Jump to content

H-Town Man

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4,971

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    8

 Content Type 

Everything posted by H-Town Man

  1. H-Town Man
    I don't really follow your second sentence. As far as treblelino, he wasn't really complaining, and I think his point was legitimate, at least as far as office development - I count four new buildings that aren't additions to an existing campus and so could have been anywhere, and three of them are on the north side. You spend too much time trying to bully people.
  2. H-Town Man
    Probably could have just posted the map. ;-) Dividing downtown into 4 quadrants at Main Street Square seems misleading, as it would for example put the 806 Main renovation in the "northwest" on par with the stuff on Market Square, which doesn't really seem right.
  3. H-Town Man
    So many buildings ABOUT to break ground downtown I can hardly stand it, I've got Bank of the Southwest Syndrome (BSS), keep thinking a dire economic crash is going to derail everything right before it happens. Feel like walking the streets like a madman with a shovel and breaking ground everywhere myself.
  4. H-Town Man
    I think you're generally right, the hot area right now is the northern/northeastern end of the existing office mass, with Hines, Skanska, Crescent, and Stream/Essex all working on projects in this area. It used to be the west side back in the 70's/80's since the powerful wanted to see and be seen from the part of town where they lived, but they ran up against parks and freeway over there. But the historic district renaissance that began with the Rice Lofts in the late 90's has made the north side most attractive, unless you want to build a giant campus like Chevron. The east side is also attractive due to Discovery Green, but the south/southeastern sides are still the gloomier parts of downtown, with nothing but cheaper land to really attract developers. Development is also of course limited by access to the tunnel system, and there aren't many available sites on the s/se side that have easy access.
  5. H-Town Man
    I guess we can mutually agree on this, at least.
  6. H-Town Man
    You said "there is a reason" that Chevron is sending their lower offices here from San Francisco, implying that historic preservation laws would jeopardize our advantage in this respect. I call bs. If Chevron is pulling jobs out of the SF area, it has much more to do with the high costs arising from 8 million people living around a huge bay and other geographical limits such as water supply than it does historic preservation laws. If downtown SF got too expensive, it's probably bc of its high land costs owing to desirability and the fact that it is half surrounded by water, not preservation laws. To suggest that we are going the way of SF in terms of attracting back office jobs if we pass preservation laws is absurd and will be treated as such. Once again, I personally did not suggest regulations, just couldn't resist answering your either/or warnings and economic prophesying. When I said "people need to be held accountable" I meant in the court of public opinion. We have two buildings being torn down or heavily renovated that, if left in their original condition, would be viable today. If you've read many of my posts you'll know that I believe in architectural criticism, one of the functions of which is to foster a better understanding of the value of the past as regards buildings and styles, and to encourage long term vs. short term thinking.
  7. H-Town Man
    It's probably the autocorrect from his mobile phone... just going out on a limb here.
  8. H-Town Man
    This is a scare tactic. If you pass any regulation, any regulation at all, we'll lose the Chevrons of the world! Our approach has been successful, but so have the approaches of New York and London, the economic capitals of the world, both of which have plenty of regulations. Incidentally I never even suggested regulations, just made a comment on the shortsightedness of certain decisions, and here are all the usual tired arguments about regulations.
  9. H-Town Man
    I think Chevron's move out of San Francisco has more to do with rising costs (and traffic) due to the desirability of the area than any aesthetic regulations that may or may not have affected them. When you say "there is a reason," do you actually have special insider knowledge that Chevron's reason for making these moves was due to aesthetic regulations and/or tax incentives?
  10. H-Town Man
    I think a good sensitive restoration would eliminate any problem of the Exxon building being an eyesore. Mid-century modern is getting more appreciation every year, and aside from a certain group that only likes whatever's newest and shiniest (unfortunately a lot of people in the energy industry), the Exxon will be more appreciated longterm as a landmark representative of its era. I can't excuse the tacky restorations of the 60's and 70's with the thought that it was just people trying to make them economic, trying to put food on the table, etc. People need to be held accountable for wasteful, short-sighted slavery to trend or we'll just get more of the same. At some point cities figure out that they actually look better if they have a variety of well-maintained buildings from different periods rather than trying to have all their buildings look as much as possible like the latest period and letting them go derelict if they can't adapt. I'm hoping Houston can turn this corner at some point.
  11. H-Town Man
    Ironic that this building is slowing everything down with its well endowed set of brick while the Marriott has to have panelling glued on because its brick was ruined. How much better things are when you just take care of them.
  12. H-Town Man
    To your first paragraph, I think what did these buildings in is the beige brick. Imagine the same buildings with red brick... No way they get torn down. I also think these are the tallest historic buildings ever demolished downtown... only other one comparable is the Medical Arts building. To your last comment, I think Texas Commerce was actually 7th globally when built. Could be wrong.
