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Convention Center Redevelopment, Office Building & W Hotel


Mab

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Complete snoozefest. Am I the only one who gets annoyed hearing a monotone voice with a slight lisp saying "Houston" as if it were a name drop a million times with fun facts found in tourist video from 10 years ago?

No?

Why did I expect more? Trick question. Conventions are lame. Gun Show, Boat Show, Car Show, Wedding Expo, yawn yawn yawn. I've worked some and I've been to more than I'd like to admit. Welcome to the late 90's Houston. We did it!

(Yeah I know some business expos are slightly more interesting if you're interested in your industry, but I don't fancy those either).

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Complete snoozefest. Am I the only one who gets annoyed hearing a monotone voice with a slight lisp saying "Houston" as if it were a name drop a million times with fun facts found in tourist video from 10 years ago?

No?

Why did I expect more? Trick question. Conventions are lame. Gun Show, Boat Show, Car Show, Wedding Expo, yawn yawn yawn. I've worked some and I've been to more than I'd like to admit. Welcome to the late 90's Houston. We did it!

(Yeah I know some business expos are slightly more interesting if you're interested in your industry, but I don't fancy those either).

They are for business not necessarily entertainment.

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This is all fine and well, but if you don't have easy transport from airports to your convention area and easy transport to your high end shopping district (Galleria/Uptiwn) your city will get passed over. Because Houston doesn't have those things in the same location, you need to get conventioneers to them easily

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Complete snoozefest. Am I the only one who gets annoyed hearing a monotone voice with a slight lisp saying "Houston" as if it were a name drop a million times with fun facts found in tourist video from 10 years ago?

No?

Why did I expect more? Trick question. Conventions are lame. Gun Show, Boat Show, Car Show, Wedding Expo, yawn yawn yawn. I've worked some and I've been to more than I'd like to admit. Welcome to the late 90's Houston. We did it!

(Yeah I know some business expos are slightly more interesting if you're interested in your industry, but I don't fancy those either).

 

Lets not completely dump on the video. I thought the graphics were very well done and pretty seamless. The transitions were nice too. I also appreciated the art style and the way they displayed info, especially the map app showing different destinations.

 

It was definitely something you might expect to see at a board meeting, trade show, or employee video. I also agree about the voice in the video. yawn! But overall for a advertisement and informational about the complex and area around it it was pretty effective.

 

The thing that was obvious was the embellishment that they did when explaining the stuff around the convention district. It still seems that marketing people are still gun shy in actually showing real Houston building and architecture in the background for anything. We have quite a few lovely buildings in our skyline yet they were completely omitted in this presentation when graphically trying to show walkability and transportation. Which is a real shame, but the ever pressing reality that our architectural neutral flavor is still going to bite us in the rear when trying to show ourselves off. That mentality of trying to please everyone and trying to just be subpar means you aren't going to impress anyone. Hopefully that will change.

 

The finally kick in the teeth was any transportation options from airports or anything kind of transportation to and from Houston or into downtown. Again it shows where we still lack. The convention district is really shaping up nicely, but now that it's being advertised as a destination you need a way to get there from far away/out of town and that still hasn't been addressed.

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I watched this video with the sound off so I didn't hear the voice over. It looks great, but what about the parking garage under discovery green? What's happening with that if they close the road?

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I watched this video with the sound off so I didn't hear the voice over. It looks great, but what about the parking garage under discovery green? What's happening with that if they close the road?

 

If you look at the plan closely there is a road that accesses the parking garage.

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Complete snoozefest. Am I the only one who gets annoyed hearing a monotone voice with a slight lisp saying "Houston" as if it were a name drop a million times with fun facts found in tourist video from 10 years ago?

No?

Why did I expect more? Trick question. Conventions are lame. Gun Show, Boat Show, Car Show, Wedding Expo, yawn yawn yawn. I've worked some and I've been to more than I'd like to admit. Welcome to the late 90's Houston. We did it!

(Yeah I know some business expos are slightly more interesting if you're interested in your industry, but I don't fancy those either).

I understand your point, but I suspect the dollars these events bring to the city are the focus rather than the wow factor of the events themselves.  With the revamped convention district, those who attend the conventions, expos, etc. will have an opportunity to engage in a more lively downtown atmosphere rather than wandering aimlessly looking for something to "do" outside of Discovery Green amid the vast surface parking lots and half-empty Green Street.

 

Also, those quilters are a pretty lively bunch :-) 

Edited by quietstorm
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and the best part is that you dont have to go to those events and conventions if you dont want to haha...i bet that most people that do go to those events are super excited about whatever their interest is so its cool that our city offers that to them! i try to always see the glass half full and be positive...i think if you live your life that way its much easier ;) 

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and the best part is that you dont have to go to those events and conventions if you dont want to haha...i bet that most people that do go to those events are super excited about whatever their interest is so its cool that our city offers that to them! i try to always see the glass half full and be positive...i think if you live your life that way its much easier ;)

I'm not saying that the conventioneers are boring people, I mean I'm on HAIF for crying out loud, everyone has a hobby. But they are boring in my eyes. Doesn't mean I want to ruin it for everyone else.

