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IronTiger

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Everything posted by IronTiger

  1. It's like something has to be counterbalanced with these things. There was one tweet I read where someone was like "Wow, the Cubs won the World Series. I guess Donald Trump will be elected President, then", whereas in Houston, the Astros winning the World Series is compensation for Hurricane Harvey.
  2. A bit late, but I think I have an idea of how that ramp can be improved to prevent backups onto Southwest Freeway. It's easy. They close off Newcastle Road north of the eastbound frontage road. It's already not a highly-used intersection anyway (no ramps to the west of the road anymore, and a wall was installed at Newcastle and 59 north of the freeway some years ago). They add one lane to the south of the existing westbound US-59 frontage road, putting plastic bollards between the frontage road and the exit. Then that ramp elevates back up to the current level of the exit ramp, and connects to it. Done. It prevents traffic from backing up on Southwest Freeway by having them exit earlier, and it eliminates an extra exit. Traffic would be informed to access Newcastle via Westpark Drive.
  3. Sad to say that's not too surprising. There was another topic where Toddle House was discussed near the intersection of Murphy Road and US-90. It was neither torn down for Jack in the Box nor the overpass...there was an incredibly short-lived building that was built at the tail-end of 2003 and completed in early 2004 (if it all) but totally torn down by spring 2005.
  4. It was time, and the flooding events do provide nice bookends to its history. The Fiesta probably will close, doing archive searches reveal that the property was sub-leased by Sears and now Rice can (and likely will) boot it out. Coincidentally, Sears Canada announced closing all of its stores, but even if Sears dies as a whole, Sears Outlet and Sears Hometown are a separate company now.
  5. Did some reading and it appears that the Weingarten inside Gulfgate Mall was bought by Safeway. I wonder how long that arrangement lasted, because they were long gone by the time they pulled out of Houston just about four years later.
  6. Gessner and Katy Freeway started as Globe, then became FedMart in the 1970s, then became Mervyn's in the early 1980s after FedMart went out of business, then became an Oshman's SuperSports USA after Mervyn's moved to Memorial City Mall, then it moved out to a new stand-alone Sports Authority store (in a former Service Merchandise store). It was torn down in 2005. Mervyn's appears to have substantially altered the building but it seems they didn't tear it down.
  7. Where the ice rink was (a long narrow building) is now the Rosastone Trail townhomes. A parking garage WAS on the space, but during the construction of CityCentre's first phase, part of it was torn down.
  8. I'm not sure if Concord Apartments and Village Way Apartments are the same thing. The way @anthonytexas phrases it they were two different structures, yet the 1970s aerial shows the same buildings as the apartment buildings there today. Across the street is another complex called "Hilton Town" today and at some point in the 1990s or even the 1980s, about 75% of the property was blocked off and ultimately demolished. There are some apartments just to the south that describe the "large lots" though.
  9. Actually, it was torn down a little earlier than that. The 2002 aerial shows a gas station at the eastern side of Murphy Road between Main Street, with Toddle House next to it, then Stafford Ice House, then JITB. In 2003, the gas station and Toddle House were torn down for a new building with a new parking lot but that didn't last long whatever it was by 2005 it was history. It's unknown if Toddle House would've survived construction, as the parking lot does get clipped but the building might've been okay. The sign survived, though, and it's blank today. (Double post because the quoting system is too hard to work with properly anymore)
  10. Correct, both Google Street View and Maps show that it was flattened in early 2016, ground cleared, and completely rebuilt.
  11. Are you really serious right now? Last week (nay, less than a week ago) I walked from Hess Tower to Travis Place Garage through the tunnel system at maybe 3:30 pm and everything was closed up for the evening. I hardly saw anyone at all except for a small group of employees hanging out in one of the food courts, and every place I remember seeing was closed (except for maybe one) or in the process of closing (kitchen already shut down, employees cleaning up). I don't go to downtown all that often and can't speak on improvements over the recent months/years but I can call out BS when I see it.