  13. H-Town Man
    I think what he meant was, it's going to be some infill. Which is fantastic.
  14. H-Town Man
    Going to take awhile to overcome the dead zone in this section of Main, 3000 to 3300 blocks, and the plans for the Superblock aren't really going to help. The area south of this should become something nice though.
  15. H-Town Man
    Was wasting time on Google Earth the other day when I noticed on Francis St. what appeared to be an interesting row of rooftops in Third Ward. Went to streetview and had one of those beautiful, exhilarating moments I sometimes have when I discover something that's been built in Houston I had no idea about, and that gives me hope that new development can sometimes get it right. I have generally not been a fan of what is considered innovative residential architecture in this town, especially as regards townhomes. Whether it's the tin houses in 4th ward or the ultra-minimalist houses that some big-name architect did in the Heights and all the local highbrow press swooned over, I frankly think most of it is ugly, and springs out of some postmodern desire to attack conventional ideas of beauty (mission accomplished). Not so these. (I like the plain white ones even better) The simple wooden materials awaken a feeling of Texas history in me, reminding me of vintage homes in my favorite rural towns, like Round Top or Montgomery. The minimalist detailing bears no trace of ostentatious European design elements, but nor is it so minimalist as to give a stark or inhospitable feeling. Rather the open, almost modernist (think of the Univ. of St. Thomas campus) framing of the porch seems to embrace the outdoors while inhaling deep drafts of fresh air for the inside. And the fact that they are duplexes suggests a communal, urban living style. It reminds me a little of the old Rhinelander Row in New York: As I was reading the article on Project Row in the Chronicle today I put two and two together - this is actually a spinoff of that project, an affordable housing venture called Row House CDC. They are designed with the collaboration of Rice architecture students, showing that something at least is coming out of there besides the culture-cleansing postmodern stuff. Here's hoping that we see a lot more of these going up in the Third Ward.
  16. H-Town Man
    So the sky lobby is back open?
  17. H-Town Man
    Ok lol wow, I guess if they have a concept like that it would work downtown. Subdude, you are vindicated!
  18. H-Town Man
    There is an overlap between retail that residents would want and that visitors would want. It doesn't all have to be chic boutiques and Texas souvenirs. That said, and understanding that some things need to be practical to support residents, I don't think Home Depot would work. Unless they have some urban format that I'm not aware of, the price per sf of land downtown is way too high for them, a 250 x 250 block size is too small, and imagine people buying lumber downtown. Maybe a small Ace hardware would suffice, and if people need more they can drive out.
  19. H-Town Man
    No, I don't think those cities are redneck, which is why I put the term in quotation marks. But they are rural towns, which to many people is perceived as being redneck. The point was to say that they are in this respect more civilized than the people in Harris County. Doing what you suggested they would do is better than proposing it be torn down for parking.
  20. H-Town Man
    One is tempted to say that county government is run by rednecks, but in almost every "redneck" town I know (Brenham, La Grange, Bastrop, Lockhart, etc.) a building like that would most certainly be saved, cracks or no. Something more sinister lurks here...
  21. H-Town Man
    Can they start excavating while this is still being demo'd?
  22. H-Town Man
    If you want the seclusion of a 12 foot wall, a high rise on a major urban boulevard should not be the place for you. If highrises on Montrose Blvd. are catering to people who want total privacy, then there's no hope of it ever being an exciting destination. To all the people saying "well there's retail in the area," you don't get a lively street just by having retail in the area. Right now you can drive down Montrose at 4 PM of a gorgeous, 70 degree day, and you might see at most a handful of people on the street between Westheimer and W. Alabama, despite the fact that there's retail in the area! Retail "in the area" does not breathe life into a street and throng it with people; to have this, you need to have retail all along that street, on nearly every block, without setbacks. Then you have something exciting. Is it possible for the street to still evolve into something exciting without the help of this building? Yes. But every building helps set the tone for what follows, especially major ones. A project of this scale deciding its block of Montrose is just going to be one more dead zone is a major opportunity lost.
  23. H-Town Man
    Pretty easy to get a variance if you want. More residents = more demand for retail. A public retail space is ultimately much more exciting than some of these private amenities. I'm pretty sure no one who lives in Columbus Square on McKinney Ave. in Dallas, which has on its first floor a Starbucks, i Fratelli pizzeria, Palm Beach Tan, Trophy Fitness, and Sebastien Salon, and whose sidewalks are full of people at night, wishes that they could trade all this for a private cabana and grilling area, and a dead first floor. And yes, there's plenty of other retail development in that neighborhood, too.
  24. H-Town Man
    I guess mixed use is the way to get a tall building if you don't need that much office. We won't get the investment for that type of mixed use until we have a thriving downtown walking and retail scene. To have that we need these residential buildings to go up first. Paint the fence, Daniel san.
  25. H-Town Man
    You're sure that's not outside of NYC and Chicago? Harrumph at the whole thing. Oil companies won't build tall because they're scared of looking bad in the press. Harrumph.
×
×
  • Create New...