IronTiger Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 I felt the same way in thinking Hines was a more visionary developer than to build gated neighborhoods but I guess his business is first and foremost to make money. More disturbing is the thought that, given a blank slate, urban Houstonians want to live inside gates just as much as suburban Houstonians. Perhaps most new residents of the Heights would gate the whole neighborhood if they could. The civic beauty of a city where sidewalks line the streets and the streets flow into avenues, where one can walk for hours and pass from neighborhood to neighborhood before returning home, and see and say hello to other people doing the same thing, is dead to them, if they can even imagine it. The area is a former industrial site and it shows. It's on a dead-end road next to a railroad with no walkable retail anywhere nearby. It certainly doesn't feel like the way the Inner Loop's ought to be, but then again, what does? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timoric Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 - Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fernz Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Who designed Houston's street system or did non-zoning mean no one did?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Enfant_PlanProbably a traffic engineer from A&M....In all seriousness, one of the biggest problems is the closed neighborhood and cul-de-sac development pattern that kills any type of grid layout. Think about all the people that work inside the loop, including galleria area, and live west of the galleria (from the villages all the way to Katy) There are only 6 roads they can take. (westpark, Richmond, westheimer, SF/briar forest, memorial and I-10). In a non suburban model city, all the streets in between would run full length, and the traffic load would be shared by 50 streets instead of 6. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timoric Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 - Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstontiger Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 All of the recent and planned residential development in the area follows a similar pattern, i.e. gated and completely closed off from the surrounding community, although on a much smaller scale in comparison to this Hines project. Â I can't really blame developers at this point because they are the first movers in this area and there is literally NO immediate neighborhood that homebuyers would want to interact with. Â If this brownfield to residential redevelopment trend continues, it would be such a tragedy to be left with dozens of similar style developments, completely cutoff from each other, islands to themselves, especially when you have the polar opposite in a 60 year old neighborhood immediately to the east. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 All of the recent and planned residential development in the area follows a similar pattern, i.e. gated and completely closed off from the surrounding community, although on a much smaller scale in comparison to this Hines project.  I can't really blame developers at this point because they are the first movers in this area and there is literally NO immediate neighborhood that homebuyers would want to interact wit.  If this brownfield to residential redevelopment trend continues, it would be such a tragedy to be left with dozens of similar style developments, completely cutoff from each other, islands to themselves, especially when you have the polar opposite in a 60 year old neighborhood immediately to the east. It's nice to have choices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 A French guy named L'Enfant (L'Enfant Plaza) designed the streets of Washington DC.Who designed Houston's street system or did non-zoning mean no one did?Can they be redesigned to work better now and are they doing that?I have always thought of Houston as all freeways with a few crossing streets commuters don't really use unless avoiding a wreck. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Enfant_Plan I think the original grid downtown was laid out by the Allen Brothers and then extended into midtown and east end; most later additions were probably laid out by the developers of the respective areas, except for maybe the other wards. So the Shadyside developer (Joseph Cullinen?) laid out Shadyside, the Broadacres developer laid out Broadacres, the Heights developers did the Heights, etc. Luckily up until the 1920's most of these developments were open grids because people got around on horses and wagons and wanted simple direct routes, but I guess around 1910 you started to have new exclusive neighborhoods that were designed for privacy (Shadyside, etc.), and as the automobile became more widespread, more and more neighborhoods went to this pattern. I'm not sure what sort of a precedent there is in American cities for the city government forcefully opening up a street grid that was closed off and exclusive. I know it took decades for them to put Voss across Buffalo Bayou and connect Westheimer to I-10 against staunch local opposition. To do anything more than the occasional one-off road to relieve a desperate traffic problem would probably require a level of civic power that Houstonians don't have the stomach for yet. It will be interesting to see what becomes of the KBR area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Â Ain't no street grid like a Midwestern street grid, 'cause a Midwestern street grid don't stop... Â Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Let's not get too carried away here. There are breaks in the Chicago street grid, and <GASP> gated neighborhoods too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Let's not get too carried away here. There are breaks in the Chicago street grid, and <GASP> gated neighborhoods too. Well of course in a metro area of over 9 million there are going to be some breaks and a few gated neighborhoods. Big difference from Houston though, which was <GASP> the point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
