mollusk

The Gideons were in there today installing the Bibles. They said the rooms look really nice.

Likewise, save in a couple of notorious speed trap areas. Now, get me out on a good road, in good conditions, with good sight lines... let's just say that I enjoys me a generous power to weight ratio. Funny thing - since the speed limit between here and San Antonio was raised to 80, it still takes me the same amount of time to get there, 'cause it hasn't affected my speed. The absence of worry about the Po Po does cause me to be more relaxed upon arrival, though.

HA! Reminds me of driving around with a young colleague (from a much smaller city, and who pretty much had never been in anything smaller/lower than an Explorer in his life) in my two seater that comes up to about one's navel. He kept praying under his breath. Or at least murmuring "sweet Jesus" over and over again.

(forgive the multi post. Uploaded slowly, then it showed up twice).

Well, Mattress Mac lost his bet... but he still managed to squeeze a commercial out of it.

That's almost as much fun as 288 northbound to 59 southbound - not only are there a bunch of ramps one right after the other, but the signage is bad, too.

Vik is correct, since 290 is a left exit from 610 heading north. I think it's OK this weekend for anywhere you're likely going, but it's always a good idea to check for total closures - for example, SB 45 north of the Loop has a total shutdown this weekend. This is a handy tool: http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/layers/ Just for giggles, and since traffic's likely going to be light anyway, you might consider coming up through downtown and then approaching 290 from the North Loop westbound.

Right above where you type in a response, there is a toolbar. Towards the middle of the lower row, there is an icon that looks a bit like a couple links of chain - click on that and another dialog will pop up and you can put the URL in that.

FIFY.

Jasno, I don't live in Dallas, but I'm pretty sure the picture you put up is taken from the north; if I'm reading the comments correctly Metro was beefing about the farmers market area down by the Concrete Canyon, south of downtown.

And of course make sure the name is an exact match between the reservation/boarding pass and whatever ID is carried. The green card is a good idea - it certainly can't hurt.

Not to mention being the current home base of our very own beloved Iron Tiger. Besides, another reason to ignore Waco is that they wouldn't use HSR to ship us Dr. Pepper.

As per Monarch's question, renovating the first floor would provide the vaunted Ground Floor Retail. Bloomie's could still go upstairs (if that's in the works) - think of it as a vertical mall.

samagon, a logical extension from the Eastwood TC would be to continue up Lockwood to intersect with the Green line at or near its Lockwood/Eastwood station. Perhaps cost/benefit gets in the way - IDK.

Congratulations. Incidentally, Leon Hale, the columnist who retired this year from the Chron at the age of 92, would take an annual drive all the way around the Loop to check up on whether he could still drive, at least up to a year or two ago. In fairness, he was in Houston before any of the freeways were built, so the traffic kinda grew on him.

