Jax

Has anybody confirmed that there won't be an entrance from Main street and that it will be "suburban style" ? Last time I drove by it was really hard to tell what it was going to look like.

Mosaic as of last night.

Okay, so I drove down Kirby today and I may have been wrong about what I said regarding the walk from Richmond to the West Ave site. It doesn't seem so bad after all. There are more trees than I remembered and hopefully that will only improve as the area becomes more well trafficked. There are a couple strip center parking lots that you have to walk past but overall it doesn't seem to be a bad walk.

Yeah I'm used to it too but apparently nobody else is. I think they don't understand what you're trying to do and rather than giving you space they get really close behind you and honk until you get into your spot.

I notice that here in Houston people honk at you while you try to parallel park!

It's definitely within walking distance from Richmond. The walk from Richmond to Westheimer up Kirby is 0.56 miles (http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=974006). This development is going to stretch down to Kipling which is 0.4 miles from Richmond. 0.4 miles is probably 5-6 minutes walking. The only problem is it isn't really that nice of a walk (it's a walk past a lot of strip centers), so there isn't a lot of shade on the sidewalk. One thing I like about development that goes right up to the sidewalk is that it allows for buildings to install awnings in order to provide some shade to pedestrians.

So are there many abandoned buildings or not? Somebody else told me that artists lived in most of the buildings which appear to be abandoned. Does anybody know for sure how many area actually abandoned in that area?

I may be wrong about the abandoned buildings. The two times I've been in that area were for a show at "Warehouse Live" and a walk through what I was told was downtown's "Chinatown" which appeared to be mostly abandoned buildings with the exception of a few small stores. Maybe I was wrong and it only appeared to be mostly abandoned...

Haha I've made that comment as well! (Parking District)

Here is an article from the Chronicle about the possibility of a downtown stadium. Sounds great to me. What's up with these people that commented on the Chronicle article who are so concerned with parking that they are afraid of this idea of new development on the surface lots? Surface lots are ugly wastes of space. Build a garage or something. Build some garages along the metro line so people can take the train to the games. Aren't there tones of abandoned buildings in that area that could potentially serve as sites for a future parking garage? http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metrop...an/4808048.html

That's cool. I ate at Josephine's a few weeks ago and the restaurant was really popular (and pretty good too), but the storefronts next door were completely abandoned with broken glass and looked like something out of a war zone. I'm glad their either going to be knocked down or renovated!!

Does anybody know how old Plastic is?

That sucks. I live in the area and it is really a shame. I also notice people do weird things to that fountain like putting soap in it and walking around in the fountain at night (seriously I've seen that). The soap couldn't be good for the pumps and also probably kills the grass around it and stuff.

When I first moved here, I needed to get a cable for my new TV and I saw in google maps that there was a Radioshack downtown. And since I didn't know the bus routes well enough I thought the simplest thing to do would be to take the metro rail downtown and get what i needed. Unfortunately I never found the radioshack. Either it was underground in a tunnel somewhere or in the Park Shops or whatever, but wherever it was I couldn't find it from the street and I just gave up. As jdbaker said, the fact that the Pavilions will be visible from the street is a definite plus. The population of the offices downtown during the working day is greater than the town where I grew up. There just has to be enough demand for retail, as long as it's good quality and easy to find. I find a lot of the retail that is currently downtown is either hidden in a tunnel or really sketchy. What's in the Park Shops anyways?

Does anybody know the estimated date of completion?

I thought this photo might help with your discussion.

Whoa, I drove right by that crane this morning at 8 am!

Just to add to the topic of a whole foods (or better yet, Central Market) downtown, it wouldn't serve ONLY the residents of downtown. People like me who live near downtown would drive there rather than going to the Kirby one since it would be closer. The closest grocery stores to me are Randals and Fiesta (Midtown) and I'd much prefer Whole Foods. If it was near the light rail I might even bring some food home when I ride downtown. And I am sure business people might stop by and get lunch and eat in store (my sister does this all the time at Whole Foods in NYC), or even grab some groceries on their way home from work.

