HoustonBoy

On 1/4/2021 at 2:09 PM, Kim Brown said:

 

Great video! Question, is the landing/balcony area at 11 seconds a maintenance area or is it a sort of covered balcony/lounge area?

1 hour ago, wxman said:

Did Houston permanently lose any routes or airlines during this pandemic? I see Houston no longer has a direct to Sydney. That's the one that stick out to me the most since I've been on that flight several times. Any others? Are they coming back?

I think that's a temporary suspension along with Ethiopian Airlines 

BIG's first Texas project 😍 that's awesome. I can't wait for all the lots behind this one to be built out. He's already familiar with Houston being that he was a visiting professor of architecture at Rice.

I'm a big fan of this development, I hope it happens.

Why do St. Lukes's spires have scaffolding around them?

Dear God, I despise this building. Paint it all black and save us of this eyesore. 

I love Houston's greenery and our urban landscape. There are very few cities in the US that legitimately have four full-scale skylines. 

Im excited to one day walk on the first hill/change in elevation in Houston history 

12 minutes ago, Triton said:

Whatever happened to the America that could build big. I feel like today's America wouldn't have built the Hoover Dam or the Golden Gate Bridge 

Politics above the common good. I have hope that new and grand infrastructure is within our great country's near future. 

1 hour ago, gmac said:

They would only need about 40,000 passengers @$200 each day for 10 years to break even on a $30B initial investment. Unless my math sucks.

Which seems...impossible. 

Has Ethiopian Airlines ended service to Houston? Wikipedia (I know, I know) no longer lists Ethiopian as flying to Houston via Lomé.

What is under construction right now? Is this development going by phase or are all towers under construction at once?

4 hours ago, HoustonMidtown said:

Hmm...when I look up "temenos" Spanish translation, it says this:

A sacred circle where one can be himself without fear

A piece of land marked off from common uses and assigned as an official domain, especially to a king, chief, or god.

Its a command that translates to "fear us" 

4 hours ago, wilcal said:

Speaking or A.Net, the newest OAG changes are out. 

 

Also, it appears VivaAerobus has dropped IAH (along with all of their other US destinations).

 

Air Canada is dropping Montreal and Calgary in November (but returning in December) and Toronto is dropping to once daily. 

 

Air France may be coming back in November.

 

Singapore cancelling IAH-MAN flights in December.

 

 

Singapore Airlines pulling out of the Houston market permanently or in the interim?

7 minutes ago, cspwal said:

I wonder how this will affect Hobby

Wondering the same thing. I could see Hobby losing passengers. Hopefully no destinations will be lost being that Southwest is still adding new routes to HOU.

So is this under construction?

4 hours ago, kbates2 said:

 

That garage on the left is the bane of my existence.  Just reminding everyone.

I really wish they could paint a giant mural or paint some type of photorealistic building on the flat surface. Oh well, I guess that's a discussion for a different thread. 

1 hour ago, astrohip said:

One of my best friends owns that building. I've been in it many, many times. I'm off to Pilates, will post more info later...

 

And yes, it's his house.

It's a single dwelling? Wow

Port Officials replaced FIGG down in Corpus Christi for the New Harbor Bridge Project and replaced them with ARUP. Maybe they'll do the same here. 

5 hours ago, West Timer said:

Beautiful in it's own way.

Houston's own no frills Little Venice. (sort of)

This is how I see it haha I wish this could be converted into a flood-proof outdoor terrace or walkway. Such a unique structure within Texas I feel.

What ever happened to the Moxxy hotel? Great pictures

1 hour ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Let’s not forget that the Mexican Consulate across the street is also closing. This area is about to explode! 

Yes it has

The Houston Mexican Consulate is closing? Is that for good? Where can I read up on this?

53 minutes ago, ZRFkris said:

Arabella was such a let down, this project has redeemed the residential high rise in uptown. Arabella is still cool but more of a what if. 

