Purdueenginerd

4 hours ago, Subdude said:

 

I'm all for historic preservation, but the old post office hardly strikes me as architecturally or historically significant.  

3 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

It does not have red brick, arched windows, keystones, wood timber beams, or detailed stonework. However, the giant concrete columns will be a sight to behold in our era of cheap disposable construction. I know, I know - concrete. Not the most poetic material. But think of the cistern on Buffalo Bayou. It has a certain "pillars of the earth" quality. The fact that this thing is strong enough to hold a rooftop garden with public gathering is pretty remarkable - no modern distribution center roof is built so strong. They didn't mess around when they built post office buildings. Even neighborhood post offices are a nightmare to tear down. There was a certain "we are the new Rome and we're going to build like Rome" mindset in the USPS in the 20th century. This may not have the Beaux Arts classicism of the Farley building in NYC but where it counts, in durability and utility, it evokes something of a classical spirit.

 

There is still an older 1930's era post office at the site. Go back to my comments in May 2018 and you'll see the aerial shots of it. 

One thing Intown does well is their combination of Brick Veneers/Eifs/Stucco. I'd still be skittish of purchasing a stucco facade home, but I do think that combo is attractive. These houses are similar to the ones being built on the west side of Cottage Grove, Also an in-town development. 

25 minutes ago, CrockpotandGravel said:

That would be awesome!

This development is going to be transformative. I love everything about this, most of all the possibility of shipping container apartments. Hopefully, Easy Park and Verde will build both multi-family residences and a boutique hotel on site. In the above posts, it's something that's on the table.

Yeah, I've been pretty impressed by this development.

Little structural engineering tidbit here. The original building is a pre-fab metal building. These buildings are common for warehouses and small factories. Now what makes them kind of interesting is that companies that manufacture these pre-fab metal buildings design them right up to the limits of the code: At the time of construction. This is important, because if a metal building was put up in 1980, the entire wind resisting system would have (likely) been designed right up to 99 percent utilization, in accordance to the code at the time. Fast forward to 2019. The Engineer would have been changing the wind profile of the building and changin the occupancy category. Two items that trigger and update of the wind resisting system of the building. For a building like this: That is expensive! 

I've had a few projects with these metal buildings that never got off the ground once the real costs started to dawn on owners. I think my favorite story with metal was when owners purchased a prefab metal building in 2002, but didnt build it. Then in 2018, tried to build it. CoH didnt allow the permit with drawings signed in sealed over a decade ago until it was validated under modern code provisions. I remember our fee to upgrade the building was sufficiently high that the owners elected to sell the old metal building to someone under less restrictive wind-code and just buy a brand new one.  

Anyway, long story short, neat and likely difficult project. 

2 hours ago, CrockpotandGravel said:

 

It does. The last time I drove by this was May. Exterior work has come a long way since then. I want to see progress pictures of the interior.

I reside about 5 minutes from this development, I know the developers were on the local neighborhood facebook group scheduling and discussing a hard-hat tour a few days ago. If I see any photos online I'll bring them over.

Looks like theyre doing a little bit of green streets/water retention system at the front there. Thats nice. 

Ive had design projects that were broken into Phase I and Phase II... and by the time drawings got issued for both, the owner/contractor elected to start with Phase II. 

Though in this case, I think @urbannizer is correct. 

@LuminareGreat map.

Do you need help with this? Theres a bunch of smaller projects in Midtown/heights, etc forums that arent necessarily in the "going up" forum. 

14 minutes ago, Ross said:

 

Houston has never been much of a condo city. Most folks prefer to own their home completely, and not be at the beck and call of an out of control condo board, and not pay outrageous monthly condo fees.

I dont believe its as simple as consumer preferences. Though that dynamic does play into some peoples decisions--- I think the more real reason is merely economics. Single Family homes inside the city are still relatively cheap compared to cities of similar size. In my opinion, that depresses demand for condominium housing. 

On 7/5/2019 at 10:36 PM, ekdrm2d1 said:

 

 

I have those mechanical pencils. Have you tried the Pentel Graph 1000 series?  It has a heavier weight to it. 

 

Took a quick collection photo. The highlights are the Uni Kuru Toga Roulette, rOtring 600, and Pentel Graph 1000.

 

I love it - Great photo! I have all those P200 Series pencils as well. However I dont use them as often, more of my field pencils.  I'll have to check out the Pentel graph 1000.

