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H-Town Man

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Everything posted by H-Town Man

  1. H-Town Man
    I wouldn't place too much hope in anything involving BCM. They have been a whirlpool of mismanagement for at least 15 years, during which time two merger suitors (Rice U. and Baylor U.) walked away and their USNWR rankings have trended steadily downward, although still at 22nd (they were 12th in the late 90's). I'm not sure they ever really recovered from Tropical Storm Allison. The only thing sadder to watch at TMC has of course been their institutional partner, CHI St. Luke's. The renderings in the video for their buildings are pretty neat though, so let's hope they get it together.
  2. H-Town Man
    And yet, somehow they did it. I don't think the 8F club met wearing sleeveless undershirts and cotton britches.
  3. H-Town Man
    A number of projects that were originally going to start a year ago have been pushed to this year. TMC3, this building, and one might expect East River would have started last year if market conditions were better. Also the Madison Marquette building on Jensen seems to have been a casualty of the pandemic. Then you have some downtown hotel projects in limbo, like the Moxy and the W. Nonetheless, I will admit that the market is weathering this better than I expected.
  4. H-Town Man
    I think he means literal groundbreaking, not ceremonial groundbreaking.
  5. H-Town Man
    It sounds like they are waiting for the hotel situation to improve before they can get their financing. Keeps getting pushed back a few months at a time.
  6. H-Town Man
    Many articles of clothing that people find pleasing are expensive and uncomfortable. You are applying reason to fashion, which... well, good luck.
  7. H-Town Man
    I was in town over Christmas and drove down this stretch of Westheimer. I remember being impressed and thinking, I don't remember it being quite this urban, this visually striking. Your inventory of changes helps explain why it seemed this way.
  8. H-Town Man
    I'm sure it won't be blank walls. They have to rent the space...
  9. H-Town Man
    What a death hole this whole development is.
  10. H-Town Man
    You'd think that if they own several blocks, they could consolidate all the garages in a less conspicuous place (ideally underground) and at least have all the floors overlooking the park be for people.
  11. H-Town Man
    So do we get a Reunion Tower too or just the Hyatt Regency?
  12. H-Town Man
    Tallest residential towers in Texas: 1. 6X Guadalupe, Austin, 848' 2. McNair Plaza, Houston, 750' 3. The Independent, Austin, 694' 4. The Austonian, Austin, 683' 5. Gables Republic Tower, Dallas, 602'
  13. H-Town Man
    I was generalizing about the overall tech industry and its culture. Even if the companies we get are different, the culture follows a larger pattern for the entire industry. An example is casual dress. This was pioneered by Silicon Valley companies like Google and now any tech company in the world just about will have its whole workforce coming to work in faded jeans and t-shirts. You could offer one of them an Armani suit and they would frown and shake their head. The slouchy clothes are a symbol of elite status (because great innovators wear slouchy clothes, not suits) and indicate their membership in the guild.
  14. H-Town Man
    Building on what thatguysly said, imagine you own a Maserati dealership in River Oaks, and you read in the paper that Houston auto dealerships are doing badly. You know from your books that the Maseratis have been selling like hotcakes, you can't keep them in stock. So do you scale back your inventory because Houston auto dealerships are doing badly? Do you take a wait and see approach based on mixed messages? Or do you buy the building next door to your dealership, tear it down, and double the size of your dealership, and also decide to spend less time reading the paper? Probably the third. It's about market segmentation. The market for brand new office space is different from the market for Class B or even 40-year-old Class A office space. Most of Houston's office stock was built before 1985. And we have a lot of "River Oaks" office tenants (oil companies) that don't care if there's a bargain, they'd rather shell out for the latest and greatest. So we will keep seeing this trickle of new office buildings.
  15. H-Town Man
    This is incredible. Paging Paco Jones...
  16. H-Town Man
    Those of us observing the tech revolution from the outside can see this problem very well. But from inside, it's invisible/not a problem. They think they are on the frontiers of thinking, the Leonardos and Galileos of today's world, even though most of them are just finding clever ways to sell ads and keep people scrolling. So you're in a position of trying to give them medicine they don't think they need. And although the project is subsidized, the reason for the subsidies is Houston's desperate need for tech industry. If you're trying to get them to come to you, it's not really the moment to tell them they should try out new interests.
  17. H-Town Man
    Couple of problems. 1. Techies hate used books. They think they're silly. They think Steve and Jeff ended the need for books for intelligent people. 2. Used book stores generally cannot afford rent in newly constructed/renovated buildings. They like older shopping centers.
  18. H-Town Man
    The post wasn't serious.
  19. H-Town Man
    Perhaps Rice University can get together with the Mayor's Office to find a solution to the lack of used book stores in central Houston. They could buy a large building and convert it to an incubator for used book stores, where fledgling used book dealers could find low rent space to ply their trade. The ultimate goal could be an Antiquarian Corridor, where one would find clusters of used books, architectural salvage, vintage clothing, antiques, and old hi-fi equipment all in an unbroken stretch, with street vendors and outdoor rummage shelves. I know I would be there.
  20. H-Town Man
    If this were in Dallas it would be half as tall. Don't forget, they haven't built an office building over 25 stories since the 1980's. The Pepto-Bismol-colored Galleria Financial Center was the last time they soared to 26 stories, and to find something this tall, you'd have to go back to Cityplace. Downtown Austin might be a better comparison with the hotel stacked on top of office. Never mind, didn't realize the taller building had no office.
  21. H-Town Man
    Then Houston 19514 was right. I do wish they'd lose the entrance space there and let the Islamic collection flow across. The vast central exhibit space is still I think the major issue hamstringing the building but it will be seen as blasphemy to alter Mies' design. You are right, the whole campus affords many opportunities to get lost.
  22. H-Town Man
    I didn't see any admissions desk in that area (do you mean to the side of the former entrance area or the side of the building on Main Street?). And there is another visitor's entrance currently open in the Kinder building, so that notice cannot be up to date. You can research further but I'm not sure what's at stake here. If they do bring it back as an entrance, great.
  23. H-Town Man
    The Blue Cross Blue Shield Tower in Chicago had this done on a massive scale. Also, a number of highrises in early 20th c. Houston owned by S.F. Carter and Jesse Jones.
  24. H-Town Man
    dp
  25. H-Town Man
    Maybe but they have taken away the admissions desk in that area and hung art around the space. I think it's more likely because there is no more parking lot across the street so it would be a seldom used entrance and there is no need to duplicate admissions staff. Also allows for more exhibit space.
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