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The Warehouse District


cloud713

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How come our warehouse district sucks so much? I'm visiting family in New Orleans and they live in a neat old cotton mill/factory in the warehouse district. Apparently not much of it existed before Katrina (minus the warehouses), but the whole area is really popping now. I'll try to get pictures while I'm here. What could we do to revitalize our warehouse district?

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its simply an area of town that hasn't been touched yet unfortunately. I don't think many city officials or developers know what to do with the old warehouses. I know that the city would like to keep a good amount of them. There are plenty of cities in Europe and even some in the US that have revitalized old industrial areas. I think once downtown and midtown start filling up more is when you get the inevitable push to the warehouse district which will probably turn itself into a bar/dance scene with infill mix-use/midrises to bring a population base there. The best ones that have great potential are the ones straddling Nance and Sterrett St. and the ones along Commerce St. Like I said there just isn't a push to redevelop them right now until you get more people downtown, east end, and midtown. Give it time.

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"had" is pretty harsh. I think Subdude is more accurate in acknowledging that most people wouldn't even know we had a warehouse district, unless you went to downtownhouston.org and looked at a map. It's not wasted potential until we see actual investment put into it. Right now it just seems on reserve. Wasted potential would be a whole sale demolition of these buildings and putting box stores, strip malls, and bank islands......hmmm kinda sounds like that other area of houston that stretches from Montrose to the Heights....can't quite put my finger on it. I mean the East End is just starting to get some development going. It's going to take awhile to get to this area.

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Sorry, used the wrong tense.  I didn't realize though that it was any sort of recognized "district".  I think it also may suffer from relatively restricted access, which may make it tough to develop as any sort of entertainment focused neighborhood.  It's not really bad as it is, tucked away off the bayou.

 

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an art/entertainment/studio focus would be great. You are right Texasota, it is being used right now, but it's still pretty sleeply there and very much separated from many parts of the city. I've driven out there before and just seems sooooo far away from downtown even though it's just a 15-20 walk from say Minute Maid.

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I think the warehouse district will face challenges trying to be redeveloped as an art/entertainment/studio area much beyond the scope of what is already there.  I'm not sure of the exact route, but the Hardy Toll Road Downtown Connector will cut through the eastern portion of the neighborhood.  On the other hand, if they do a good job landscaping the North Canal / Little Alcatraz project this might make the neighborhood seem more accessible.  

 

Wasn't East Downtown meant to be the new area targeted for art galleries and hipsters?  We can only support so much of that.

 

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True.. Especially that last sentence. Though it seems like more yuppies and hipsters are moving here every day. Why wouldn't they want to make the warehouse district the hip new area? Eastern downtown will (already is) eventually fill in on it's own..

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I thought the Warehouse District referred to those few blocks where Last Concert Cafe and Oxheart are. There are some galleries and studio spaces and lofts over there — and gaudy townhouses, too. But it's not fully developed; that huge Houston Studios building is mostly empty.

 

The warehouses in East Downtown are much more, um, plentiful. A few interesting things opened up there, like the TX/RX Labs hackerspace. It'd be good to cultivate more things like that. It seems our developers are struggling (or aren't trying) to think of uses for buildings other than flipping them into low-concept restaurants or leasing them to CrossFit gyms.

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Little cafe across from my cousins place

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The Cotton Mill(?) - lofts my cousins live at

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The old buildings surround a really nice central courtyard.

D0D572A5-CA35-4B4A-BDAA-65273AB6FD40_zps

C5F60E0D-77BC-406D-A625-E76465AC91DC_zps

Old water tower on site

489A6176-795D-4A7E-BDD8-4C2176924750_zps

2ACB7230-8F5B-4F64-A6FF-96C74FEE5708_zps

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Old smoke stack

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There are a ton of art galleries, nice restaurants, and shops lining many of the old warehouses. They have often replaced the big bay doors and openings on the walls along the first floor with single pane sheets of glass to see into the renovated places. There are even hotels in renovated warehouses, like a Courtyard by Marriott and a few others. It's interesting how some of them hollowed out the first floors to put parking and drive up entrances/lobbies. I'll try to get pictures of some of the rest of the area..

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Great find! I'll certainly have to explore more of these, because initially driving through it doesn't really evoke a place that is inhabited or has much to it at all.

 

I also agree with allynwest that even though you might have a few of these things tucked away in there, it sadly isn't the case with most of the area especially those warehouses on commerce street on the east end (or all of them in general). This is a place which is going to need to be meticulously designed to really preserve its feel and bring in an outside crowd which will further embrace it as a part of the city they know because I can tell you right now most people have no clue many of these places exist.

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I was riding through there one day and some folks were having an impromptu street concert, which was unexpected.  It is a nice little enclave, but maybe it's OK to stay that way and not be discovered by the outside world.  If the city feels compelled for whatever reason to designate "hip" neighborhoods with copycat names to attract those hipsters, it's fine if they stick with East Downtown.  

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I was riding through there one day and some folks were having an impromptu street concert, which was unexpected. It is a nice little enclave, but maybe it's OK to stay that way and not be discovered by the outside world. If the city feels compelled for whatever reason to designate "hip" neighborhoods with copycat names to attract those hipsters, it's fine if they stick with East Downtown.

