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...

Wow, what a total transformation.  I'm not sure how I feel about the clashing architectural styles between old and new, but this should be great for downtown.

I like how they are taking away parts of the 4HC parking garage to improve street presence with GFR, and the addition of extra outdoor patios will be great.  So many times I want to eat outside, only to find that all the tables on the existing 2HC rooftop deck are taken.  I'm really liking how vast areas of useless concrete in the existing site plan are being replaced with greenery, buildings, or dining areas.  Mobility appears to be vastly improved too, with better walkways and more stairs/escalators in ideal locations.

Another small grocer is great for downtown, too; hopefully it can fill in gaps left by the existing Phoenicia across the street.

The site plans show 8 rooms in the Entertainment area marked as "theaters".  They are relatively small, though, with only a couple dozen seats per theater -- I wonder if this is going to be some kind of small upscale niche movie theater like iPic?

My only real disappointment is the dominance of "concepts" and "laboratories" in the food hall.  People downtown don't want "concepts" (which to me implies something that's not fully thought out and probably will close in a few months), they want consistent, reliable places to eat, especially where they can get something quick and cheap (there's no shortage of fancier places).  Seems like there's no room for a place like Doozo anymore, which is far more than just a concept, and instead just a very popular place for affordable food.

11 hours ago, houstontexasjack said:

 

There’s not much extra connectivity that’s lost by not extending Blodgett to Main. 
 

Actually that is used by all the buses that stop at the Wheeler Transit Center (5, 25 Westbound, 65, 152, 153) to get back onto Main to continue their routes.  Without Blodgett they would have to drive all the way down to Arbor Place, adding additional lights and delays to all those routes (though 5 and 65 would be less affected).  Most of those are heavily used routes; Metro would not be happy about that.

With Blodgett being removed here, I wonder what Metro will do.  From the renderings it seems the Wheeler Transit Center will be reconfigured, so maybe they will have the bus depot curve to the west to exit onto Main instead of Fannin?  But that would be an awfully tight hairpin turn for the buses, consider the cap park doesn't extend all the way to Main.  I really wonder if TxDOT thought this through.

Here's the current bus routes (25 is red, 152/153 is green, 65 is blue):

And here's what they would have to do if Blodgett is removed:

14 hours ago, hindesky said:

I don't know but it's a horrible looking building up close. Went by there about a month ago, it's in bad shape.

 

It reminded me of buildings you see of old Soviet era slum buildings.

Honestly, with just a good pressure washing it would probably look better than an unfortunate number of the hotels/apartments being built nowadays will look after the same 45 years.

16 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

 

@Triton

 

Today I noticed [redacted] in two places! One on Briar Hollow near San Felipe and the other at Hanover Square on W. Dallas. 

 

Could you please stop giving him attention?  It will only encourage him if he sees this.

If that's the "value-engineered" version of The Allen, I'm happy.  Still looks unique and fairly interesting.  While a partially cantilevered building would be even cooler, we all know Houston can't support anything too architecturally daunting, so I'm pleased if this is what we can get.  Still wish they could have added the pedestrian bridge over Allen Parkway, though.

8 minutes ago, Urbannizer said:

Mixed-use development (need access to article)

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2019/06/13/site-of-104-year-old-houston-business-to-become.html?iana=hpmvp_hstn_news_headline

Quote

Site of 104-year-old Houston business to become mixed-use development

 

Real estate developer Texas Group is preparing to build a new mixed-use project on the site of one of Houston’s oldest businesses.

Texas Group Principal Danna Sivan said her firm is about three weeks away from closing on the property occupied by Southern Importers, which has provided theatrical supplies and costumes to the Houston community for the past 104 years. Southern Importers announced June 13 that it will cease operating from its shop at 4825 San Jacinto St. in Houston’s Museum District on June 29. The store is in the process of liquidating its inventory.

Sivan declined to comment on how much Texas Group is paying for the property or the cost of the mixed-used development. However, the Harris County Appraisal District has valued the land and the building at $1.7 million combined.

Sivan said the mixed-use project is still in the planning phase and that details about the mix of office, retail and multifamily residential space was not yet available. The firm is also in the process of hiring a team to handle general contracting, design and engineering for the project.

The property is being replatted, she said, “in order to tap into transit corridor ordinance benefits.”

Once those steps are completed, Sivan said Texas Group wants to break ground on the project as soon as possible.

“The Museum District is going through a transformation, and we are excited to partake in shaping the upcoming neighborhood,” Sivan said.

Southern Importers has been a fixture of the Houston performing arts scene for the past century. Founded in 1915, the company was originally located on the second floor of the former Prince Theater at 320 Fannin St. Four of the company’s five employees have worked for Southern Importers for more than four decades.

“To sustain a family business for more than 100 years is pretty amazing. There’s nothing I love more than hearing customers come in and say how much they have enjoyed coming to the store over the years,” third-generation owner Mickey Frost said.

The list of celebrities the company has worked with reads like a “Who’s Who?” of the 20th century pop culture scene. Southern Importers has provided props and costumes to stars such as Beyonce, Phyllis Diller, Lucille Ball, Red Skelton, Gwen Verdon, Jo Anne Worley of "Laugh In," Tommy Tune, Patrick Swayze and ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons.

