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ArtNsf

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  1. ArtNsf
    No, they will not get their first. You are talking about MSA numbers, which are completely different (and also are not as widely accepted as they can be a bit more arbitrary and un-precise.) We are talking about CITY populations, not combined regions of various medium sized cities like dfw etc... Houston will probably get passed Chicago in less than 5 years as I see it, and easily we have already surpassed 7 million Houston area residents by this time as we are in 2019 and thus, the census may show the world some big Houston changes and surprises over the past 10 years or so. I'm excited for it and Houston is a fantastic place to live and to be at this time in history. Keep up the good work Houston !
  2. ArtNsf
    wow, this build is moving FAST. I love it !
  3. ArtNsf
    Okay, I'm forced to get up on my soap box here, sorry if this offends you, or maybe not - Well, I and I'm sure many others on this forum, are very PROUD of the work that Mayor Turner has done to improve the image of Houston. Indeed, all of our mayors in recent decades have gone to great lengths to improve the quality of life. The only mayor I can remember from my childhood that I learned I could never ever support was Louie Welch. Now, HE was a complete idiot if there ever was one. And, trust me, in this day and age, RWNJ's (you can look that one up elsewhere if you need clarification) are all too plentiful in this country. So, I welcome Houston's many recent forward thinking mayors, including Turner. In fact the past 2 decades or so have seen the best city mayors of Houston and have left other cities and their mayor "in the dust". There are many other examples of mayors and policies that were once thought too "progressive" to be acceptable here, too numerous to list. But, we as Houstonians did the unthinkable and tried these policies and low and behold, they work for the good of all of Houston, not just the upper wealthy elite, or just the homeless population. As we have seen lately, no one is perfect in public office, and some are downright evil and corrupt beyond belief. I have seen no such mayor in Houston in many decades of my life in Houston, with the exception as mentioned above. The fact that we have moved so forward as to think of the old Sears store downtown as a new innovation district is more proof at just how progressive and people oriented Houston's brand of capitalism has become. There is and will always be a profit motive, but the PEOPLE of Houston are demanding more and more bang for their buck in the way of a better quality of life, yet still understand how important the profit motive is to obtain the best. I would think all of what I've said here is obvious, but comments to the contrary just proves that not everyone that is intelligent enough to participate in the HAIF blogs, are enlightened enough to stop making nonsensical untrue comments about Houston's leadership. It is simply non-constructive to continually criticize good leadership like ours for the sake of argument and because you disagree with their policies, EVEN though the facts show these policies are working for the vast majority of Houston and it's people. There's a real reason why Houston maintains the boom that started at least 20 years ago and continues to this day - it's sensible leadership and way of life endorsed by that leadership. I say these things because after reading some of the crap (not too many over all thank goodness) these ideas need to be said in this open forum for all to see and read. If we can put up with some nasty commenters words on here, we can put up with my more constructive comments. Period. But, I digest.......
  4. ArtNsf
    Well, I for one am hoping praying and dreaming of a brand new "supertall" downtown that is higher than Chase Tower. Although 75 stories was pretty awesome in the early 80's, I think enough decades have passed for some forward thinking and very wealthy investor to take us to this next level that all the 3 largest cities in America bigger than Houston have already done. Don't get me wrong. This building will be spectacular and beautiful in it's own right, but it's probably considered more "infill" than anything else. What can I say, I do have huge expensive supertall dreams for this GREAT super city we call Houston !
  5. ArtNsf
    Good one ! Brought a smile to my face on a hard working Thursday LOL thank you !
  6. ArtNsf
    wondering how tall and how many stories is this new tower ?
  7. ArtNsf
    Yes, agreed. The whole "Texas" thing is beaten to death and run into the ground lately, especially IN TEXAS - go figure. Time to diversify and think outside the Texas box for once.
  8. ArtNsf
    I've looked at elevation maps of Houston endlessly for years. Indeed, there is great variation in elevation, from right at sea level off to the southeast and at the bottom of the east end of Buffalo Bayou, upwards to over 100 feet out near West Oaks and northward near IAH. Downtown proper including Midtown, has elevations that range between 40 feet to near 60 feet. Not a huge difference, but in an area considered so "flat" any elevation changes over an area are interesting to those that are looking around and paying attention to the lay of the land. For instance, driving north on Kirby, then east out of River Oaks and onto Allen speedway - oops Parkway... one can really see the difference between the bottom of the Bayou near 10 or 20 feet elevation to near 55 to 60 feet in that part of River Oaks, with the beautiful undulating, albeit small, front yards and banks of the Bayou, even on the roads to some degree. I'm no expert, but if you want to look around and look closer at our flat terrain, you can always spot a natural elevation variation in many areas just by looking closer. Out in Brookshire, where I grew up, the elevation even rises to a whopping 165 feet - wow and as some one else pointed out, near 200 feet towards Conroe and The Woodlands. A lot of rambling about elevation, I know, but I still find Houston's topography fascinating and ever so important to determining flood prone areas versus those that are reasonably safer from inundation. And yes, ALL of the areas I mentioned here are still in the Houston area, though may not be considered in the "city limits". I'm not sure what city limits really means for us in Houston anyway. WE have no limits !
