VelvetJ

WestWood was at the corner of Bissonet and 59 South (Southwest Freeway). Sears is the only store that is left there. I actually really enjoyed the mall because it was never too crowded. I also LOVED the black and white interior along with the 2 story carousel.

They do that citykid09 because CNN and The Weather Channel are based in Atlanta. IMO, it's another PR move which I think is great. Atlanta is serious about putting itself on the map. Though times I think we can all agree they go a bit overboard, at least they are on the steam engine of trying to make that city the best it can be and if it means making sure the world is aware Atlanta is alive and kicking, I say good for them. We may think they are going overboard, but a lot of people are buying the hype. IMO Houston goes overboard in it's own mind of how great it is but the difference is the world is aware of it and isn't buying the little hype that is put out there. There is a certain spirit that Atlanta has, that quite frankly, I am jealous of and feel Houston no longer has. I also want Houston to be the best in the south, but as much as I love my city, I don't think we have what it takes or the gutts to do it. That thing that attracted the creative minds to Houston is all but gone. Houston has become too safe. The city is becoming more and more conservative in every way, and I don't think that is a good thing for a city that once had a world wide reputation for being forward thinking, on the cutting edge, futuristic and having a almost unmatched ability of being able to do the impossible. Houston doesn't take chances anymore and because of that, I really don't see us being the best in the south for a looooooong time.

Moved to Houston as a mid to late teen, and AstroWorld was my first job. I have a ton of memories but they are due to having been employed there for 5 seasons. I met my two best friends, who are still my best friends to this day, at AstroWorld, I fell in love there, I got over my shyness there, I learned responsibility there, I met celebrities there, and I had some of the best and most bizarre times of my life there. I will miss it. Long live AstroWorld. *note*- Flower Child, Mongoose, Phsyco, and Reeper, where are you guys today? A lizard in the ketchup bottle at Shanghai Grill........you guys were insane. My goodness, the stories I could tell of my 5 years at that place.

Jeebus, To answer your question, I'm not sure if Disney would build here or not. If they did however, I don't think it would be in the traditional DisneyWorld/ Disneyland type format. IMO, it would be more like their most recent park in California called "Disney's California Adventure". I can see it now, introducing Disney's newest venture, " DISNEY'S TEXAS ADVENTURE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If something like that did indeed come about, I don't think it would affect Disney World in Florida because it would be a different "animal". These types of "spin-offs" are much smaller. With regard to pro's, well I think the most obvious pro would be having a Disney Attraction near our city. The name alone will draw, not only from all over Texas, but from the entire region. Couple that with a brilliant campaign that highlights the Houston Galveston Region, that includes the beach, the cruise ship industry (who knows maybe Disney could introduce one of their cruise liners that departs from Galveston), Nasa, Gulf Greyhound Park, Historic Galveston, a new and exciting Downtown Houston, the Museum District, the Galleria, Kemah, etc. Disney could be the reason people came to Houston, and once they are here, they could discover the other attractions on their own as a bonus. And with it being in Katy, it would sit on I-10, which would be perfect considering it is major interstate that begins in Downtown Jacksonville and ends in Downtown Los Angeles. Thousands of people would stop like they stop in New Orleans and San Antonio because they sit on I-10. It couldn't be in a more convenient location in Houston. On the con side, well this is more of a personal thing for me. Disney is not known for it's thrill rides. That's not to say it is not a succesfull Company because we all know it is. But I am a thrill ride lover, and if Disney enters the Houston area, I think there will be a thrill ride void still left. Ideally, I would want a totally seperate thrill ride park adjacent to the ficticious "Disney's Texas Adventure", that could appeal more to the teens and adults. But I don't think Disney has ever done such a thing. A Disney Kiddie type park with a seperate gated Cedar Pointesque type of park with crazy thrill rides like Cedar point, would be perfection. There have been rumors of Disney one day being in Texas going around for years now. Who knows, maybe with Six Flags exiting Houston, this will give those rumors legs.

1. Worked there for 5 years 2. Met my first love. 3. Met my best friends, who are still my best friends to this day 4. Saw some of the most bizarre things I've seen in my life while there. 5. Just in general had some of the most memorable experiences in my life. I consider it a place where I grew up.

OH MY GOODNESS!!!! I just saw it. I'm sad about this for a number of reasons, however, maybe this will open an opportunity for Houston to have another park in the future with enough room for large multimillion dollar rides. "Cedar Point South" anyone?

