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Parking Vault Houston: Garage At 1441 Walker St.


houstontexasjack

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17 hours ago, Purdueenginerd said:

 

I might be subject to recency bias in my opinion of the typical projects Gensler peforms, at least from my anecdotal standpoint. I'm not trying to convey theyre snobby, I apologize-- that wasnt my intent. I guess every time I've worked with Gensler its typically a huge multi-national firm as the owner. Hopefully thats not enough to doxx me ; ). That's why i'm generally surprised they would go for and win the bid for a parking garage, even one that's automated. My only thought would be that something else is attached to this project that hasnt been revealed yet. Alternatively, perhaps Gensler just has a lot of experience with this automated garages in other markets and thats why they won. 

 

If this is a Phase 1 garage and Phase 2 tower project, Gensler has direct experience a few blocks away from designing the One Market Square garage (Minus the automated parking portion). I'm armchair speculating with you that there is a Phase two of some sort, and it'll probably beat One Market Square to completion at this point. 😉

Edited by jermh
Fixed quote. I had quoted the wrong post.
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This block feels like everything around it has it's "back turned" to it, with corridors formed/forming along McKinney, Capitol, Main, and Discovery Green. It's a bit of DT's "back of house".  If something new and fun were to pop up, I'm hoping for the International Tower/Market Square Garage half block, then the block across main from Local Foods.

 

With Skanska jumping in over by DG/Toyota Center with something large scale, more car storage might be a good thing.  

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Has anyone done a thorough analysis of existing parking downtown? Private garages, public garages, the giant garage under the theater district, street parking...

 

Because there has to be a ton. I definitely believe that better parking management would be incredibly helpful, but the idea that, even with additional development, downtown needs more parking seems completely disconnected from reality to me.

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  • The title was changed to Block 97: Proposed Automated Parking Garage
2 hours ago, Nate99 said:

This block feels like everything around it has it's "back turned" to it, with corridors formed/forming along McKinney, Capitol, Main, and Discovery Green. It's a bit of DT's "back of house".  If something new and fun were to pop up, I'm hoping for the International Tower/Market Square Garage half block, then the block across main from Local Foods.

 

With Skanska jumping in over by DG/Toyota Center with something large scale, more car storage might be a good thing.  

 

Agreed that if this area needs more parking, this is about the best block you could put it on. But to Texasota's comment, the issue likely isn't how much parking exists, it's how it gets utilized. You have massive garages for Houston Center that pretty much sit empty in the evenings, as far as I'm aware. If there were some way to get those spaces into the market, you probably wouldn't need this.

 

Skanska would do themselves and the world a favor if they built a multi-block, underground garage on their land like the theater district has. But with sewers and utilities under all those streets, that would probably cost a ton.

 

Edited by H-Town Man
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9 minutes ago, Angostura said:

Kind of terrible from a street-scape point of view.

 

I'd be interested to see how this competes with nearby non-automated garages. I wonder how quickly they can empty it out after an Astros game, for example.

 

Would be cool if the colors lite up depending its utilization. Like Orange for astros games, red for rockets games, a color for the convention center etc... That would be unique.

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9 minutes ago, H-Town Man said:

 

If it wasn't Gensler, I would think it was the same architect as did the Main Food Store reno.

 

 

Of the four façades, one is a blank wall, one is a mostly blank wall with a glass door to some kind of lobby, and two are not shown. Presumably there will be a place for cars to enter and exit somewhere.

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7 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

Would be cool if the colors lite up depending its utilization. Like Orange for astros games, red for rockets games, a color for the convention center etc... That would be unique.

 

Very Dallas though. Once you start down the LED path, forever will it dominate your destiny.

 

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6 hours ago, Angostura said:

I'd be interested to see how this competes with nearby non-automated garages. I wonder how quickly they can empty it out after an Astros game, for example.


I’m guessing not very quickly. 1,400 vehicle capacity with maybe a dozen or so loading bays. I guess we won’t know for sure until we see the layout, but I’m not optimistic this will be practical in that kind of scenario. 

Edited by thedistrict84
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13 hours ago, thedistrict84 said:


I’m guessing not very quickly. 1,400 vehicle capacity with maybe a dozen or so loading bays. I guess we won’t know for sure until we see the layout, but I’m not optimistic this will be practical in that kind of scenario. 

 

Yeah, I imagine it'd be a mess. I think it works in a situation where valet parking works, but in a situation where everyone wants to leave at about the same time (like a baseball game, or 5PM on a Tuesday in an office building), it might not be ideal.

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17 hours ago, thedistrict84 said:


I’m guessing not very quickly. 1,400 vehicle capacity with maybe a dozen or so loading bays. I guess we won’t know for sure until we see the layout, but I’m not optimistic this will be practical in that kind of scenario. 

Just like a bag of chips in a vending machine, someone's car is going to get stuck on the way out.

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15 hours ago, Luminare said:

 

One can hope. Probably will be LED though. Oh well. Houston could easily be the city of neon. Just seems to fit the vide here.

 

LED lighting is more environment friendly, and cheaper to run and maintain. It also withstands storms better, especially with flying debris. If it were my building, neon wouldn't be on the table at all.

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6 hours ago, Ross said:

 

LED lighting is more environment friendly, and cheaper to run and maintain. It also withstands storms better, especially with flying debris. If it were my building, neon wouldn't be on the table at all.

Yes, leave the neon for Dallas.

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