Pleak

I saw that - not quite a tower crane though. It's more of a mini tower with about 10 large concrete counter-weights balanced on the back.

I'm still watching the construction race with the Hines development behind the Waterwall. I think Hines is still slightly ahead - even though there is a delay on one half of the property while they demolished the old sales office of the Turnberry development.

I wonder if someone could figure out a way to calculate a "rendering coefficient". i.e. how close a final product turns out in relation to its original rendering that was used to sell the development. I think that would be an interesting metric on judging design firms.

Mid-town.

Is it the crane from BBVA just moved over?

I'm impressed. Finally someone on here doing something and not just moaning about how horrible Houston is. Good Luck.

It's a pair of ragged 6 or so story buildings on the the Southwest Freeway - between the frontage road and Westpark. Next to the City of Houston Recycling center.

For years, it looked derelict, but over the last year or so, someone has slowly been fixing it up. Wondering if anybody knew what it was and what it is going to be?

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=29.725365,-95.481942&spn=0.000037,0.015557&t=h&z=16&layer=c&cbll=29.72537,-95.481844&panoid=lLJTnh17jIXHID8MtvQbXg&cbp=12,270,,0,0

Would the old downtown Sheraton be the exception that theoretically proves your rule?

And why is it so sad?

In that picture from 1985 - what was there 30 years previously - not a whole lot.

Old decrepit houses, scrubby industrial buildings, falling down hotels.

That's why they were leveled for parking lots.

It's just by 1985, the other 1/2 of downtown had just finished a ridicoulous 20-year boom that had transformed it and made the contrast so evident. If you had taken this picture in 1965, nobody here would be throwing a hissy fit.

There's already about 3 Capitol Ones in about a 5 mile radius. Guess the older one on 762 will close if this opens. As long as they don't send Alec Baldwin here.

Raising Cane's is good. I like them better than Chick-fil-A - less crowded.

The Carl's Jr is almost finished.

The Arby's that closed on the old part of the development has been being worked on for about 2 months now. Big new addition to the front - new dining room. Sign finally went up confirming 59 Diner going in there. Ambivilent about this one - last three times I went to the 59 Diner, I swore never again. Guess I'm a slow learner.

If Papa Murphy's Pizza is coming - does that mean no Pied Piper Pizza anymore?

Sweeeeeet.

Nail salon.

Personally, I know I have a difficult time finding on-street parking whenever I visit the Waterwall Park.

That's because there is none.

And one whole block away is free covered parking. (It's this small little development called the Galleria.) And there was even a sidewalk connecting the two until construction started.

But I guess the walkability geeks who are always complaining about Houston not being walkable actually mean they want to park at the curb of their destination and walk the 25-feet to the Waterwall.

And then they wonder why Wal-mart has to have scooters.

I think I counted seven stories - but I couldn't get it to expand any larger. Is that what it shows? If so - that's a nice amount.

Thanks for the info.

Well - so they AEG really couldn't lose during last year's Cup finals.

I bet that won't stop them from being advertised with "ballpark field views".

I saw that Bizjournal rendering. It's missing a few oak trees from the Waterwall Park. Like most of them.

That aerial photo definately shows the density increase well.

Who owns them now?

now why couldn't they have added some sort of retail component to this? how perfect would it have been to have a restaurant or cafe directly overlooking the park??? to me it just seems like a no-brainer in this type of setting. this area is already very dense, only getting denser, and the pedestrian traffic would be phenomenal. c'mon, houston!

Because it's too far to cross one street to the Galleria?

Awwww The good old days, when you could camp out and actually get decent seats. While you were out there in the middle of the night waiting in line, you did not have to worry about getting mugged or shot.

I remember camping out at the Joske's (now Dillards) at Brazos Mall in Lake Jackson for concerts. Tickets would be like $6 with a $1 or $1.50 surcharge. Now it's a couple of hundred to go to a concert - PPPFFFFTTTT and you can't even get a free buzz from the smoke in the Summit (remember when the lights would go up at the end and the haze would be so bad you couldn't see the other side?).

Yeah - but the pond retaining walls have been finished for well over a month and water (and ducks) has been back in the lake for about that long. They just seem to be moving a lot slower in general. That's why I was so surprised at the speed that this project is moving.

This project seems to be moving fast. At least compared to 3100 Post Oak right around the corner which started 2-3 months before this. That project just now has some foundation work visible, while this one has what looks like parking structures already appearing above ground level and a lot of the foundation work done.

Nice... where's the Homeless District?

That's called Midtown.

On 8/10/2012 at 4:02 PM, wxman said:

Sounds like a Woodlands wanna-be.

By that line of reasoning, the Woodlands is a south Houston wanna-be since Southern Star Amphitheatre was already an up and running outdoor concert venue when the Pavilion was built in the Woodlands.

Or more realistically, the Woodlands is a long-ass drive from Sugar Land and the residents that live there have the money and inclination to tax themselves to get a venue a lot closer to them. The venue is going to be 6.500 seats which is about 1/3 the size of the Woodlands Pavilion - so it should cater to different acts and be more of a complement than a competitor.

The corner of University and 59S is going to be interesting in the next few years. Every couple of years UH adds another building to their campus there, this is now going in there and I read somewhere that Fluor had secured a large chuck of land at that intersection (I want to say 50 acres but I might be wrong since I can't locate it right now) which sounds like they might be moving their campus from Highway 6 and 59S - I believe their lease there runs for about 5 more years.

The one where Buff Stadium used to sit. Fingers is going to move the sports memorabilia to two other existing stores. I remember shopping there years ago. But it seems like we never actually bought anything there - they were always too pricey.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2012/08/finger-furniture-to-close-big-gulf-freeway-store/