Are you kidding? Link please.

eelimon, have you seen the Laguarda Low design? Have you compared the two? I think mediocre is the perfect word to describe what they have done in Houston so far. The Mercer alone has turned out to be a HORRENDOUS SCAR on the city skyline. So much so that channel 11 actually did a news story on the building's appearance. Many people have called the office to find out if the building could be made to appear better. Some were even afraid to even go in to enquire about a condo there simply because of it's appearance. IMO, any firm that could make such a huge asthetic blunder, should be in remedial design school, let alone designing something with such city changing potential as the Houston Pavillion. Take a look at their site and browse through the projects on the board they have for Houston. They are all just blah, imo. Houston, for once in recent history, let's do something with a little class instead of seeking out something soley based upon how cheap it can be done. This is a grand opportunity here, let's not screw it up with a design from a company that has a blazing track record of designs that are mediocre at best. Can someone investigate this whole thing to see if EDI will be responsible for this new Houston Landmark? Hey Redscare, do you see why I'm so brow beaten? This is another opportunity that our fair city could screw up. Let us all hope there is another reason EDI has the Pavillion on it's site and the actual design to be used is the one Laguarda Low released.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO No you DIDN'T take it there!!!!!! Coincidentally, Dream Merchant was the place I saw my first ever p*nis ring. The balcony was the place for a lot of the naughty things. What a cool place. By the way, I also remember Sound Exchange as well as Sound Plus. Not to mention the old Soundwaves in the strip center at the corner of Westheimer and Montrose. Had the best bootlegs. And, who could forget the Tower Theater? Can someone say Howard Rollins rocking that joint? Anyway........

Redscare, I got ya. I suppose I felt like preaching on yesterday, so I figured I would make you my one man congregation. I knew what you meant, that's why I included the little wink at the end of the paragraph. In all honesty the emotion that came with that post was not directed toward you. Although I meant what I typed, this was one of those times I admit I probably could have kept my calorie intaker closed.

Double Amen to this post Suzerain. Wanting Houston to progress in itself has nothing to do with trying to be like someone else. Maybe this is what has happened to our city. Fear of being like another city caused us to become stagnant. Or maybe it's because whenever a flaw is brought to the attention of our citizens, we come up with every excuse imaginable and find a way to defend it, like some consistently demonstrate on this board. Who in their right mind can defend the appearance of I-45 North? Well incredibly, a very well known business man in our city found a way to defend the appearance of it. It boggles the brain. It's almost like a particular American President who doesn't want to hear anyone that disagrees with him, so he creates his own world where everything is rosey despite the screaming evidence. That quote from Phillip Johnson was describing the Houston of that time. The Houston of today is different. Houston was on the cutting edge. It wasn't afraid to take chances. It was first to do things. It wanted to be the best of the best. It wanted to be like no other place. Those days are now replaced by a city that seems to be stifled with conservatism ( this has nothing to do with politics). Houston always seems to be a step behind now. We seemed to have embraced a, " as cheap as you can get it" mentality ( and this was evident before 9-11). I truly wonder what Phillip Johnson would say to the overall quality of buildings that have gone up recently in his self described "Showcase City"? With all due respect, but to ignore what has made the worlds greatest cities successful, out of fear of "becoming like other cities", is foolish. Not keeping up with the rest of the world in what is "hip" can leave you in last place, something that unfortunately is becoming a part of who we are. Personally, I can't say I'm exactly for zoning, however I look at the city's number one tourist attraction. It is in the most prestigous shopping area in the region. People literally come from other countries to Houston specifically to shop in this area. It is known across the world. It is Houston's hip stylish beauty mark. And right at the entrance of the 'Rodeo Drive of Texas', is a BIG OL' RED ZONE D' EROTICA SIGN. Folks, despite any argument that anyone makes on how awesome it is to have it there and how it shows how Houston is different from other cities, this is not something to be proud of, and our residents need to begin to understand WHY this sort of thing isn't cool. Redscare, after reading the last paragraph on your last post, I would swear you were describing a number of other cities around the country. I know you wouldn't want downtown Houston to become the way you decribed because that would be like trying to be like other cities, and I know you don't want that.

Now THAT would please me, which we all know is the most important thing.

I'm sorry folks but that looks FANTASTIC! I will be making a trip there within the next two weeks to check it out for myself. Look at the details folks. Look at those lighting fixtures, and the placement of some of the lights along the riverway, the landscaping, and direction signs, and the advertisment fixtures on the sidewalks. It's the details that makes this so awesome in my eyes. I hope Houston can take a few lessons from both the Woodland and Sugarland with these projects. Midtown are you watching?

I would love to see a design with a mostly glass exterior here. Or something with a slanted roof or something with a stepped design. This is good news, although I didn't realize the highrise condo craze was as strong here as it currently is in other places, to birth so many proposals. I say good for Houston.

