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Windsor Memorial Apartments: Multifamily High-Rise At 3131 Memorial Cr.


TheNiche

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Good comment. I've seen it suggested (here, in fact) that NTs are overrepresented in online text in general. It's easy to see that most people could find something to like about the internet, but also that the kinds of limitations on what human feedback you actually get would make it skew toward folks who think of themselves as having a high tolerance and preference for 'the cerebral'. What's sort of a shame is that these are the same set sometimes described as natural explorers, so we might all be doing as much or more good being out poking around as usual instead of stealing time for the computer. But so far, computers are about the best way to cross-pollinate ideas when your interests are less common than an interest in sports. And as for sports, the dream remains that most people will get to feeling as reflective about the details of their environments as they feel about the details of sports - that it would be thought just as understandably engrossing. That's a bar set pretty high. Probably temperament and socialization are less the issue out in the world than simply the fact that we all specialize well enough that everything outside the home, and much of what's inside it, are somebody else's job to build, judge, and modify.

The simplest, or at least most direct, way of changing that would not fight specialization at all - it would introduce an intelligible gradient of publicness and privateness to space. Right now we sort of do have very little place to be other than exploring transiently on public property or sitting, maybe browsing HAIF, on private property. In between the essentially public and the essentially private, there are just hospitals, libraries, and places to shop. There aren't really degrees of sharing which give rise to a happy cycle of incrementally shaping things for human use. But if there were layers of kinds of places you could just be and tinker, along city streets, without any red flags, and if there were park corridors and pockets that could learn directly from users - and other kinds of 'bridge' spaces and functions that you can imagine being great. To be clear, pedestrian bustle and human-scaled cafes and so forth are not a step in the direction I'm talking about, because in dense neighborhoods there are too many interests to protect from one another to *let* people experiment on their own initiative with anything that isn't strictly theirs as of right. If anything, this insulates against the very developments which became possible when lots of people came around. You need to have both inhabitation, time being spent somewhere regularly, and also a fluid enough level of possibility that environmental chances are able to be taken. Houston, until this growth wave, had little threat of toes being stepped on, compared to what's present in every other city in the positive-growth first-world West. Now points of stress are starting to develop, so inflexibility with it, at precisely the spots which might show the most benefit from the incremental tweaking I call experimentation (and plant seeds of exploratory improvement of spaces in the most new minds)... like along Washington, Memorial and Studemont.

., jumped the gun, wernicke.

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Could a moderator please split the last few posts off into a thread devoted entirely to "The Niche", so this thread can discuss the 25-story development at Memorial and Studemont???

I'd be satisfied if they just told us to get back on topic and then sent us all PMs telling us how immature we are, like usual. Or move it to the Personality Test thread that I'd set up a ways back.

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I can't wait to see this building really start to crawl. It is going to be pretty prominent in the Allen Parkway/Memorial area, especially because its base is a bit higher than the buildings on the South side of the bayou. Will make the drive down Allen Parkway/Memorial even more enjoyable once it gets on up there in height.

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I agree that it will definitely stand out with it's location being the north side of Allen Parkway/Memorial and it also has an advantage of sitting on somewhat of an incline or hill in comparison to the other high rises in that area...can't wait

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I can't wait to see this building really start to crawl. It is going to be pretty prominent in the Allen Parkway/Memorial area, especially because its base is a bit higher than the buildings on the South side of the bayou. Will make the drive down Allen Parkway/Memorial even more enjoyable once it gets on up there in height.

Driving northward on Studemont yesterday I noticed how awsome it's going to look from that vantage point, too... it's right up against the road.

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  • 4 weeks later...
I'd be satisfied if they just told us to get back on topic and then sent us all PMs telling us how immature we are, like usual. Or move it to the Personality Test thread that I'd set up a ways back.

I have always enjoyed reading The Niche's posts as they usually contain fairly accurate information and informed analysis related to Houston's real estate development community. Therefore, I was quite surprised to see the addition of his Vote for McCain/Palin banner and additional text added to the footer of his recent posts.

Sir, you are entitled to your own political views (although I believe they have no legitimate reason for being posted on the HAIF website unless one is discussing a candidate's specific plans for Houston Architecture and Development- which I don't think we've heard from any political candidate other than Councilman Peter Brown ), however, if your compelling reasons for supporting your candidate are limited to the following pathetic endorsement:

"You don't have to like him, respect him, or really have any expectation that he's going to be a good president (I certainly don't)."

then it brings your overall intelligence or judgment on other matters into question. Not liking the personality or impressive academic record of one candidate is surely no reason to encourage others to vote for a candidate who you "don't like, don't respect and don't believe he's going to be a good president".