  9. ArtNsf
    AMEN to that ! I've been pointing that little known fact out on this site for years. So glad someone else noticed, too LOL !!!
  10. ArtNsf
    Agreed. There's already way more than enough cow and horse manure and so forth in Texas than anyone should ever need, including at the State Capitol.
  11. ArtNsf
    thanks Houston19514, I really appreciate it ! I'll save it to my email for future reference.
  12. ArtNsf
    Is this the block just west of the new Marriott Marquis near Discovery Green ? I can't seem to find my map of the block numbers for the CBD.
  13. ArtNsf
    it's all those fugly palm trees in the renderings LOL !
  14. ArtNsf
    This is looking very nice. Glad to see the progress with the wonderful exterior materials. Thanks for the pics !
  15. ArtNsf
    hope this one isn't dead? but, would appreciate any official updates if anyone has any. Thanks !
  16. ArtNsf
    WOW what a gorgeous tower ! Can't wait to see it go up along with that nice residential tower just to the north appearing in the renderings, to take shape. Although, not to rain on anyone's parade, I just wish it were about 30 stories higher But, I'll take it and most Houstonians will love it no doubt. Way to go Hines !
  17. ArtNsf
    Well, I for one, completely agree with you. I get so sick of the whole "dallas" thing in this country anyway. As if ! And, yes, Houston is way way bigger with a much more diverse and agreeable population and cosmopolitan feel. But, I digest...
  18. ArtNsf
    understood.
  19. ArtNsf
    typical talking points from the wrong direction and wrong side of history, but good luck with that sweetheart.
  20. ArtNsf
    NO thank you. Most do not support Koch and his brother and their ilk. I'll take another Texas based company over Georgia Pacific any day. Thanks.
  21. ArtNsf
    This is very welcome news, indeed ! Why they wanted to move and then stay in the dfw area I'll never know, except you know, probably tillerson. But, as we have seen time and time again, the center of the energy industry and hot action is and remains Houston, PERIOD. Exxon/Mobile, come-on-down !
  22. ArtNsf
    Well said H-Town and I totally agree. Having grown up in and around this gigantic metropolis until I was in my mid-30's, I've either seen or read about and then noticed every example of architecture within the time frame you mentioned. Only Houston did it way better than everyone else, but never gloated about it before and just kept on doing it's creative wonderful independent "thing" while other Texas cities, who shall remain nameless, constantly touted themselves as the ultimate place to be, especially for TX. This has turned out to be so much hot air and not much more, if you've visited these other cities and compared them to Houston over time. Houston has always been THE big city for Texas in it's history at least from the early 20th century on to today. I see that only accelerating from this point forward to the foreseeable future. Proof? Look around you- incredible growth rates on scales we haven't really see sustained before in our history, most of the growth coming in the form on millennials and young people just starting out, especially college graduates, international immigration on a huge scale to our city with no limits, many new architecturally significant projects all over town, but especially downtown with so many more in the works or in serious planning stages, technology growth both originating and coming into our area as our society in America progresses in science, technology, aerospace, and medicine. AND, let's not forget, even Harvey couldn't stop this growth and progress for Houston. That's pretty much the definition of a "disastrous" event. Not that worse things can still happen and may still in the future, but all things being equal, Houston will continue to grow phenomenally as it has for most of it's history, where the people and policies have determined what their future will be, and not the politics of Washington or our State lawmakers. As for modern day Austin? Well, I'm sad to say, not so much... I also lived in Austin straight out of college from roughly 1985-90. It was a much more interesting city back then and didn't try to bite off more than it could chew. Seems as has been said, that the pace of the population growth there was never (and is still not being addressed properly) anticipated to be as large as it is today. Therefore, the experience of living there is no more genuine that it used to be due to so much clogged traffic and congestion, and being taken over by too much "new money" that doesn't fit in with Austin's original way of life that was so wonderful, even into the early 1990's. There seems to be much more a division and segregation of wealthy people (newcomers) concentrated surrounding the city on the western Hill Country side and downtown, and the not so wealthy people now being pushed further east and southeast of the city limits than ever before. Surprising for a city that is supposedly "liberal" thinking, but bears little resemblance to that ideal these days it would seem. Could this all have something to do with the tilt in national politics and the takeover of our state government from one party to the other during the late 90's ? You can decide that for yourself. I'm only trying to highlight what I believe are important factors in the changes we are seeing for our beloved Austin. Yet, despite all the weird, and downright ghastly changes it is undergoing, Austin will always stay in my heart as a wonderful experience where I first began making my way in life, before moving back to Houston to evolve into the person I remain to this day. I guess in a lot of ways, population being the main exception, Houston and Austin are getting more and more similar, as one moves towards the right and the other moves more to the left. They seem to meet somewhere in the middle, overall. Having said all of that (I know, quite a bundle of thoughts, right LOL!) in closing, I just have to say HOUSTON will always be my one true home.
  23. ArtNsf
    I love it ! Would be so nice to see Houston finally break that 75 story "ceiling" as it were. Wishful thinking I know, but a couple of big towers between 80 and 100 floors would do wonders for our already impressive skyline and prestige !!
  24. ArtNsf
    OMG that's hilarious I never thought of that for their mascot branding LOL ! well done.
  25. ArtNsf
    wow, extremely impressive !
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