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HoustonIsHome

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  1. HoustonIsHome
    I have been to over 50 countries, I've been to hundreds of cities, Houston is the only place where residents act like homeless are some novel, alien creatures. I got drunk and lost in Seattle but some homeless people have me awesome directions to my hotel. I would have been wandering around in the rain if it wasn't for the neighborhood hobos. In Cork, Ireland one of the people buying rounds of beers to welcome us to the city was a homeless girl. Didn't know she was homeless till after. She was just a person who didn't have an indoor home. I think many people like to feel themselves victims and ashamed to say no. Many of these homeless people are really friendly. Yeah some do commit crimes, but most are harmless. People keep saying midtown won't improve because of the homeless, but hey I was asked for money right down the street from Buckingham Palace (well closer to Kensington). Homeless are everywhere people. Its not a Houston thing. They stay where they get fed.
  2. HoustonIsHome
    I'm with wxman too. This is sexy. Wish it was near George R Brown, but still sexy.
  3. HoustonIsHome
    Wow if I didn't know better I would say downtown had 6 tall buildings. The view is actually not that bad when you take in the whole area.
  4. HoustonIsHome
    Bobruss it is beyond smart, they are are not just making people drive more to downtown, they are driving more to everywhere. With an employment base of over 80,000 the Energy corridor is the 4th largest business center in Houston. Over 1/3 of the employees work outside the western catchment area. Didn't say that it should not be changed because of a parade. Just said it was a popular spot and people are going to miss it. Like I said in my first post on here, I like the tenants. Its not a big deal if they move, I just liked where they were. Then again, the area is such a prime spot I figure many things would be popular if placed in that spot. I used to ride my bike from UH all the way to half priced books (the quarter priced books on Shepard too). I admit I have patronized specs on a number of occasions. I've bought pizza from that location when I lived a few blocks east. I have gotten on and off metro countless times at that stop. Its just a very nostalgic block for me. Lol, if there was an underground running under westheimer, that parking lot was where I imagined the train stop to be. Just little heads popping up from underground.
  5. HoustonIsHome
    You get excellent views of the skyline driving north on 288 from as far back as the beltway. In some spots the gap between TMC and Downtown is small. I bet these Museum District towers will greatly help bridge the gap between the two skylines from THAT vantage spot.
  6. HoustonIsHome
    Look who built the city. Just in Houston city limits alone we have Greenspoint, Clear Lake, Kingswood, built by Friendswood development group which was a subsidiary of Exxon. Exxon stretched our limits to the extreme- wonder why? Even as we speak Exxon is stretching it. They are building on land that was planned by the developers of Springwood estates, who in turn are building another masterplanned community. They were lobbied strongly for the grand parkway which coincidentally runs right in their front yard. So you are right. It can sprawl for as long as people are willing to put up with these places I don't think Houston will ever fill in completely, but certain areas will get denser. For the topic at hand I just wish Montrose will be one that fulls out and fulls up in places. The residential put the situation with the empty lots at a much lower level than downtown/midtown, its the suburban businesses with huge parking garages that I wish would thin out.
  7. HoustonIsHome
    Everytime I walk by it I would wonder at how it survived in that location. How did they never get bought out. They are sandwich between a hospital to the east and a cathedral to the west, Catholic property to the north and that drive through pappas to the south. A ten storey building will tower over immediate neighbors. I think it will help greatly with the view from the southeast. The lack of height in that area of Downtown is crazy
  8. HoustonIsHome
    Not taking about sprawl. Talking about building out the core. My understanding is that you build up after there is no more room, but we have so much room downtown, midtown, and even Montrose. I do agree with him in that the corner of Montrose and Westheimer is prime real estate.
  9. HoustonIsHome
    Really? I always thought the time to build up was when you run out of empty land.
  10. HoustonIsHome
    Would have been nice if the shopping strip was at the front of the lot up against the side walk and the mix use development developed behind and over it in a sort of monster ashby hirise sort of way. I know a lot of people who observe the pride parade is going to miss that spot. Many people viewed it from stands built in that lot. I hope these developments cling to each other instead of encroaching on the charm of the Montrose neighborhood. Would suck if say the BJ Oldies building was replaced by these lookalike residential buildings. And can we make a pact to limit the use of the term "eyesore"????
  11. HoustonIsHome
    They can't do that... homeless people sleep around that building. Lol that BBQ place will be right across from it. It's funny how the area is getting all these urban building when just a few years ago they were building drive through restaurants across the street.
