Texasota

I deeply regret that my disgust for the Katy Freeway has so thoroughly derailed this thread. Any chance all this discussion unrelated to this specific property could be moved to a more relevant thread?

My oversimplified understanding: Cost of labor vs. cost of materials. 

In areas where labor is expensive, steel is used. In areas where labor is cheap, concrete is used. Basically because, especially when dealing with formwork, concrete can be much more labor-intensive. 

The red line is extremely convenient, as is the 82 bus. That, in combination with the planned University and Inner Katy BRT lines, along with easy bike access to the Heights, makes this a pretty convenient place to be without a car. 

But this is somewhat subjective. I don't enjoy having to drive everywhere, so if there are halfway decent alternatives I will usually take them. 

Jeni's ice cream is excellent.

Oh god. I somehow always forget how awful I-10 is.

Aside from some of the materials, this is not remotely new. We never should have switched to slab on grade houses in this area.

Blech, what a dismal suburban office park plan.

If you look closely you can see the dotted lines connecting the second floors to their respective first floors.

Yeah what I think you're seeing as separate buildings are the 2nd floor pop-outs.

Fair. The Washington ave bars would probably benefit from some seniors though...

You must know different seniors than I do. Proximity to bars sounds like a plus to me.

I dont think the vendors have ever been consistently good enough. COVID doesn't help, but at the end of the day they need to actually serve good, reasonably priced food.

I would love to see the old public housing buildings clustered around Valentine Way retained (so 12 buildings). If you havent seen them in person (which would not be surprising because the complex is gated), they are genuinely very cool, and that core set gives you the community buildings, reasonably dense housing, and an allee of old growth oaks. 

I'd also like to see the bakery building south of that razed so Valentine Way can be extended to Dallas/reconnected. Half the land to the immediate east is part of the public housing complex; the half facing Dalla is not. Consolidate those lots and build an 18 story mixed use building with a small grocer on the ground floor. That will provide enough new housing to provide places to live while you start redeveloping the rest of the complex, re-establishing a real street grid, and removing the fencing and gates.

I mean, I'm not making this up. It was actually listed in the National Register as the San Felipe Courts historic district in the 80s. 

Here's the listing: San Felipe Courts Historic District_02/16/1988 (archives.gov)

Now, since it was listed close to half of the contributing buildings were torn down and replaced with the other lower quality stuff that's there now, so the integrity of the district has definitely been compromised. But, as I said, 18 buildings remain.

Their relationship to Freedmen's Town is... complicated, since they were pretty explicitly built as housing for *white* families, but of course their occupancy has changed significantly over time. 

That's not exactly true.

It's not the same thing, but there are still 18 buildings of WPA-era public housing. You can see them pretty clearly in an aerial view because they have flat roofs.

Ok don't forget that "the City" is not a single entity, even though it has been functioning much more like one over the last 5 years or so. You can have a plan created by the Planning Department that's at odds with what has been in development at Public Works (for example). 

If nothing else, both the Gulf building and the post office are legally historic. They're listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Pennzoil Place is not, but it is 100% eligible for listing. It's an important building architecturally.

I'm not just talking about the hardiboard (although the original siding is a basic beveled lap that's easy to find). They replaced original windows with decorative lite patterns with cheap flange-mount vinyl. 

It's not just that I think the new materials look worse. They went super cheap. Not a great sign. 

Well, they've succeeded in making this house substantially uglier.

waaaaay too much land for "a" restaurant. 

Have to assume this will be apartments - hopefully mixed use - but how tall? 7 stories? 18? 

As someone familiar with the Rice:

Yes they do.

oh there is something very sad about that lobby.

Retail! Real, honest-to-god retail!

To be fair, that survey was completely useless. It was just a binary "I support it"/ "I don't support it". I think most people who have issues with the NHHIP have specific concerns, not just a blanket condemnation of the whole project.

I agree with you on the driveway - getting rid of that really is an upgrade.

But this new building is hideous. Victorian it ain't.