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I-45 Rebuild (North Houston Highway Improvement Project)


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This is a hard call. I was all for tearing it down at first, but I can see some really wonderful things coming out of this idea.

I wouldn't necessarily want the whole pierce elevated saved but maybe a good portion of it on the sw corner. Say from the 45 entrance

ramp off of allen parkway to the west grey street intersection. I'd leave that end looking like the iconic freeway damaged by the earthquake on I think it was the Eagles album. I'm not sure that was the group but everyone knows the image.

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Like I said before. I thought it was a fun design idea and I think it would be interesting to see a sort of competition that would envision a world with it or without.

 

With that in mind I hope they give us a chance to give it a whack! They could charge $100 a swing, and I wouldn't care! I would be first in line to swing the sledgehammer and bring it down myself!

Edited by Luminare
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As long as the corridor is maintained, there's always the chance a freeway could go back in. Sell off the land and build a dozen high rises in its place.

 

A park on the Pierce would likely leave the park over the highway by the GRB without funding. I'll take TxDOT's 10 block long proposed park over 59/69/288/45 all day long. Does anyone really think Houston has enough philanthropy to fund the GRB deck park, additional extension of Buffalo Bayou park toward the East End, the indoor Astrodome park, and a Pierce elevated park. I think not.

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Not sure if this would be here but an idea has come up about if they re route I45 and could create the pierce elevated as a " pierce skypark" interested and to me sounds like a good idea and the article on what could be done below might also be a great thing.

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/What-would-it-take-to-make-Pierce-Elevated-a-6229895.php?t=d4d1ddeb2b&cmpid=twitter-premium

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I really believe this has a strong chance of happening. If Houston would embrace more of what it is and not what it isn't, people would begin to appreciate it more. I love how the article talks about all the doubters for Discovery Green. Like it isn't complicated, you can't go wrong with a park! And I would love for this city to continue embracing how green it is year round. 

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Not sure if this would be here but an idea has come up about if they re route I45 and could create the pierce elevated as a " pierce skypark" interested and to me sounds like a good idea and the article on what could be done below might also be a great thing.

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/gray-matters/article/What-would-it-take-to-make-Pierce-Elevated-a-6229895.php?t=d4d1ddeb2b&cmpid=twitter-premium

Whatever you do, don't go to the Transportation forum...

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lmao BigFoot.. 

yeah, i still say tear the Pierce down and build any park space AT GROUND LEVEL. novel concept, huh? what good does a park do thats 20 feet in the air, with sporadic connectivity to said park? do you really expect them to build ADA certified connections on every block up and down the Pierce?

i wouldn't mind seeing a narrow elevated bike path along the old 45 ROW (connecting midtown/south downtown to Buffalo Bayou) allowing room for new developments along side them, but an elevated park is not the way to connect pedestrian activity between midtown and downtown.

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They should tear it down, build a park, and then inside the park build a little mini-Pierce Elevated with a museum inside honoring the memory of the real one. There could even be little bumper cars you could rent to go riding on top, and it could have the slight dips that give your car those little surges that you always loved most about it.

 

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The image of the Standard Hotel straddling the High Line (#10) intrigues me. Perhaps this idea does have potential. I'm changing my vote.

 

Let's have our cake and eat it too. Make the Pierce SkyPark while also selling off aerial rights to build above and/or below the SkyPark.

 

No demo cost to TxDOT. TxDOT makes money from selling development rights. TxDOT wins with positive PR. The city wins with another world class signature park. The city wins with more valuable property on the tax rolls. Park patrons benefit with shade from buildings built over the park (will be very nice come mid-summer). With the park being integrated thru, over, and under buildings, the divide between Downtown and Midtown will be erased the same as if the Pierce were demolished. Individual building developers would likely add improvements to their section of park to make their building even more attractive.

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yeah. i cut my elevated bike path design through the middle of a few blocks in southeast downtown in Phase 2 to purposely allow people to build over/straddle the path. developers could implement things like bike garages that open up to the path, bike shops, health/"fit" food/drink places, and possibly have little stop offs inside some of the buildings along the path for bikers to pull off to a side area and cool off.

i still say get rid of the Pierce and sell the land under it. how are you going to sell air rights over the pierce if there is a road on one side? not really anywhere to put a foundation to straddle the structure without getting rid of Pierce St. the Pierce is like 100' wide.. that bike path in Copenhagen is all of 13' wide.

