently I had someone on call during the night and she slept in th gust room next to my bedroom. I moved walls and opened corridors to make th apartment accessible. My room has an attached bath and there is a another full bath in the hall and a powder room. Tne original layout had two other bathrooms ( a his and hers in the master and a servants bathroom ). I took out the servants bathroom, relocated my water heater in the space, installed a second dishwasher and made a pantry On the upper floors of Four Leaf, there are four apartments per floor, which results in a fair amount of interior space. I have a large entry gallery and there are a number of closets which house two blower/ac units, a water heater, a rack of audio/nome automation equipment, a utility closet, and two walk-in closets for storage. Cesar Pelli did a great job in placing the parking underground ( 2 spots per apt) and using the second floor for resident storage closets ( It's my garage). About a third of my apartment is a 55 long open plan space that contains a dining space, an informal "den": wih a tv and a large sitting area with a sofa that cost more than my car. I engaged Stern and Bucek on the remodel and they honored my request to make things float or disappear. Since I stripped everything down to the slab and curtain walls, when we built it back up we were able use all of the space efficiently for storage, etc. I understand that this is not a standard American apartment and I feel veruy fortunate to be able to live here.
  10. Skyboxdweller
    I"m 63 and now live in Four Leaf Towers. My 6000 sq. ft. house in Hedwig Village was a great place when I had two kids in school and had tons of gear, a son who played guitar and drums and parking for our three cars. It had a back staircase that allowed a summer to go by without having to meet my daughter's then-current boyfriend. But the kids are now in L.A. and Austin, one is married and my wife is nearing the end stages of a decades long rare neurological disease, By the time both kids were in their mid-=twenties, when they were at home, it was like running a small hotel and I was the staff. I miss my garden and pool, but not much else about the property. At Four Leaf Towers, I have someone to unload my packages from my car after returning from Costco or HEB and bring the stuff up to my apartment. I;m now living in 2690 sq. ft. and its certainly more than enough for my needs. Right now, I have one guest room and when both my son and my daughter and son-in=law visit, I usually book one of them into a hotel for a few days. I think one could live nicely with a family in this apartment, but for many reasons, including the amount of personal possessions amassed by the affluent, including sports gear, cars, etc. it would feel cramped by most families.
  11. Skyboxdweller
    Floor two above grade on right , ground level on the left . looking east over project.
  12. Skyboxdweller
    They recently power washed Neiman Marcus and it looks a helluva lot better. The Galleria would be more attractive from a pedestrian standpoint if they developed another restaurant or entertainment pod in the parking lot on the corner of Wertheimer and Post Oak. Dillard's is a box that truly offends. It looks like at one time it had large display windows facing the parking lots but that these were covered by stucco at some time in the past. Some attractive displays, trellises with greenery and a paint job to the concrete block walls on the parking structure would make the store look more user friendly and less dated.
  13. Skyboxdweller
    I'm a walker too. Houstonians are afraid they are going to melt in the rain and turn into a puddle when its above 90 degrees. I try to walk four miles a day. One year I walked across England, from the Irish Sea to the North Sea, about 215 miles and it rained 12 of the 13 days I was on my trek. People used their legs to get places until the automobile took over our cities and our lives. Walking a half mile, if that, from the Hard Rock to the Galleria should not be a challenge. I agree that there aren't enough entertainment oriented venues in Uptown. The Galleria itself is often touted as the number one tourist attraction in Houston. Pretty depressing.
  14. Skyboxdweller
    I am on the 37th floor of Four Leaf Towers and look east and south. My view towards downtown is going to be framed by this new building, but I"m happy to have new neighbors and restaurants. This area would work a lot better with higher residential density. Maybe restaurants would stay open later and we might support more entertainment options. The rooftop cinema is a good addition.
  15. Skyboxdweller
    It's where an old post office now sits. I hope the US got a good price for the site. It's walkable to Sam's club and Walmart, a few blocks from the Galleria and a chipotle and Mod pizza in the strip mall on Richmond. I would consider this a really off location for a place that is associated with Buzz. Maybe that's the problem with the brand and which sells nostalgia to middle aged people and is a few stages removed from the energy and creativity of rock n roll.
  16. Skyboxdweller
    Beautiful day with a touch of ozone!
  17. Skyboxdweller
    Super. It's contextual, is much more interesting from a pedestrian standpoint than a typical office tower with a cold, visually uninteresting lobby, giant parking structure and maybe a bank or financial services operation on the ground floor. Always happy to have new restaurants in the area and it looks like Ninfas is going to launch in a week or two .
  18. Skyboxdweller
    Pour starts early on Friday morning .
  19. Skyboxdweller
    More steel,more concrete and walls of basement .
  20. Skyboxdweller
    Very busy today .
  21. Skyboxdweller
    Foundation rebar being placed , excavation continuing and horizontal auger being removed from the pit this morning X
  22. Skyboxdweller
    Two levels of underground parking and an irregular site .
  23. Skyboxdweller
    Still excavating tonight at 7 pm.
  24. Skyboxdweller
    Just when I think they are done excavating they start scraping away another layer of soil. I wonder where all of this clean fill is going ?
  25. Skyboxdweller
    NOPE. It's south of the two HANOVER buildings and is a deep but narrower lot. One of those jenga block high rises would look great there and keep the views from the two Hanover buildings from being blocked. I'm not sure who owns the other vacant lot that is next to our park bench. All in all, its been slow going with this development. Over a decade and three major blocks and two smaller development sites ( on the south and west of the Whole Foods c complex) still vacant.
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