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J.A.

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    4th Ward/Midtown

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  1. J.A.
    ... They just followed the aesthetic standard set by their neighbor... The Travis... Compared to that, Mariner House just fades away!!!
  2. J.A.
    YES, these are Philip Johnson designed buildings. The towers are, to my eyes, more iconic and better looking than many new buildings from the outside. I think demolishing them would be... short sighted... and that's putting it lightly. I believe that there's still a lot of respect for Philip Johnson designed buildings in the Houston real estate community since he gave the city some of the most distinctive buildings in our skyline(s). His name carries a ton of weight. As we've seen Downtown with quite a few other 'underperforming' assets, renovating the ground level pedestrian experience and amenities can go a LONG way toward reinvigorating a property. To name a few: Allen Center, Houston Center, Chase Tower, 700 Louisiana, 1001 Louisiana... Post Oak Central hasn't really been updated much since it was built. The pedestrian experience isn't very good, and there's a ton of underutilised space so there's plenty of room for Midway's style of improvement. To drive the point further... Re-quoting and underlining important bits of article here: Brad Freels, Chairman and CEO of Midway and Co-Executive Chairman of Parkway... Regarding Post Oak Central, Freels said, “We see incredible potential in the iconic property. This deal activates and accelerates our plans, and we look forward to reimagining Post Oak Central for the next generation. To me, it does NOT sound like Mr. Freels intends to demolish his ICONIC PROPERTY.
  3. J.A.
    I agree 100% about businesses failing to see the opportunity at East River. I mean, HEB for example didn't even open in the Heights or on Washington Ave. until 2019!!! Ridiculous! That's probably 10yrs later than it should have happened. I dunno about Whole Paycheck being interested in East River given that their store in Midtown didn't exactly meet business projections... unless it is now? Grasping at straws tryna think outside the box: What about a Joe V's Smart Shop (Never been there but it's owned by HEB so maybe still too risk averse?) or 99 Ranch Market? I was thinking maybe Food Town or Fiesta could be convinced to up their game into something kitschy cool while maintaining brand identity and pricing the neighborhood is familiar with. Or maybe something else we probably wouldn't have thought of that may be looking up it's visibility in a different market of the city like Phoenicia did when they opened Downtown. Still not a grocery store, though (and too close). Anything from 'China Town' or 'Mahatma Gandhi' District? Too specialized? I feel there was/is still a lot of inertia in Houston real estate development regarding mixed use buildings and centers until very recently. Then the pandemic hit... and now the inflation aftermath... Also, we have to remember that it took a long time for retail at City Centre to fully lease up when it was the mixed use development pioneer in Houston. I recall a lot of empty space there too for a few years. Now with East River add in a financial market and inflated construction pricing where no one wants to build anything. Hopefully, Midway will ride this out too and stick to their vision. When the market figures itself out, this area will probably take off!
  4. J.A.
    I'm wondering if Midway should aim for tenants that aren't quite as 'high end' as what we might expect to find at City Centre... More businesses local-ish to the East Side of town would probably be more appropriate for the area anyway? I have no idea what those might be as far as a gym or movie theater (1st inner loop Alamo Drafthouse?)... For a grocery store, maybe Foodtown, Fiesta or similar? Maybe Midway is looking for this tenant mix already... but from afar it seems like it's probably out of their comfort zone.
  5. J.A.
    ... The main tower in the new rendering doesn't actually represent what's been built so far... kinda odd, no? 🤔
  6. J.A.
    I've always thought they should change the circular area facing Kirby into a pedestrian courtyard with landscaping that restaurants can open out onto, etc. No cars driving through there at all. They put a lot of effort into making an architectural statement with this outdoor space, but then what's it programmed for? ...Drive thru/valet drop off...
  7. J.A.
    After reading all the discussion about why 2 big mixed use projects failed in Midtown, I wonder if the answer might be pretty simple: Downtown stole Midtown's thunder... and from what I'm seeing, is continuing to run away with it.
  8. J.A.
    The article conveniently forgets to mention that there's also... ehem... a Six Flags next to those stadiums in Arlington... Something that we used to have 🙄
  9. J.A.
    It can get pretty backed up during afternoon eastbound rush hour (pre-COVID) between the 2 parks, particularly with Westcott dumping traffic coming from i10 right into this stretch of road. From my experience though, any other time it's not bad. I'm guessing they won't be giving up a lane to bikes any time soon since they just finished a repaving project a couple of weeks ago... cutting out sections of the road and replacing with proper concrete from Westcott all the way to Sabine. Is there enough space to widen the sidewalk into a proper hike/bike path?
