HoustonIsHome
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Posts posted by HoustonIsHome
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On 8/25/2020 at 12:10 PM, Texasota said:
Man I would seriously not object to UHD somehow ending up with the Harris County Jail buildings. Even just 600 and 810 N San Jacinto. They're both (especially 600) nice, well-scaled buildings, and it would be nice to see them used for non-jail purposes. Help diversify that stretch of San Jacinto as well.
UHD used to own the jail building. It was vacant for a while because it needed a lot of repairs. UHD figured it would be cheaper to build a new building than repair that one, so they sold it and built the Academic building. The 701 San Jacinto Jail building was also owned by a company called the Houston Terminal Warehouse and cold Storage company.
Also, there was talk of changing the name of the University for over 20 years now. Allen University and City University were major contenders.
One of the higher ups said that although they wanted a new name, most of the push for the name changed was from the main campus and board of regents. Seems UHD was in their opinion a detractor from what they saw the UH brand as.
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Squeeze a 1400 footer behind Esperson in that shot and the symmetry will be perfect
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On 2/24/2021 at 4:51 PM, HOUCAJUN said:
How many floors are left until they start working on the crown?
It would look great with 5 more abs and then the crown. That way we would still still see a good bit of Chase from the north but it wouldn't look so much like A middle finger sticking up at us
This building looks really classy. No extreme curves or over the top shapes.
This one looks like something that would age well.
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On 2/24/2021 at 10:57 PM, democide said:
So will this office building be connected to the tunnel system via a tunnel or skywalk?
I hope not. I know of all the convenience of the tunnels (weather and all that) but I am hoping for less of a reliance on all that.
Would be nice if they were used only for times of bad weather but people use those things all time making downtown seem like it has 20 employees instead of hundreds of thousands. And we demand street level retail when three tunnels make it so that 95% of the people never have to walk at street level.
Houston employee base is huge. Having that many people walking around would definitely improve the street level retail. Especially if tenants had to cross the street or exit the building to get to their cars.
Again I understand the reluctance to EVER leave our climate controlled bubbles, or God forbid, run into a homeless person
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On 2/2/2021 at 11:40 PM, H-Town Man said:
We have some pretty detailed renderings including architectural plans, an FAA request, and signage up at the site. Short of a catastrophe, it looks like this is happening.
Any chance that it gets scaled down?
Austin has been pretty hot the last few decades but that's a ton of huge buildings going up or in the works
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It's awesome that this areas is getting more facelifts than just the Ion/ Rice developments
Rice should donate some big art installment/ improvement to Peggy Point Plaza Park
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This building is so interesting.
Then I look at Market Square Tower and my first thought is its still a decent building building because its not on a podium and from this angle of blocks that huge garage.
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I totally agree. I mean what does eyesore mean? I really don't like that word, it's overuse, and the theory that if some people don't like looking at things it must be torn down.
I do agree that safety is another issue
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9 hours ago, cspwal said:
I'm thinking more day to day, walking around level. That vacant lot makes a great dog-playing-catch area downtown
You mean the old YMCA lot? If so then I can do without that grass field. That old yellow and red brick building was cute.
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Idk. An active construction site puts more of a smile on my face than a vacant lot covered in grass. That Chevron lot still hurts my heart.
Depending on what's going up, I would prefer an active construction site over the plaza and park too. Construction sites are fun to follow
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1 hour ago, Texasota said:
Eh, this is one of the most important intersections in the city. I'm hoping for something genuinely great (like the Montrose Collective + 500 apartments or something) rather than just good enough.
Not only the intersection, but that particular block is the best one on one of the best intersections.
Lincoln Street bisects the block immediately across Westheimer. The Aladdin block is irregularly shaped and about half the size.
The smoothie King block across Montrose it's bigger and would probably be better suited to the open renderings we saw a few pages back.
But the south West corner of that intersection is a perfect parcel on one of the more popular intersections in town. I just think archiphiles would expect greatness here. It's not going to be hard to disappoint us on this one. Hopes are high.
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9 minutes ago, TheSirDingle said:
Looking real good
These pics are everything.
Hines should have a holiday in Houston.-
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I love these mid rise buildings.
