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BEES?!

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Everything posted by BEES?!

  1. OMG! (anyone have an account who might be able to spill some deets on this one? I’m super curious!)
  2. I’d be down for an adaptive reuse of an old mall though.
  3. I thought SoDo was a meme. I see it’s becoming reality. 😭😂
  4. For real! I don’t know how old you are, but I remember going to ballgames in the early 2000s and downtown felt like a major ghosttown. There has been an absolutely bonkers amount of change there. We went to a game recently and took the purple/greenline and were talking to some older folks who grew up in Houston but moved away. They were astounded by how different (in a good way) that whole area was. They told me about riding their bikes as kids in the neighborhoods around TMC, and when I told them about Bayou Greenways, they were really excited. They were really nice! (Even if they were rooting for the wrong team! 🙄)
  5. I like having those Anker batteries on-hand to charge electronics in an emergency. They came in handy during the 2021 winter storm. We keep a couple fully charged ones around in case of an emergency.
  6. KHOU11 has at least 1 video from the lobby, showing some of the buckling of the floor and the water coming up. Youtube Link You can also see huge cracks on the walls. Not good at all.
  7. This is just awful. :( But I am so, so glad that they were able to evacuate everyone out safely and this didn’t turn into another Surfside situation. I feel absolutely awful for the people whose belongings are in there, but they are alive and safe and that is what is so important. Does anyone here live there/know people who do? It’s frightening, though- this building is barely 20 years old, isn’t it? I wonder if there’s going to be a structural review of buildings in Houston like what happened in FL? Edit- there are videos from inside and they are nuts. They’re on Instagram (which I don’t have an account on, but I’m trying to see if I can archive them?)
  8. You know, I’ve been checking on their meetings, and since 2021 I have not seen any updates on that project.
  9. Okay, I’m not trying to be mean to Austin- even if I’m a tiny bit jealous they’re getting the tallest building now :p-but that tower ain’t it. Like, c’mon, you’re building the tallest building in Texas, but you got them chopping it up into three different sections, which makes it look disjointed and not as cohesive. I will be the first in line to admit that the chase tower is kinda ugly and bleh. But, like, it’s not wearing 4 different hats and confused about what it’s trying to be, and it’s a cohesive look all the way up and down. It’s like they went on Pinterest for Architects or whatever, and couldn’t decide on which facade they liked the most, so they just went with all of them.
  10. I have an on-topic question. What sorts of greenspace is planned for ION?
  11. Are they being called condos because that’s just the technical term, or are these actually condos?
  12. Metro’s recent virtual meeting about the University corridor line is on youtube: They are also running a survey (the one shown in the video), but I did not see a link to that.
  13. This would be pretty neat. We need all the energy sources we can get as we continue to explode in growth. With renewables, I know one of the big challenges is energy storage and accessing that energy, but with the projects like the Tesla battery farm near Angleton, that’s already being worked on. I share some of your concerns, editor re: migration paths and injuries to birds. I do hope there are adequate review processes that work to ensure less of an impact on bird and bat populations. I would think that putting these farms out over open ocean might mitigate some of the potential for effects on wildlife, maybe? I know, too, that there has been chatter about making turbines that can withstand hurricanes, which is probably one of the biggest concerns with offshore windfarms here in the Gulf.
  14. Love the butterfly exhibit! (but also so does like half of Houston, going by how freaking packed it was during our last visit)
  15. In their meeting from June 2022, the DRA appears to be putting out feelers to find building owners who are potentially interested in participating in what they’re calling an “adaptive reuse feasibility study”. It sounds like, down the line, they want to launch a program to incentivize redevelopment of underutilized office buildings into residential. This is what they said: To begin shaping an adaptive reuse incentive program, Central Houston Inc. (CHI), in collaboration with the Downtown Redevelopment Authority (DRA), seeks to identify building owners, within the Downtown Houston boundaries of the DRA, interested in participating in an adaptive reuse feasibility study. This is the first phase of a process that is meant to lay the groundwork for an Office Conversion Program, designed to incentivize the rehabilitation and repurposing of underutilized office space in downtown buildings within the boundaries of the DRA. At this juncture, we are seeking to gauge interest in the initial consideration for the study. We will use a broad set of criteria to identify candidate buildings, including consideration of [ vacancy rate over time, market position, location, overall square footage available, full floor availability, property value performance, access to mass transit, walkability, existence of past building feasibility studies]. To warrant full consideration, building owners will be required to provide design, engineering and financial data on the buildings for the study. Once we have identified buildings/owners we will return to the Board to request authorization to produce a feasibility study – addressing economic, design, and engineering variables -- through a Request for Proposal (RFP) to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the reuse opportunities within each building envelope and the financial challenges in realizing specific adaptative reuse opportunities. The meeting PDF is here: http://www.downtowntirz.com/downtownhouston/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Board-Book-6.14.22.pdf The bit about the feasibility study is on page 40. Alright, so, with 1801 Smith being reno’d to residential, what buildings do y’all think are possibly next?
  16. Nice to see them continuing to work on this mall- it’s my favorite in Houston. I know outdoor concepts are pretty popular- I’m 50/50 on them because of the heat and rain. But as long as there’s protected, shaded/covered areas, I’m set.
  17. I need to go find the thread where it was posted, but I’m pretty sure the inner loop population is higher now than its original peak in the 60s. The page posted above was as of 2010. Since then there has been a lot of construction ITL. I think it hit 500k as of the most recent census.
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