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H-Town Man

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Everything posted by H-Town Man

  1. H-Town Man
    I think the complaint that only 1% of baseball jobs are located downtown should have tipped the scales on this. Oh well, I guess sarcasm isn't always apparent.
  2. H-Town Man
    "Let us think that when we build, we build forever." Read that somewhere.
  3. H-Town Man
    I think you forgot to turn it on. Pretty obvious that I was lampooning the Metro haters, esp. with the "toy train" reference.
  4. H-Town Man
    Do NOT assume that this is going up just because there's a ballpark. Ballparks do NOT attract new development, they simply (at best) cause development that would have happened somewhere else to be relocated. More than likely this would have just happened someplace else if the ballpark wasn't there. Look at all the other residential towers proposed for downtown, were THEY because of the ballpark??? Stop trying to connect this to the ballpark. Ballparks have never inspired development and never will. This has happened over and over in U.S. cities, and every ballpark has lost money. Next you'll be telling me that it's because of the toy train over left field. The $250 million spent on this should have gone toward creating a bunch of little ballparks all over the suburbs, which would have served a lot more baseball players than the few who use the downtown ballpark. Did you know that only 1% of baseball jobs are located downtown?
  5. H-Town Man
    Looks like Extreme Makeover hit University of St. Thomas.
  6. H-Town Man
    A few blocks south.
  7. H-Town Man
    That thing needs some serious deuglification.
  8. H-Town Man
    Setback rules are by nature flexible. In almost every city, they're expressed as a minimum. Right now we have a minimum set back of something like 25', the proposition is to get rid of that and make it 0. CVS could still put a parking lot in front if they wanted.
  9. H-Town Man
    Parker spent a lot of political capital getting the historic districts permanently protected. Brown probably would have spent that same political capital getting these setbacks and sidewalk issues taken care of, if not some sort of form-based zoning ordinance. Ross, the fact that so few people care about the setback requirements should make them easier to change, no? To say this "isn't going to happen" seems naive; many people just a decade ago said protected historic districts would never happen in Houston. As far as Houston's developing urbanism, why does this threaten you?
  10. H-Town Man
    That girl in the crosswalk's going to be shedding the pounds soon because she's WALKING to where she shops. And that's exactly what we've been talking about. Wow! indeed.
  11. H-Town Man
    Photoshop request - someone please put a Metro train in front of that thing...
  12. H-Town Man
    Oh, I just meant the architecture of the townhomes. But yeah, in many places it's bad all around.
  13. H-Town Man
    Out of all those developments, it looks like two or maybe three of them had a developer that thought, "Let's build a neighborhood that someone would want to take a walk in, and not just drive through on the way to wherever." The rest look like sheer dystopia. It's sad - you look at the State/Allen district in Dallas, another neighborhood that is all new townhome stock, and because they actually thought about the street, it is one of the most exciting districts in town. Shame to see a central part of our city wasted.
  14. H-Town Man
    This. It seems like about 65% of new Heights residents appreciate beauty, and about 35% just appreciate garage doors.
  15. H-Town Man
    Building: by the people who brought you the Medical Towers?
  16. H-Town Man
    Nah, as one of the "preservation twins," I can say it wouldn't be a big deal if either of these were imploded, and if it were the Days Inn, I'd help swing the wrecking ball myself. The thing about us preservationists, we don't just want to preserve buildings because they're old, but mainly if they are historically significant or contribute to the architectural landscape, like the Astrodome (world's first domed stadium) or 806 Main (Houston's first skyscraper) or the recently demolished Prudential Building (landmark example of an early modern skyscraper / Houston's first highrise outside of downtown).
  17. H-Town Man
    Thank you for the closeup. And on closer inspection, this is definitely a star. I count one, two, three, four... five points. One on top, two on the bottom. Whether one likes it or doesn't like it, it's a star.
  18. H-Town Man
    Fair enough. I hate making enemies on here so I won't push that one any further, but I still think your comments on self parody were meant to antagonize.
  19. H-Town Man
    So are we agreed that I never said "developers hate poor people"? Just for the record...
  20. H-Town Man
    Awesome photos. May I ask where you found the mural that had the drawings of the Texas cities?
  21. H-Town Man
    Let me help you with reading comprehension. The statement says nothing about the attitudes of developers. Rather, it refers to people on HAIF who post comments which imply that someone's opinion on architecture is silly or unimportant, because they're not the mighty developer with the money to actually do the project. You made such a comment earlier on this thread (post 342), and it's a common sentiment on HAIF among people who don't like architecture or maybe don't know much about it, but enjoy saying to the people who do, "Who are you to criticize the mighty developer? Get the money to do it yourself if you don't like it."
  22. H-Town Man
    The concern was that they are a predictor of how the lower stories will look when done (see post 339).
  23. H-Town Man
    Pretty obvious that the comment on "self-parody" was meant to antagonize, but I guess you need to backpedal now that you made such a fuss of my "attributing ill motives." Please quote where anyone suggested anything like "developers hate poor people."
  24. H-Town Man
    Different argument, I let the old one go. Trying not to start a personal feud here. I assume ill motives? Was I wrong in thinking you had me in mind when you said that the opinions of preservationists on here "borders on self-parody?" Sounds like you were looking for a fight...
  25. H-Town Man
    If they are, then it makes the decision to employ them in the restoration a lot more palatable. Because it's my opinion that a restoration should aim at, you know, restoring the original, and that the original provides an "objective" standard for how it should look. (But that's just my opinion, don't want to upset anyone.) As far as whether I like or dislike (or retroactively dislike) the original, I was never in love with it, mainly because of the number of cornices, and the pilasters floating 15 stories above the ground. The 1912 was better composed than the 1920 alteration.
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