Alec

The only problem is that retail is facing an ocean of parking lots, but oh well, I cant complain.

The rendering above makes it look like the retail will be on the North side of the parking structure, in which case it will face another new apartment building:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/28307-alliance-downtown-5-stories-207-units/

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/real-estate/article/Houston-s-apartment-boom-focuses-on-urban-scene-4619878.php?t=445cfc44ffb05374ef

You gotta be kidding me, this apartment building was looking great, then they covered it up with THAT?

That siding looks like baby flurf.

This one looks like mustard colored crap when driving down the Spur

The mustard is pretty true to the rendering; it should be toned down a bit when they put in the contrasting brick on the lower half. I'm more concerned that they put that weird flat facade on half of it, and it's not even the half that would cover up the parking garage sticking out of the roof. What's up with that?

That brings to mind the other day I saw several soil testing trucks in the parking lot across the street from Franks Pizza (corner of Prairie and Travis).

That's the site for the proposed Stream Essex tower:

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/27885-50-story-international-tower-by-streamessex/

I recently saw a soil testing truck doing its thing on the oddly shaped lot to the west of the Broadstone 3800 project on Alabama. Does this suggest a builder has pretty serious plans for that location? Or could it just be the land owner looking to better describe his merchandise?

Modular formwork (premade formwork). Yep that'll speed things up. 

How does that work? Are the modular sections actually part of the building or just something to hold up the next floor while it is poured and drys? They look like a solid platform on top of six feet of metal laticework, so it seems like it would be too bulky to leave in place and too cumbersome to remove after the pour.

The area in green is some graffiti I noticed on the Savoy.  Going back I saw that it happened on the night of Friday, June 28.  Can't make out any people on the roof in the time lapse shots but when the sun comes up, the paint is there.

If you look closely you can see it was done by "Remuv". Houston Press called this guy's tags some of the lamest in the city:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/artattack/2012/09/remuv_lastest_contender_for_ho.php