rechlin

16 minutes ago, mattyt36 said:

 

It originally came from their website right?  And it's been taken down from their website?  Or did it come from somewhere else?

The images are actually still online on their website.  I'm not going to embed any images or make any links here to avoid the wrath of their lawyers, but the images can still be found on their website on URLs like the following, just remove the space (unfortunately this is the only one I saved because I embedded it in one of my comments; I no longer have the others recorded):

https ://static1.squarespace.com/static/55eab7bde4b0be5bebc81228/5a56e08953450ad10256280c/5a56e289c8302558efef90b4/1515721739529/CAYDON_Houston_EXT03_Podium%2BRetail.jpg

On 2/21/2018 at 2:14 AM, Urbannizer said:

 

If this rendering is correct, it means they are shutting down the northbound Main Street lane to move the northbound McGowen station on to where the current driving lane is, and out of the median (which in this rendering is now grass -- though I'd be very surprised if they'd want people walking in the median between the trains).  Seems surprising that they'd want to rebuild the station like that.

But this still doesn't seem right -- I thought the project was south of that, along the southbound McGowen station instead.  The above rendering shows that tower taking the place of the block with Mongoose vs Cobra, which seems too far north.  The current construction is between Tuam and Drew, which is 3 blocks south of the above rendering.

Or maybe this is actually the southbound station, and the Australian developers, being used to right-hand-drive traffic, inadvertently rendered the northbound lanes in the foreground instead of the background?

Clearly topped out, as the roof is now on the elevator shaft.  Today is the first time I have seen them doing any serious work during the daytime; until now work didn't start until 5pm.

While I too would prefer a downtown station location, I think there are several points that many of you complaining about the Northwest Mall location aren't understanding, and they are mostly related to Houston being a very decentralized city.

First, the population center of Houston is fairly close to the Northwest Mall, so this location puts it about as close to the population center as you can get, minimizing travel distance for the average Houstonian.

Second, Houston doesn't have a single "downtown" for business travelers.  While Downtown is technically the biggest business district, Uptown, the TMC, and the Energy Corridor are not far behind, and there are a number of important smaller business districts too.  And this location is definitely better for people going to Uptown and the Energy Corridor, just to name the biggest, and both are locations that are likely to have more business travelers with Dallas than the TMC.

Third, a downtown station would increase the total cost of the project by something like 20% (I can't remember the exact number, but it was something along those lines).  If it's not going to increase ridership by that much, it wouldn't make financial sense.

Fourth, nothing says they can't build a downtown station later if demand shows it to be worthwhile.

The Ginger Man isn't closing.  They have 5 years left on their lease, I believe.  They are opening a second location (complete with full liquor license) in the 4th ward, but their Village location is staying put.

17 hours ago, hindesky said:

They must only have 2 bricklayers on this project, hopefully the interior is coming along because they might not make it by the spring 2019 classes at the rate they are going.

I realize you are joking, but they've actually been making very good progress with the brick over the last two weeks, with noticeable changes every day.  I count 9 bricklayers right now, and that's just the ones visible from my angle.

35 minutes ago, Naviguessor said:

City Planners?  Who are these "City Planners" that you think exist? 

http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/

The most recent plan on IH-45 North and More doesn't show Polk being connected, but maybe they've changed things since May?

Finally a rendering:

To followup, here's a photo of the garage now, with glass going up on the ground floor:

Indeed.  They even have glass up on the first floor of the garage now (sorry, forgot to take a photo).

Despite actually breaking ground earlier (complete with a giant pile of dirt when I checked it out on Friday), they are now having the official groundbreaking on Thursday:

http://news.rice.edu/2017/12/04/rice-to-host-groundbreaking-for-new-music-building-dec-7/

I'm pretty certain it's Gulf Freeway at Scarsdale, and their "N" compass is just somewhat off:

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.601241,-95.1955776,1141m/data=!3m1!1e3

They are almost done pouring the foundation, and now for whatever reason they covered it back up with dirt.  Also, they are finally above ground level now:

Work has finally started on the rooftop patio, with the first vertical beam going in today.

18 hours ago, Sunstar said:

 

Is this the 'Alcatraz' project? They would have to relocate the Harris County lockup facility, which I think is the bigger project compared to digging a new connector canal. 

Which building is that?  The drawing shows the Harris County Jail, the Baker Street Jail, and the new joint processing building in their existing locations.  The new buildings shown and the canal would fit on the existing parking lot and Metro facility. 

Unfortunately it has several broken windows again, as of last month. The outer panes appear to have been since removed to stop the glass shards from falling (inner panes weren't broken), but I wonder how long it will take them to replace them.  It's too bad that the building was so beautifully renovated (sans repainting the sign) but is now being neglected.

I read elsewhere that it was because they couldn't acquire the ROW for the extra lane.  Seems like it would be useful enough to justify whatever the expense would be, though.

I have added another webcam, so this one will monitor the construction of the garage, with a photo taken every 5 minutes or so.  You can view it here:  http://webcam.rechlin.net/garage/

Sample image from today:

Looks like this garage is getting a subgrade floor.  In the upper right corner, they've already excavated a dozen feet or so, put a thin concrete layer on the dirt, and are now prepping rebar for the foundation.  They are continuing excavating to this level elsewhere, so it doesn't appear to just be for a crane base.  The holes they drilled a week ago have now mostly been filled with steel beams that are 20 or more feet long (some, mostly longer ones, are seen on the left side), with the wood attached to them to hold dirt back as they continue to dig.

They've dug it down pretty far, exposing some old basements, photo taken yesterday:

And today they started drilling some piers or something and putting in some concrete:

On 8/27/2017 at 11:10 PM, H-Town Man said:

House flooded in West U, Bellaire, Memorial? Come live here

Few if any houses flooded in West U, thankfully.  I assume some probably did, but the city's flooding was mostly just street flooding.  Bellaire and Memorial are different stories, of course.