Subdude

The rumored Texas finalist for the gigafactory site is in Taylor, a bit northeast of Austin. Of course it's just rumor at this point. I'm sure Tesla is busy trying to mooch out a good deal from the state.

Me too, but I would imagine that no one is going to be jumping into any major construction like this until the economic situation is more clear.

Inevitable one supposes, but I'm always sorry to lose some of these older buildings.

A number of second-tier hotels not listed also went vacant, including I believe Ben Milam, Sam Houston, Whitehall, Texas State, and William Penn.

I could see the Marriott by the Galleria taking a hit.

Those bring back memories - thanks for posting!

I think it is inevitable that some future projects will be delayed. What worries me is if the downturn were severe enough that unprofitable existing properties were left vacant. That happened a lot in the 1980s. A segment particularly at risk would be hotels, since there is so much new competition there. Older ones like the Hyatt Regency would be under a lot of pressure.

Some pretty grim reading from NYT. I hate to think we could be entering another bust like the 1980s. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/us/coronavirus-houston-texas-oil.html?action=click&module=Top Stories&pgtype=Homepage

That basketball dome still sticks in my mind.

WTI went negative this week for the first time. I'm hoping and praying that this doesn't impact Houston like the crash in oil prices in the 1980s, where pretty much all construction stopped. Right now of course it is too soon to tell, but a large amount of drilling activity has already been halted. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/business/stock-market-live-trading-coronavirus.html

The thread seems to have veered away from the original topic so moved to the Off Topic area. As a reminder, please keep political discussions out of the primary topic areas. We have a space for those, so use it.

Thanks for the link. Call me a Philistine - you wouldn't be the first - but the Rothko Chapel has never done much for me. I much preferred the Byzantine Fresco Chapel as a semi-religious place. Anyway, I'm curious to see this when it is done.

My fondness for observation towers notwithstanding, it's been done. Remember the one that was proposed by the downtown aquarium? People hated it. I think a landmark would need to be sufficiently unlike other landmarks to stand out. On another bent, reading the Skanska article I can't help but wonder how much retail can really be supported. Right now one hears mostly about retail chains closing. I would think the retail element would need to be limited to be viable.

It's just a generic structure. It's an example of construction, not architecture.

Yes indeed. Really what I remember of it was that the portions were too large to eat. Before that the location was a jazz club called Birdwatchers, if anyone remembers that.