OK, this will be going off of memory rather than research, so I stand to be corrected by those with better info/more time to look into it: >>>I thought 1 Shell Plaza was built for/with Shell as their tower in New Orleans is of similar style? One and Two Shell have always been known as One and Two Shell (well, Two Shell for not that much longer, apparently). However, IIRC there were also other tenants in there at first. >>>How about 600 Travis (Texas Commerce Tower)? Was it dreamed up with Hines & I.M. Pei, only to have TC Bank sign on as a major tenant or did TC Bank approach them? 600 Travis was originally known as Texas Commerce Tower in United Energy Plaza. It's also always been crawling with law firms. I don't know who originally came up with building it and 601 across the street, 12 floors of parking garage and what was TCB's back room operations, such as check clearing, etc. Side note - After Allison, a lot of the ATM network in this region went down because it had a hub under 601. >>>Was First City Tower really built for First City Bank or is that some local delusion thought up like the Chevron (Fulbright), Tower? IIRC, First City National Bank commissioned First City Tower (and its predecessor, now known as One City Centre, which used to have a glorious, airy Rat Pack era banking lobby stretching all the way down that block of McKinney, now taken up by a parking garage). Again, the name tenant, but not the only one. >>>How about Nations Bank Center (Bank of America Plaza)? That was going to be the headquarters of Houston National Bank, moving out of what was the Tenneco Building. Ditto re multi tenancy. >>>Allied Bank Center (Wells Fargo Plaza)? Same story as the other bank buildings. >>>The AIG/American General building on Waugh @ Allen Parkway (was Continental Airlines really there? if so, how long before they moved to Continental/Cullen Center)? That began as the American General building, now Wortham (the easternmost one in the complex), developed by Gus Wortham, who owned American General Insurance and who was also a developer. The twin buildings came later, one was Riviana (named after its major tenant, a giant food company). I forget what the other one was originally named. The big building on the corner was Continental's headquarters for a time, beginning in the Frank Lorenzo era. After AIG bought American General, it gradually took over more and more of the complex, either by not renewing leases or just making tenants miserable with really silly post 9/11 security theater, combined with weird moves on the parking availability (my firm was among the annoyed ones that left Wortham). >>>1400 Smith? This was going to be Enron's second building, complete with a massive, gonzo trading floor. It was almost complete when that particular balloon went kablooey. >>>3 Allen Center? Pretty much spec, IIRC. >>>1100 Louisiana? This was InterFirst Bank's monument (InterFirst was an outgrowth of First National in Dallas, and was among the many casualties of the Texas real estate crash in the mid to late 80s. Again, built with dreams of plenty o' tenants up above. Its giant soaring banking lobby is now occupied by Page (formerly Page Southerland Page), an architectural office. >>>My father said once the KBR Tower was built for the company he worked for at the time and it would have been taller than 800 Bell. But since they were working with the company at 800 Bell, they figured that wouldn't be a good idea. But I have absolutely no basis on this if it's true or a wild rumor that floated around his office. So, there's that. I'm not old enough to have anything to contribute, one way or the other, to that particular story.

Pretty much everything in the Houston Center area is connected by gerbil tubes rather than tunnels; likewise, Cullen Center/Allen Center/the Chevron campus. Regardless, from an amenity standpoint the appeal is when one can get from building to building without getting wet, whether from rain, perspiration, or both.

Phonecia's produce has improved in quality, but it's still a very small department. You've overlooked the meat counter, which is excellent (if a bit light on pig products, since it's mostly halal). CVS on Main @ McKinney (and elsewhere) and Walgreen's are OK for the assorted non food items. If'n your sensibilities are sturdy enough to handle downtown, there are a couple of Fiestas within a couple blocks of rail stops on the red line north of downtown - the one on Patton at Fulton is closer to its rail stop and seems to have sorta taken a lot of the refugees resulting from closing the one on Studewood, down to some of the employees and occasionally the music selection. The wine selection is even gradually improving. There's also a Fiesta just the other side of Sears from the Wheeler transit station.

I take your point for the most part. However, from my office window Post Oak/West Loop is starting to look pretty dense, and is only getting denser. It would probably support even more high rise development more easily if they'd only remembered to leave what little street grid there was in place, or even add to it. Had that happened it would then be more walkable, rather than the nightmare of accessibility that it's become.

Well, let's see... Not to come off as snarky, but the building under renovation on the Fannin/Rusk/San Jacinto/Capitol block was built for and occupied by The Texas Company (Texaco), and remained vacant ever since they decamped for Heritage a couple decades ago. What is now the Courtyard Marriott was originally the Humble Building, before 800 Bell was built. As best as I can tell, Texaco and Humble were the only major single occupant, non department store, non government buildings until relatively recently. 712 Main was built by Jesse Jones for and known as the Gulf Building, even though he also put his National Bank of Commerce in there, along with five floors of Sakowitz. Buildings like Bank of the Southwest (now 919 Milam), Tenneco (now Kinder Morgan), etc. all had other tenants - IIRC, even One and Two Shell did originally.

Personally, I kinda enjoy having a variety of skylines. That way people who are occupying one skyline have something to look at other than our generally pool table-esque landscape, which would otherwise be punctuated only by rooftops and nighttime lights.

Not to worry - just a couple of lawyers debating some procedural arcana. We're good.

Houstonians have most likely been "out there" drivers for as long as there have been cars. Before we had various Merges of Death, we had things like this:

IDK. You're right if someone or some group chose a place in particular to start whacking, but there's an awful lot of surface area to be destroyed, and not everyone has magnificent biceps...

htown - I share your perception of where the traditional Parking District is (rapidly becoming was); hence my designation of this as the High Rise Parking District. Kinda like the old Chinatown that used to be east of downtown, which was supplanted by the newer development out southwest.