toxtethogrady

If only it were going to be taller...

mmmm concrete!

Plenty of that Downtown this weekend.

I understand the money situation and general cheapness the city has at times, but Houston could've easily made it so that only people with tickets can board the train.

Actually, I would have loved a train system that was entirely free. Fort Worth's Molly Trolley is an entirely free bus system that anyone can get on and off of at any station. It encourages more ridership and more visits downtown. I can understand a modicum of a need to recover costs, but that can be done so many ways other than extracting fares from passengers.

 

from the planning commission:

 

 

 

 

 

 

There goes the neighborhood.  

That's a lot of new apartments!

It takes a lot of apartments to make up for 21,000 being absorbed in a year.

Apparently something like that happened downtown. I'm not sure if soil sampling caused it.

I agree. Hopefully the downtown incentives are enough to encourage them to build something downtown.

If not that, then the occupancy rates north of 90% should be a good lure.

Houston is going to need new 21,000 apartments a year for the next 5 to 10 years. Some of them are going to have to go downtown.

I wouldn't mind this exact tower downtown, hopefully they follow the Skyhouse trend. 

You mean up in less than a year from groundbreaking?

So look, Burj Khalifa, Tallest building in the world had a footing, but also had a shit ton of piles that went a whopping 160 feet down.

Some of the early photos of the construction of Kingdom Tower in Jeddah seem to indicate a rather shallow foundation with no piles. Not sure whether piles are being eschewed for other reasons or whether soil in Jeddah is more stable than Dubai. But the gumbo underlying Houston is certainly a design challenge.

And in other news, a city water main was found to have developed a leak...

I think they find the redo of the existing buildings is a bit underwhelming. The hotel will definitely be eye-popping.

It sure looks like they filled in the hole. Progress?

Working backwards, I'm guessing this one's still on target to begin construction early in 2015. Three months either side of that timeline aren't going to make a difference.

Sunday morning?  Don't they usually do those overnight to avoid the heat?

They'll have to. It's going to be 98 this weekend and not cooling off much overnight.

When do the cranes show up?

You can't get 34 units into a lot that small in less than seven floors. The downtown condos with 200+ units are 20 floors tall or more (unless they're a wrap covering two blocks).

And a chic-fil-a...AND a Cracker Barrel. At least we know where they'll be. Easily avoided.

Plus a Towne Place Suites, so that the people shopping in Walmart and Micro Center have a place to crash at the end of the day. Probably four levels of suite hotel goodness.

Well, that's Philip Johnson for you.

Swamplot says this building is three times the size of the previous design, in part because the developer was able to buy the house next door.

You mean 51? 17 was here but some 30 years ago.

I guess it's Super Bowl in the year 2017.

One project that is not shown on this map is the Hamilton Apartments, which will go up on St. Joseph Parkway (NW of the intersection of I-45 and US 59/I-69). There's a building permit listed in HBJ, which usually doesn't happen until dirt has started moving. The description is apartment units atop a garage structure. No other details, other than it's a $15 million project. 

Today's BisNow mentioned this project obliquely, saying Trammell Crow had a 6-story project in the pipeline for Downtown.

Two different articles on two different days.

Of course, we may get a third story from BisNow's Future of Downtown conference.

The rendering doesn't indicate a building that will age very well. Its signature feature is big capital letters in a banal typeface. This could be so much more.

They need to use the original typeface that was used in the class rings.

We should ask Debbie Allen what she thinks.

Banish the thought! We who were in those early classes back in the '70s want nothing to do with "Fame". Better to ask the late Ruth Denney.

And the theatre needs a Star of David in the ceiling.

I think that's intended, as is the line to Intercontinental. How soon depends on John Culberson getting removed from office.

Houston did not get Harris Teeter, which became a major fixture in DC (the Teeter in Shirlington is a great example of mixed use combining residential, shops and even a theater and library). Sadly Teeter's been gobbled up by Kroger, so no chance of seeing them in Texas.

At the same time, this one isn't going away. BisNow included a mention of it in today's edition. Along with a 6-story residential also being developed by Trammell Crow but not shown on the development map.