Museo Plaza: Mixed-Use For The Museum District, 58-Story High-Rise

[houstontexasjack]

On 7/2/2022 at 3:06 PM, hindesky said:

It works. The green marble goes with the various blue and green hues on the rest of the building.  It’s downright fun.

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

[kennyc05]

This building looks great at street level landscaping and all.

[hindesky]

Still waiting on the green marble.

[004n063]

Sorry for being very late to this party, but what is the latest on the 58-floor tower? Is that still in the works?

[houstontexasjack]

6 hours ago, 004n063 said:

Sorry for being very late to this party, but what is the latest on the 58-floor tower? Is that still in the works?

It’s still in the long term plan, for what that’s worth. I suspect the hotel will be next given Dr. Mann’s statements. I’m skeptical the tower will happen just given the difference in scale between it and other residential that’s been done in Houston and given the lack of a brand name developer (e.g. Hines, Skanska) behind it.

[hindesky]

Landscaping.

[phillip_white]

21 minutes ago, hindesky said:

Landscaping.

Surprised he chose plants for the landscaping. As tacky as the building is, I was expecting plastic flamingos or similar.

[hindesky]

Mission Contractors have moved out of their compound.

[ChannelTwoNews]

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texas-inc/article/Real-estate-transactions-Gateway-to-the-Museum-17504000.php

Office Building is about 60% leased now.

Apparently it is named the Museo Institute for Medical Arts.

[Texasota]

Can't say I like the term "medical arts". I want a higher grade of predictability and consistency from my medicine, and fewer opportunities for the "medical artist" to express their feelings.

[houstontexasjack]

49 minutes ago, Texasota said:

Can't say I like the term "medical arts". I want a higher grade of predictability and consistency from my medicine, and fewer opportunities for the "medical artist" to express their feelings.

Have you seen Paris Hilton lately? Her plastic surgeon is Michelangelo with a scalpel. That’s a medical artist.

[strickn]

3 hours ago, Texasota said:

Can't say I like the term "medical arts". I want a higher grade of predictability and consistency from my medicine, and fewer opportunities for the "medical artist" to express their feelings.

The Medical Arts Building was a new American genre in professional and civic life.  Don’t know if there’s a book about them but dozens of cities had one, and the design was frequently worth a long lingering look.  Here are a few.

 

 

https://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/10115-medical-arts-building-at-1215-walker-st/

 

https://www.expressnews.com/150years/education-health/article/Medical-Arts-Building-served-doctors-patients-6119325.php

 

https://www.sanantonio.gov/Mission-Trails/Mission-Trails-Historic-Sites/Detail-Page/ArtMID/16185/ArticleID/4435/Medical-Arts-Building?ID=2

 

https://library.uta.edu/digitalgallery/img/10003605

 

https://utswlibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/milestones/item/51

 

https://utswlibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p13044coll6/id/936

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_Arts_Building_and_Garage

 

http://www.e-nebraskahistory.org/index.php?title=File:HB5_w.jpg

 

https://kchistory.org/islandora/object/kchistory%253A116529

 

https://www.minneapolishistorical.org/items/show/167

 

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2021/may/06/15-floors-of-1930-spa-city-site-sell/

 

https://landmarkhunter.com/206312-medical-arts-building/

 

http://www.buxtonkubikdodd.com/blog/2019/4/12/salute-to-springfields-sole-get-to-know-the-medical-arts-building

 

https://www.tulsapeople.com/city-desk/from-ornate-building-to-boring-parking-garage/article_f77b1f7e-ef73-11e9-9d2c-7b6c98e4f928.html

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2019/03/11/downtowns-long-vacant-medical-arts-building-to.html

 

http://www.beltstl.com/tag/halls-ferry-medical-arts-building/

 

https://communityimpact.com/houston/bellaire-meyerland-west-university/health-care/2022/10/12/houston-cardiovascular-associates-leases-40000-square-feet-in-new-medical-office-in-museum-district/

[Texasota]

...it was a joke.

[strickn]

You keep ‘em coming in with the jokes, I’ll keep them here with the links.  Editor gets to build a HAIF supertall on Allen Parkway with the advertising dollars, and everyone is happy

[Texasota]

just the one supertall? how unambitious. 

[strickn]

...it was a joke.

[strickn]

A modest proposal for the Orion site on Memorial.

 

Spoiler

 

[EllenOlenska]

So, are we ready to discuss that the building actually kinda looks good. 

[ZRFkris]

I agree that the building looks sleeker and overall better than previously thought. 

[BEES?!]

I feel vindicated 😁

[79ta]

5 hours ago, EllenOlenska said:

So, are we ready to discuss that the building actually kinda looks good. 