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All 4 panelists (Midway, CBRE, Hines, Houston First) at the downtown redevelopment meeting today were supportive of the 45 reroute and enthusiastic about the changes the project could bring to downtown and the surrounding areas.

Heh. Looks like a HBJ rep was at the meeting I was at this morning..

http://m.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/breaking-ground/2015/04/houston-real-estate-heavyweights-all-for-downtown.html

A Texas Department of Transportation proposal to realign Interstate 45 downtown with Highway 59 would render the Pierce Elevated, a portion of I-45 that runs along Pierce Street through the central business district, unused. At a recent Urban Land Institute panel on downtown Houston, real estate experts were united in support of the plan to demolish or transform the Pierce Elevated.

The group of panelists, representing various sectors of the real estate industry including office, multifamily and retail, all agreed that the plan would lessen or remove a barrier between areas of downtown that could result in improved connectivity and more development.

"I couldn't be more enthusiastic about it," said Sanford Criner, vice chairman at CBRE with more than 40 years' experience with office leasing and development. "Mobility is always important, but our problem isn't getting people downtown, it's what can we do with them when they're here

Suzanne Anderson, vice president at Midway with 25 years of retail experience, said the proposed change would increase retailers' desire to enter the area.

"We need to get that pioneer retailer downtown, and then others will follow. There's interest for a Target or a Macy's. But they are looking for co-tenancy and a sense of place," Anderson said. "This is an exciting opportunity. Anyone can build a building, but if you build a sense of place that enriches people's lives, that's when you're really successful."

TXDOT is still receiving community input by hosting public meetings, as Houston Public Media reported. An idea has been floated that instead of demolishing the Pierce Elevated, an elevated park similar to Manhattan's High Line could be a draw for retailers, residents and office tenants alike. The Houston Chronicle reported on the idea's feasibility, and one group has developed preliminary plans and a website, calling their idea Pierce Skypark.

"When it comes to office, people always say, 'Do the employers want to come down there?' And that's the opposite of the right question. If employees want to come downtown, then employers will come," Criner said. "If you didn't have a freeway there — put a park there. What a great idea! I can't believe TXDOT came up with this idea. Bless 'em."

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actually this is pretty sweet.. unfortunately(?) TxDot plans on preserving Pierce west/north for a parkway/downtown connectors, so the whole left side of this plan would be void. i like the idea of a big lake in the trench under W Dallas though, and obviously its neat to think of new developments incorporating themselves into the park.lg_pierce_overall_sml.jpg

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While I think it would be cool for this 'sky park' I think it's critical that funding be secured for the park to cover 45/59/288 first.

 

The thing is, remove the pierce and it will help make that area more contiguous, but it will be at a high price, namely doubling the width of the the freeway on the east side of downtown (widening the split between downtown and the east end), which will hurt that still damaged area. doubly, as it is seen by tourists to the city more readily (baseball, soccer, basketball, convention goers), something needs to be done to help lift the image in that area.

 

So yeah, I hope that this park can go forward, but I hope that the people pushing for this park don't screw over the east side (and overall Houston tourism) for this skypark. 

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great point Samagon. someone else (could of been you?) mentioned that previously but its been a while since that was brought up.. any deck park over 59/45 is going to have to be 18 lanes of traffic, plus 8 shoulder widths wide.. thats twice as wide as the Klyde Warren deck park, and the proposed length would make it around twice as long. 4 times the size of Klyde Warren.. which cost over $100 million. so were looking at a half billion dollar deck park. i don't think we can justify decking all of the 45/59 gap for that price (not sure we need to deck directly behind the GRB.. that building cuts off any connectivity on those 5 or so blocks between downtown and the east end), but we will need every dollar philanthropists throw at the city for this new east downtown deck park.

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Howdy HAIFers. Longtime listener, first time caller.

 

I disagree that the combined 45-59 trench found in the latest proposal will render the Pierce unneccessary. Rather, I think there are so many additional managed lanes planned for Downtown that we will still need the Pierce - in addition to the combined trench - to convey it all.

 

http://purple.city/2015/04/30/making-things-worse/

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