Sand storm looks wild in this photo.

I think Arabella would be a completely different tower if it wasn't painted white. Right now the contrast between the white and the glass is too jarring and makes the tower look unfinished/cheap. I think it'd be a real plus if it was painted a darker grey/blue mix.

3 hours ago, Texasota said:

I completely agree with you that skyscrapers are over-fetishized, but how exactly is this train a fantastical idea? Why does Texas deserve high speed trains less than Japan? or France? or Spain? Have you ever ridden a true high speed train? Is it really that hard to understand that there are people who, at least for some trips, would actually prefer to take a train rather than drive or fly? The fact that a train is *far* more efficient is just icing.

I would LOVE for this train to come to fruition in Texas. I think we could sustain it and develop a new culture within Texas that appreciates trains and regards them as equal in terms of transportation options, but the problem is that we would have to create that culture from scratch whereas all the countries you mentioned already have that culture (and infrastructure) in place. I have ridden high speed trains and subway systems all across France and Spain and in every community/major city where I've arrived there is a HUGE population of dense urban residents who do not see trains as a convenient second transportation option, they see it as their main/only option. What good are trains when you have to rent a car just to get from the station to the main parts of a city? If our cities weren't so spread out and if our politicians saw the redundancy and ineffectiveness of highways then maybe we would be able to make a more concrete case for the role of trains in our state, but unfortunately we are not there yet. It'll take proactive infrastructure development and a change in the ways in which Texas residents perceive trains. 

26 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

I'm not shocked. If you are in the construction/architecture industry, then you wouldn't be surprised by jumps in costs either. I don't understand how everyone here was ok with $15Billon, but $30Billon, oh no the sky is falling. This project is fine. My estimate is that they will most likely push back there start day until the fall to wait and see how the markets shack out. The fact of the matter is that infrastructure is actually a solid financial investment in terms of long-term investing. With everyone pulling there money out to wait until things settle that only means that TCR has a better chance of approaching more investors once things get back to normal because more money will be floating around from being pulled out previously. If I had money and someone told me about an investment opportunity of a project that would be built over 5 years, is a fixed asset that will get regular use, and it goes to two major metropolitan areas thats an easy sell regarding financing. The numbers provided by McLane is what he needs to do to properly disclose there finances. It doesn't mean that price won't go down. Everything is being inflated because all supply chains have slowed down making things much more expensive. Once things get going again I'm thinking that number is going to fall back down to around $20Billon. I do agree with what they are saying which is the added infrastructure and land reclamation they will have to do to satisfy the Feds, State, and local authorities was bound to balloon the costs, but that happens. Costs always rise on jobs like this. I don't know a single job that said there prices were lower than what they thought without substantially slashing a budget. Most of the budget they can't slash. If you look at there calculations its pretty bread and butter what is needed to make this thing operation. Its external forces which are making this more expensive. If thats the case they can afford to wait a bit, or roll out construction in longer phases.

I'm not surprised by the jump in cost, but an increase of $15 billion is not a drop in the bucket. The price is $30 billion now and just one year ago it was half that. It is starting to sound eerily similar to that of the California bullet train, "its going to cost $30 billion, no wait $50 billion, no wait $78 billion," and then all of a sudden it's all but canceled. If I had the type of money to even consider investing in these large scale projects I would absolutely be worried about the fact that a similar proposal had already failed (albeit it had uneven terrain, tunnels, and different political forces) coupled with the fact that this service would be connecting two decentralized metropolitan areas with little to no real public transport. As much as I want Houston to keep building light rail, I am not going to kid myself and believe that it is at all efficient or even comfortable for business travelers, and that includes Dallas's light rail as well. I'm still team Texas Central, but I do not believe that the price will get lower; just the opposite. I am no expert and I really hope that I'll be proven wrong, but I don't have confidence that this will get off the ground. I'd much rather have heavy rail metro service throughout Houston and Dallas that connect to both airports.