  12. "Not designed for tourists" and "not for tourists" are very different things. Even at 3:45-4 pm on a weekday, the tunnels are mostly devoid of people with only a few small groups hanging out in food courts where the food establishments are closed. I was there last Thursday, and I saw not one food court place open. Either employees were still cleaning up or they were already shut down for the day and everyone was gone. They are also, as far as I know, closed on Saturday, which is when people that work Monday to Friday might want to come down to the Houston downtown for whatever reason. Whatever tourist traffic they get during the week is not enough to justify opening Saturdays and evenings, which is why the tunnels are still thought to be primarily for downtown workers.
  13. But they really are for the work crowd. Generally, you'd have to know that the tunnels exist, they aren't advertised all that well save for banners downtown that say something like "a maze of tunnels to explore" or something along those lines. I'm not anti-tunnel or anything, but I can't go down there without the phrase "you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike" coming to mind.
  14. I drove by the place today (it was on my "what is that building" list), and it looks in pretty bad shape. Despite some attempts in the last five years to get it preserved as a landmark, it's gated off entirely and the front awning looks like it's going to collapse. I wonder when it was abandoned for good...
  15. I'm glad I was able to drive on it, but @Ross is correct. It was outmoded. The lanes were narrow, and there was no shoulder or barely much of a median. I wouldn't be surprised if the Elysian Viaduct was "structurally deficient" or whatever. The thing is, traffic patterns have changed that much since it was built. It looks like Hardy Toll Road traffic (which came many decades after Elysian) mostly shifts over to I-45 at the terminus, not go south through sketchy neighborhoods and several stoplights, and the "all roads to feed to downtown" structure isn't as useful for Houston as it is for older cities farther north. The vast railroads it went over (two yards and the MKT) are reduced to just two tracks today. It was also built when less thought was given to pedestrian access as it is today: there are no sidewalks on it and I'm pretty sure it forbids bicycles.
  16. That's a shame. There's something on the open-source mapping site Wikimapia that explains a bit more about Palace Lanes. No idea how true it is.
  17. Might've spoken too soon considering the division office and the distribution center will close. But the stores remain.
  18. Probably not even that, given it is hard to access and Palais Royal is going to be heading out. My guess is that it will become a modern industrial park, which would fit in with the antique mall (remember that it was a former industrial site nestled in industrial before becoming an antique mall...directories indicate it was originally a facility that manufactured fans). If not that, I can see more of an office building/hotel environment going in.
  19. Gotta admit, it was kind of neat and sad the last time when I went there (2013-ish). There was a fountain...there was a Chick-fil-a Express that had closed for the day...there was perhaps the last Sesame Hut in existence...there was a soccer-focused place (I think) that had action figures...nothing like "Wow, this place is a treasure that needs to be memorialized" but to be honest, I'm surprised it lasted this long. The loss of Macy's no doubt damaged its prospects, and the removal of most of its parking lot (making it a pain to get around even the parking lot, one of the sides of the old Macy's has just one lane open up for clearance) for construction made it even harder. Would be surprised if the Macy's WASN'T torn down by the end of the year. -- Also, when they say "renovating the interior" I'm thinking they'll probably turn it into an office building and/or outdoor facing tenants, they aren't saving Palais Royal and the other tenant they mentioned I believe is not quite flush with the interior either.
  20. I'm not too familiar with that variant of the logo, the only ones I know of is the script one and the "Red Dot" logo. Besides, between Weingarten and Kroger it served as two other names (Safeway and AppleTree) if I'm not mistaken.
  21. Since Albertsons took over in January 2015, one new store in Austin was built, another is planned, the Midtown store was renovated, and one of the Katy stores closed.
  22. Hmm, I was wondering if WFM had pulled out. You know they actually closed 9 stores?
  23. Geez. I didn't realize it was so covered with graffiti and becoming a real eyesore. Didn't seem that long ago when it was just a concrete building that was an eyesore but still reminded one of its grand past. And in better days, courtesy of Arch-ive.org:
  24. It's January 2017 and the center is still standing. A bit of digging reveals that the center opened around 1991 and Office Depot has always been there. The Office Depot's building is older though, it was a Kroger and the rest of the center was built around it.
  25. First Randalls that opened as a Randalls and not converted from a Minimax (store #3).
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