Yeah, now if only the owner of that Zone'd Erotica can be convinced to relocate to Pearland, it would be nonstop niceness for sure. If anyone here knows the owner, could you spank him/her for me? (no pun intended)

Man- How many of you have heard of the cities of Las Vegas and Houston? World Citizens- Most of us know Las Vegas and some of Houston......isn't that near Dallas? Man- How many of you would live in Vegas and how many would choose Houston? World Citizens- Most of us would choose Vegas, if no other reason than most of us know nothing about Houston. Me- Hey Houstonians, although this isn't a real conversation, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that most would indeed choose Vegas. The million dollar question is, WHY would they choose Vegas?

And how long have we been BECOMING a tourist attraction? All of this BECOMING has gotten us as the least tourist friendly large city in Texas. Why did Houston decide to BECOME after everyone else? Those new side walks on Main in Midtown are how old? And HOW WIDE are they for pedestrians? Excuse me but, " is Travis and the other streets that run parallel to it going through the Midtown neighborhood, a freeway or are they neighborhood streets that are pedestrian friendly since it's a "neighborhood? And haven't they been newly reconstructed? Were the planners thinking of the residences of the area as well as those that would be rushing to get out of the city?" Why didn't the midtown residences speak loudly about the CVS design near the urban post development across the street? Don't they want Midtown to be more urban(sarcasm)? Could the Calais have had at least one side of retail at the bottom?How many more affordable residences are planned for Downtown right now, and when will it be revealed to the public? Is that spanking new 20ft Vietnamese memorial in the middle of the parking lot of a strip mall evidence that we are moving in the right direction? Are we making some crucial mistakes in this journey to BECOME a tourist attraction? With every 1 step forward, are we making 2 backward? RedScare, I don't think you get the point that some including myself are trying to make. No one is saying they want a triple loop rollercoaster running down Main Street. But if we are to become a true world class city, we MUST look to cities like San Francisco, Chicago, New York, etc., that are successful at it, to see what the WORLD'S standard for "World Class" is, and at the VERY least consider it. If you desire to become world class and one of the standards to becoming that is having a Bookstore in your city core with lots of glass in the front with bright lights, don't fight it because of an attitude of, "this is Houston and not Chicago". Keep up with the times and see if it can be successful here as well. And definitely DON'T wait until 15 years after everyone else has it, then open one in the name of, "oh Houston was just waiting until everyone else had one so we could do it the RIGHT way" B.S. I know there are things coming down the line and some that I may not even know about, but there have been in the past and even recent opportunities to lay the groundwork for Houston going to that next level, and we will turn and do something short-sighted and squander it. For someone who has a passion for our city, this scares me.

This may be slightly off topic but there was a post on another site about how to take Dallas to the next tier level. This particular guy's response was basically the way I see Houston and how we can improve ourselves. Of course everything doesn't apply to Houston but I think you will get the idea. This was from a poster by the name of jeffharrington on a site about Dallas Urban life: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rantanamo: Good for you for encouraging us to move beyond uttering opinions and onto creating solutions. I think the first thing we have to do is identify a group of about 50 people in Dallas who represent a mix of ages, ethnicities, religions and professions AND who have traveled extensively around the world and have a passion for making the city world-class. You get them in the same room and get them to come to a consensus as to which three cities in the world they consider from their personal experience to be the cities they'd most like Dallas to become. They then must identify the specific characteristics that make those cities world-class in their estimation. If one characteristic is "great mass transit", you then ask who in the room has a passion for transportation and you put them in charge of studying what will be the best mass transit system in the world come 2015. Same for educational system, creative environment and business-friendly atmosphere, or whatever. They come back in six months to one year and then the city implements them--no questions asked. If the city had a strong leader who roused much respect and admiration from people city-wide, some of that might happen here. But much of that won't happen here because: A) not enough people here know what is world-class because they don't travel the world widely. too many people here want Dallas to have a "family-friendly, nice small town atmosphere" like Waxahachie or Mexia where they grew up, rather than an exciting, thought-provoking, sense-intoxicating city like San Francisco, New York or London--which they fear. C) People here get put on committees and task forces because of how much money they have NOT because they have a passion for the topic. D) Too many leaders here have egos that cause them to control or micromanage the outcome rather than let the person in charge of that subsection run with it. Don't mean to be negative but I have lived in Dallas for 40 years, have been fortunate to travel throughout the world during that time and have watched cities like Seattle, Minneapolis, Atlanta, Austin and now Fort Worth zoom past Dallas because those in charge lacked a global perspective, preferred to copy the best rather than be original (note the NoBu and W Hotel getting all the buzz here, even though they are copies of things now old hat in other cities) and focused on doing things cheap and therefore not impressive to others (Prestonwood, Farmers Market) rather than investing the money to do them right and to international standards of excellence and therefore sustainable (NorthPark). As long as let it run down, bulldoze it then build it bigger, cheaper and with several more gables to impress everyone is the prevailing mentality here over take care of it, keep it in great shape and hand it over to someone who will appreciate it for another generation, it'll be hard for us to be taken seriously by the Parises, Londons, New Yorks or Romes of the world.