Personally, I am very disappointed to have read these comments on HAIF. If you want to vote for McCain- please do it. Even talk about it on your own webpage or on a political blog. Just keep your illogical, unimpressive political analysis off our Architecture Forum.

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Just keep your illogical, unimpressive political analysis off our Architecture Forum.

Or keep it to the "Off-topic" section's political oriented thread.

But, in Niche's defense, other members of our board also use their personal banners for political reasons... I don't particularly like the large emblems, which take up a lot of space, but a short statement merely provides insight into who a poster is as a person. It would be very difficult to regulate personal banners to stop political commentary.

As for the 25-story building... it is coming along nicely. Although my friends in the surrounding apartments would love to see it go faster. The Allen Pkwy/Memorial/Bayou corridor has great potential, especially if they can increase the number of pedestrian crosswalks over the bayou.

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I have always enjoyed reading The Niche's posts as they usually contain fairly accurate information and informed analysis related to Houston's real estate development community. Therefore, I was quite surprised to see the addition of his Vote for McCain/Palin banner and additional text added to the footer of his recent posts.

Sir, you are entitled to your own political views (although I believe they have no legitimate reason for being posted on the HAIF website unless one is discussing a candidate's specific plans for Houston Architecture and Development- which I don't think we've heard from any political candidate other than Councilman Peter Brown ), however, if your compelling reasons for supporting your candidate are limited to the following pathetic endorsement:

"You don't have to like him, respect him, or really have any expectation that he's going to be a good president (I certainly don't)."

then it brings your overall intelligence or judgment on other matters into question. Not liking the personality or impressive academic record of one candidate is surely no reason to encourage others to vote for a candidate who you "don't like, don't respect and don't believe he's going to be a good president".

Personally, I am very disappointed to have read these comments on HAIF. If you want to vote for McCain- please do it. Even talk about it on your own webpage or on a political blog. Just keep your illogical, unimpressive political analysis off our Architecture Forum.

I'm sorry, but I believe I have to reassess your ability to judge people since if you do not like people's opinions their intelligence becomes suspect.

I have a great amount of respect for people with differing political opinions on here, and respect what they have to say on a variety of subjects. I may not agree with them, but rarely would I question their intelligence solely based on political affiliation. Now, I may question it on other factors (hell, I even question my own) in their arguments/discussions, but not political persuasions.....except maybe for the flat earth society, the 911 conspiracy theorists, and certain varieties of the Tinfoil hat club.

Let's take it to another topic thread and keep this one on topic.

Mods?

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I'm sorry, but I believe I have to reassess your ability to judge people since if you do not like people's opinions their intelligence becomes suspect.

I have a great amount of respect for people with differing political opinions on here, and respect what they have to say on a variety of subjects. I may not agree with them, but rarely would I question their intelligence solely based on political affiliation. Now, I may question it on other factors (hell, I even question my own) in their arguments/discussions, but not political persuasions.....except maybe for the flat earth society, the 911 conspiracy theorists, and certain varieties of the Tinfoil hat club.

Let's take it to another topic thread and keep this one on topic.

Mods?

Ricco-

On one point, I will agree with you. Let's keep the political posturing off the HAIF site.

In response to your comment that you would rarely question one's intelligence based upon a political opinion, let's look at the facts.

The Niche said:

Vote for John McCain. You don't have to like him, respect him, or really have any expectation that he's going to be a good president (I certainly don't). The important thing is that he isn't a classist scumbag. He is not Barack Obama. And that is sufficient.

Anyone who would admittedly cast a vote for President of the United States for someone that they "don't like, don't respect and doesn't have any expectation that he's going to be a good president" is not exercising his/her intelligence.

Anyone who defends The Niche's own words as representative of intelligent thinking is simply wrong.

Finally, I ask any posters readying to attack me as partisan to please stop- take a breath.

Don't accuse someone who considers the right to vote a privilege.

A privilege that should not be taken likely.

Don't accuse me as someone who wants to judge someone for having a different opinion.

I love the fact that people have different, informed opinions.