I walked by today when I was in the medical center and the Walgreens and Starbucks are indeed on the first floor. It will be very nice and convenient for me so I am happy about that. The med center needs more ground level retail and restaurants. Chipotle is incredibly packed at lunch, somebody could make a fortune by opening another restaurant in walking distance of the hospitals. I'd like to see something non fast food and accessible by the public rather than being hidden away inside some hospital food court. Does anybody know if the Methodist expansion will have any room for retail?

Most people are surprised to know that the part of Houston that I live in is greener and arguably more beautiful than anywhere I've ever lived in Canada. But I have seen parts of the city that are much uglier than anything I ever imagined existed (in North America) before moving here. Houston is a city of contrasts, and I'm lucky to live where I do (Museum District, near Rice). On the plus side, I lived in a much more urban environment in Montreal, and I never even thought about buying a car because I could get most places by foot/metro. I probably walked 90% of the time. But there were also no trees nearby, the streets were dirtier due to all of the pedestrian traffic, and my apartment was smaller, older, and with less amenities than here in Houston. In the winter, all of the leaves were gone from the few trees that existed, and the temperature got as low as -40 C (with wind chill). Surprisingly, parking lots do exist in Canada, I had one across the street from me in Montreal until they built it up after 4 years of living there. Actually there was one beside me as well which turned into condos about the same time. Also, the job market wasn't nearly as good for scientific careers, unless you wanted to work for the one english university in the city. And in Canada, besides Montreal Toronto and Vancouver, there isn't anywhere else to live if you like being in a big city. The suburbs and small towns in Canada are the same as the suburbs here. The heat doesn't bother me so far. I've been here since last May so I experienced a whole summer, 3 months of it without a car. I actually prefer it to the Canadian winters. I think it's in my blood. My mom is from Atlanta. I think a lot of people forget about how Houston can be beautiful too. I was in the Rice student health clinic the other day and I looked out of the window and saw this dense forest of live oaks (none of the trees in Montreal would have leaves this time of year), with the amazing Rice architecture across the street, and I realized that Houston definitely has it's share of beauty too.

The reason I compare Houston to Montreal and Toronto is those are the only other cities I've lived in (besides the small suburban place where I grew up), and therefore that's my perspective. I know it may be apples to oranges, but I'm always going to compare with where I've been in the past. Seeing abandoned buildings is still a relatively new thing to me. And if I stay here long term (a good chance), I'm going to want to see less abandoned buildings because no matter where you come from, they are ugly. So that's why I'm hoping HP will make downtown nicer. By the way, I'm a Rice grad student studying physics. I was never interested in urban planning until I moved to Houston, probably because the places where I lived previously were planned fairly well. Now that I live here, and I see things like abandoned storefronts right next to a popular restaurant, it makes me wonder what went wrong, it makes me do research, and it makes me wonder if it might get better in the future. That's how I ended up here. I'm sure if I live in NYC in the future, I will compare it with Houston and whine about how expensive apartments are and how dirty it is. That's just how the human brain works, I guess. I think comparison is a natural thing to do. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm constantly comparing things, I probably wouldn't have become interested in urban planning at all.

I noticed right across the street from the construction site (where I was standing when I took the photo)... right next to a popular Italian restaurant, was a whole strip of empty abandoned storefronts. I wonder how long until those become populated. Probably by the time the Pavilions open. It seems like there will be a lot of action around that area soon, and it would be a good time for somebody to open a business there. It's close to the Toyota Center, light rail, and soon to be the Pavilions. It's kind of depressing to see so many abandoned buildings downtown. That's something I never saw in Montreal or Toronto. So I'm hoping that the Pavilions will help make the area surrounding them nicer as well.

Here's a photo of the construction site on Friday evening. http://www.flickr.com/photos/j-a-x/468881254/

You can still go up there, just not to the very top. Just go into the lobby, take the elevator to the sky lobby and enjoy the view. I've never felt it swaying before.

Apparently now they are opening June 4th. And their prices are very steep. I looked into having my mom stay there when she comes to visit me, and the "special rate" for people affiliated with Rice is $179. It's definitely the closest hotel to the campus, but that's bit too expensive.