rechlin

17 hours ago, cspwal said:

It took 17 years to demolish it?

Considering they are still using it for offices, I think it would be imprudent to demolish it with people still in it.

10 hours ago, dbigtex56 said:

For those who are driving in from the suburbs, it would offer a convenient, centrally located place to park. They could then use the rail for in-town destinations, an increasing number of which are adjacent to the Red Line.

One problem with that is the southbound freeway exit to Fannin from IH-69 is being eliminated as part of the freeway rebuild, so parking in this area becomes a lot less attractive for people driving in from the suburbs.

The green fabric is really taking a beating, if you compare each of the photos.  Now one large section is completely gone:

With the way Houstonians drive, putting them in the streets would just mean they would have to be replaced monthly as inattentive drivers crash into them and destroy them.  That's probably why they have to be in parking lots or on sidewalks here.

1 hour ago, MarathonMan said:

I have traveled to Japan — most recently in late ‘18 — and see a very different picture.  I have been all over that city and beyond.  All kinds of neighborhoods.  Rich, poor, touristy and local.  I don’t remember seeing ANY homeless people.  The sidewalks are clean.  Their streets are safe (so safe, in fact, that people park their bikes on the sidewalk and don’t lock them).  I’m guessing that Japan has its share of poor, mentally ill people.  What are they doing differently to help these people so that they don’t live in filth on the streets, turn to drugs and resort to petty theft for money?  Maybe the answer to the homeless problem at home has already been answered. Maybe we just need to study and adopt best-practices from others.  Just a thought.  

You won't see homeless people in China, either.  In both countries, they are taken care of by their families.  Our culture is different, with much weaker family ties, so in the US they don't have the support network from their family that they would have in some other countries.

55 minutes ago, ArtNsf said:

But, why is the magic "ceiling" in downtown not exceeding 50 "stories" any longer ?  Is there some sort of exponentially higher costs associated with adding floors at 50 and above ?

I seem to recall reading here a year or two ago that one developer (Hines maybe?) said that with typical office floor plate sizes (presumably in the 25-28k square foot range), 45-50 stories or so (assuming that includes a parking podium of 10-12 stories with its own separate elevators) was the limit of a conventional 3-bank elevator system.  If you want to go higher, you need to start doing more complicated elevator systems (such as skylobbies or dual-floor elevators), though maybe the new elevator systems where you select your floor when calling the elevator (for increased efficiency) could allow taller buildings with just 3 elevator banks.  So I think their point was that making a building more than about 45-50 floors will make the price per square foot go up enough that it's harder to justify in Houston.

30 minutes ago, dbigtex56 said:

I've lived in Midtown for ~ 5 years, and have noticed that there seem to be fewer dry cleaners than there used to be, even as the population and density increases.
Do the newer apartment complexes feature dry cleaning pickup for residents? Are people driving out of the neighborhood to get their clothing dry cleaned? Do they wear their clothes until they stink, then throw them out?

Maybe people are less likely to wear clothes that require dry cleaning than they used to.

From an email from Bravery:

Quote

We are thrilled to announce that we passed our final inspections last Friday, and we're now in possession of our Certificate of Occupancy. Bravery Chef Hall will quietly open on Tuesday, July 30th.   We’ll begin lunch service and continue ramping up from there.

19 hours ago, Luminare said:

That little building on Bissonnet is one my favorite new little developments in town. Great scale. Great uses. Nice contemporary look. They also handle parking and the placement of the building in the best way they could have. Definitely would like to see more.

To be fair, to meet the parking requirements they had to tear down an older (historic?) home a few doors west, to build another parking lot.  But I can't blame them for the City's parking minimums.

Awnings completely gone from the Wheeler-facing side:

15 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

Day 2.

 

 

 

 

 

Crazy how they leave what I assume to be a perfectly good fire extinguisher and trash can in the building, soon to be rubble.  I'd have salvaged some of that stuff...