I welcome an intelligent discourse on a wide range of issues (including politics), however I do ask that it take place in the appropriate forum (in this case a political forum).

At the very least, I ask The Niche to come up with a more compelling, intelligent reason for soliciting a vote for McCain.

If other posters would like to discuss the current presidential election and how it might affect foreign investment in planned Houston real estate projects, I think this might be worthy of a separate thread. As someone who travels the world extensively for business, I can report back that financiers in major capitals around the world (Dubai, London, Moscow, Singapore, Hong Kong) are anxiously awaiting results from the coming election prior to committing funding for pending development opportunities. Given the worsening financing outlook in the US, I can assure you that these major international development companies are indeed seeking major CHANGE.

As I said earlier, my post was motivated by my personal disappointment in seeing this political comment cluttering up our site devoted to architecture. I had much higher expectations based upon The Niche's previous postings.

Moving forward, let's get back to discussing architecture and development in Houston- a passion of this poster.

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It does seem like sometimes people put things in their footers that they wouldn't dream of posting in the actual thread text. Way OT (understandable), but sometimes a little on the obnoxious side, occasionally bordering on offensive.

Odd, how that little section -- which repeats itself over and over again if you're a frequent poster -- somehow seems immune to normal forum etiquette. (Maybe because we usually just ignore them?)

Back on topic... I like this building's design & location, but this morning for the first time as I was driving into downtown on Memorial it struck me that it really does obstruct the downtown view as you pass Heights -- it's a wide building! A slight pang of regret touching on an otherwise exciting development! I love the drive in on Memorial. The view will still be mostly intact, I just have to get used to this. :)

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In response to your comment that you would rarely question one's intelligence based upon a political opinion, let's look at the facts.

The Niche said:

Vote for John McCain. You don't have to like him, respect him, or really have any expectation that he's going to be a good president (I certainly don't). The important thing is that he isn't a classist scumbag. He is not Barack Obama. And that is sufficient.

Anyone who would admittedly cast a vote for President of the United States for someone that they "don't like, don't respect and doesn't have any expectation that he's going to be a good president" is not exercising his/her intelligence.

Anyone who defends The Niche's own words as representative of intelligent thinking is simply wrong.

Ever heard of the lesser of two evils? I'm willing to bet there are plenty of people out there who do not like either candidate...but that doesn't mean they shouldn't vote

As for the building - it looks pretty impressive (very wide) from my office in downtown, and there has definitely been some good progress lately. Would make for a cool time lapse

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I rarely visit this site anymore due to conversations such as this. I too would appreciate it if members would show the self restraint to keep their political leanings to websites where they may be fully appreciated for what they are. I believe that a site devoted to architecture should be that, I can get my fill of politics in many other places but when I am on here, I would prefer not having to deal with it. I am tired of people feeling that saying offensive things in print is somehow more acceptable than in person. I miss civility.

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  • 4 weeks later...
This project is nice. I'm working a on pedestrian bridge that will cross over memorial and the Buffalo Bayou for TIRZ #5.

I have have to run all the hydraulic designs so the bridge doesn't impact flooding.

There are also planning a bunch of trails in the area especially when the Archstone Memorial Apartment are torn down to build a West Ave style town center.

Just picture street front retail along Washington Ave.....

I've heard that the design competition winners for this pedestrian bridge have created an absolutely stunning design. Got any renderings?

Does anyone remember when there was an old grain (rice) elevator on the site of this new highrise? I watched it burn back in the early 80's The fire was massive; you could feel the heat across Allen Pkwy, over by the Wortham Cemetary.

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I've heard that the design competition winners for this pedestrian bridge have created an absolutely stunning design. Got any renderings?

The pedestrian potential for this area is pretty exciting, especially if Regent Square and the Archstone development are built. Combine that with a new pedestrian bridge and the Whole Foods / Finger development, and this area would be a very interesting place.

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I agree and I wish I had an "IN" on finding out what more is going to occur in this area. This Possibilty of a high density-urban area from W.Dallas to Washington Ave. is becoming more of a reality, esp. when everything (r.square, archstone, etc.) is 80% built out. Can't wait...

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I agree and I wish I had an "IN" on finding out what more is going to occur in this area. This Possibilty of a high density-urban area from W.Dallas to Washington Ave. is becoming more of a reality, esp. when everything (r.square, archstone, etc.) is 80% built out. Can't wait...
with the way it's going there won't be anymore land left.
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I agree and I wish I had an "IN" on finding out what more is going to occur in this area. This Possibilty of a high density-urban area from W.Dallas to Washington Ave. is becoming more of a reality, esp. when everything (r.square, archstone, etc.) is 80% built out. Can't wait...

