mollusk

$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.

I'd wait a few more months.  Summer here is really hard on newly planted trees and shrubs.

Once things have started to cool off reliably, you'll probably be OK as long as you get most if not all of the root ball. 

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. 

On 5/12/2020 at 5:45 PM, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

Edit... it has that same trim marker and read wheel opening shape as that 63 Ford 300 posted above

Yes, but that was pretty much all over Ford's design language at the time - for that matter, just about everyone had wheel wells that weren't symmetrical. 

On further inspection, I think it's a 63 Fairlane.  The shadow line on the rear shot is consistent with the tail fins that weren't on the 64, and the 62 had more grille trim wrapping around the corner.

My vote is for 62 or 63 Fairlane.  The Comet's the same basic car, but since it's further up the food chain its bumper wraps all the way to the wheel well.  Valiant, Dart, Tempest, and Ramblers all had blade bumpers, the Chevy II just doesn't have any way to do that shadow line, and an early compact F-85 or Special... ehhhh, not a chance; likewise, the Lark.

On 4/30/2020 at 4:26 PM, samagon said:

 

well, my guess is that open office space is going to be an issue for a lot of different markets, not just Houston.

 

a lot of reasons managers have used to not do WFH are being challenged and proved wrong. obviously, there are a lot of industries, and jobs that require someone to go into an office for some reason, but there's a lot of jobs that can be done from home. forever, managers stuck in their box and unwilling to look outside of that box have come up with excuses for not transitioning to a WFH environment.

 

for the jobs that can be performed remotely, I think a lot of business managers are looking at an empty sea of cubes, and how much of their bottom line goes to keeping those cubes. in the current market, a lot of businesses are going to be looking at ways to trim costs, and going from a big lease to a small lease might be the ticket they decide to punch.

 

I dunno. just my suspicion. 

Depends on how far up the food chain those managers are.  I know of one who's been coming into the office daily, claiming that it was just impossible to work from home.  He then floated not only a plan to open back up fully staffed on Day 1 of opening up but to have a "welcome back" buffet lunch.  We shall see.

Do they also do porcelain fountains?

Just a passing thought - the various delivery services charge the restaurants for making the deliveries, which cuts way into their already thinner than usual margins.  I've heard that Favor (owned by HEB) is better than the others.

Not to mention, when you place the order directly with the restaurant you've immediately reduced the chances for errors and delays.

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.

7 hours ago, hindesky said:

Since there are doors on almost all the east side floors I would think they might have handrails.

More like access for window washers, since they can't run a scaffold or rappel.  The Wortham building in American General Center has the same setup.

^^ Of course, the world over all of the major cathedrals, temples, tall viaducts, etc., etc. were built with some sort of plant based staging until ~150 years ago...

Actually, soap and water is better than hand sanitizer - any soap will do.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/home/cleaning-disinfection.html

2 hours ago, gene said:

ps...you left out my hatred for the lot that is known as Post Oak Corner and my excited about Zone D' Erotica turning into a Velvet Taco...but whatevs! 😋

having trouble figuring out how to comment on that transition in a manner suitable for a family forum...

At least they have truth in labeling down - it sounds demonically inspired.  #tastyaleFTW 

2 hours ago, Avossos said:

the drain that most downtown roads have..

Located away from the curb so as not to splash people waiting for the bus

The term is "remuddleing," right?