Gary, I have actually brought this very subject up in a couple of threads recently. I have been saying for a while now that Houston seems to have lost it's edge somehow, with regard to blazing the trails. That "thing" that built the ship channel, The Astrodome, Williams Tower, Pennzoil Place, Nasa, our Futuristic skyline and cutting edge architecture, The GRB Convention Center Design, and our Galleria seems to be lost. I've said before and I say again, in the company of our counterparts that are Dallas and Atlanta, we always seem to be a step behind (it always bugs me to hear our leaders talk about how far ahead we are of Nashville and Cleveland, and Orlando, and Tampa, and Austin. Those cities are not in our league, so STOP IT!!! ). We are moving but it seem to be "after the fact". Yeah we built new stadiums but Dallas had their baseball and basketball arenas first. And while MM Park is not bad when next to The Texas Rangers stadium built in the 90's, Toyota Center is a joke compared to American Airlines Arena. Plus, while Reliant Stadium is nice, the design is bland. I'm just waiting for the release of Jerry Jones' design for the Cowboys stadium but I'm willing to bet it's going to be something spectacular, on top of it having a retractable roof. The Hot thing in buildings now is mixed use. Houston is light years behind Atlanta and Dallas in that department. The same can be said for Rail. Seriously, why is this the case? The Hobby Center, The Mercer, The MFA addition, The New Hilton Downtown, the Reserve Bank on Allen Parkway, The Montebello and it's twin (though those aren't too bad), and a few others I don't know the names of, are all architecturally just blah, IMO. Of course there are exceptions like Enron II and the new design for the proposed highrise on Upper Kirby, but overall Houston's architectural designs as of the past few years have left MUCH to be desired. Even now, the tallest building going up in Houston right now, is a giant bland box in the Medical Center. I understand the economic times but this started happening in Houston even before September 11. Plus I look at the designs going up in other cities, particularly in Atlanta, and I wonder what is going on there that people seem to have SO much money where they can design those FANTASTIC buildings going up, including the one in Buckhead labeled "Art in the Sky". We used to set the bar. It took visionaries to do that who saw Houston as a place they loved instead of ONLY a place to make money.

I really hope this happens and are priced reasonably instead of all of the high end that is going up in Houston right now. I also like the design, although I would have seen this more in the Uptown Area, or Westchase Area before near the Museum district. Either way, I hope it's built.

I wonder why Houston was eliminated in the first round? *secret thought*- I'm just glad we didn't loose to Atlanta .

I'mma hoppin' and a prayin' Houston get the Superbowl once again, but I think the NFL would really love to see the Georia Dome upgraded. Plus Atlanta will have completed quite a number of major tourist friendly projects in the almost immediate vicinity of the Dome. I'm pulling for Houston, but I don't know.

Although the building is far from my ideal for Allen Parkway, I have to admit it has grown on me. Allen Parkway is one of our premier streets in all of Houston, and yes, I would have liked a more clean classy style for it instead of the typical Houston "jumble of any and everything", but hey what are we going to do? Regarding the criticism on this board of recent architecture, give me a break? We all are aware of the fact that people have varied tastes and preferences, but let's be real here..... some of the stuff that has been going up in Houston over the past few years could have been done with a little more thought into the designs. The attitude of " Oh let's just be greatful the Mercer is up because at least it's not a empty field anymore" is a attitude I do NOT share. Where was the overall criticism of Enron II, where was the overall criticism of the recent new rendering of the proposed Kirby Condo, where was the overall criticism of the new addition to the Galleria? There was no widespread criticism on these sites on those projects because there was no need for it. I look at the architectural designs of most of the things that are going up in Atlanta right now and the designs of the things that are proposed, and it makes me even more critical of the designs that have been chosen for Houston as of late. But at the end of the day, as it has been said already, we are just arm-chair architects who are having fun, so what's the big deal?

Thanks kjb434, the call was really out for everyone . Anyway, thanks for the response, it at least keeps my hope alive that this will actually be built. By the way, the condos across the street on the tennis court you mentioned, are not going to be tall correct? Won't they be more of the typical 3-4 story apartment homes that have been going up over the past decade?

I really like the design. Hopefully we are done with the whole beige cookie-cutter designs for a while. Anyway, in the opinions of some that may be a little bit more "in the know" about certain things in our fair city, *cough* Houston-development *cough*, what are the chances this project is actually going to happen? No facts needed, just your opinion on whether this will stay in the proposal mode or actually move forward?