They are not as costly as a hirise
They usually are cheaper to rent because of this.
They can be filled up quicker
They look a lot better than a surface lot
They contribute more to building up the critical density than a surface lot.
To be honest my eyes are usually between ground level and 6 levels or so.
Anything higher than that for me is just icing.
Filling up vacant or surface lots is more exciting than the number of floors just as long as I'm not looking at blank walls or exposed parking levels.
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And so it begins ...
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26 minutes ago, West Timer said:
Whatever. This will be the best looking and tallest tower ever built. (...in Midtown) (...so far). Curves aren't everything. It still looks pretty classy to me.
Midtown still has sooooo much empty.
This is soooooo much better than the waste of space across the street.
Signature towers will come one the area improves.
The original would have been nice but even the new design is still a plus going off of how empty and crappy the area is.
The homeless engage in Drugs and Prostitution a block in every direction from this development so still getting a neat tower in a not so neat area that may cause the area to improve is still a win for me
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The French quarter streets were built by the French. That's why it was called the French Quarter. The buildings however are mainly Spanish. The quarter was under Spanish control when a fire broke out so the buildings that were rebuilt were rebuilt in the Spanish style. Anyway, esplanade and Elysian are out of downtown so it doesn't matter.
Canal, Polydras, Rampart etc are better examples as they are downtown/Uptown and have great transit options.
Anyway, like I keep saying all the strawman arguments are not selling. Someone suggested taking rail and the excuse is that the rail doesn't run late enough? Really? So we can't improve downtown because it's absolutely impossible to have have the rail run later? Other cities are going to leave us in the dust off we don't learn to walk and chew at the same time.
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I agree with you mollusk. But doing nothing isn't going change anything.
Improving the urban environment means less cars on the streets downtown so that bike ride it's less intimidating. It means better connections to the nearby neighborhoods so it doesn't take 30 mins to come in from 10 mins away. There's no reason why there isn't a good street car connection to the heights and Montrose.
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2 hours ago, Ross said:As an example, we live in the Greater Height. If we go to an Astros game, we usually take Memorial into Downtown, then take Texas towards Minute Maid. We can also take Washington and use Preston, or, on Weekends, Take I-10 to Smith, then use Preston. There are no other reasonable routes, no matter how hard you try. For suburban fans, the choices are just as limited, and dependent on where they live.
Aww that's the problem. We are lazy and entitled. Progress will never come if we continue thinking on an individual level instead of the collective. I mean do you really have to drive from your door step to the ballpark? I mean a short walk from a nearbye garage wouldn't hurt. Or as @dbigtex56 suggested take the rail.
I did not ignore the fact that downtown has tons of commuters. I stated that that alternatives can be looked into that doesn't involve driving right into the building that we work. You think Houston is the only city with 100,000 workers driving into work? Cities handle way more than that because unlike us they don't expect to be able to drive right into wherever they are going. Yes, it is a really convenient lifestyle but that is a suburban lifestyle. And it is totally unfair for suburbanophiles to expect 100% if the city to be suburban. Urban lovers need urban areas too. How can more urban lifestyles development if we continue this selfish mentality where we just think of what we prefer and heck with everyone else.
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Renovations revealed for Houston's 600 Travis, the tallest tower in Texas, along with major deal
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On 7/12/2020 at 9:35 AM, Texasota said:My goal is to prioritize the development of Downtown as a livable neighborhood *over* the convenience of commuters driving single occupancy vehicles into and out of downtown. There are lots of other ways to get downtown, but treating commuters' convenience as more important than residents' safety and comfort needs to end.
Dedicated loading / unloading /taxi / rideshare areas need to be a more of a thing, and may be more valuable on some blocks than street parking.
I 110% agree. Downtown is a neighborhood and should be treated as such.
The needs of residents is front and center in all neighborhood development. Assessments are done to calculate the effect of traffic in the area.
Furthermore, the goal of downtown should not be how fast we can get people through the core. It should be the other way around. Slow down, look around. In fact, don't even leave. It's the past through nature of downtown that makes it less lively.
The French Quarter/ Downtown in New Orleans is already not that car friendly with far narrower streets than anything in Downtown Houston.