A lot of the Washington corridor is so close to Memorial that it could just as easily be called the Memorial corridor. Ten years ago this area had seen almost no development in years. Now it is booming. I think that it may be generating its own momentum at this point. In other words, each new development is creating more beauty and utility in the area. In the next ten years, we should see more high rises and mid rises, as well as more commercial development. The only question is whether it is more correct to call it Washington or call it Memorial. I think it needs a snappy new moniker. Since it includes Washington Ave and starts at the Municipal Courts, maybe we should call it WaMu. I hear the name is available. <_<

Off topic, I have thouroughly enjoyed reading ALL the comments on this thread and am glad the mods haven't moved them. Great thread.

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I don't think that's really an issue since almost all of the walkability and high-density urban potential is along Washington Ave. It's really very different from the high rise and gated stuff along Memorial.

Washington Ave is often mentioned as a potential candidate for LRT expansion but Memorial will probably always be an expressway for auto traffic.

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I agree w/happy about the significance of Memorial. I've always thought that Memorial Drive and it's multiple parks, from downtown to memorial park, delivered the largest percentage of beauty to this area. (i.e. The Lexus Car commercials that have been created on Memorial and Allen P.Way) Hopefully the parks remain protected and family friendly as they are now.....

Now WAMU...That's a funny one, but I agree that One name is needed for that entire area b/c there are too many names floating around now. I guess we will have to depend on the Realtors to create that moniker b/c the COH will take at least 5 more years. Branding this area and some capital improvements (i.e. possible "Zoning") along Wash. Ave. could possibly give Houston a Destination Area that's almost attached to Downtown. Which it has failed to do with Midtown and how long can we brag about the "Galleria Area"...Unfortunately It's only shopping, no parks, and not much of an artistic/historic vibe to the area.

the Light Rail on Washington...Only a dream..Only a Dream

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Now that I think about it, Memorial should be lumped in with Allen Parkway. The areas are almost identical and have a lot in common. If you want zoning you should zone Memorial Parkway since it obviously needs it much more than Washington Ave.

Washington Ave is the urban stuff you might find in a "neighborhood" in the traditional sense...no branding necessary. Sorry!

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I don't know. Is Chicago still bragging about the Magnificent Mile?

Yeah, but it's a high density area (Tourist Mess) attached to Downtown Chicago that can be easily accessed by public transportation, walking, etc...It's also not a favorite of the locals. Go figure..

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Now that I think about it, Memorial should be lumped in with Allen Parkway. The areas are almost identical and have a lot in common. If you want zoning you should zone Memorial Parkway since it obviously needs it much more than Washington Ave.

Washington Ave is the urban stuff you might find in a "neighborhood" in the traditional sense...no branding necessary. Sorry!

Zoning is needed on Washington specifically for the creation of more density and to stop the suburban type developments that plague Houston. We don't need anymore Parking LOTS lining our major "Urban" Streets, these streets should be lined with curbside retail/residential development.

The majority of Memorial really has no business activity, due to the amount of protected park land that surrounds the street/parkway. The only reason it would need zoning is to make sure the MAYOR doesn't sell the parks to greedy developers in order to obtain a view of DT.

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Yeah, but it's a high density area (Tourist Mess) attached to Downtown Chicago that can be easily accessed by public transportation, walking, etc...It's also not a favorite of the locals. Go figure..

Sounds a lot like the Galleria...tourist mess not favored by (this) local.

Zoning is needed on Washington specifically for the creation of more density and to stop the suburban type developments that plague Houston. We don't need anymore Parking LOTS lining our major "Urban" Streets, these streets should be lined with curbside retail/residential development.

The majority of Memorial really has no business activity, due to the amount of protected park land that surrounds the street/parkway. The only reason it would need zoning is to make sure the MAYOR doesn't sell the parks to greedy developers in order to obtain a view of DT.

Non sequitur.

Memorial Park is protected by the language in the gift from development. ALL of Memorial Park has no business activity, due to the prohibition in the gift.

Interesting that you take your jab at the Mayor and greedy developers, yet suggest zoning for the creation of "more density". Who would build that density other than greedy developers...benevolent ones?

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