On to the Next One Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 The street grid where this is located is so messed up that I don't blame them for doing a gated community. Â It is adjacent to a major railroad junction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 The street grid where this is located is so messed up that I don't blame them for doing a gated community.  It is adjacent to a major railroad junction. Exactly. It's really pretty irrelevant to the rest of Houston whether this community will be gated or not gated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 I agree if nothing else around there turns over. If other industrial properties around there continue to turn over, then it would be better in the long run if they weren't all separate gated developments. It could even be a denser, non-Victorian version of the Heights if coordinated well, which is admittedly unlikely, but by no means impossible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Have you guys ever been over to this area? There are at least 3 other gated neighborhoods within a 5 minute walk of this project. This is nothing new. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 But there's no point in going on that 5 minute walk, since all you'll meet with is a wall or a gate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcus Allen Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 Ain't no street grid like a Midwestern street grid, 'cause a Midwestern street grid don't stop... Whoa, looks like an areal view of my Sim City Mega Cities! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 But there's no point in going on that 5 minute walk, since all you'll meet with is a wall or a gate.Touché Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollusk Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 Perhaps most new residents of the Heights would gate the whole neighborhood if they could.  No perhaps about it.  All around my neighborhood, immediately after the noobs tear down the real bungalow to build a fake bungalow four times bigger, the very next thing installed is a full perimeter fence with an electric gate.  I suspect they'd like to turn the sidewalks into moats while they're at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigFootsSocks Posted July 4, 2014 Share Posted July 4, 2014 Well my brother just spun out his F250 into one of these small gated condo communities and plowed right through the rod iron fence so I guess we're one step closer to removing those gates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triton Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 They have a massive hill on the property now. Maybe it's the dirt from the lakes...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted October 3, 2014 Share Posted October 3, 2014 They have a massive hill on the property now. Maybe it's the dirt from the lakes...?I hope they utilize it for some change in elevation instead of hauling it all away.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fortune Posted February 3, 2015 Author Share Posted February 3, 2015 Project website with information about project and some renderings: http://www.somersetgreenhouston.com/index.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dakota79 Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Geez. How exclusive is it with 1000+ or - (exaggerating) units tucked in between the quietness of 610, I-10,290 interchanges. Of course it does have canals, so perhaps one can forget all the aforementioned exclusivity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monarch Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 fine.. clean lines everywhere.. european appeal.. splendid.. expensive mos def.. i love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston? Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Yaaaassssss! Very DC like! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I'm fine with townhomes, but why are we still planning out these areas as if they were suburban developments that are out in the middle of nowhere? I just don't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-Town Man Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I'm fine with townhomes, but why are we still planning out these areas as if they were suburban developments that are out in the middle of nowhere? I just don't get it.Yeah. Because the prospective buyer will want gated security (and fake lakes) like they're accustomed to in the suburbs. But, yeah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
houstontexasjack Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 Hines may be targeting First Colony residents looking to make a move inside the Loop, among other similarly situated buyers. Anecdotally, I am aware of a couple parties interested in this development who are former First Colony residents who fear crime inside the Loop. It is not a rational fear, but it is there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brian0123 Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I've always wondered how long it would take for developers to bring a master planned community inside the loop. I think things like this are good in order to attract the suburban buyer wanting a shorter commute. If HISD were smart, they'd figure out ways to zone these types of places to nicer schools in order to increase their tax revenues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avossos Posted February 3, 2015 Share Posted February 3, 2015 I think this is a pretty cool project. huge undertaking too. As Monarch said, it does feel European. Someplace I think alot of people (surbanites for one) would enjoy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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