HoustonIsHome

I think these older buildings are sexy. 

I love the idea of retaining some brick downtown

In that area any building more than a couple storeys will have great visibility so I do hope that it is a building that doesn't detract from the beauty of our skyline. 

Isn't this still on the historic district?  I don't expect it to be as well disguised add the Aris garage though.

Nice, they have been working on the inside of that building for a while now. 

I think the outside needs more than just a skirt though. 

On 5/24/2016 at 8:48 AM, samagon said:

how about:

 

"not your father's downtown"

"rebirth on the bayou?"

"towers and trains everywhere"

"Houston, we have residents"

"it may still be a little seedy, but it's less seedy than other parts of town and that counts for something"

Houston we have residents sounds like the perfect description of where we are heading. 

The genius of this building is that in market square it fits in with what you see which is the smaller buildings. A couple blocks away what you see are the newer taller buildings which it fits in with as well.

I am hoping that wall does not remain blank. I was kind of partial to the original mural as it fit in perfectly with the market theme. 

The vision sounds like much more efficient use of the land. 

Let's hope the vision sees itself through and is not watered-down. 

The Main Corridor is kind of developing like a less extreme version of LV  BLVD in that one block in either direction and you feel like you fell off the surface of the Earth.  

I don't know how any politician and traverse Main and not see the benefits of the Red Line.

Anyway, I am more of a fan of filling in and expanding out. There has been so much growth and yet so much room for development between Bell and Alabama.

As Disco Green and Market Square have encouraged development,  I do hope that the Super Park will continue this trend. The Super Park has the advantage of being already in an area that is booming, and it is right on a metrorail stop. 

I know we have been complaining a lot about the size and placement of the park and apartment,  but I am starting to believe that you can't lose nowadays with a modern park. 

The lengths of these blocks (super block and to a lesser extent Midmain) lend themselves well to creating interesting pedestrian oriented developments. Since Berry does not cut through Mid Main, the entire Ensemble station is accessible to pedestrians without traffic cutting off the stations. 

It will be interesting to see what they do with the sidewalks and if a livelier version of Main Street Square Plaza develops at that location. 

So many possibilities

Stopped outside this on Friday . It really had a presence.  Totally transformed the area.  Love the brick.

This area will have new life once this opens.  I wonder how this is going to affect HCC

Doesn't look like they are going down the 1st close road to me.  Looks like they took the average route. 

I'm surprised we have not fallen into the low expectations we usually fall into and begin talking along the lines of "at least it's not as bad as embassy suites".

This hotel might still become the it spot, but it sure could have been helped along on that path if the original plan was built. 

IAwesome. 

This one gets an A+ from me on being a huge improvement from what was there previously. 

I have such high hopes for south downtown. 

I probably would not want to live sandwiched between a hospital and a cathedral with a bell tower, but I love this building and what it represents.  

Hope the one on main And St Joseph takes off soon

That is a huge site. 

I doubt this will be solely for a STEM building.  I am sure they will include lots of parking,  but I hope that will be in the form of a garage. It would be cool to include some residential component. Another cafeteria/food court area will also be needed.  

On 3/29/2016 at 2:41 PM, Twinsanity02 said:

I checked the numbers on the census.gov for MSA. It lists Houston MSA 2015 as 6,656,947 and Houston MSA 2014 as 6,490,180.  This comes out as 166,767. What ever number 159 K or 166 K they are huge numbers. Do not know if this is the largest ever.  I know Chicago grew very fast in the 19th century and LA in the 20th but don't know the numbers.

159k isn't even Houston's best, let alone the best ever per metro. Houston, DFW, NY, LA has been hitting that and more every now and then for the last 40 years. Atlanta was hitting those numbers at the start of the 2000s. Miami got there a couple times. 

But yeah,  Houston's best years were the early 80s surprisingly since we had a lot less people to bare kids.

In fact, the year before, Houston grew by 163K. Houston's best year was 82. We grew by 195k. There were 70k births and 30k deaths. So 155k was just from people moving here. If we had that many last year our total number would have been 215k because natural increase was 60k (98k births minus 38k deaths). I think LA had a couple 200k plus years. Houston's current growth is nothing new

The western view of downtown is breathtaking at night. It's a welcome home sign when I am coming from a trip out west.  But during daylight hours to me the best view is from the southeast in the proximity of the UH area. Along 288 the views are awesome from almost the beltway into town.

Worried about parking?  *shakes head*

Anyway, does low income housing such as this have any lasting effect on development in the area?

Is Clayton homes low income?  And if so did it deter development in the immediate vicinity? 

You think so triton? To me it just looks like the downtown days in with new windows installed.

I'm not a fan. 

On 4/7/2016 at 10:22 AM, alternativemike said:

 

Whoever bought into those 3 tow homes are going to have a big wall or some hotel windows to stare into pretty soon - that suckssssssss...

Those town homes look hideous and cheaply made. 

11 minutes ago, enriquewx91 said:

"We aren't building something for tomorrow or the next quarter. The economy will ebb and flow, but at the end of the day, we are investing in the future."

 

THIS IS HOW ALL DEVELOPERS IN HOUSTON SHOULD THINK! Things may be slow now but as we have seen time and time again they will pick up at a much stronger pace.

It is nice if you can get ahead of the game and be ready when the economy bounces back

What's wrong with just creating more parks? To me it would serve the east end better to have three 40 acre parks spread throughout the community than one big park. That way more parkland is evenly distributed to the people. I would be happier to have discovery green across the street than to have to go 3 or 4 miles to memorial park.

Also , it's easier to maximize the use of smaller parks and they are safer and more family oriented. 

If the city does reinstate the acreage of parkland, then I see this as a net gain for that area in that the botanical garden would still be considered green space and the new parks would be increasing the acreage of greenspace.

Sounds like a win win win for me.

New parks/increase in greenspace

New economic flow to the area in patrons to the park.

New amenity for the area and the city. 

12 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

Saw what appeared to be an electrician checking a breaker box today on the side of this building. 

There was also a welder working on the gate Saturday.  It looked like he was reinforcing the top.

Absolutely fabulous.  I would be so happy if the international tower lot and the chronicle building garage lot gets something that matches this. 

Surface parking? What else would we expect? 

The little plaza on Travis is just gorgeous.  And it looks like more landscaping has been added. Plus the work on Dallas street had greatly changed the look of the area.

Lol,  it's this one going to completed before Block 334 too? This one flew up like a skyhouse. 

12 hours ago, LarryDierker said:

Is Houston the skybridge capital of the world? serious question.

 

 

edit: never mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyway

The old Houston center design called for Skywalk all over the place.  People movers and monorail surrounded by these encased glass sky bridges criss crossed the area. The proposal was to make Houston the city of the future.  Looked like something out of the Jetsons

Ball Park District

Ball Park Green

Discovery Park

Discovery District

Discovery Square

Union Square

Union  Green

Trump Turn

Hillary Heights

Sanders Square

Cruz Corner

The possibilities are endless