bachanon

Class B status here we come!  More ugly buildings.  What's with the return to beige half-floors (or did it ever disappear)?  I guess it's more energy efficient and cheaper to build.

i'm less and less inclined to follow "everything" being built around town; most of it is disappointing.  when there are 609 main's out there; others just pale in comparison.  even simple, subtle, classic designs would be better than the bad attempts at originality we are seeing everywhere.

we need a rating system for design.  a structure may be a "Class A" office building based on commercial standards but rate really low on the HAIF aesthetic scale.  on a scale of five stars, zero stars having little or no appeal or significance and five being architecturally significant, forward thinking; i would rate the energy III & IV buildings one star (blech - will be an eyesore in twenty years and no characteristics worth preserving).

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2014/08/22/demand-for-houston-apartments-is-at-an-all-time.html

 the demand for residential rental units is outpacing the supply. currently, overbuilding is not a worry.

can you say mixed-use development with transportation hub?  so much potential for this property!  rail lines nearby could easily connect to light rail through uptown and/or the rail leading downtown to the hardy rail yards.  light rail line from here down washington avenue to downtown.....many, many opportunities for a transit system pivot point.

1. adaptive reuse of existing mall structure maintaining some retail capacity (or increased)

2. integration of new and proposed suburban rail and intercity light rail lines

3. add residential (affordable) components

4. add entertainment (or public use) component(s)

i would wager that there are MANY entities peeing their pants over this location.

https://www.ted.com/talks/ellen_dunham_jones_retrofitting_suburbia  check out this ted talk on "retrofitting suburbia".  it will give you hope for the plight of malls across the country.

thanks h-town!

the title of this thread is asking for argument.  maybe h-town could change the title to pro-rail vs anti-rail.  if the thread gets ugly, we will lock...as always.  i hate to have to read a thread i do not care for just to make sure it is in keeping with HAIF user standards.

please play nice so moderators can go about their business.  if h-town doesn't change the title, another mod or the editor may swoop in; i'll let it ride for awhile.

my two cents: rail IS 19th century; rail IS 21st century.  are planes stuck in the 20th century or are they bigger, better, safer, as we move forward?  one more point: when traffic is bumper to bumper down richmond, westheimer, and alabama ,24/7, afton oaks and river oaks will wish for a quiet train taking up two lanes moving people through their neighborhoods with few or no chances to stop.  density is happening in houston now, immediately, as we speak (read); it is conceivable that houston could continue to increase in density for a decade or longer, much longer.  

build rail now.  

name calling the opposition is unproductive.

Interesting to hear how the meeting turned out. I think it illustrates how people that (at least appear to) have a common interest can actually be quite diverse.  The lesson I would take from that is that it is good to be careful about painting people with a broad brush.   Even smart humans are still vulnerable to buying into the tribal impulse to punish those who don't appear to be sufficiently loyal to their own tribe.

 

I am a lifelong atheist (well, since age 10-12 or so).  the few times i went to formal "atheist" meetings when i was young, i didn't meet many people i could relate to.  i would rather have been around smart, but open-minded, theists. 

 

But ... that doesn't mean that there aren't interesting people to talk to out there, despite how they choose to label themselves.

I agree with this sentiment.  I joined a humanist meetup and before i could attend a meeting they were getting together for a protest; I'm not inclined to go to a meeting now.  I didn't sign up because I have an ax to grind or want to prove anything.  Intelligent people who are open-minded, regardless of religious or spiritual conviction, should be able to find common ground.  It's the proselytizing hard-liners that are the issue.  An atheist who wants to argue that there is no God annoys me just as much as the Christian who wants to convince everyone they need to be saved from hell.  I'm much more comfortable in the "I don't know" realm.  The website sevfiv recommended looks quite interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNu7_CAJ3uA&src_vid=lzjnlf8yZIw&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_1850735975

 

Robyn - "Sayit"

 

She's back, and bringing Acid House back with her. It's a weird feeling being old enough to see music genres disappear and then get recycled over a decade later.

try 4 decades of that; pretty soon,10 years ago will seem like yesterday. 

did i mention that david lynch's "dune" is guilty pleasure?  i cringe at some of the bad special effects now but i can't stop watching it.  "FOR HE IS THE KWISATZ HADERACH!!

Interesting thought.

