Ion District In Midtown

[Luminare]

6 hours ago, MarathonMan said:

I apologize because we’re getting off topic here.  But I will add in just this one comment on what is an important side topic.  I have traveled to Japan — most recently in late ‘18 — and see a very different picture.  I have been all over that city and beyond.  All kinds of neighborhoods.  Rich, poor, touristy and local.  I don’t remember seeing ANY homeless people.  The sidewalks are clean.  Their streets are safe (so safe, in fact, that people park their bikes on the sidewalk and don’t lock them).  I’m guessing that Japan has its share of poor, mentally ill people.  What are they doing differently to help these people so that they don’t live in filth on the streets, turn to drugs and resort to petty theft for money?  Maybe the answer to the homeless problem at home has already been answered. Maybe we just need to study and adopt best-practices from others.  Just a thought.  

 

Interesting perspective, but its probably more of a fact that cities in Japan, and the japanese as a culture, really care for civility laws. European cities and American cities once followed in the same vain, but has gradually be whittled away by the current cultural trends. Civility laws are now seen, particular amoung the far left anarcho communist types as being oppressive and demeaning to those such as the homeless (which I believe their point of view to be very flawed). Then again they are paired with the other side of the horseshoe (if you believe that the far left and far right meet up at the end of the horseshoe spectrum, like I believe to be the case) are the far right which are overly orderly and it can be cumbersome to regular everyday people. Somewhere in the middle of those two extremes is where civility laws lie. In the 90's and 00's as a counter to extreme crime waves in the 70's and 80's many cities reembraced civility laws and cleaned up their cities and downtowns, but now it seems the pendulum is swinging back. All in all, its their adherence to civility laws that keep the homeless from being visible because they see that as a something that is valuable, not only for them, but for society at large. Here it seems its going to the opposite direction where the new virtue is let them live out in the open as if in some way to shame all of us that homeless exists and that we are the oppressors for keeping them away. All I would say is go walk around in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and now Austin to see how successful their reversals of this have been....which is that it hasn't.

 

3 hours ago, Triton said:

That's a common misconception. I've traveled to Asia many many times (my wife is Vietnamese) and there are homeless everywhere, just as much as there are here. As I said, it's an issue that every major city has to grapple with, even around the world. You will have quite a large amount of people begging for money in China and Vietnam. We even saw it in Taiwan and Taiwan is very modern.

 

I agree. Each city has to tackle this, and they do so in their own way.

 

When I was Berlin, Germany, homeless were everywhere, but you didn't really see them, but that didn't mean they weren't around...its because of the cities "squatter culture". After the Berlin Wall fell most people in East Berlin quickly made an exodus to the West side virtually leaving everything they had in the east. Many buildings simply went vacant overnight. With the radical ups and downs that happen once capitalism is embraced...and if you don't have systems and values in place to hand capitalism properly...you are going to get a bunch of homeless poor people. Many of these people soon moved to East Berlin because now all the sudden there was vacant buildings everywhere. Berlin, still grappling with rising from the ashes of the wall crumbling had a real problem with housing on their hands, and so essentially instituted laws for "squatting". If you found an abandoned building and you stayed and didn't leave...then it was yours. There are still many "squatter apartments" in former East Berlin. Everyone from actual homeless people to the radical anarcho far leftist live in these places. Its actually rather interesting from an architect point of view. Its a dying breed though as now Berlin is getting more robust and is starting to put pressure on these settlements. They definitely won't last, but this example illustrates what one city did to handle this issue. Was it the right way to handle it in the long run? Not really. It just kicked the can down the curb, but it was a unique and pragmatic solution to a real problem. For cities here in the US governed by left leaning types, they truly believe, in a very naive way, that their solution to let homeless people camp is a "pragmatic" solution, but that is just keep kicking the can down the curb so they don't have to actually tackle the problem. At least squatter culture keep them away from view and off the street, but our current solutions are just barbaric and crazy. Not to mention its already bring about disease and filth. How is that compassionate. Hopefully people wake up to it all. Its a multi-variant problem that requires a complex solution from all angles. Like you stated about Asian cities though...at some point it has to be solved. You can't just keep kicking the can down the line and pat yourself on the back that you did something...when nothing happened at all.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Luminare

[BeerNut]

Exclusive: New Houston accelerator reveals its inaugural cohort and announces strategic partner

Quote

The Ion Smart Cities Accelerator launched earlier this year with a goal of engaging startups from around the world to solve some of Houston's most prevalent challenges. Backed by Intel and Microsoft and partnered with the city of Houston and Station Houston, the program has developed a curriculum and selected its first cohort.

Ten startups from around the world — half of which from right here in Houston — were selected to be a part of the program. And narrowing down to 10 was tough for the program's judges, says Christine Galib, director of the Ion Smart Cities Accelerator.

 

1. Aatonomy

2. AeoShape

3. BlocPower

4. GoKid

5. Kriterion

6. Sensytec

7. SlideX

8. Umanity

9. Wyzerr

10. Reality IMT

 

[rechlin]

[Brooklyn173]

I went by this yesterday. There was a bobcat on one of the roofs taking away debris, the window openings were being widened, lots of noise inside. A veritable bee hive of activity. Very exciting.

[X.R.]

So I guess those tarps are protecting the insides as they knock out the brick. Crazy.

[Luminare]

46 minutes ago, X.R. said:

So I guess those tarps are protecting the insides as they knock out the brick. Crazy.

 

Brick and concrete. Remember, this is all original cast concrete shell and not stone veneer or anything like that (really unique for the time it was built when you think about it). I would love to take a look at the original construction documents for this building. That would be a fun look.

