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H-Town Man

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Everything posted by H-Town Man

  1. H-Town Man
    What is CDC?
  2. H-Town Man
    Phoenix Tower - a good example of probably the only way to fully conceal parking, which is to put up totally reflective glass. May look okay from a freeway, but really bland from a park. Of course, even a building like the Wells Fargo tower would lose something if the lower floors had parking. The lobby would be compromised, and you'd lose the nice nighttime view of the lit-up offices in the lower floors.
  3. H-Town Man
    He was partnered with John Burgee in the 70's and 80's. He also worked with Mies van der Rohe in the 50's, but I don't think they shared a practice.
  4. H-Town Man
    No one suggested that new office buildings not provide any parking. What I would wish for is that buildings fronting a park put the parking out of sight, either behind the building (away from the park), on an adjacent block, or underground. Buildings where the first 5-10 stories are parking are just not that handsome IMHO, no matter how well they cover it up. The aesthetics are compromised.
  5. H-Town Man
    Why be so anal? If the estimates come out to 496 (errrrrrr, almost 496), they have every right to say they grew by 500 people a day. If something costs $9.95, I'll say it costs ten dollars. I'm not going to say "almost ten dollars."
  6. H-Town Man
    Thanks, that's a good explanation. But you took my initial post way too seriously.
  7. H-Town Man
    I read the Houston Strategies post. Responded to it, in fact. I don't think that there's a "Texas ethos." There might have been a Scots-Irish ethos that influenced the early culture of Texas, but big cities and glass skyscrapers are here to stay. If anything, they satisfy the Texan penchant for conspicuous consumption and bragadoccio. So you haven't really convinced me.
  8. H-Town Man
    What is the Texan ethos and why is urbanism not compatible with it?
  9. H-Town Man
    Houston 19514, for some reason I knew that you, and no one else, would point that out. Alright, fine. Moderately more. I never suggested that the Discovery Green garage was being built to handle the needs of 21 floors of office space. Sheesh. Subdude commented that despite the ten floors of parking already being supplied, the tenants would still probably complain for more. And I suggested that they could just go park in the garage. [sidenote: Do you really expect 600 park users and convention goers to avail themselves of those spaces during business hours?] The Discovery Green garage, as I understand it, was built to alleviate the demand for parking in blocks adjacent to the park so that development could fill them up. If every office building that gets built there has to have its own private ten story parking garage, then it kind of defeats that intent. It would be nice if the buildings that fronted directly on the park did not have any parking built into them, or if it at least were underground, but knowing how most development downtown has gone in recent years, that is not likely to happen.
  10. H-Town Man
    Here's a dusk pic for ya. And it's perfectly framed.
  11. H-Town Man
    Yes RedScare, I'm sure the fact that it is badly framed, crooked, and taken from a moving vehicle has a lot to do with how many lights are on.
  12. H-Town Man
    We're in the middle of a huge oil boom, dontcha know? Apparently 21 floors is all we can handle. Heck, Austin has built more ambitious skyscrapers than this the last few years.
  13. H-Town Man
    As long as we're posting pictures... Downtown Dallas at night: Downtown Houston at night:
  14. H-Town Man
    LOL, typical day at HAIF! People saying the most nonsensical things in order to be difficult! One person says that while Dallas may have a brightly lit skyline, they have really high vacancy rates, and it's better to have low vacancy rates and not have a brightly lit skyline. As if you can't have a brightly lit skyline AND low vacancy rates! Another person says that Las Vegas is brightly lit, and would we want to end up like Las Vegas, with drunks on our sidewalks and prostitutes? Oh no, it appears that if we light up our skyline, we'll end up just like Las Vegas!! Then we're told that all those new downtown residents probably won't like the bright lights. Yup, I'm sure they would have chosen to live DOWNTOWN if they couldn't stand having bright lights outside! Keep 'em coming, folks! Keep telling us why we shouldn't light up our skyline and show it off to the world!
  15. H-Town Man
    jt16 isn't saying anything unusual about corporate citizenship. If UP owns a chunk of land in a spot where they will never use it again, they should sell it. Probably the only reason they don't is bureaucratic laziness.
  16. H-Town Man
    Here, here. The thing is though, most of these people have probably never been inside City Hall. I suspect the reporter just went around asking people, "What do you think of the city spending $37,000 on a new desk in City Hall?"
  17. H-Town Man
    I have trouble believing that. I used to drive next to the trains on the Dan Ryan, and they didn't seem to be going much slower than I was at 65 mph.
  18. H-Town Man
    Perhaps they can avail themselves of the giant underground parking garage being built across the street. Or would that be asking too much?
  19. H-Town Man
    Wow, slightly more office space than parking! Way to go, Trammel Crow!
  20. H-Town Man
    Dramatic flair. Think about it: the AT&T building with the Chippendale top, the "Lipstick" building, a Flemish Gothic skyscraper in Houston, TX, of all places, that little cloak effect on the Chapel of St. Basil, a Roman stage ("scaenae frons") from which to properly view his Transco tower - complete with cascading water, a Chicago skyscraper that resembles a demolished Masonic Temple (with gold leaf lobby), the list goes on.... He isn't the most serious 20th century architect - that honor goes to Mies; he isn't the most creative - that would be Frank Lloyd Wright; but he is the most whimsical.
  21. H-Town Man
    It appears you're right. The one in the center with the curved facade.
  22. H-Town Man
    He did the main University of St. Thomas campus, which was his first work in Houston. He did the Marshall Field's store at the Galleria, which later became Lord & Taylor. He did a shopping center in Sugar Land.
  23. H-Town Man
    Interesting.
  24. H-Town Man
    I know, it's horrible. JFK was certainly no angel, but he didn't deserve what he got. He didn't deserve having Lyndon Johnson kill him.
  25. H-Town Man
    Forget about tacky neon lighting. Just turn on some of the lights in the offices. I'm watching the game tonight against Utah, and every time they show a downtown shot, I keep thinking, "What are all those black rectangles? Oh yeah, those are skyscrapers!" It reminded me of those Andreas Feininger pictures of New York during the World War II blackouts - here and there a window is lit up, but everything else is dark. That, and their ground level shots were HORRIBLE. They went from place to place all over the Aquarium/Bayou Place/Tranquility Park area, and every spot they found was dark and depressing. I was worried about the safety of the camera crew - it is not a good idea to be in such a dark place with all that expensive equipment. The Bayou in front of the Aquarium did not look lit up at all. Finally they found the dancing fountains at the Aquarium where there was a few people, and it just emphasized the sorriness of our nightlife... here is a guy walking by holding a camera, here are a few measly spurts of water, and in the back, a bunch of dark skyscrapers. Way to go, Houston.
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