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Lotus

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Everything posted by Lotus

  1. Yes, great infill indeed...get a tat, haircut and shave all within walking distance of the Hookah Bar! And such a interesting juxtapositional reuse for that building. Boy Scouts to hookahs...."Geepers, Wally, I just saw a sign on the Boy Scout building that says, Hookah Bar coming soon". What's a hookah bar? Gee, I don't know, Beav, but I think it's a place where those ladies who stand on the corners downtown can go and hang out together. Oh, I guess that's ok, Wally. Maybe they're gonna get merit badges or something". But yes, it does seem like Midtown is starting to gain steam. The place has such size and easy street grids which can give it a solid, filled feeling eventually. It's boundaries are distinct with 3 freeways and the Montrose where the streets begin to sway and stray a bit. Here's to the big rectangle!
  2. Nice to read http://www.hcfcd.org/trees.html that we won't be left with a linear park that resembles a suburban back yard of pure lawn, but that 1400 trees will be planted along the banks too, although I would prefer the total natural jungle approach with a trail running near the concrete bank. I go to the Willow Waterhole often and am grateful that it's there, although it's a bit minimalist at this time. This is such an amazing project and I feel fortunate to be around when while it's happening, and that the city and county as a whole are finally seeing aesthetics as something of great benefit to us all.
  3. They said the same thing about Washington. Nothing there but shacks and tracks. All it had going for it was location. Almeda is on "the good side of the tracks", actually the freeway, and is surrounded by money and development. The street is wide and there's really not a "destination" blvd for drinks and eatums anywhere nearby. So, I think that is the standard idea as to why it could become something one day. The only thing is that Washington evolved naturally with the townhouses coming first, then the retail. Almeda doesn't have a bunch of teardowns in the area allowing townhouses to get built en masse like the Wash area, so that would mean more expensive residential projects, which are far less likely to just start sprouting up in clusters. However, the pattern of retail development doesn't have to be the same for Almeda. They can start by attracting the Med Center-Museum crowd and add the condo towers down the road. So there, rich developers. We've done all the figuring out for you, now just get to work!
  4. I see. Thanks for the detailed understanding. My version of "correct vision" is one of a layman, a dreamer, taking into account the area's potential, the views, the park, Med Center and the striking architecture. Apparently it sounds as if the professionals involved's collective vision was about as pie-in-the-sky "good sense" as mine. So we are left with a couple of new towers, all by there lonesome in a part of town that is showing signs of waking from the dead and reincarnating as something entirely different. The value in these units could then rise as well and the towers become what they were originally envisioned as, just 10-20 years later.
  5. Not much to elaborate on, it was simply a relatively weak attempt at humor...paying 500K for a green card when they could just cross illegally like "normal people", but there's no green card with that method. Better to invest big bucks for good return plus get green card (I think I read that on a fortune cookie once). And I see this already had its own topic. Next time I'll do a search first. And I misstated about Nip owning the 15 blocks according to The Niche. OK, anything else, people?
  6. I have faith that these towers will one day become desirable residential icons, although I've read some anecdotes that they are somewhat cheaply built. The overall vision was correct but the timing wasn't. Too bad the creators won't enjoy the fruits.
  7. A Mr. Nip wants to build a 1000 room hotel directly across the 59 from the George R. Brown. The financing will be coming from wealthy Chinese who, by investing at least $500K, will receive green cards. It would be much cheaper to just swim the river but that method has been overdone... http://www.globalcenturydev.com/Investment.html (powerpoint by clicking "Conceptual Project Plans". http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/print-edition/2011/02/11/houston-backs-downtown-convention-hotel.html Sounds pretty ambitious but apparently the mayor is backing the idea and Lee Brown is working for the group. The rendering shows 15 contiguous blocks that Mr. Nip owns and it proposes a pedestrian bridge connecting the hotel with the Conv. Center.
  8. If not specifically authoritarian then suggestarian, perhaps? I think design committees belong in historic districts to protect and guide reuse of old structures, but not as a panel of taste experts imposing theirs on those who create professionally. Besides, Houston already resembles a city "designed by committee".