It's not that my glass is empty but I need another cup.

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I'm not saying that the conventioneers are boring people, I mean I'm on HAIF for crying out loud, everyone has a hobby. But they are boring in my eyes. Doesn't mean I want to ruin it for everyone else.

It's not that my glass is empty but I need another cup.

 

haha well i hope you get that rectified! and soon! ;)

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I'm not saying that the conventioneers are boring people, I mean I'm on HAIF for crying out loud, everyone has a hobby. But they are boring in my eyes. Doesn't mean I want to ruin it for everyone else.

It's not that my glass is empty but I need another cup.

Wow fam, this got real
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Complete snoozefest. Am I the only one who gets annoyed hearing a monotone voice with a slight lisp saying "Houston" as if it were a name drop a million times with fun facts found in tourist video from 10 years ago?

No?

Why did I expect more? Trick question. Conventions are lame. Gun Show, Boat Show, Car Show, Wedding Expo, yawn yawn yawn. I've worked some and I've been to more than I'd like to admit. Welcome to the late 90's Houston. We did it!

(Yeah I know some business expos are slightly more interesting if you're interested in your industry, but I don't fancy those either).

I'll take a different tack while agreeing with the gist of your post.

It seems to me that the voiceover messaging was just about perfect. But, the graphics should have included actual images. The fly over of discovery green, to me, would have been a "WOW", had they just invested in an actual flyover. Images of the GRB and Hilton similarly would have added to the "wow" in my opinion. It seems like a lot of work went into this video to create a fairly proletariat video that does little to highlight one of the convention centers best assets - GREEN space and NEW buildings.

My guess is that this is the first video of several since they CAN'T use actual footage yet because some stuff mentioned ISN'T BUILT yet. So, I'm thinking that they will create a similar video when they can use actual images.

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Who owns the ADLA/Crawford/Capitol/Rusk block?

 

Out of all of the stuff proposed to go up in this area, I've never heard of anything being mentioned for that spot.

isn't that the block the green(?) residential tower and hotel tower with hall of fame-esque thing at the base, were proposed for? the city has been wanting someone to build a mixed use development there?

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Huh? GRB 2025 master plan has the convention center expanding to the square cluster of 4 blocks to the south..

^^^

920x920.jpg

I seem to recall Houston First saying there hopes for Block 101 would be residential or hotel development. Maybe the GHP Garage Hotel could end up there...

Edited by tigereye
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^^^

920x920.jpg

I seem to recall Houston First saying there hopes for Block 101 would be residential or hotel development. Maybe the GHP Garage Hotel could end up there...

 

That's a fun looking rendering, but I don't think it reflects anyone's actual plans for anything. The TC/Hess garage block tower and Houston First's new place isn't even on there and the "Marriott" is something else entirely. I think this one was just someone spitballing what the area would look like totally built out without surface lots.  Looks cool though.

Edited by Nate99
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That's a fun looking rendering, but I don't think it reflects anyone's actual plans for anything. The TC/Hess garage block tower and Houston First's new place isn't even on there and the "Marriott" is something else entirely. I think this one was just someone spitballing what the area would look like totally built out without surface lots. Looks cool though.

Huh? It clearly shows they plan on expanding the GRB on the square cluster of 4 blocks to the south/east of TC..? Yeah it was made before the GHP Building and Marquis were planned but where else would/could they expand the GRB?

Btw, who owns those 4 blocks?

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Huh? It clearly shows they plan on expanding the GRB on the square cluster of 4 blocks to the south/east of TC..? Yeah it was made before the GHP Building and Marquis were planned but where else would/could they expand the GRB?

Btw, who owns those 4 blocks?

 

I didn't realize it was official anything. With all of the stuff that's changed in the meantime, I figured it was just a bunch of unsupported ideas.

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One of those blocks currently has the Hilton garage sitting on it - I don't imagine that will come down to make way for this.

The parking garage is in that rendering. you can see a very thin line between the roof of the convention center, and then there are little specs on the other roof, which I assume are supposed to be cars parked in the cheap seats.

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I did see in a study done for the convention center presenting the competition amongst other cities convention centers. There was an

aerial map of the convention center in the study, and that was part of their future plans for enlargement. The property to the south of the convention center along 59. If I remember correctly there were four blocks. It was described in the study.

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I wonder if they would ever consider opening up the eastern side of the GRB? Like a grand entrance, possibly shutting down part of the street that runs parallel to it. Just so it doesn't become an ever bigger divide between EaDo and Downtown

 

I could see them opening up the back side of the convention center some if/when the 45 realignment happens and that whole area becomes a park over a freeway 

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I wonder if they would ever consider opening up the eastern side of the GRB? Like a grand entrance, possibly shutting down part of the street that runs parallel to it. Just so it doesn't become an ever bigger divide between EaDo and Downtown

 

 

i hope not, that's the loading dock area.

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i spent a fair amount of time near the convention center and ballpark this weekend (#crushcity) and the sheer volume of construction occurring in that area is astounding. gives austin a run for its money in terms of construction density.

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  • The title was changed to Convention Center Redevelopment, Office Building & W Hotel

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