dmoneybangbang

My pics were larger than 1 MB but thanks TexasVines I figured it out I believe.

Here are some pics of the aloft hotel:

Here are some pics of Sage St. west of the Galleria:

St. George's Place on Hidalgo St.:

New apartment complexes along San Felipe at Fountainview and Winrock:

Random shots:

I took some pictures of the hotel plus some of the area west of the galleria but I am not sure how to upload them. I have a flickr account if that helps.

you're referring to the aloft hotel currently under construction at westheimer and yorktown. there are also several other large mixed-use developments waiting in the wings right in the galleria area in prime intersections. i was told that one was around 1-1.5 years out, with another large development at least 3 years out.

they've also constructed a plywood fence around the compass bank and parking garage on post oak... not sure what the timeline is for that property, but earlier (substantial) rumors had a very high end 5-star hotel + condo and retail going there, but this was probably 8 months ago when i heard that.

and of course, with the economy the way it is, i would take all info being passed along with a large grain of salt

Well I took pictures of the current state of the aloft hotel and it looks like 4 or 5 stories of hotel on top of 4 stories of parking currently. It will definitely be much taller than the rendering on the sign in post 26. I also took some pictures of the surrounding area west and sw of the Galleria. It has changed much over the past few years. Hopefully when I get back to San Marcos I can put them on my comp and upload them.

I did mean Yorktown. Thanks for finding the thread for it.

I couldn't find a thread about this, which is pretty surprising considering this building is already at least 10 stores tall and was rather large. Unfortunately, I couldn't see what the building was called but it said "Mixed Use". I was driving west down Westheimer and noticed it. It was before York St. Maybe someone can shed some more light on this. I will be back in the area after Christmas and I'll bring my camera.

Is there a large Islamic community in this part of Houston? Just curious to why this location was chosen.

A little bit steep... but I doubt that will last for too long.

Hey, I'll take it. I just hope they don't end up building another plain beige box or whatever.

The original rendering (from page 1 near the bottom) looks pretty good for an Embassy Suites. Hopefully we get something along the lines of that rendering, I especially like how the roof isn't flat and it isn't completely a box.

Is the bowling alley even up yet? What is it, Lucky Stripe?

I second that. But I believe it will. HP and West Ave. have their differences, visually West Ave. wins hands down IMO...

I watched the rendering animation again (muted btw, simple as that ), the finished product is looking better than the renderings. Again back to the palm trees... West Ave. doesn't strike me as a tropical resort, nor a venue out of Southern California (those are the feelings palms give me at least). I'd like to see them choose something that can work in all seasons, as well as be Decked out in lights during the holidays (similar to Highland Village, but just not with Palms).

Glad to hear another person share my dislike of palm trees in Houston. They should have went with some oaks trees, Houston style.

I believe it was the W.

Where is the closest grocery store in that area? I'm considering moving into an area along the light rail as I might be working at the TMC and was just trying to get an idea of what day-to-day life might be living in the downtown area. Thanks.

i dont know why some people here dont like palms, i love them

I think of Houston as Southern because of its geography and palm trees aren't generally found in the South. Also, Galveston doesn't look too tropical and palm trees only look good there because it's the beach. That's my opinion at least.

where is this in houston , and is it in conjunction with the other business districts in houston?

(downtown,uptown,westchase,greenway plaza,greenspoint,upper kirby)

It is north of Westchase and Northeast of the Energy Corridor. I believe it is a few miles North of I10 and BW8. There are a lot of office buildings being built/have been built along NW portion along BW8, also W portion of BW8.

I whole heartedly agree with you on this, but the developers were compelled to name it as such, Pearland Town Center.

Glorified strip mall indeed.

City Centre is a nice start of an edge city in the likes of Uptown. With Memorial City District expanding, the distance between them will be blurred as developers redo that area between Beltway 8 and Gessner.

Personally I think these TC concepts in the burbs are great because as Pearland grows, it can replace those surface parking lots with retail, offices, or residential. I don't think it would make much sense to build vertical in Pearland as it currently is. I really do like how Sugarland and The Woodlands have evolved their "city centers." Having those malls in close proximity doesn't hurt. What I would like to see next, hopefully in the near future, is Park&Ride service added.

Where in that general area is not upscale?

As you move east and south of the energy corridor you enter Alief from the south and clusters of low income apartments to the west. Parts of Alief can be pretty bad but for the most part, the whole is area pretty nice and surprisingily well established.

Probably doesn't help it rains a lot in Houston.

I hear this project is definately moving forward but has been scaled down to 60 stories and Morris Architects is working the project.

So about how high is 60 stories?

Yep. The NW and SW corners are both going to be exactly what you see now: huge retention ponds. When you lay that much concrete the water has to go somewhere...

I'm sure they will plant something there along the sides. It will probably look sktechy until whatever they plant matures.

The proposed building on 3800 Main will be a medical tower according to a poster on the Houston Development Thread at http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread...23&page=107 . Also, there was a flurry of updated renderings of buildings going up in the TMC.

Just my two cents: You are right, for a large majority of us who dont live downtown, we dont have a burning need to shop there. Heck, there are plenty shopping districts in Houston that are worth going to, and in that respect Houston is not lacking. But it has nothing to do with that lack of urgency to shop in the CBD. It's about creating a downtown in our city we can all be proud of. How cool would it be to have a downtown that is just a little small version of Times' Square? Or maybe more realistically something that resembles downtown Seattle or Denver? There are proud Houstonians that would love to see thier downtown flourish, regardless where in the city they actually live. I'm sure with the 2 and a half million Houstonians and the 6 million in and around around the city, there is enough critical mass to make such a dream come true.

^CBD Fetishism

It oughta be in the DSM-V.

I think Houston already has a CBD worth going to; we have a great theater district, an assortment of resturants, various entertainment (pool, movie theater, clubs, and bars), and just the atmosphere and feel of being surrounded by skyscraperss. I think Houston Pavillions will give people more to do downtown. I think there will be plenty of people to support this project. I think disco green is a good indicator of people's willingingness to venture downtown who might not have done so. However, downtown has lots of competition between the rest of the inner loop that I can't possibly see our downtown having a significant amount of retail or residential.

I'm not sure where the residential portion is, specifically the brownstones. I've only driven by the project via the on ramps to I10. It looks pretty amazing with about 5 cranes at Town and Country and then Memorial City mall area rising in the background.

wow, cool. It slightly reminds me of discovery tower; the top does.

The top does look like Discovery Tower and like a few of the taller buildings in the Westchase District; they all share the exact same top design.

It's too darn bad the freakin' Calais built that goofy "ground" floor parking garage. That sure was some forward thinking...

Maybe/maybe not. There probably wasn't enough business to support ground based retail and still probably isn't. However, it's great that there's more density being added to this area. Hopefully, the light rail is up for the task. I hear it's getting pretty crowded already.

When they first announced the project, they said the first phase will have 740 units and "a future phase" could have 1,000 more units (including both condos and apartments.)

Well there are more than a 1000 units on that upper level plan.