Frost, 78, took over the store from his parents in 1975 after working on aeronautics and spacecraft projects for Virginia-based General Dynamics Corp. for 10 years. He earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Rice University.

“When my parents retired and I took over the store, it was before Halloween really took off as a big deal among adults,” Frost said. “We rode the crest of a wave for a good long while. But so much has changed in recent years.”

Internet retail shopping has taken a toll on Southern Importers' business and keeping the store open became “unsustainable,” Frost said.

Frost said he will miss working at Southern Importers but “the time has come” for it to close.

“We will be welcoming customers up to closing time on June 29,” he said. “So it’s a perfect time to come walk down memory lane with us and pick up some great bargains, too.”

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

No.  The angle is wrong for it to be from the roof of the Holiday Inn.  It has to have been taken from the roof of the former Days Inn/Heaven on Earth.

 

Edit:  Confirmed.  The post on Reddit says it was taken "From the Roof of the Old Days Inn."

No, not wrong.  The Days Inn was originally a Holiday Inn.

Yes, and I'd guess it was probably from October given that the Caydon tower still has the cranes up and isn't quite topped out yet.

Seen on reddit, posted by /u/west1974 (older photo though):

13 minutes ago, keaton said:

I've moved more to the north now in the Rice, so I can't see the whole block anymore but thinking about a livestream from my window. Any camera experts who can recommend a good one?

I've been very happy with the Amcrest 4 megapixel (halfway between full HD and 4K resolution) camera.  I use it with Blue Iris software which supports YouTube live streaming; I haven't checked to see whether you can do live streaming with cheaper/free software.  Best thing is they are designed in Houston (but built in China by Dahua); Amcrest is based out of the Energy Corridor.

This is the model I've used but they have both cheaper and more expensive models too.  It's currently $92.54 shipped including tax, after the 10% new customer discount:

https://amcrest.com/amcrest-ultrahd-4mp-dual-band-wifi-video-security-ip-camera-pt-black-ip4m-1051b.html

As an alternative, if you have an old cell phone you can set one up to stream to YouTube too.  That won't cost you anything, but the picture quality will be significantly worse.

Another alternative is what I did for my construction webcam.  It's also an old cell phone, but it takes still 3-megapixel photos every 5 minutes and uploads them to my server.  That has the added cost of needing to configure and maintain a server (or I suppose you could use your PC if you leave it on 24/7), and won't give you live video, but even cell phones as old as the 7-year-old Galaxy S2 that I use can take decent photos.  You can see its results here:

http://webcam.rechlin.net/811main/

53 minutes ago, CaptainJilliams said:

While I would love to see new imagery, if it's going to take this long to update I would rather have them update it in 2023 or 24 so that we see developments like Texas Tower, the Preston, and Arise Post Oak done by then.

Looking at the area inside the loop, we already have new imagery (from February 2019) if you turn off "Globe" mode in Google Maps, to disable the 3D view.  But yes, the 3D view is quite old, from about February 2015.

I am perplexed that this is still showing the railroad going through the north edge of downtown under UHD and the northern railroad in the 6th ward (outlined in purple below).  I was under the impression they were going to be tearing down the "Be Someone" bridge and realigning it to make the northern branch of the railroad go down to the southern branch (drawn in orange below), which would also make the northern canal to White Oak bayou possible.  Has that been canceled?  If not, has nobody told TxDOT?

7 hours ago, CrockpotandGravel said:

And if you take issue with the posting of articles, take that same energy and direct it to renderings too, since it falls under the same use. Oh, but, wait, you copy and paste renderings too as you did before posting your rant. But go off on me...

I appreciate all the posts you've been making, summarizing available material about various projects to help everyone keep up to speed on their development, but the way you totally overreact when you perceive even the slightest bit of criticism is negating that.  And it's really hard to take you seriously when you keep responding with animated GIFs.  Please keep doing what you do best, and please avoid the pettiness.  I wish there were a setting in here to turn off animated GIFs, which contribute nothing to the discussion.

Thread and renderings here:

17 hours ago, X.R. said:

Well, it looks like the architect finally has a plan. Think it looks great but the sidewalk seems a bit skinny.

 

It's skinny but not quite as skinny as it looks from the concrete.  It seems they will be flanking the sidewalk on both sides with brick, so that will probably add a good 8 inches to each side.  Still, it will be narrower than downtown sidewalks, but it will be wider than those installed in residential areas.

Amusing they are using 15-year-old cars in their renderings, but I suppose that's more realistic than the supercars seen in some others' renderings.

The Chronicle and ABC13 are reporting that it started with a car fire, but from the photos of the damage it looks to me like that equipment next to the car (generator or electrical box) probably started on fire first, and then it may have spread to the cars, as KPRC2 reported.  Strange that both seem equally certain about their contradictory reporting, though.

I agree this would be fantastic, if it goes down Center as @Avossos said, instead of Washington.  There are no good east-west alternative roads to Washington, so if the rail went down that, it would slow down traffic (bicycle, automotive, etc) way too much.  It's OK that rail went down Main because drivers and cyclists can always take roads like Travis and Fannin.  But with Washington, there is no good alternative.

And yes, it should ultimately go at least to Shepherd, and maybe all the way to Westcott, and then somehow eventually make it up to the Northwest Transit Center, perhaps via Old Katy Road.