  12. HoustonIsHome
    I kinda like the tenants at that strip. I hope they work something out to return after construction
  13. HoustonIsHome
    We are not talking about the rest of the city, we are talking about downtown. I can't see these low rise residentials surviving long if land prices increase awhile availability shrinks. If availability of land doesn't shrink, well then thank God we got something over that darn parking lot.
  14. HoustonIsHome
    This looks like it could be in a quite spot in the woodlands, funny that it is a stones throw away from the busiest arterial road intersection in Texas
  15. HoustonIsHome
    Arche you and I think alike. I think a midget wooden apartment complex in our concrete jungle does sound silly. I would rather ever last one of those little squares have a 15 floor (or more) concrete building. On the other hand if I way my interests I would also like a hefty downtown population. Now waiting for park places and sky houses to develop we may get two each decade. I would rather fill up the lots with the cheaper apts and replace them as the area warrants more space than to sit there waiting years between new residential towers. I think a quickly growing residential population is priority one with me. I think there is more room for error with the towers. You build a bunch of expensive towers that serve one use and then find its costly to serve the growing population properly. If you build more cheaply and the population demands are observed more quickly then it is easier to adjust. Throw a couple more of these 200 and 300 unit low rises downtown and you will see more of an interest from retaillers looking to the area.
  16. HoustonIsHome
    I was thinking along the same lines as cloud. I think they are just going to throw something up, make a quick buck of of rents and in about 30 years sell the land for the inflated value. It's the same thing happening to all these garden apartments in the loop.
  17. HoustonIsHome
    Houston needs to make better use of street trolleys. We (the city) are almost the exact same size of the greater London area with just about a fifth of the population. Traditional rail would be tricky to implement here. I think we should look to the area as a collection of smaller cities (as is actually the case in London as the actual city of London is quite tiny) and grant some of these cities a stop and connect that stop with trolleys. The city is already divided into 88 superneighborhoods. We can grant about 40 of them a rail stop. For example we can have a university line running from the 3rd ward super neighborhood/ city to the uptown SN/ city. I guess the Highland Village would be in the Greenway Super Neighborhood. Once you get off at the greenway stop you can catch the trolley which should circulate around the points of interest. Of course certain SN/ cities will have more than one stop.
  18. HoustonIsHome
    There comes a time when we need to accept that Houston is a multimodal city in a multimodal metro. The Energy Corridor isn't going away soon, Uptown isn't going anywhere, other areas are not going anywhere. Yes, I would rather a more developed core, but Houston will never be a single business district city and I have accepted that. As for the location, it looks fine to me. It not being downtown can't be the only reason it is bad.
  19. HoustonIsHome
    Why not just continue to call the area Highland Village?? It seems less forced than an EaDo or other geographical name like Midwest. River Oaks district sounds good too. I know that HLV and ROD do not cover the entire area, but people refer to all of uptown as the galleria area, why not do the same for the area surrounding Highland Village? Cloud we already have an area called West Oaks.
  20. HoustonIsHome
    I can assure you I am. I am still hoping the building isn't greatly altered, and share your optimism that a reversion is possible, but I was being realistic.
  21. HoustonIsHome
    Some places don't count antennae in height counts it would have to be a spire or crown.
  22. HoustonIsHome
    I would add a nice hat atop the building with disco lights that spin around. But the building itself I would leave as is.
  23. HoustonIsHome
    although I share your optimism, it is highly unlikely that they will turn a perfectly upgraded building back into a significantly smaller (7.1%) building that a lot of people didn't like in the first place.I can imagine the effort it would take the architect to convince the owners to spend all that money to decrease lessable space in an effort to make the building look outdated. Ruining a historic building to increase leasing potential makes financial sense. Messing with a modern building by making it smaller in an attempt to recreate a not so popular style makes no sense whatsoever. I would love it, but there would be no way to justify it
  24. HoustonIsHome
    If I can remember correctly, With the medical center space included Houston was at about 200M sq feet while the metroplex was at about 170M Last I checked DTD had only about 25Msq ft of space. For some reason market reports combine DTD with the office Space of DTFW so while it may show up as Downtown Dallas -37M sq ft you have to keep in mind that that includes two downtown. Uptown and TMC are both large than DTD, and DTH is almost twice as large as DTD
  25. HoustonIsHome
    It's funny cause I am getting the exact opposite feeling. I looked at the building at first and I immediately liked it. But more and more I am looking at it and thinking is just another glass box. I think the building as is is one of the five buildings that I can't picture downtown without. I am thankful that they are not blowing it up, and I do understand that the need for making it more marketable, but that still won't stop me from clinging to prominent fixtures in our skylines. Together with BOA, Heritage, Pennzoil and The former Continental building, the Humble/Exxon building stands out as the most representative of the buildings I associate with downtown
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