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bachanon

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Posts posted by bachanon

  1. Yes, but ChevronPhillips Chemical and Occidental have also been rumored...  ChevronPhillips in The Woodlands stated at last year's Economic Outlook Conference that they had completely outgrown their Woodlands location in Town Center but were focusing capital expenditures on regional  fracking facilities due to consistently low prices of natural gas.  He did not say if they would be building in Town Center or elsewhere.  I think it will depend on their growth outlook and administrative needs.

  2. I think I will prefer to be in the loop where the expectations for developers aren't based on 40 years of optimism (or, more specifically, expecting better ways to incorporate development with the environment.) At least The Woodlands planted many seeds of optimism as well as helped some of us see new ways of considering the environment when developing.

    • Like 1
  3. zzzzzzzzzz..................coming from a woodlands' resident who is disgusted with the howard hughes corporation.  they are like any other slash and burn developer, out of dallas, and care nothing about the environment, only turning a buck and stamping howard hughes mythology on everything.  they just land in their spruce goose and throw-up mediocre cheap buildings.  cheap cheap cheap cheap...low low low low low quality and lack lack lack lack lack good design choices.  they bought a controlling share in the woodlands and are using the good name to cash out for their dallas based corporation.  the woodlands has been sullied by the howard hughes corporation and everyone is so giddy over every "new" thing that they fail to notice the shaking elevators and crooked trim in the buildings....and even the butt-ugly office buildings almost completely devoid of forested areas...."token" trees for the woodlands, "TOKEN" trees.  disgusted.  how much you want to bet the name of the "new" community bears the name of something related to howard effing hughes?

    • Like 2
  4. I remember reading this thread and the discussion about who owns the Store/land. I don't know which is correct but yesterday the Chron reported this:

    "The Sears, though, appears to be staying. The land is owned by Rice Management Company and the store has a long-term lease, the terms of which the company won't disclose. The store also has no plans to restore any of the building's original details, including murals by Eugene Montgomery depicting scenes from Texas history, which have been almost entirely painted over inside. All that remains is the head of Sam Houston, which has a fake frame placed around it."

    http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/The-Sears-That-Was-6198716.php?t=d8806196e1&cmpid=twitter-premium

    Perhaps both are correct? The land is owned by Rice and the building owned by Sears? IDK.

    Regardless, this Chron reporter indicates that renovation of the old bones of this building are not in the plans.

     i would much rather have the texas history museum planned for downtown be in a renovated art deco building with a renovated texas mural.  it's right at a light rail station and closer to the museum district.  just a thought.  on the other hand, a renovated deco building with a forward thinking department store would serve the area nicely.

  5. I noticed we connected recently on linkedin lockmat; i figured it's because we are/were facebook friends too.  this might be a good idea.  ;)  i, like montrose, know the...ummmm..diversity of personality types on haif. heh heh....

    • Like 2
  6. as discovery green encouraged development around its vicinity; i expect the buffalo bayou and allen parkway improvements to do the same along memorial and allen parkway.  this corridor will continue to increase in value and may support additional towers in the coming decades.  i would not expect our skyline to grow in any particular direction except for that which radiates out from existing activity centers.

     

    it seems natural to me that taller residential, office, or public buildings would be appropriate along the buffalo bayou corridor between memorial park/river oaks and downtown.  that said, i assume residential would sell best near the parks and trails (.....thinking of central park in nyc as a comparison for development patterns; residential around most of the perimeter with some commercial nearest to midtown (manhattan)...i may be wrong, i haven't spent much time in manhattan)

     

     

    • Like 4
  7. ...looks like somebody was right outside my office.

    the original condo tower design was rounded on the side facing the waterway.  it would have given residences a wide angle view of waterway square; but, alas, as the woodlands is now a "wholly owned subsidiary of the howard hughes company" in DALLAS, we now get an easier to build cheaper building.  truely...it doesn't suck, but round would have been a more appealing view for the residences.  now that the westin is uglier...and ten waterway will also be a downgraded design, i guess it doesn't matter....my new fascination is east of downtown and inside loop 610. 

     

     

     

    • Like 1
  8. new designs are knocking off mid-century looks and it seems that those who like the knock offs should like 800 bell....this is not the case, unfortunately. what's the disconnect? is it because it isn't a shiny finished new look yet?

    800 bell needs some renderings of what a bright shiny new "preservation sensitive" renovation would look like. it might change some opinions.

    • Like 5
  9. i like this design better than past renderings...howard hughes has been downgrading design and putting up extremely boring buildings; hopefully, this signals a turn for more tasteful architecture.

     

    you would think that with the jewel that is the woodlands, cutting edge architecture and engineering would be common.  i guess that doesn't happen with a developer in control rather than private entities who want to stand out.

     

    fingers crossed that the rending looks as good as the finished product (and that it actually gets built).  gil staley of the woodlands area economic development partnership recently stated that two fortune 200 companies, both energy related, dropped their bids to relocate to the woodlands.  this may signal a cooling off period.

     

    http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/morning_call/2015/01/the-woodlands-loses-bids-for-two-fortune-200.html?page=all 

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