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shasta

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    Houston Belt And Terminal Railway Union Station At 501 Crawford St.

    in Historic Houston

    Posted

    I did manage to get my hands on that Houston Electric book and all I have to say is WOW. The old photos show a vibrant downtown complete with tons of street retail, canopied walk ways, pedestrians and yes......light rail on almost every street. I noticed the cities that did not prosper after the 2nd world war seemed to have a better chance at maintaining their historical buildings. Houston never had a chance...the old building were more valuable to land speculators.

    Pick up this book because Houston is represented as a very different city here. What a shame.

    Is downtown crying for a Toy Store?

    in General Houston Discussions

    Posted · Edited by shasta

    So, I've been following Discovery Green for the past year plus very very very closely and I've noticed an interesting trend. The kid's portion of the park (water feature and playground area) is extremely popular.

    I see multiple school buses full of children during the lunch hours. I see parents and their kids spending a bunch of time in this area during the evening and the weekend. Just think this used to be a parking lot and now the catchment area is largely children. I see the ice cream vans parked near this area because they know they have a market here. Common economic sense.

    With all of this being obvious.........I started to think about street level retail fronting the kids portion of the park and I'm starting to think a very nice high quality Toy Store like the ones they have in some of the other pedestrian full service downtown's (or something like that) may make sense. With the current makeup of buildings here let's think about the opportunity here.

    Discovery Tower- Not sure what the retail component is going to be but that is probably the best location

    One Park Place- Not an option as it fronts the entrance, drop off area, and we know the retail is ear marked for grocery which is what it should be in this application

    Embassy Suites- This could work, I'm not sure if they are going to include a large ground level retail component but think of the spill over from the park to a quality toy store type attraction development. Would be a nice and unique addition

    Future City Hotel Site- getting a little further away from the kids portion of the park but it is still a great opportunity and it would have visibility from the new rail line (I believe)

    Just thought I's throw the idea out there based on what I am seeing everytime I visit Discovery Green

    Margaret M. Alkek-Williams Center For Dance At 601 Preston St.

    in Downtown

    Posted

    I don't know, but I hope it's not that ugly suburban looking thing in post #1.

    The suburban building wasn't even the design. Go to the next page to see the design.

    Does anyone know what lot this will be on.....kind of odd that they are breaking ground in this economy (if the are). Maybe they met all of their minimum financial requirements just before the slowdown so that's good news for downtown!

    METRORail Green Line

    in Transit

    Posted · Edited by shasta

    No, not definitely. I don't ride light rail. I drive. Light rail gets in my way and doesn't go anywhere that I want to be.

    So you don't want to be downtown, midtown, museum district, hermann park, rice u, med center, reliant park, UH, TSU, greenway, uptown and the countless other areas the rail will connect? Why are you even commenting on a Houston forum if you don't want to visit any of the places that make Houston 'Houston'?

    This rail isn't only for you Niche, its also for the future generations of Houstonians who will find it a value as the areas I just mentioned develop around them.

    Five Allen Center: Office Tower At 400 Dallas St.

    in Houston Neverbuilt

    Posted

    Yes, and furthermore, the mayor says that in the spirit of the times this project will go up in HALF the time the Empire State Building did! :P

    m. B)

    Ha....The Empire State Building actually broke ground in in the height of the Great Depression. When it was completed, it opened its doors to 40% occupancy and it was quickly dubbed "The Empty State Building". I think we can all agree that it rebounded since then.

    Looking at those photoshop images/views on the first page this building is in a great location to make a 'splash' so lets hope that whatever building ends up on the site really defines that edge of downtown .

    Embassy Suites By Hilton Houston Downtown At 1515 Dallas St.

    in Downtown

    Posted · Edited by shasta

    gosh, this thing would be a business-class cul-de-sac. Unless you're coming to the park from a baseball game, any Houston resident is going to be leaving the park the same way they came in, instead of having a visual reason to pass through or a physical possibility of strolling across in the course of local living. This matters.

    TXVines, I'm not sure what feeling that emoticon meant to put on your sentence, but if posts of more than a paragraph or comments without indents are a problem, maybe we should display them two or three inches wide, like newspaper columns; no one is chapped by those. When my tone is unhelpful and my writing bad communication, I'm sorry, but I still ask you to go ahead and cherry-pick things one by one that help you in thinking about Texas and metropolitan life. As long as you do that, they are more important than a sequence of points or any winning remarks.

