Astro

Hey, this is great news! I wonder exactly where near Washington it will be? Maybe they could replace that Denny's.

Wow... thanks for the cool pics!

There are many neighborhoods in Houston with open ditches instead of curbs and gutters... Personally I like the "rural" effect of the open ditches and I think many of these areas are very beautiful the way they are. I'm sure many of the residents in these areas feel the same way... That's why they want to keep it like that.

I love that 59 Diner building and am upset to see it go. I only ate at the Katy Freeway location twice and both times the food was good. The other location at 59 and Sheperd was one of my favorite hangouts for me about 10 years ago... I loved the food there.

I didn't realize those curb mosaics dated back that far, to the 20's... I believe they must have been continued to be installed on new streets into the 40's-50's though, since I seem to recall seeing them in some newer neighborhoods like Oak Forest, and in the Braeswood area in the SW section of the loop. I'm curious also about how far back those concrete stakes were installed too. It angers me to see the mosaics and the stakes destroyed by developers or utilty workers who have no regard for them. I remember when the "Roseland lofts" were built on Roseland near Colquitt and they broke the bottom part off the stake at the corner and pulled it out of the ground. Then they did put the stake back in but they put it in the wrong direction so the street names were facing the wrong streets! I believe it's still like this last time I looked.

Oh no, I hadn't heard that... that's sad news. That place is an institution. And I sure hope that building will be preserved!

Not only that but at the NE corner of I-45 at N. Main street is Hollywood Cemetary... That proposal to route 45 along Houston Avenue is ridiculous... I don't see that actually happening.

When I lived in Montrose between '94 and '01 I grew to hate that stretch of Elgin between Main & Westheimer. The street was horribly bumpy, none of the lights were ever timed and it seemed they were always tearing up the street and there were orange barrels and metal plates all over the place, and it stayed that way for years... I don't know if it's any better today, since i still avoid it.

nkob44, I know what you mean how you just need to "pick" somewhere. Good luck in your search kzseattle... Yep I agree with you... much of the time it's the strip centers on the major thoroughfares that gives you the impression you're driving through a bad neighborhood, when the resdiential areas off of the thoroughfare are often quite nice.

No problem! One important thing you may want to look into is that I think Larchmont maybe has had some problems with flooding in the past?? I think that Tanglewilde and Briarmeadow aren't so bad except for the area right along Richmond. You should be able to find something pretty nice in the northern sections of those neighborhoods closer to Westheimer. But then again I'm not too sure about the schools. I'd also agree with Glen above that Westbury or Maplewood might be worth looking into. That's a very nice area... (well, parts of Westbury are nicer than others) It's close to Bellaire and Meyerland.

Property values will surely continue to rise in Larchmont since a lot of very expensive homes are being built on the North side of Richmond from it.

Yes, or else a little closer in is Briar Meadow (bounded by Hillcroft, Westheimer, Dunvale and Westpark). There are a few good mods there as well. That's what I was thinking that it would put them at Lee High School. I dont know anything about teh school but it is in sort of a rough looking area. That whole area bounded by Hillcroft, Westheimer, Chimney Rock, and Westpark isn't too wonderful but I think maybe it's been slowly improving over the past 10 years or so??

I think Larchmont is the neighborhood bounded by Chimney Rock, Richmond, S. Rice and US 59. It seems like a pretty nice neighborhood. It is pretty well separated from the outside world since all the entrances off of Chimney Rock have been closed off and there is only one entrance off Richmond. There is a huge sound wall along the U.S. 59 border and they are actually planning to continue the wall along the Chimney Rock side as well. On the other side of Chimney Rock is an area of lower income apartments, industrial buildings and "adult entertainment" establishments, so that is probably a big reason why the wall is being built on that side.

I'm just glad White is doing something... As opposed to the previous administration. Time will tell if he can complete the jobs or not. I don't always agree with White's ideas (like forcing all clubs to close at 2 PM!) but I admire him for taking a stand, and the fact he is addressing many issues around town that people care about, like traffic congestion, pollution, housing, parks, etc.

You're right, I see the art deco influence, a little bit of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings... so I guess it could be classified as postmodern in that sense? But the fact it's entirely glass makes it more international? I forgot to mention Penzoil Place... that's another big favorite of mine. Th eonly one thing about it that bugs me is that when driving toward downtown from 45-N the two buildings actually look joined into one huge too short and fat squatty looking building. It looks great from other angles though, especially close up. That UH College of Architecture Building pictured above does nothing for me at all.

The Chronicle had a pretty good set of articles about Johnson yeserday including a very nice front page photo. I never realized though that he designed the AT&T headquarters in NYC... I really don't like that building at all... So that got me to thinking that while I really appreciate and love his early modern/international work, IMHO he took a turn for the worse in his postmodern period... just based on the AT&T tower and the BofA tower which is another one I don't care for too much. (I know that opinion is probably pretty unpopular here on this forum though based on what I've seen on th thread devoted to that tower ) St. Basil isn't too bad but not a favorite of mine. I do love the Transco Tower though and I would probably agree that it's his "finest skyscraper"... I don't think that one would be classified as postmodern, correct?

That does look very nice... It fooled me at first though, I was counting the windows and at first was thinking it was 7 stories tall... but I realized the scaling was weird... It's actually 4 stories with 2 rows of windows on each floor... a little odd but it doesn't look bad.

Wow, he was definitely one of the greats. He'll be missed but his legacy will carry on...

I kind of agree with this... I would have liked a nice "signature" bridge at Montrose that would stand out from the other bridges. Oh well...

Originally the Montrose bridge was going to be really fancy and designed by some well-known architect. But the original plans didn't call for a Graustark bridge either. My understanding is that after the residents lobbied to keep the bridge at Graustark, TxDOT gave in to them, but in order to pay for it they had to scale down the Montrose bridge.

Uh, sure we have a right to own property, but we don't have a right to skip on paying our property taxes and to disappear for 20 years while the tax bill rises higher than the property's value and the weeds grow 10 feet tall. I pay my tax bill every year so Mayor White won't be "stealing" my house...

I think most of the metal homes look pretty good. I like the fact they are "different".

Is it going to replace the Bali Hai? I'm amazed that complex has survived this long. Too bad the owners didn't take better care of it... go a few blocks north on McKee Street and look at the magnificent Marquee and Marquee West apartments (they're googie, but not tiki) and how well they have held up. I think there are still a few tiki structures left in town... somewhere.

I wondered the same thing This is the station I listen to while I'm at work and for years I've heard them continue to call themselves "new". I really miss KIKK...

LOL... If I told someone I was going to a "lifestyle center": I could see them thinking I might come back with a sex-change operation or something