SkylineView

Grade separation came up several times as part of the "how would Houson get high speed rail to downtown" question.  I can't find the links, but one of the options was a plan to put two lines each of freight and high speed rail deep in a trench.  

I also recall there is (or was) a long-term vision to build underpasses for Shepherd and Durham under Washington.  

I used to live across the street, and there are some good places on the property that I would use: Starbucks, Crave, Embajadores (cigars), Song Kran (good Thai), Etoile (work meetings & food) etc... The western building (where Anejo used to be) never really met any needs in my life, and I still can't figure out what anchors the north end.  It's been creamed by the road work on Post Oak, which makes going north-bound after work a frustrating experience, and the River Oaks District, which is the new hot spot has filled the void that used to feed this place.  Also, the lack of a sidewalk on the west side of Post Oak lane, and the lack of ANY SIDEWALK AT ALL on the north side of Post Oak (since ~ 6 months ago) made walking to Uptown a terrifying endeavor.

The project feels like a minor upgrade until the next super-cycle.  This would be a great location for tons of apartments / condos, but retail access is very challenging due to the traffic.

Drive past this all the time.  TIght location, but it's pretty far back from the road... I guess they had to fit in the carport area.  Too bad they didn't loft it over the drive like they did on the Hyatt's up the street.

Truth.  The interior lights are still progressing though.  

Very much u/c with steel out of the ground.

Purely a holding zone for Post Oak work.  My office overlooks it.  Seem to be expanding the space over the last few weeks, but it's packed with light poles, signs, asphalt, and whatnot.

Sonic Automotive to build a "big beautiful dealership" across the highway from Audi.

LINK

It's taller than Skyhouse now.

Until you said it... I never realized it was supposed to be an M.  

Now I'll never see anything else.  

Am I the only one who's going to miss the elevated portion of 59?  I liked coming from the airport, going elevated past the GRB, diving into the hole under I-45, then rising, like a phoenix to the elevated portion through midtown.  You can see downtown, the med center, midtown... then you dive back down into the Montrose trench with the colored arches.  The elevated portion is cool.  You can see the scope of the city.  

I shall miss you.

I believe that a slug of the 59-288-45 rework has now been funded (article on CommunityImpact).  Specific project list linked here.

Additions to the 10yr plan include the 45/59 interchange, the 59/288 interchange, and 59 between spur 527 and 45/59.

Big step. 

Assuming it's all steel frame on the top... could flesh the whole thing out without a concrete core all around.

Anybody else see that helicopter come through the Galleria area today (Monday 1/30 morning)?  Holy mother-fu#$ing shit.  I work on the ~15th floor of one of the buildings just south of Williams and we were literally looking down into the rotor as it blew past about 25 feet from the windows.  People dove out of one of the conference rooms thinking it was going to come through the glass before it ducked away.  It came within about 30 feet of the tower crane  building the new apartments on Hidalgo and cut the buildings down the lakes on Post Oak. Complete nonsense.    

Has the project broken ground on 288?

It's all utility work on San Felipe.  I think it's being done in advance of moving the Post Oak work further south toward San Felipe (at which point everything ties together).

Am I reading all of this correctly?  It looks like there was a filing for the SE corner of Westheimer & Sage, and a separate render the NE corner of W. Alabama & Sage?  These are two separate lots around the new Saks (directly north and south respectively)?

The fenced off site is a staging / storage yard for the Post Oak redo.  Just FYI.

I feel like the more buildings that buy into the Memorial City style with the blue lights, the better it looks.  Driving through there at night is awesome.  Very Houston.  I'm supportive.

Regarding 288, I can't wait for this thing to be up and running, though the tie-in with 59/45 frightens me greatly.

My opinion on Briargrove:  

1. It's not exactly on the River Oaks promenade... it's on Fountain View... and would replace a so-so office building... and is next to an [entirely] abandoned supermarket... and is about 800 feet from Smoke Alley (had to link this b/c it's so awesome).

2.  The real issue of this project was NOT community vitriol (though the community wishes they had that kind of pull), it was that the average unit cost was going to be $240,000 (link).  Stating it a different way... it wasn't cancelled b/c the city bowed to the community (though I think I read HUD is looking into that), it died because it was too expensive on a per-unit basis.  The guy in charge of the Houston Housing Authority resigned over the whole thing (link), and was shown to be ineffective at moving projects forward.

HCTRA financed $237.5M of the I-10 lanes. They were going to finance $400M of the 290 managed lanes, but when the project was rescaled, they dropped the number to $200, and agreed to throw the I-10 lanes back to TXDot to make up the shortfall (LINK).  

They have no part in the 288 project (construction or operation).

I remember a quote (but cannot find the reference) to the effect that HCTRA wanted to focus on on expanding / operating toll (only) roads and focus less on managing / optimizing managed lanes running in the middle of untolled highways.