mollusk

1 hour ago, mkultra25 said:

Frustrated architect, or planning ahead for the Alien Rapture?

Likely a bit of both.

No worries, Mont - it is a McMansion, which is what you get when you've got a committee of people who've worked hard to live in McMansions driving the design decisions.  I was just picking out the design detail that grates my cheese even from a distance, and which could most easily go away (if you want to call something that gargantuan a "detail"). 

1 minute ago, Montrose1100 said:

I really hope the Civil Courthouse is gone before then. IMO it's in the top 10 worst for worst in Houston. 

 

The Criminal Courthouse is in the same realm, but it doesn't leave as sour taste.

The Civil Courthouse would undoubtedly look better without the flying saucer / dome plopped on top at the insistence of one of the judges.  That said, it functions very well internally and came through Harvey pretty well - all as a result of lessons learned from the CJC, which has suffered operational problems since Day One.  Perhaps the dome can go back to Tralfamadore during a refresh.

CJC got clobbered during Allison, too (albeit without exploding plumbing on upper floors).  Fortunately the criminal courts had only moved in a month or two earlier, so they just moved right back into their previous quarters.

I still miss the giant disco ball.

^ ^ You're both right.

That place has had huge problems caused by a lack of elevator capacity since Day One, among other design flubs.

5 hours ago, HoustonIsHome said:

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. 

Again, I would dearly love to ditch having to drive to work.  That short a run is not good for the car, it's not good for the environment, it's expensive, etc., etc.  There is a bus that takes about 20 minutes, but it only comes once per hour.  It's a bit ironic that Houston's original "streetcar suburb" isn't really that transit accessible these days.

4 hours ago, HoustonIsHome said:

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.

From a proud Mole Person:  Let's not forget the climate controlled tunnel system. 

I live in a part of the Heights that doesn't need to have "greater" attached to it.  I would dearly love to be able to ditch the car, but taking the bus to downtown is 30 minutes plus IF everything goes right, and trying to ride a bike downtown during traffic times (or now, when the few people on the streets are really stepping on it) is a bit too exciting.

16 minutes ago, Montrose1100 said:

JW Marriott uses Main.

Yep, and catty corner, AC uses Rusk.  JW Marriott also uses the 801 Travis garage and is directly connected to at least a one or two floors of building space there - they could cope.

There are no garages, driveways, or alleys that use Main for access, and at most it takes out two blocks' worth of driving to get to the 801 Travis and Congress Plaza garages (I can't think of any others that have their single point of access in the 900 or 1000 blocks of the cross streets, but stand to be corrected).  Offhand, it seems like it would be ideal for dedicated high comfort bike lanes - cyclists use it a lot already.  It would cost no more than adding some bollards, and would make access to the rail platforms safer.

Besides, before we had the rail running down Main it was two traffic lanes and two bus lanes with no turns allowed through most of downtown... and we lived. 

FWIW, the Travis northbound ramp to 45 is two lanes.

Awww... that little jog through the railroad underpass was a nice bit of time travel.

3 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

How are Understory and Finn Hall doing during all of this?

Finn Hall was just starting a turnover when all this started.  As of now, Sit Lo is gone, as is Low Tide.  Oddball took over Low Tide's space and is open, as are the pizza place, Lit Chicken, and Craft Burger.  The Mexican place taking over Goode's space, Dish Society, and Yong are all apparently closed but still have their equipment in place; best guess is that they plan to reopen once enough people come back to work.

In Understory Seaside Poke, Boomtown Coffee, Flippin Patties, Mona Italian, and the new farro bowl place are up and running.  Of course the bar appears closed because bar, and East Hampton Sandwich and Mama Ninfa's haven't reopened.

In both cases there aren't many customers, as is the case with downtown in general.  Parking hasn't been this easy in decades.

It looks like the ground floor is primarily glass, so it's not going to be like some giant forbidding bluff a la 700 Louisiana.

$30B, a "conservative, 'all in' estimate," is a bit more than four times what the upcoming Houston freeway rebuild is projected to cost.

Mouseprint disclaimers!! 😻😻😻

Agreed that the Radio Special is a '32, but it's more likely a Model 18 since Ford sold way more of the new V8s than they did the 4 cylinder Bs.  The one on the far left end looks more like a '35 or '36 Fordor... probably '35 since they moved to next to the Tower Theater around 1936.

All due respect to Transtar (not really), but that picture's from around 1974 - 75.  Pennzoil's south tower is almost topped out, the central library building isn't quite open yet, and the Hyatt Regency, One and Two Shell, 2 Houston, and One Allen are all up and running.  Which really makes it all the more amazing, since that chops about 20% off of the timeline for getting to now.

The Whataburger cups are great for showing the scale. 

Actually, it was an S & L back in the 70s and before it was reskinned.  I want to say American Savings, but can't say for sure.

1 hour ago, hindesky said:

I wonder if the building is going up here where the surveyor stakes are placed.

Judging by the flag colors, these are marking out various utilities.

It's amazing how resistant people who worship pavement are to anything that might cause them to have to drive two blocks further - in this case, literally two blocks.  One almost never had to wait for a second cycle of the traffic light, even during the teeth of rush hour.

Once upon a time that was Mahan Volkswagen, where as a broke student I got all sorts of help and advice in learning how to fix my purchased with my own money elderly VW (including being given the secret handshake of German cars, knowing the last 7 digits of your VIN when ordering parts).

On 3/25/2020 at 5:12 PM, Luminare said:

 

I'm sure they will try, but there is already a lot of micro managing during this pandemic trying to keep people from becoming sick. I think it would be ridiculous for them to try and create more detailed guidelines to try and close up logical loopholes when they should be focused on other things. I call a logical loophole since its one which can be inferred once you read the legal language and you take that language to its logical end. If they want construction to actually run properly, and done legally then that means they will have to follow the project documents, which means that they will eventually have questions on those documents which means they will need architects for help to follow them, make changes, etc... I totally get where you are coming from though, but thats when bureaucrats just need to gtfo since they don't understand the process enough to really understand that there are a lot of symbiotic relationships, and synergies that happen during construction, and during the design process, and any effort to try and tightly regulate that will only make things worse for everyone. Especially when these are only temporary measures. I don't want my civil servants wasting time and tax payer money working on guidelines, and procedures which are suppose to be temporary, and try to micro-mange and close every potential logical loophole imaginable.

Philosophizing notwithstanding, Austin's guidance basically shuts construction projects down, period, unless they fall within one of six fairly specific exceptions (public works, for example).  Linkage:

http://austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/ConstructionGuidance-Stay-Home-Order (003).pdf

http://austintexas.gov/sites/default/files/files/Order 20200324-007 - Stay Home - Work Safe.pdf

AIA Austin is trying to get an exception for general residential and commercial construction, but didn't get it as of noon Friday:  https://www.aiaaustin.org/aia-austin-and-covid-19

Anecdotally, it looks like a lot of projects and borderline "exempt" businesses here are shutting down for the duration - probably something to do with wanting to keep people healthy.  Until there is a blanket order, people are going to have to research locality by locality to know what the rules are.

Sorry for the slow reply, but I've been socially distant (actually, answering clients' phoned and emailed questions and moving most of my office to my house).

One important thing about the Houston AIA guidance - if you're in some exotic locale YMMV.  Austin and Travis County issued similar orders, but then Austin came out that afternoon with a guidance document that appears to clamp some significant limitations on the broader reading of the order.  As of lunchtime there was still some back and forth going around about how to interpret things up there.

That's a really good explanation, PE, not a wall of text.  Thanks.