UtterlyUrban

A few pictures of the old building here

https://blog.chron.com/bayoucityhistory/2010/03/sam-houston-high-school-old/

and some nice history.

On 10/11/2018 at 11:02 AM, KinkaidAlum said:

I'll continue to shop in stores because I am afraid of what our society will become without retail jobs. Plus, I like human interaction and I am picky with my produce.

There is significant truth in this.  And, retail is often faster (especially for clothing) and arguably better environmentally, than shipping me 8 pairs of pants from 5 stores only for me to try them on, keep one, and ship them all back for “free”.

On 9/21/2018 at 11:18 AM, H-Town Man said:

This article gives an interesting array of comments on issues that are being discussed for downtown's development. Apparently there was a Future of Downtown event at The Rice a few days ago, but this article was written prior as a kind of preview of the event. Anyone hear anything about what was said at the event?

 

https://www.bisnow.com/houston/news/retail/five-trends-to-watch-in-downtown-houston-92579?rt=62429

 

One of the more interesting bits was the discussion of two vacant blocks of land along La Branch that are owned by international companies. I assume these are the two blocks north of Root Park. I couldn't tell from the quote whether they were discussing anything with the landowners or if they are just hoping these blocks will get developed.

 

I find Mr Eury’s discussion on retail enlightening but depressing.

this document was published 5 years ago and fully executed on by the taxpayer:

http://www.downtowndistrict.org/static/media/uploads/downtown_retail_task_force_report_sept_12_2013_online.pdf

yet, I read into Mr. Eury’s comments that it isn’t working:  Hard and soft goods Retail is not coming.  Heck, Mr. Eury now seems to see the tunnels as a “night time” shopping solution.  

Perhaps the author of the article didn’t capture Mr. Eury’s sentiments properly.  Perhaps I am interpreting the words wrong.  Or perhaps i’m not.

Why would New parking garages bring more “in town visitors”?  Was there a shortage of parking that kept “in town visitors” away?

7 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

This would slide into the category of fair use.

 

One is that it isn't a one to one market. The rendering isn't competing in the market that the trademark resides and two its using the brand name in a different way than original intended which gives it a different meaning.

However there are stipulations to this. Some companies require all sign offs to use their products in given work, but many don't because if an artist uses a certain brand than its basically free advertising for the brand. For many, any kind of visibility is good visibility.

Sometimes this can even motivate a brand to buy into a production, project, design, etc... simply because they see the opportunity now that they see it in said production, project, design. You see this in Hollywood for instance when a script might read that "character starts drinking a soda" and later a brand comes in and says "can the character drink a Coke?" and give ad money so they can be featured.

 

Its also based on preference. Some artists don't want to be tied or seen advertising to a particular brand and so they will go with a generic look.

My personal preference is to use generic logos, etc... because any brand in an image like this is going to be a bit distracting to the overall vision. Plus it might immediately restrict what might be possible at that given moment in the project.

 

There are a lot more that can be discussed on this, but its a good primer and quick answer to your questions which are good btw.

Great info.  Thank you.

15 hours ago, SkylineView said:

Gucci @ Prada?  At Montrose & Clay?  

 

Ok.  glhf.

Just as a follow-on,.......

For all you graphic artists.....

what are the trademark/copyright laws that apply to this?   I see some developers use “brand” names on the building’s in their rendering and others don't.  Can any developer plaster a rendering with the trademark/tradename or copyrighted symbols of a brand?  Or, is that not allowed?

i’m curious and I could use a good education.

16 hours ago, Reporter said:

Who gives a shit?

Such a friendly Lad or Lass

I don’t like this.

All this talk of other locations to put this project is interesting to me.  But, this is houston, and it likely going at 1209 Montrose.

Have the landlords continued this practice of renting rooms like a hotel?

There are some things left best up to 8 year olds to play with innthe school yard.

9 floors of parking for 9 floors of residents?  Does that seem odd to anyone other than me?  Is it a tiny little lot or something?

Amy, when they took down the Macy’s building, my office was across the street.  Before construction started going vertical, they needed to jackhammer something. Seems like it went on for a couple months........

The facts will come out over time and allow me to assess whom I believe.

That said,  I wonder if GT Leach can put a  lien on the HOA?  I have no idea how that works here in Texas (or anywhere else for that matter).   Can they?

These would be nice:

IAH to Paris

IAH to Berlin

IAH to zurich

IAHto Vienna

IAH to Milan

Actually, what I would really want is for the international flights from the Entire NY Hub (and most of Washasington DC’s) to be picked up and moved to Houston.  That would be good!!!  Oh, and they could toss in Chicago and San Fran too.  One giant superhub that would allow me to always flight direct.  YES!  

Oh, I will put the ‘ludes down now.

I thought that folks on this forum schooled me that  “food halls” were different than “food courts” because “food halls” didn’t have chain restaurants but instead had more “curated” foods from local chefs......

23 minutes ago, Houston19514 said:

I think the latest information is that they hope to start construction in 2019 and it will take 4-5 years to build.

Is there any real chance that they can start turning dirt with 15 months?

as is often the case, time is in the favor of the opposition.  The longer this can be delayed the less likely that it will ever be built.  

29 minutes ago, Mattie said:

The garage was designed and built to only support so many stories and I would imagine they’re building as tall as they can. 

Yep.  And I would further imagine that the final building design changes will have significant constraints too as the stresses/loads must traverse through existing foundation points in the existing structure.

Several years ago...... maybe..... 4-ish...... i seem to recall (perhaps incorrectly) that the timeline to have this train open and operating on its route was ......... 2021?  

Is my memory correct?

I see signage that says “bar”, “conference”, and “coffee”.........

am I to assume from this that the folks converting this space are not looking to bring honest-to-goodness retail shops (clothing, home decor, etc.)?

Downtown bars=75 and climbing.  A place to buy a good pair of jeans=0 and staying steady.

6 hours ago, Sunstar said:

 

It’s this one 

Cool!  Any idea what street that is?

calling all you drone photogs........ get ready!  By Thanksgiving maybe all that construction flotsam will be picked up and on a Sunny Sunday the shot will be there!

Anyone have some pictures of the old school building from this site?  Once the construction equipment is gone, it would make and interesting juxtaposition  

3 hours ago, kennyc05 said:

Depends on the circle you hang with as far as Austin being hipper than Houston. I don't think it is in ny opinion. 

I was walking slightly in front of a gaggle of 20 year olds 6 months ago and I could overhear them.  They were from Austin (students?).  Anyway, one of the gaggle postulated:  “downtown Houston is way better than downtown Austin.......”.   The gaggle quickly agreed.

I am very happy to see this occur.  But, a W in that location just strikes me as an odd choice.  

1 minute ago, jgriff said:

Many older people in the petrochemical and oil industry don’t want to live or work anywhere near downtown. I currently work for a company in Westchase. I tell people all the time that working downtown is much better, they look at me like I’m from Mars. All they know about the inner loop is what they see on the few weekends when they visit. They sit in traffic on Westpark for hours every week and complain about “downtown traffic”. 

Probably true.  But the traffic in sugarkatywood is actually quite epic too.