[X.R.]

It seems that whole section, with the windows to the right in that photo, are coming out. They are currently using a jackhammer attached to a short crane to knock out that portion of the building.

 

I think that all of this will be those massive windows we saw in the rendering? If so, they weren't playing around with that render. You can also see people working on the wiring on the second floor through huge holes in the building, lol. It looks funny. 

 

Edited September 3, 2019 by X.R.

[Highrise Tower]

[H-Town Man]

12 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

 

If The Ion thing doesn't work out, this would make a hell of a paintball venue. Stalingrad themed.

 

[Brooklyn173]

As long as it's Craftsman Weatherbeater paint 😁

[rechlin]

The green fabric is really taking a beating, if you compare each of the photos.  Now one large section is completely gone:

 

[cloud713]

13 hours ago, rechlin said:

The green fabric is really taking a beating, if you compare each of the photos.  Now one large section is completely gone:

 

 

It did look rough, but maybe they’re removing each section as they finish punching out the holes behind them?

[Highrise Tower]

Green fabric is all gone. Looks like it's all punched through.

 

[H-Town Man]

12 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Green fabric is all gone. Looks like it's all punched through.

 

 

They definitely did better on some of them than on others. Looks like somebody cut brisket with a butter knife on a couple. Guess it will turn out okay though.

 

[por favor gracias]

18 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Green fabric is all gone. Looks like it's all punched through.

 

 

 

[midtowndweller]

This is the former Sears Auto Shop lot. I spy “Garage with Retail”!!! 👀👀

[Texasota]

Rad. Get rid of those surface lots!

[X.R.]

Treated as a transit corridor? That sounds unusual, no? I don't imagine there will be anyone there to fight the variance request 😂.

 

They blow out holes in the Ion building and now needing the variance for the lot, do we know the timeline for this entire thing? I thought it was like 2021 or something. I would imagine building a garage wouldn't take very long, and the retail, depending on what it is, would benefit those apartments that are next door to that lot.

 

 

[dbigtex56]

"To allow part of the building in the visibility triangle at the corner of Fannin and Cleburne"
Does this mean the parking garage will be situated towards the northern portion of the block, or will it cover the entire block?
Wouldn't having the garage as close to the Wheeler Transit Center as possible make sense?

[Highrise Tower]

Starting on the next building.

 

[Highrise Tower]

Pictures from the last few days.

 

 

 

[rechlin]

They're really chipping away at the roof, and have made room for some nice big windows.  From last night:

 

[X.R.]

The roof is now gone, baby gone. They really going after it. The endowment must have finally paid the subcontractors. 😂

Edited September 12, 2019 by X.R.

[Highrise Tower]

[bobruss]

On 9/9/2019 at 12:38 PM, dbigtex56 said:

"To allow part of the building in the visibility triangle at the corner of Fannin and Cleburne"
Does this mean the parking garage will be situated towards the northern portion of the block, or will it cover the entire block?
Wouldn't having the garage as close to the Wheeler Transit Center as possible make sense?

It would if you didn't want people using the rail. I'm sure the parking will be for others who drive to work.

[dbigtex56]

3 minutes ago, bobruss said:

It would if you didn't want people using the rail. I'm sure the parking will be for others who drive to work.

 

I was thinking it would have the opposite effect.
For those who are driving in from the suburbs, it would offer a convenient, centrally located place to park. They could then use the rail for in-town destinations, an increasing number of which are adjacent to the Red Line.
Wasn't that one of the selling points of the parking garage at MidMain (HCC/Ensemble Theater stop)?

 

[rechlin]

10 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

For those who are driving in from the suburbs, it would offer a convenient, centrally located place to park. They could then use the rail for in-town destinations, an increasing number of which are adjacent to the Red Line.

 

One problem with that is the southbound freeway exit to Fannin from IH-69 is being eliminated as part of the freeway rebuild, so parking in this area becomes a lot less attractive for people driving in from the suburbs.

[MarathonMan]

On 9/9/2019 at 12:38 PM, dbigtex56 said:

Wouldn't having the garage as close to the Wheeler Transit Center as possible make sense?

In my opinion, putting a parking garage between Fannin and San Jacinto (i.e. where it’s planned) makes the most sense. Those are the two major thoroughfares serving this area and provide the most efficient traffic flow into a parking structure.  As for proximity to the transit center, I don’t think that it is important.   The parking garage and the light rail transit center serve totally different segments of the population with different needs.  The garage, in particular, will be to serve people driving in to work at the Ion, not for people using it as a park-and-ride facility to access downtown or the TMC by train.  That said, if someone WOULD choose to use the garage as a park-and-ride, the site where they plan to construct it is only two blocks from the Red Line.  Not very far at all.

Edited September 13, 2019 by MarathonMan

[clutchcity94]

1 hour ago, rechlin said:

 

One problem with that is the southbound freeway exit to Fannin from IH-69 is being eliminated as part of the freeway rebuild, so parking in this area becomes a lot less attractive for people driving in from the suburbs.

 

Will there be a new exit on the southbound portion of IH-69 after the rebuild if Fannin is no longer there? Or will the next available exit be all the way at Shepherd?

[cspwal]

Looking at the current segment 3 schematics, there will be a new exit from southbound 59/69 to Almeda; that should replace the Fannin exit for going to Midtown from 59/69.  Now if you're coming from 288 NB, you will no longer be able to exit 59-S -> Fannin to get to Midtown, and I can't tell what the exit strategy for 288 is going to be http://www.ih45northandmore.com/docs11/08_NHHIP_Seg3_SH288_RollPlot_FEIS_1-1.pdf