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aachor

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Everything posted by aachor

  1. aachor
    I've always thought 2727 was one of the uglier high rises in the city. To each his own, I guess... 👍
  2. aachor
    The city is healing.
  3. aachor
    L O L
  4. aachor
  5. aachor
    I feel like the renders that TMC puts out fail to do justice to the scale of this development. Every time I drive by and see it, it's almost jarring. Sure, it doesn't have the height of MDA's mid-campus building. But the size of all of it together...it's massive.
  6. aachor
    Yes. Typically when discussing architecture, the term setback refers to when an upper portion of the building is recessed away from the forward face of a lower portion. When discussing land-use, it would refer to the distance between the building and the lot line. I was speaking of the building's architecture. I think there is a very loose comparison that can be made between the multiple regular intervals in its setbacks to how art-deco design uses regular or regularly diminishing intervals in setbacks: (Fisher Building, Detroit) The old Art Deco skyscrapers that you find in New York, Chicago, and Detroit are my some of my favorite buildings.
  7. aachor
    I really like the setbacks from the one angle. It almost looks art deco in it's massing. I like setbacks.
  8. aachor
    The impact of a few LED strips is minimal compared to the dozens of square miles of parking lots with unoptimized high-intensity LED lights. If you want to fight light pollution, ensuring that your parking and road lighting isn't also illuminating the moon is a good start. However, I think that aggressively fighting light pollution in an urban core is a fool's game. I think the better strategy is to, on a statewide level, champion and promote dark sky preserves and accept that a city has a land use type that is distinct from the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Fortunately for us, the earth's curvature makes isolating light pollution, on a large scale, easier than controlling it at the heart of the nation's fourth largest city.
  9. aachor
    One of the things I've enjoyed seeing in Chinese cities is how many of their modern highrises and skyscrapers are outlined and lit by colored LED lighting like this. It really makes the cities look more vibrant and exciting at night. I'd love to see it catch on in the United States. At night, so many of our buildings are just formless, lifeless blocks. Sadly, the most exciting illuminated features are often the dim aircraft warning lights.
  10. aachor
    I'll be really happy to see this lot being developed. For how many people that the med center employs, there is a serious lack of good housing options in the area. My wife and I lived in the area for six years, and lived in two separate apartment complexes in that time. Both times that we were shopping for a rental, it was shocking how limited our options were if we were trying to stay within two miles. This location is a couple hundred feet from the MacGregor bus line which puts you within a stop or two of MD Anderson, St. Lukes, etc. With the TMC3 and Levit Green developments going on, I don't see how any competent housing developer could lose in this area. Especially if they can keep rents in the price range of a nurse or office worker. In my opinion, a mid-rise condo building would also be a great fit. What ended up forcing us out of the area is that we wanted to buy rather than rent. There were simply no good options in our price range, unlike other neighborhoods within the loop like Montrose, Upper Kirby, Midtown, or the Heights. Heck, the Downtown has much better condo options and has the advantage of being on the rail.
  11. aachor
    There are quite a few lights on inside the tower at night. They must be making progress on the interiors.
  12. aachor
    I drive past this once or twice a day. It's not nearly as ugly as I was fearing it was going to be. Maybe it's just because it's new and the metal and glass are still clean and shiny. But they could have done a lot worse. E.g.: If it was good artwork, it could actually turn this into an aesthetic positive.
  13. aachor
    I think Las Vegas and Phoenix can be quite pleasant above 100°. I've been hiking in Southern Utah at 106° and, so long as I had water and a hat to cover my head, it was beautiful. Also, in neither case was I expected to show up to work in an office, hold meetings, and represent anyone other than myself. A little salt crust and body odor is perfectly acceptable trekking through a dessert canyon or touristing on the Vegas strip. The majority of people are earth would love an automobile with A/C.
  14. aachor
    Nine months out of the year it's 82 degrees with 100% humidity during my morning commute. I don't care if I get a police escort and Sylvester Turner personally cheering me on, I'm not interested in biking to work. If the little non-profit I run starts rolling in piles of cash and we can afford nice showers and locker rooms, I might consider it. hahaha. Until then, I need a nice road for my car, or a nice bus that actually goes to the place I need to go. I 100% agree that the city is hostile to cyclists. And I think the worst issue is the drivers. I think there is a lot that could be done to improve the streets for cyclists and pedestrians (the sidewalks are a disaster!) before we need to resort to LA style "road diets."
  15. aachor
    This is so ridiculous. The city will take time out of the lives of thousands of drivers so that five cyclists and the pizza delivery guy don't have to choose between sharing the road with motor traffic or using the sidewalk. A better way to help cyclists would be if the police started enforcing traffic rules. Last I knew, changing lanes without signaling is a good way to kill a cyclist, and it's also against the rules. If the rules are followed, the cyclists can safely share the road. Also, if you want to encourage people to not use their cars, maybe we should consider turning bus shelters into places where bus passengers might want to wait. Right now they're just the preferred spot for the homeless to store shopping carts of cans or for druggies to smoke crack pipes. 9 out of 10 times I pass a bus shelter, it's being occupied by someone sleeping under their personal trash heap, meanwhile the people waiting for the bus are standing in the elements. My wife doesn't like to drive. She'd rather take public transport. But the bus situation is very unpleasant. Making hellish traffic more hellish is not an actual solution. It will just make living inside the loop more troublesome than it already is. </annoyed rant>
  16. aachor
  17. aachor
    Wow. In my opinion, it's rather insulting to the neighborhood to purpose-build a slum there. Regardless of how cheap those units sell, I'd be concerned that the structure is already full of mold. Or, that the framing was swollen by moisture during construction and there will be excessive settling and sheetrock and floor cracking. Stay away from this place if you value your investment.
  18. aachor
    A chicken for every pot. A high-rise for every neighborhood. It's the Houstonian dream.
  19. aachor
    This is clearly a massive deathray mirror designed to torch the Embassy Suites using the light of the setting sun.
  20. aachor
    It would seem that the article's authors misread the state permit. The building is now 9 floors tall unless someone botched the permit. But it seems pretty explicit. The article feels a bit lazy.
  21. aachor
    Does anyone know how much of the phase 2 is funded yet? The massive garage they're working on certainly seems ambitious. But what are chances of this actually coming together on this timetable? If this is more than just a paper project, I can see this spurring a lot more residential development in midtown, which is a happy thought.
  22. aachor
    Wow. The Bayou is looking pretty lush and green. It's been a while since I've been to that bridge. I think the banks were still somewhat scoured from Harvey last time I went. Anyways, Cityliving, thank you for the steady stream of impressive images. I always look forward to your posts.
  23. aachor
    I see that they're doing something. I hope they're doing more than just patching the patches. One issue that I see (mostly between the Barnaby's and Taft) is that it seems like street parking crowds the sidewalks because there's no real curb. There are a lot of pedestrians pushed into the street. More development will just exacerbate it until that's fixed.
  24. aachor
    Hopefully this will push the city to upgrade Fairview between Montrose and Tuam. It drives like a war-torn, bombed-out rural road in Eastern Ukraine. Curbs and decent sidewalks would be nice too. You know...like you find in cities.
  25. aachor
    It does seem odd to me. Though, it is the only thing that I can think of to explain the ridiculous amount of sand that came up with the water in the video that's going around.
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