Pleak

Another restaurant chain to avoid now.

Can someone who lives up there post some photos? You know how us HAIFers need our crane porn.

Yes. Please post some photos. Some people can't access videos at work.

they should make it like austin's lady bird lake or the river walk.

You mean a glorified drainage ditch surrounded by crappy T. Fertita restaurants?

As for the surface, it is plain ol' asphalt. Since this freeway will at some point be entirely replaced, TxDOT does not want to partially redo it in concrete. However, it is old and has chunks missing, etc. The most efficient and least costly repair is the asphalt overlay.

This is the reason for it. Asphalt gives a good smooth surface - where it is lacking is in strength. Especially with the Houston's areas flexible clay soils = asphalt cracks. This resurfacing project works because there is already a strong, albeit potholed base of concrete. The old concrete road still provides strength while the new asphalt overlay provides a smoother ride for a minimum of expense.

...

In the 1980's the office building that is now at the corner of Bltwy 8 and Westheimer was built. I was really hoping when they tore down the complex the tower would go too. It symbolized the beginning of the end for the complex....just took a little longer than expected.

Also, the tower downtown that is now the MW Kellogg tower was originally built as the Dresser Tower. I think it was built in the early 70's.

Litton purchased Dresser or at least the part my dad worked for in the mid-80's. One Monday morning in 1988 (I think that was the year) he walked into the building to go to work and was met by a security guard and escorted to the lunch room. In the room were all of the guys he worked with since graduating from college. Not sure of the number but it was probably 30-50 guys in the mid to late 50's. This was the history of all of the operations on Westheimer. They were all told they were being let go and each was walked to their office and a guard stood by them as they loaded 1 box with personal stuff. Any other items would be shipped to them. They were walked to the parking lot and the guard stood as they loaded the box into their car and then were timed to leave the complex. All had to leave through 1 gate and not stop. Very sad day for these guys as they never saw it coming. There was an effort to get a class action lawsuit for age discrimination against Litton but Litton told them they would loose all of their benefits if they pursued it. So they all just kept quiet. Litton was generous with their separation benefits and to this day my mom and dad still have benefits that were put into place when it happened. I believe Western Geophysical then bought the divisions from Litton in the early 90's and then it all ended in Halliburton or Baker Hughes hands. The land on Westheimer was far more valuable than keeping a bunch of 2 story mfg building so they sold it off and destroyed a bit of Houston history.

I can still remember the smell of those building and the great people who worked there. Everyone was like family and when kids were born you were shown off as a trophy and when deaths happened everyone grieved for everyones family.

Don't know the early history, but do know later. Baker Hughes bought Western Atlas (which is what Western Geophysical was part of - not sure when Atlas came into the picture) around 1999-2000 when there was a wave of consolidation in the oilfield servicing industry. Split Western Atlas into two parts - Baker Atlas moved up to Rankin Road by IAH, next door to Baker Inteq division. Western Geophysical was soon combined with the Geco Prakla (sp?) division of Schlumberger to form a joint venture - Western Geco and they moved to Briarpark and Richmond (still there I think. Then Baker Hughes sold the land at Beltway 8 & Westheimer around 2001-2002. Later (2005-2006?) they sold their interest in Western Geco JV to Schlumberger and I believe it is still a division of them.

Noticed two new signs up this week.

One for Olive Garden.

The other for Freebirds, Tutti Frutti, and Panera.

Looks like they are starting to fill in some of the pad sites that were left blank.

I plan on living to 143 to see the bur oak mature.

Well, you're good then. Just be careful - they have fairly large acorns and they could be a tripping hazard at that age as your shufflin' along.

Decent sized trees are a few hundred dollars. If we lose a tree, I'll be planting a bur oak instead of the water oaks we currently have.

Plant one of each. The water oak for you, the bur oak for your grandkids.

screw that, imagine if everyone collected the drip from their AC system.

you can get upwards of 10 gallons/day, easily, from a moderate sized AC unit. I specifically get about 10 gallons and some change daily. I use mine to help keep the soil around my foundation stable, and the rest for watering the trees in this extreme drought. I have a 55 gallon drum, so if we had a hurricane bearing down on us, I'd just let it fill, rather than watering. plenty of water for flushing toilets/cooking and drinking (provided I boil it first).

based on this website: http://www.fizber.com/sale-by-owner-home-services/texas-city-houston-neighborhood.html

there are over 770,000 houses in Houston, 10% unoccupied, so, even with only 700,000 houses, that's 7.7 million gallons of water generated per day, not to mention the amount of water from office buildings AC... lots of water being left on the table which would be relatively cheap to collect and distribute (since it would be at your house already).

You mean like what Rice University is doing...

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2011/09/01/rice-recapturing-millions-of-gallons.html

Saw the sign for this when I was going home yesterday. Seems a bit underwhelming.

Wasn't this site being considered for the soccer statium at one point?

http://docs.newquest.com/brochures/uptown-crossing.pdf

Any news on this? We took my son to TCH yesterday and had a good view of this building right outside our window. (Sorry - no camera) It looked completely gutted. But there was not a single worker in sight in the building or around it. Are they going to implode it or knock it down piece by piece?

I just saw this thread today and read it all and it motivated me to finally sign up.

My grandparents owned 2502 Park and 1703 Westheimer back in the late 30's/early 40's. They lived on Park and my grandfather ran a battery shop out of the Westheimer address. I believe it was called C&C Batteries or something like that. They owned it till his health declined and then sold it and moved to Madisonville.

Shame that their old place burned down. Haven't been down that part of Westheimer in quite a while so I had no idea.