  10. J.A.
    I can set aside the validity of historicist architecture on modern buildings if it looks right. I'm not so sure that the proportions of the overall massing are working for the Music Hall, though. I've always thought that the big blocky mass plopped on top looked a little truncated... like they forgot to design a pitched roof for it. Without that big volume dropped on top, the proportions of the rest of the building (windows, arches etc.) seem pleasant enough if not really a match for an actual historic building. That interior, though... It's veering into Disney World or maybe even Tillman Fertitta territory in that it's getting a little cartoony. Has anyone been to 'Be Our Guest' restaurant in the Magic Kingdom? (Don't eat there; the food is terrible!) It reminds me of that somehow (the entry hall, and the main theater looking back towards the seating in particular)...
  11. J.A.
    @houstontexasjackI partially agree with you. The street level facade at lobby/bank hall on Capitol and at the Understory atrium on Milam are nice enough. The ability to peer down into the food hall from outside and walk down the tiered seating inside has a nice sense of occasion and connection. The glassy tower is decent... but also at ground level everything beyond the Common Bond location on Rusk and all of the frontage on Travis doesn't feel scaled to pedestrians at all. Perhaps it's unfair, but for me it really drags the overall exterior experience down. I don't necessarily mind the lack of GFR (actually Common Bond is gonna be awesome at this location). It's the massing, detailing, and materiality along these 2 streets (Rusk & Travis) that bother me. It felt inhospitable to walk there. The big planter boxes somehow make it worse by squeezing people up against the big stone wall like walking through a back alley. They even down-graded the sidewalk pavement to plain ole concrete here 🤨. I know these are the more service/utility oriented sides of the building but other towers built within the last 15-20yrs do it appreciably better (1000 Main, Hilcorp, BG Place, 609 Main...) If a building occupies a full Downtown block, I don't think any side can be treated like it's the back but that's how most of the bottom 2 floors on the Rusk and Travis sides look. ^^^This doesn't look all that well thought out to me.
  12. J.A.
    I hope Skanska puts A LOT more thought into the pedestrian experience and overall design than they did at Capitol Tower (not that whatever this becomes will be at the scale of a Downtown Tower). They REALLY need to step it up to Hines, Midway, Hanover, and Radom levels of thought and design.
  13. J.A.
    100% True: High end tenants are demanding better buildings. And I'm glad they are so we get to see all the transformative renovations their demands are leading to all over downtown: Allen Center, Houston Center, and I guess to some extent... 700 Louisiana (disappointed in that one). I wonder if in turn Hines, Brookfield etc. aren't also demanding higher rent, though? Quick google search: Locke Liddell & Sapp now appears to be Locke Lord still in Chase Tower. On another note: I like where this renovation is going overall but I wonder about the little covered area ('expanded canopy' ?) facing the Travis/Capitol intersection. There's no good rendered view of it, yet... But, right now it seems like it could look diminutive and tacked on abutted as it is directly to a building that slams all of its 75 floors from top to bottom directly into the ground without any setbacks. Wouldn't a retail pavilion similar in concept to what they're doing at Texas Tower be better? Or would that compete with the Louvre (but really Pennzoil Place) referencing lobby addition? When I worked in the Pennzoil building several years back, only smokers, cabbies, and the occasional cell phone user were ever in Chase Tower plaza (and only in the shaded area). Hopefully, this goes far enough to change that.
  14. J.A.
    I may be thinking this because of my recent post about the storm damaged Chase Tower in reference to the looks of the Arabella, but did they move offices to 1111 Fannin after Hurricane Ike blew out a lot of the windows and ravaged the interiors? The timing seems like it could be about right but I honestly have no clue. Either way it looks like Chase regretted the move from the tallest building in the city to 1111 Fannin (for obvious reasons). My guess is that Hines courted Chase (and probably others) by dangling this renovation in front of them rather than the prospective new tenants demanding it...
  15. J.A.
    This is part of a really hot-button topic... so I'm going to try my best not to stick my foot in my mouth... Maybe the statue should be removed from its prominent position and placed somewhere low key where William Marsh Rice is simply acknowledged rather than celebrated. To me, removing the statue all together seems like another way to continue ignoring the past, albeit a different way than just leaving a racist slave owner's figure looming in a central position of the quad. If the statue is erased completely, where does it end? Is the Rice family and their name still burdened with the sins of the father? Rice University is now a brand... Should the University be renamed, which would probably result in a very detrimental identity crisis? Sam Houston owned slaves... Should we rename our city because it's named after him? I would like to think that the Rice University name and the city of Houston name at this point so many years, students, citizens, accomplishments, and failures after their founding have come to symbolize and stand for more than just the person they were named after. If the statue could be placed somewhere else as part of an exhibit for Rice University's history, of which Mr. Rice's life is an inextricable part (including the terrible things he did), that could be more educational and cathartic in the long run. It might be a way of acknowledging the past while going on to explain that the university does not condone racism nor discrimination of any kind and that the school supports people in all walks of life.
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