    Strickin...go away with your unreadable nonsense. I was at discovery Green on Sunday at it was was packed with people enjoying themselves. The park has been a gem of a gift to Houstonians since its days of early planning. I have been following the area VERY closely since the park opened and I've never seen it more alive. I'm talking about bus loads of elemntary school children on a normal Tuesday afternoon, families on the weekends, festival goers, concert goers, crowds from the nearby Astros/Rockers and concerts and tourists from the neighboring hotels. None of this would have never happened wiithout an extreme desire from the city to transform that part of downtown with a MIX of venues and developments.

    As far as your other comments- many types of developmnets are in the planning stages for that area- hotels, stadiums, residential, more rail transit, retail, etc. they are all pieces of a larger puzzle.

    For someone who likes to complain go find that picture of the area form the late 70's and then compare it to what we have now and report back.

    GreenStreet: Mixed-Use Development At 1201 Fannin St.

    in Downtown

    Posted

    Patronize the businesses that have opened.

    I thought Guadalajara was set to open in late December. I walked by it yesterday and it was no where near being being ready to add the finishes even. When is this one opening and when is Mia Bella? That side of downtown needs restaurants. Hopefully, the extra foot traffic that will help the retailers.

    Aga Khan Foundation: Islamic Community Center

    in Going Up!

    Posted

    Is there a large Islamic community in this part of Houston? Just curious to why this location was chosen.

    I found it very interesting that they picked a site right in the middle of what is destined to become yuppieville. That is a great location though...I was really rooting for a renovation and rehab of that old deco influenced warehouse before they leveled it.

    Aga Khan Foundation: Islamic Community Center

    in Going Up!

    Posted

    The intersection near where the bridge will be built is surrounded by apartment complexes that have spurred new development, including a nearby Islamic community center funded by the Aga Khan Foundation that some civic leaders expect to be an architectural wonder.

    I've seen this one mentioned a few times and the above is from the Houston Chronicle article . Does anyone have any further information or renderings on this one? Whatever the final design, I hope its woven into the urban fabric the area is deperately trying to create with the Fingers site, Regent Square, Archstone, new bridge, and the other proposals in close proximity to this location.

    • Like 1

    One Park Place: Multifamily At 1400 McKinney St.

    in Downtown

    Posted

    Seriously... expensive!

    My biggest concern when I heard they would be building a residential tower downtown was the target price range. Of course I'm all for residential but I'm worried that if they overprice the units it will attract the type of people who won't acvtively contribute to downtown. I was hoping for just slightly more expensive than MidTown because those are working professionals and they will visit the park, the pavilions, the sports venues, main street etc. When you increase the rents you enter a group of people who are wealthy...true, but this may be a second residence to their weekend home in the surburbs. Or possiblythey make too much do identify with the working professional class which is what downtown will need to increase the momentum. Can you imagine someone making 500,000 a year as the average urban street contributer?

    Margaret M. Alkek-Williams Center For Dance At 601 Preston St.

    in Downtown

    Posted · Edited by shasta

    This building should have the freedom to be a very innovative or radical design for a number of reasons.

    1) It is representing the 'art of dance' which could inspire the art or architecture of the building. Most buildings for the arts are a little more symbolic (museums. theaters, performance venues). The more symbolic the better if the Houston Ballet wants to promote itself as one of the countries best.

    2) The ballet is steering the ship since they are the main tenant on this project. Which means they don't have to worry about loosing potential tenants because they pushed the envelope a little too far with the design because they are the majority. Compare this with a speculative office building.

    3) This building should reflect the synergy of the theater district and not be a sterile building at the street level.

    4) The rendering we've seen. That rendering screams 'bank building' or 'medical offices' but definitely not THE HOUSTON BALLET. The need a connection with the two.

    5) They could even break the mold and look to partner up with a developer and design a mix use building with retail or residential units. It has the potential to be a very interesting and creative project. I'm sure they need housing for some of the performers who aren't from Houston....just a thought

    OK, I'm sure there are more reasons but I can't think of any right now but of course the amount of funds they raise and secure (or don't raise) will trump of any of this reasoning. Let's hope the don't skimp on the design.

    Margaret M. Alkek-Williams Center For Dance At 601 Preston St.

    in Downtown

    Posted · Edited by shasta

    :rolleyes:

    That more than likely isn't it. The image was removed from the site and wasn't even in the print edition.

    Considering they've only begun the attempt to raise money within the inner donors' circle donors for anything new, I doubt the building even has a preliminary design, much less something a bit more elaborate like the aformentioned rendering.

    Plus that rendering looks like it is from around 1984...surely they can come up with something more urban than a building that you'd expect to see in a suburban business park.

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