por favor gracias

2 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

I agree pretty much fully with your post. However I'd put the KBR site by Midway in the top ten. Other than that its pretty much exactly what I'd put.  

LOL I knew I was forgetting at least one.

Good catch!

7 hours ago, Luminare said:

 

If we had to list the top 10 big time developments that are kicking off this year or finishing, etc... What would they be in y'alls opinion?

Great question....so many to choose from. My favorites would be:

1 - TMC Research Campus 

2 - Sears building conversion to Houston's Innovation District

3 - MFAH expansion project

4 - Cayden's 3 towers for midtown

5 - McNair mixed use at Post Oak & Richmond (former design by Munoz + Albin)

6 - Hanover mixed use at 3540 W. Dallas

7 - Block 58 - Hines 47 story office building on old Houston Chronicle site

8 - The Allen mixed use at Allen Pkwy & Gillette

9 - Capital Tower (hoping street interaction will be as good as advertised)

10 - HSPVA

Honorable mentions:

3300 Main

Block 42 - Hines 46 story residential tower

The RO at West Alabama & Buffalo Speedway

Equinox Hotel and the residential tower in ROD

Medistar 48 story mixed use tower in the med center

The Driscoll (Hanover)

Hanover Post Oak

40 story residential at 1660 Post Oak

Hanover River Oaks

La Colombe d'Or Hotel in Montrose

* Would love to see the Grocers Supply, 7200 Main and Kingwood Herons projects happen.....but unless I'm missing something (which is quite possible, if not straight up "probable"), it seems like none of these are realistic in terms of happening this year.

That's my "10."

"That thing is HUGE!"

I'll let someone else follow that with the appropriate joke.

screen.yahoo.com/tiny-elvis-000000222.html

I like the giant piano too, and I think your proposal to lower all signs 20 feet or more is preposterous. Whose expense will that be, taxpayers or private businesses? Why not just grandfather them in? Besides, there's a big difference in a tall sign near a freeway and a tall sign in the middle of the neighborhood.

 

The problem with buried lines is that they're still vulnerable to flooding (source: studies on the subject) and those smooth streets won't look so nice if workers are digging up streets to work on hidden power lines.

I always wondered why they bury power lines below the streets...why not below the sidewalks instead? Unless I'm missing something, "wasteful" would be an understatement. It also seems less likely that they would be subject to the conditions of their surroundings if they were buried properly. I could be wrong on that...just thinking out loud.

The way our skyline was lit up at night during that time was awesome. I remember when the Super Bowl came here in 2004...the way the buildings were lit up all over the city was also really cool. It was mostly "Christmas light-ish," but different buildings were all different colors...as opposed to the normal yellowish-white colors. There was a lot of green, blue, orange, purple, yellow, red and white...and they were on seemingly every building over 10 or 12 stories in Uptown, Greenway Plaza and downtown. I can't remember if the med center was lit up like that or not, but now it has the best lighting at night of any of our skylines IMO. During the month leading up to that Super Bowl though, driving from downtown through Greenway Plaza and the Galleria area made me proud...like "I'm from H-town, bitches!"

I think the monorail idea was part of the original Houston Center development plan, and was abandoned decades ago.

Would be very convenient these days if done correctly...

The bad news is that it will be tan stucco.

Holy crap...that could actually look worse than the Mercer.

And with the birth of the monorail, HAIF will come out with pitchforks demanding Monorail Level Retail and wondering who could have possibly been in favor of GFR. 

 

Haha...I may get on that bandwagon myself!

In all seriousness, I think that most of our larger buildings downtown could accommodate stations/access to and from the 2nd floor of their lobbies. I'd love for Houston to have an elevated 45-65 MPH rail system connecting downtown to the suburbs and airports, and a subway network connecting downtown at least with the med center and galleria areas and with easy access to our tunnel system downtown.

Perhaps I need new glasses. I do not see a monorail in the renderings.

It was mentioned in the article linked above:

http://www.archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=7645#.VechoIuwbhD

phuking grow up already.

Well that sure is a very "grown up" thing to say if I must say so myself...

I love the idea of monorail (or some kind of commuter rail) going directly through the buildings above ground level.

That second picture is a great shot down Rusk...what a change!

Cool video...really illustrates how efficient they were.

^^^ beautiful lobby.  well appointed....

And well populated as well...

This one will actually be on the west side of 610, between the Landry's and Marriott buildings.

Wow, I forgot all about that Simpsons scene....thanks for the laugh.

The the market seems very cool, but man those women in the catalog   

Would like to see Marlowe take a page from that book

Isn't this one supposed to break ground this month?

Any ideas what will happen with the abandoned dreams car wash (SanFelipe@Bancroft) adjacent to target? 1 to 2 acres there for development.

Mattress Firm?

^^^ OMG WOW!  what a brilliant illustration urbannizer.  is this really houston.....

Would love to bring some better street life to Post Oak with some CityCentre type development between Westheimer and the Uptown Park area (Ethan Allen/Grand Lux area, Container Store/Sports Authority area, Luby's/CPK area, Wells Fargo/Willie G's area, Fresh Market/Sovereign Bank/Randall's area and all the older apartment complexes lightly peppered throughout) mixed in with a few more towers. Uptown could potentially become a top destination in the world IMO if the retail/entertainment options are up to par.

No doubt that we need better transportation serving the area...with no structural street intervention.

The part of 610 between Ella and 290 has had ongoing construction since at least 2009 (and I think 2008). I remember a buddy of mine moving to North Dakota in 2009, and then calling me in 2011 and asking if that area was still under construction...and when I said "yeah," I could practically see him over the phone shaking his head. It's still not even close to being finished.

The 610/I-10/290 interchange had its groundbreaking during the mega-drought in late July, 2011. The 290 to I-10 ramp was just completed a few months ago.

http://www.guidrynews.com/11Gazette/21311August1Gazette.pdf

Traffic has been backed up to and from 45 just about every day for hours because of this crap...there is absolutely no legitimate reason why it should take this long to finish this project, and many others around town for that matter.

Sorry for derailing this thread...just wanted to clarify that.

They've been working on just the 290/610 area for at least 5 or 6 years now. Ridiculous...

^^^ If only TxDot would do the same...

Could be a very nice water feature if they do it right...

Ha...well done mollusk!

That is a truly amazing picture. That said, I'll take those quadcopter shots any day cloud.