And how good it'll look when the 58 floor tower is next to it....

[Tumbleweed_Tx]

19 hours ago, houstontexasjack said:

Have you seen Paris Hilton lately? Her plastic surgeon is Michelangelo with a scalpel. That’s a medical artist.

but, OTOH, have you seen Madonna lately? She looks like a hard boiled egg.

[strickn]

"Museo Institute" doesn’t turn up anything as a search term on map apps yet.  The old Mann Eye Center block across the street, at 5115 Main, though, is roped off.

Maybe it’s vacated and to be prepped for demolition for the next phase already?

Edited November 20, 2022 by strickn

[hindesky]

The newest desktop Google Maps shows the new building.

 

[hindesky]

They finally filled in the green marble wall.

[hindesky]

Architect - https://e4harchitecture.com

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

[Amlaham]

Has anyone seen this building at night?? I know not everyone is a fan of this building, but wow this building has some really nice LED lighting. I would say probably say the nicest LED lighting in all of Houston, it has a dramatic presence in our skyline. I couldn't get a picture since I was on the highway. 

[houstontexasjack]

I don’t have a great shot of the lights (they’ve been installed over the last couple weeks) but got these. You can see the green and blue glow reflecting off the Southmore.

Edit: third photo with the green light. I’ve yet to get a good shot with all lights installed. Also, you can see Venus and Jupiter above the Southmore in the first shot.

Edited February 28 by houstontexasjack

[aachor]

One of the things I've enjoyed seeing in Chinese cities is how many of their modern highrises and skyscrapers are outlined and lit by colored LED lighting like this. It really makes the cities look more vibrant and exciting at night. I'd love to see it catch on in the United States. At night, so many of our buildings are just formless, lifeless blocks. Sadly, the most exciting illuminated features are often the dim aircraft warning lights.

[Montrose1100]

8 hours ago, aachor said:

One of the things I've enjoyed seeing in Chinese cities is how many of their modern highrises and skyscrapers are outlined and lit by colored LED lighting like this. It really makes the cities look more vibrant and exciting at night. I'd love to see it catch on in the United States. At night, so many of our buildings are just formless, lifeless blocks. Sadly, the most exciting illuminated features are often the dim aircraft warning lights.

Light Pollution isn't that cool. 

[phillip_white]

13 hours ago, houstontexasjack said:

I don’t have a great shot of the lights (they’ve been installed over the last couple weeks) but got these. You can see the green and blue glow reflecting off the Southmore.

Edit: third photo with the green light. I’ve yet to get a good shot with all lights installed. Also, you can see Venus and Jupiter above the Southmore in the first shot.

I didn't think it was possible, but they managed to make this building look even more tacky.

[houstontexasjack]

Got one tonight with the blue and green lights installed. Jupiter and Venus between Museo Plaza and the Southmore:

 

[monarch]

^^^ although, extremely BRIGHT, the LED system seems really cool from what we can see...

[Amlaham]

I know light pollution isn't good, butttt its better than sayyyy the pollution from the refineries on the east side of our city 😅

[ChannelTwoNews]

Not to veer too far off topic, but...

Something about it to me gives off a vibe that it escaped from the Memorial City skyline.

Not sure if it's the angles or the lighting. Or Both. It just feels like it would "look" more at home there.

Might be a non-conformist since it has multiple lights on one building, and only the Memorial Hermann Tower tends to do that over there.  Nothing wrong with a bit of a rebel streak though.

I appreciate that most of the buildings in that area have some lighting on the roof, but my problem is it generally tends to be the SAME color, regardless of what's happening. It's always kind of messed with my eyes when I'm driving that way at night. 

It's actually kind of hard to find photos of what I'm talking about, but I found this in a story on the passing of Queen Elizabeth from last year.

And these renderings of The McKinley incorporated them as well.

[Montrose1100]

1 hour ago, ChannelTwoNews said:

Not to veer too far off topic, but...

Something about it to me gives off a vibe that it escaped from the Memorial City skyline.

Not sure if it's the angles or the lighting. Or Both. It just feels like it would "look" more at home there.

Might be a non-conformist since it has multiple lights on one building, and only the Memorial Hermann Tower tends to do that over there.  Nothing wrong with a bit of a rebel streak though.

I appreciate that most of the buildings in that area have some lighting on the roof, but my problem is it generally tends to be the SAME color, regardless of what's happening. It's always kind of messed with my eyes when I'm driving that way at night. 

It's actually kind of hard to find photos of what I'm talking about, but I found this in a story on the passing of Queen Elizabeth from last year.

And these renderings of The McKinley incorporated them as well.

Spot on. The MetroNationalization of the Museum District.

[aachor]

On 2/28/2023 at 9:01 AM, Montrose1100 said:

Light Pollution isn't that cool. 