To me, Kirby (south of 59) looks craptastic and likely always will.

it is unlikely that kirby between rice village and upper kirby will remain craptastic.

also, regarding kirby/allen parkway becoming like broadway: good luck getting towers or high density anything built from shepherd to san felipe; not gonna happen.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2014/08/12/apartment-tower-proposed-for-upper-kirby.html

not even hbj had a rendering! i love HAIF...

jordan almonds

fried chicken, fried shrimp, chicken fried steak, fried green beans, fried squash, fried zucchini...see a trend?

salted caramel ice cream

raw cookie dough

ditto jack in the box tacos, add their egg rolls

dried chili mangos from world market

buttermilk pralines

parmesan fries with truffle mustard from fielding's in the woodlands

...and congrats by the way!!

editor is right.  imagine being a 10 year old named houston growing up in houston.  consider all of the media stories with houston in the title that could be used to rag on your kid.  let's not forget the second biggest houston of them all whitney houston.  if you really want to shake things up name him "bachanon" or "triton"?

off the top of my head:

"houston we have lift off" as bullies throw your kid in the air.

"houston we have a problem" each time somebody trips your kid.

"look houston IS flooded" as water is dumped on your kids head.

as romantic a notion it may be to name your kid after our beloved city i'm not sure you'd be doing him a favor.  

go with "samuel" after sam houston or "allen" for the allen brothers.  i'd look for ways to be a little less literal in your tribute to houston and more child-identity friendly.

read your car warranties and vehicle service contracts before becoming an uber or lyft driver; most will be void if you use your vehicle as a shuttle, limo, for hire.

HAIF has eyes and ears everywhere....it's only a matter of time before exciting things come to light.  Way to go Triton!

I have several coworkers who commute from League City to The Woodlands every day and have for more than six years.

With Sasaki (may be a big deal), and unnamed architects to be announced; there may yet be more news to come.

nice picture. is anyone else a little put off by the plain vanilla podium parking garages on buildings such as randall davis' cosmopolitan?  i realize that this is the norm, but i do see developers and architects going for a little less profit in exchange for good design, on occasion.  too bad davis isn't of the latter sort. his faux facades are a guilty pleasure of mine, i wish he would be all in or not at all.  it ruins the building for me; i wouldn't consider living in that building because i would hate parking in the ugly box my condo was resting on.  it would piss me off each time i came home.  does that make me shallow or just refined?  i guess the ugly box will be mostly unnoticed after all of the additional buildings are up; plant some pine trees or giant bamboo around that thing please.

with my rant out of the way; back to reality, we can expect more downsized or diminished designs with construction costs through the roof.  i think that the building industry is having difficulty getting things built on time, labor shortages, material availability,etc.  as long as constructions costs are high, design and flash will take a back seat. sad but true.

houston's transition to higher density is truly fascinating.  it would be interesting to see if there is photo documentation of the transition of manhattan island from single dwellings, to multi-storied buildings, to high and mid-rise.  the higher density transition taking place in and around the loop is a rapid cultural shift that may be quite significant historically.  houstonians will be a different breed altogether in 10-15 years.  it's amazing and fantastic....and we are documenting it here on haif.  haif will be a boon to anyone wanting to research houston's boom in the 2010s.  uptown is but one focal point of houston's rapidly changing city-scape.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21188379@N03/14573603339/

link to the "bachanon" approved university boulevard route.  sorry residential areas.

on second thought, south macgregor might have more property suitable for this purpose.

the general angles of existing roads in this area do not support the direction he is suggesting; the university of st. thomas is nowhere near this hypothetical line.  the only option i see that would be interesting is north macgregor from u of h to fannin on the southwest point of the medical center. if you renamed it "university boulevard" and added consistent bus or light rail connecting the southern light rail on the east and the red line on the west, you could market a university corridor.  there is enough underused land in this corridor that, with incentives and collaboration of medical institutions, you might spark something.

Not there for me.  Would like to see it, though.  Maybe you can post a screenshot?

 

What's that star in the East End?

oops.  meant to remove that one.  that's a property i wanted to remember.  disregard the east end star!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21188379@N03/14753562765/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/21188379@N03/14753562765/in/pool-haif

not sure if these will work.  check out the google map links above.  i've been adding the addresses of high-rises under construction or proposed.  notice the line between waugh/allen parkway down to hermann park.  the clusters uptown and downtown make me tingle...

One good class 5 hurricane, on the other hand...

debbie downer!

Don't forget that The Woodlands is working with planners to make sure the last Houston stop includes The Woodlands....a stop near The Woods/ExxonMobil means no 249 corridor. My only wish is that the HSR would originate at in Downtown Houston, swing by IAH, The Woods/ExxonMobil, to Dallas.....or at least a stop close enough to IAH for a cab or shuttle to/from to be feasible.

Wait until fracking and new extraction technologies are loosed in Mexico by Texas companies. We do not yet know what resources are available that Mexico has been unable to extract or find. There is oil under the gulf of Mexico we have yet to reach. Houston is the epicenter of present and future oil & gas exploration, extraction, r&d, and refining for north and central Americas...and maybe this hemisphere. Houston's economy is exploding due to its global position and not one technology (fracking) or resource.