Yep, Ive definitely ridden by you on Strava in the past @hindesky . I'm too chicken to reveal my name here... but if I see you on strava i'll shoot you a message and say hello. 

My preferred pencil for Calcs and hand sketches. 

https://www.amazon.com/Pentel-GraphGear-Automatic-Drafting-PG525A/dp/B0006HXQXA/ref=pd_nav_hcs_rp_3/132-6079608-3184022?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0006HXQXA&pd_rd_r=5911a193-1dc9-4a8e-a9ed-f011b52fcb4f&pd_rd_w=zk5q2&pd_rd_wg=JorHd&pf_rd_p=e2b07937-4c65-432e-8b25-e6411ed7f503&pf_rd_r=AR9E0YTJ07MKC91FFTM0&psc=1&refRID=AR9E0YTJ07MKC91FFTM0

I have a 0.5, 0.3, 0.7 mm, 0.9mm pencils. For pens I use the Pilot Precise V5s, I have multiple colors. 

I have a weird process that I have to exhaust all the ink in a pen before starting on the next pen. My pens get beat up as a result, but my system works haha. 

15 minutes ago, brijonmang said:

Xzibit, pimp my museum district skyline!

"I Put a building within a building! TV's on all the walls!"

18 minutes ago, HoustonIsHome said:

How do the blocks downtown compare in size to other cities? I kinda like rectangular blocks over square ones. Imo our blocks are not long enough but a bit too wide.

 

The way they are now make for a very neat and regular core. But I'm a fan of irregular and chaos. That's my favorite thing about a set up like say Boston. 

 

Are the blocks downtown smaller than uptown Nola? I think the narrower streets there change the whole feel.

 

In Houston with the order you know exactly what to expect when you turn the corner. I guess you are right, the super blocks in midtown at least mixes things up a bit, but downtown is a bit too orderly for me. You can move a lot more people in and out quicker, but maybe those people should be staying around for awhile. 

Houston

Wouldnt let me upload New Orleans screen shot, but their blocks vary in size. I found a sort of consistent area that had perimeter of 1426 ft

Award winning Sushi restaurants are so 2008!

1 hour ago, EllenOlenska said:

To my knowledge the chase building is still there. 

The part of the block where they're drilling had a small pavilion but was mostly just paved over. No large building was on it. 

Odd. Maybe a procedure they have in place for temporary foundations/Helical Piles. 

2 hours ago, hindesky said:

Looks like a tower crane base to me.

 

 

That actually looks like a deep foundation tensile load test to me.  (pdf of ASTM test : http://www.centurionfondation.com/fr/pdf/ASTM-D3689_07.pdf )Next to the machinery are helical piles. So they might installing helical piles for the crane, and then subsequently load testing it? Either way, its a little odd to me. 

Normally I see those tests done if 1) theres a problem with the foundation you just placed. or 2: you're reusing the "deep foundation" of a previous or existing building. Code requires a load test. I'm skeptical the old chase bank had deep foundation thats useable for a much taller building. 

Maybe they want to load test their helical piles... I dont know. Curious images. 

Since then theres been another small office building 3-4 story put up adjacent to the lot. Dont think theres a thread for the other building. 

3 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

 

Everyone ready to watch some old basements get chipped away?  Hopefully not, but it looked like there were some outlines in the dirt in one of the pics above. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst...

 

Those outlines might be the grade beams for the (formerly) existing parking garage. 

29 minutes ago, crock said:

we desperately need to keep a halfprice books in that part of town. maybe they'll end up as one of the mid-sized boxstores in the area between Target and Krogers? 

I'm sure they'll find a place. I frequent that place a decent amount. Will miss it, if it finally goes. 

9 hours ago, bobruss said:

Our constantly changing skyline must make the google maps people feel like they're playing whack a mole,

with all of the high-rises and midrises popping up out of the ground all over town!

I know the Google Maps 3D models of Houston are pretty far behind, dont know who handles or if its done by an army of volunteers... 

26 minutes ago, Alec said:

The tallest cherry picker I've ever seen is reaching over the top of GRB right now. I hope someone a little closer can take a picture; it's got to be twice as tall as the building itself.

I feel bad for those guys. I had a project a few months ago on several older water towers where the city(not in houston) had lost the original drawings and wanted to analyze the towers. I was on a 100' lift for about 2 weeks. Photo below is @ about 70'. Anyway long story short, anytime we moved that sucker it felt like it bounced around 1'-2'. Made my knees shake every-time.