The impact of a few LED strips is minimal compared to the dozens of square miles of parking lots with unoptimized high-intensity LED lights. If you want to fight light pollution, ensuring that your parking and road lighting isn't also illuminating the moon is a good start. 

However, I think that aggressively fighting light pollution in an urban core is a fool's game. I think the better strategy is to, on a statewide level, champion and promote dark sky preserves and accept that a city has a land use type that is distinct from the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Fortunately for us, the earth's curvature makes isolating light pollution, on a large scale, easier than controlling it at the heart of the nation's fourth largest city.

[Luminare]

Why can't some people just accept that this world has tradeoffs and to just let that be?

If Memorial City wants to brand themselves as the blue-light district, cool. If you don't like it, don't go there? I instead vote for light wars. Lets do it. Paint the city with different LED lights. Blue light district, Green light district, Red....ish light district (that would be funny). I say have fun. Then on the weekend get out of the concrete coffin and take a short drive into the country and see the best lightshow on earth, the stars. There you go, you have your two cakes. Eat both.

11 hours ago, aachor said:

The impact of a few LED strips is minimal compared to the dozens of square miles of parking lots with unoptimized high-intensity LED lights. If you want to fight light pollution, ensuring that your parking and road lighting isn't also illuminating the moon is a good start. 

However, I think that aggressively fighting light pollution in an urban core is a fool's game. I think the better strategy is to, on a statewide level, champion and promote dark sky preserves and accept that a city has a land use type that is distinct from the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Fortunately for us, the earth's curvature makes isolating light pollution, on a large scale, easier than controlling it at the heart of the nation's fourth largest city.

Lighting at night has historically been about security. That is what lighting at night is for, period. We are so used to a world where cities are lit up at night that we have forgotten that original purpose. Its just a meme at this point with its original meaning lost to history. The side that pushes for controlling light pollution makes way to many assumptions based from a comfortable position and from a position of luxury in a world where lighting in cities has kept them safe. Its not only a fool's game fighting light pollution in an urban core, but its foolish to even propose turning off lights in cities in general. Cities of all shapes and size in every part of the world have been lit by fire then electricity, forever. Light pollution is a "thing" in that where you try to solve one problem you get another.

Edited March 3 by Luminare

[houstontexasjack]

1 hour ago, Luminare said:

Lighting at night has historically been about security. That is what lighting at night is for, period. We are so used to a world where cities are lit up at night that we have forgotten that original purpose. Its just a meme at this point with its original meaning lost to history. The side that pushes for controlling light pollution makes way to many assumptions based from a comfortable position and from a position of luxury in a world where lighting in cities has kept them safe. Its not only a fool's game fighting light pollution in an urban core, but its foolish to even propose turning off lights in cities in general. Cities of all shapes and size in every part of the world have been lit by fire then electricity, forever. Light pollution is a "thing" in that where you try to solve one problem you get another.

The ultra-bright parking lot lights don’t really enhance security. An intruder could easily get lost in the glare (try seeing someone when staring at headlights). I miss the orange-glow of old-school sodium vapor lights and wouldn’t mind a return to that spectrum, which is friendlier toward night visions.

Otherwise, as HAIF well knows, I love those LIGHT-UP FEATURES!!!!

(the all-caps said in the voice of the astronaut screaming “SPACESHIP!!” in the “Lego Movie”)

[Luminare]

20 minutes ago, houstontexasjack said:

The ultra-bright parking lot lights don’t really enhance security. An intruder could easily get lost in the glare (try seeing someone when staring at headlights). I miss the orange-glow of old-school sodium vapor lights and wouldn’t mind a return to that spectrum, which is friendlier toward night visions.

Otherwise, as HAIF well knows, I love those LIGHT-UP FEATURES!!!!

(the all-caps said in the voice of the astronaut screaming “SPACESHIP!!” in the “Lego Movie”)

No, they do. That sounds like an opinion, and its one that I agree with, but actually the brighter the better in relation to security especially in tandem with CCTV.

Yes the old filament spectrums of orange and yellows are way better in terms of mood, and feel...well how should I put this its almost like it reminds of us of flames and fire with its warm glow. Its strange its almost like that's been a human constant that we just naturally prefer, and not sterile white light. Funny how that works. I really like LEDs though because they are so flexible, and can be put into anything. I have my computer at home that has blue LED's and especially at night gives off a cool vibe especially up here in Utah on a snowy night. Can't beat that.

[toxtethogrady]

On 10/14/2022 at 5:03 AM, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

but, OTOH, have you seen Madonna lately? She looks like a hard boiled egg.

Fitting. I think she was a hard-boiled detective in one film. But I could always be wrong...