Bourbon and Royal streets are already closed to vehicular traffic certain hours of the day. In an attempt to make the quarter more pedestrian friendly quite a few more vehicular closures are planned. Some, such as closing Frenchman street (In front of the French Market) makes sense as pedestrian activity is already high and all the car traffic can be dangerous. Others like Orleans St don't make much sense as that street is purely residential and not a lot of foot traffic due to the lack of businesses. Others like Iberville and Chartres create logistic problems because of the issue of loading and unloading guests at the hotels in those streets.
But the point is, they're streets are already only as wide as alleys and they are talking about limiting the use further while ours are like motor speedways and we don't want to think of limiting a lane or two for safety.
Instead of worrying about suburban access to Astro games via the heart of our core, shouldn't the analysis be what other routes would be better to upgrade to make going to Astro games easier without having the core streets so pedestrian unfriendly?
Main streets in the heart of town should be a nice slow affair.
Back to the New Orleans example. Uptown New Orleans may be a better comparison to Downtown Houston. It is much more commercial oriented than DTNO but still has those limited Lanes of traffic. Baronne for example has 5 lanes, but the outer lanes are both for street parking, their are two lanes for traffic and one lane was split into a tiny median and a bike lane. So instead of having to cross 5 lanes of cars you only have to cross 2. That may seem awful if you are going places but it shouldn't be a street you drive through. There are streets like Polydras that are 3 lanes that are 6 lanes that take you through the district. But if every street was through streets that you can just hurry along through then you never really get that community feel. Downtown Houston streets are just too consistently wide. Narrowing a few areas shouldn't just immediately be ridiculed because of the inconvenience, we should instead be looking for alternatives to alleviating the traffic nightmares that loss of access would create.
Putting parking garages near the outskirts of downtown instead of the middle of Downtown for one would help. That way you can exit the garage and have little issues hopping on to the highway and either walk or take public transportation to your office building.
We do need the exercise. I know people say Houston is too hot to walk. But new Orleans is just as hot and probably even more humid than Houston.
Totally blocking streets to traffic immediately would probably kill the street. But narrowing portions at certain times of the day might all we need to do.
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15 hours ago, por favor gracias said:
I think from this angle, it'll go up about as far up as the tip of 609 Main. 609 Main will be slightly taller, but this building will be slightly closer from this angle and may actually appear taller. I mean, look at the difference between the Chase Tower and 1000 Louisiana from here. That's a hell of a contrast for a difference of 10 feet.
If it's almost as high as 609Main that's going to make quite an impression on the skyline in terms of softening chase.
There are many who hate the chase tower. They mainly live 100s of miles to the north and hate it because it's the takest in Texas and not in their city.
I like Chase. I like that it is different, I like materials, it adds something different to downtown. What I didn't like was how much it sticks out over everything else. This wouldn't be so jarring if the building was tiered or if it had a massive crown. But the sheer wall from ground to top makes it jarring. With TT coming up that far up chase I can still appreciate Chase without all that sheer wall.
609 main itself needs a 20-30 storey building infront of it too.
TT already looks like such a visually pleasing building that I'm kinda worried that international tower is going to cover it up with an uninteresting 500 ft wall
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On 7/14/2020 at 8:30 PM, Nate_56 said:
I love how this softens the monolithic rise of the chase tower.
About how far up it's going to go?
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On 7/11/2020 at 9:45 AM, Houston19514 said:
They should name it Cougar Meadow.
Wouldn't it be longhorn meadow 🤪
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21 minutes ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:
WF has a totally different demographic. They don't target lower income people like Fiesta does. It's the same with Randalls. They are an upscale shopping experience.
Plus at fiesta you get a good selection of international ingredients that you wouldn't typically get at regular grocery stores. Jamaican Soda, Puerto Rican seasonings, Curry from Trinidad, British Cookies, lots of African, Indian and other Asian foods. All from a store with a Latin edge. That store was a cultural experience. I hope Houston doesn't lose it completely. It is very representative of the diversity of the city.
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Grand Central Park: Mixed-Use In Conroe
in Points North
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Looks awesome.
Houston seems to be getting saturated in medical schools.
I think Houston has 5 of Texas's 15