  9. Anyone have any clues as to why they would spend the money for below grade tunnels? And why so hush-hush? Is this going to be their doomsday facility?
  10. The article linked above says the building was built in 1950. Is that correct? Nice gesture and project but wow...the bending over backwards by the city to save four walls from a 60 year old building is amazing.
  11. Regent Square will be nowhere near a MetroRail line and that area overall is "close to everything" but sort of isolated as far as pedestrian action. I would love to see it happen but something like High Street there might be a major pig-in-a-poke.
  12. I was there. Quite the diverse and enthusiastic crowd. Yes, Sheila was greeted with a huge round of boos...I was somewhat embarrassed for her , but she handled it stride, her voice louder than anyone else (since it was impossible to hear anyone else actually, at least where I was. Maybe they were respecting the neighbors but the mikes needed some volume). It's a great spot for a stadium, with views of the classy skyline on one side, then with the smattering of townhouses sitting amid antiquated industrial. Quite the juxtaposition as is Houston.
  13. Yes, at least we apparently aren't getting the cereal box treatment as above. As for the Dynamo Stadium rendering, it looks as if the structure has been clad in a transparent skin which would be an interesting effect by allowing difused light to enter, like it's been wrapped by kids in toilet paper. Maybe toilet paper companies should buy the naming rights....Charmin Park has a nice ring to it.
  14. Cheer up. The real stadium won't be only in black and white. I am hoping that this stadium makes an artistic statement of some kind, seeing that this area is in the early stages of a rebranding and this structure will be the big cheese of public developments there so far. They ought to enlist the talents of some of EaDo's artists for the cladding. For an area as mish-mashed and colorful in its starkness and contrast, it needs to fit.
  15. I'm all for the free market and WalMart building wherever they want. The Heights people are about as activist as they come so if they want, they can organize a boycott, which I would already be aligned with as an advocate of local businesses and American products, but not because a store wants to build nearby, although I support their right to protest for that too, or for whatever reason.
  16. I wonder if the EaDodos (a cutesy name for those residents of that area near the stadium with the cutesy name) became involved and influenced those changes. And I'm so glad they decided to build over there. It seems like the perfect location with DT views to inspire and in an area that is ripe for a lot of excitement to harmonize with the laid-back townhouse clusters which seem to be everywhere. And a local young man was drafted by the Dynamo. http://www.houstondynamo.com/news/2011/01/dixon-happy-be-back-home
  17. What, we're supposed to embrace this as good art? Tacky, corny... This one is not exactly a product of a massive surge of creative energy...and the heart symbol kind of copies the original NY slogan. But, it's a positive message and public art doesn't have to be abstract and cool so I like it.
  18. Four floors seems to be about the average height for the New Midtown. Will this area become a large residential plateau over the next 20 years of similar height rooftops, like suburbia on stilts?
  19. This company is not in the business of helping people, saving the planet or promoting growth, other than the growth of their company. Leave those things to city planners, non-profits or philanthropists. The city has invested something in the Near North with the Metro line. That, in theory, will attract development. Putting this place adjacent to The Woodlands, since this is an imitation of that city, makes sense. It will attract a predictable demographic instead of gambling on attracting some vague gaggle of oddball pioneers. Anyway, I know you know all of this. I agree that any hinting of mass transit options is probably disingenous. Metro doesn't even know what they'll be doing in their next phase and the true Grand Parkway is still only a proposal.
  20. It's part of the only color in the photo, the rest being greys and whites. I see that as a good thing. So, by itself, it might look like a suburban hospital, a strip center on steroids or maybe a Tuscan garage-mahal. But as part of the overall scraperscape, it both attracts and rests the eye. It also harmonizes with the other earth tones of the new apartments by the park and the domed courthouse thingy down the street.
  21. I will too. Bland boxes that were once considered modern are semi-historic and early minimalism.
  22. No way to know if the owner is who they think he is, but bottom line he made an executive decision to close the place using the cops. If he was indeed trying to cherry-pick patrons, then his business, like any business that is more concerned with attracting a specific bling instead of attracting a constant cha-ching will suffer eventually. On the other hand, they say that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Look how many now know about this place.
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