By east downtown are you referring to the area just west of 59? Like near Discovery Green/MMP/ect? I never knew that area was supposed to be "hip". Unless you mean east OF downtown.. Then yes, "eado" is/was supposed to become the next cool hip place. There are some warehouses over there too..

And LOL.. BBPO...

Edit: doh.. Eado stands for "east downtown".. It's just weird hearing it called east downtown when it's not actually in downtown.

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Little cafe across from my cousins place

1D24DB44-29D6-49AB-A40C-0D08D2336A8D_zps

The Cotton Mill(?) - lofts my cousins live at

A72C4945-7A0A-4707-B8A6-2071F1449310_zps

The old buildings surround a really nice central courtyard.

D0D572A5-CA35-4B4A-BDAA-65273AB6FD40_zps

C5F60E0D-77BC-406D-A625-E76465AC91DC_zps

Old water tower on site

489A6176-795D-4A7E-BDD8-4C2176924750_zps

2ACB7230-8F5B-4F64-A6FF-96C74FEE5708_zps

85EF1E8B-3EAB-47D1-9E3D-493EE9119847_zps

Old smoke stack

2E52DCBC-6745-4661-81CD-0F31572134CE_zps

There are a ton of art galleries, nice restaurants, and shops lining many of the old warehouses. They have often replaced the big bay doors and openings on the walls along the first floor with single pane sheets of glass to see into the renovated places. There are even hotels in renovated warehouses, like a Courtyard by Marriott and a few others. It's interesting how some of them hollowed out the first floors to put parking and drive up entrances/lobbies. I'll try to get pictures of some of the rest of the area..

This is in houston?

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This is in houston?

Lol I wish.. I should of mentioned in that post that I'm visiting my cousins who live in New Orleans. I just assumed everyone read the whole thread.

Edit: for the record, my original thread was posted in "General Houston Discussions".. More as a "why isn't our warehouse district using all of it's potential" ramble. I guess it got moved here because Houston's warehouse district is in/near downtown? Sorry for any confusion.

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I guess a lot of it is the warehouse district is such a large part of the downtown area in New Orleans and since it's right in between the CBD, Convention Center/Cruise Terminal/Shops at the River Walk, and the Garden District/Loyola/Tulane, it's in a pretty good location. Our warehouse district is cut off from downtown by a bayou, butts up against the undesirable "North Houston" area, and is pretty much cut off on 3 sides (though the i10/90 Mississippi River bridge cuts off the warehouse district to the south, and the Mississippi cuts it off to the east) by highways 45, 10, and 59, it's a little less likely to see redevelopment on the same scale as what New Orleans warehouse district has been seeing.

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I was riding through there one day and some folks were having an impromptu street concert, which was unexpected.  It is a nice little enclave, but maybe it's OK to stay that way and not be discovered by the outside world.  If the city feels compelled for whatever reason to designate "hip" neighborhoods with copycat names to attract those hipsters, it's fine if they stick with East Downtown.  

Riding through New Orleans??

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I assume he means Houston since me made a reference to "east downtown". Sorry this thread is kind of confusing to follow.. Haha.

 

Son of a gun lol I didn't know that wasn't Houston xD. You sorta just made me think it was there! I retract what I said then (minus the actual exploring part which I should do anyway). Darn you!

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I guess a lot of it is the warehouse district is such a large part of the downtown area in New Orleans and since it's right in between the CBD, Convention Center/Cruise Terminal/Shops at the River Walk, and the Garden District/Loyola/Tulane, it's in a pretty good location. Our warehouse district is cut off from downtown by a bayou, butts up against the undesirable "North Houston" area, and is pretty much cut off on 3 sides (though the i10/90 Mississippi River bridge cuts off the warehouse district to the south, and the Mississippi cuts it off to the east) by highways 45, 10, and 59, it's a little less likely to see redevelopment on the same scale as what New Orleans warehouse district has been seeing.

Skilled architects/ landscape architects might just see that as a nice challenge. Having a little isolation from the central downtown core may not be a bad thing, As long as easy bridge/path/ street access is present. Lord knows, it's all about the view. Rapid gentrification is here. It's affecting all sides of downtown... I doubt the east and north side will be left out. They will just be the last chosen, IMO. I've never seen this scale of building in Houston. I'm shocked at how fast it's all changing, suburbs and inner city.

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I guess a lot of it is the warehouse district is such a large part of the downtown area in New Orleans and since it's right in between the CBD, Convention Center/Cruise Terminal/Shops at the River Walk, and the Garden District/Loyola/Tulane, it's in a pretty good location.

 

NOLA's Warehouse District *WAS* formerly a REALLY rough part of town.  Its taken decades for it to get on track...

 

Off topic I know, but just thought I'd add that.

 

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Skilled architects/ landscape architects might just see that as a nice challenge. Having a little isolation from the central downtown core may not be a bad thing, As long as easy bridge/path/ street access is present. Lord knows, it's all about the view. Rapid gentrification is here. It's affecting all sides of downtown... I doubt the east and north side will be left out. They will just be the last chosen, IMO. I've never seen this scale of building in Houston. I'm shocked at how fast it's all changing, suburbs and inner city.

 

A little off topic, but, for those of you who were here during the last boom how does this compare in terms of number of projects and how quickly they are going up?

 

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Which "boom" would that be?  If its the 1970s-1980s then this boom is a shell of that one... but if you're talking about the smaller booms of the 90s and early 2000s then this is a much bigger boom.  That's just my observation.

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