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LTWACS:

This is what part of downtown should look like.

Are you serious about the uptown/ Galleria area compared to downtown?

Any one with at least a month of Architectural Education knows that the Uptown Galleria is exactly 'What Not To Do' in urban terms. It is nothing more than a suburban style retail corridor designed for cars that happens to have office building and overpriced, overrated Condo Towers.

There is no sense of a neighborhood, no master plan, no mixed use buildings, no singular vision. They just happened to align them selves around a huge indoor mall that honestly choked the tradition of 'shopping downtown' These new Condo Towers are a joke- gated entry- totally isolated from the graeter community.

This scenario would never happen in downtow because the streets were designed for pedestrians first and plus downtown has much more culture than Uptown (theater, scholls, stadiums, restaurants, bars, etc.)

It's not about being dense- it's about being SMART.

Yes light rail will eventually come to uptown but hopefully AFTER they've established a connection from both airports to downtown.

Is Kjb434 the only one here who makes sense on this issue. You people need to do yourselves a favor and go read a book on urban planning. Believe me Uptown would make you want to throw up.

Ok, thats my diatribe. If you don't like it and want to defend Uptown, tough I call them like I see them. It would take a while for uptown to even match the potential downtown has. Hines never intended the Gallleria to be the hub for a pedestrian friendly area- he got what he wanted. Cars first- People second.

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i have found that a small percentage of houston forumers here know about true urbanism and have fell into the patterns on how most of this city is built, and then they get mad once you are offended by the suburban patterns that happen around the city. the sentences in bold are what i agree with 100%. great post. i thought i was the only one who had this mindset on uptown.

At first I was like why is he posting this on here, but this is quite possibly the best DC3 video I have seen. The song is pretty good too.

Atleast they are serious about the project and are updating the renderings. The last time, they were talking about the Toyota Center was proposed now they actually have the Hilton Americas in the rendering and light rail. The location is also awesome, not sprawly like some of these awesome developments happening 10 miles away from downtown or in the suburbs. lol. This is happening right next door to Main Street Square across from the Courtyard by Marriott. Hope this gets off the ground. This is the exact same thing as the one in Denver.

Do you know what 300 million dollars can do for light rail expansions, except fitting more cars on a freeway to sprawl out to the suburbs.

I have to agree with some that LTAWACS says. It seems like developers never get the point around here, and then they never realize why the city never gets a good rep. There are so many developments that could have changed the face of the city if they were more centralized, but people who do not appreciate urbanism would never know this.

The level of stupidity that these people display is astounding and quite frankly I'm considering moving out of this place.

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are you talking about sprawl?

I would much rather see mega-developments like this built downtown or in other areas with  appropriate infrastructure and better traffic flow.

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Thankyou. Houston is becoming another LA with all these attractions not situated around downtown.

great pics. we don't see enough of midtown on here. i hope the camden project gets going.

the place was just approved probably a month ago i believe.

lol. What a change.

I was watching this news series about old Houston and they showed a black & white film about Houston night life in the 1960s. 

One segment covered theaters and they showed a theater called Theatre Inc that aired gay films. 

I can't find any information about this theater on the internet.  What's the story here? Address? 

Thanks.

Good question. I think the boder along Westheimer is at Smith, but if you go north on Smith that is obviously incorrect.

But, the movie was filmed in Houston, wasn

you are JOKING right?

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lol. and i am pretty sure it will bw the same design as the CVS.

Great pics jmancuso. I don't know what is up with some, but when some people bash on another city, take it as a compliment, because deep down inside they are really thinking differently. I don't know, I just notice that on some of these threads. I love NO.

hmmm.. if our roads are smooth, I am afraid to drive on those in Boston 

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That's why they have subways. Something this city could use more of, except using freeways to escape to the sprawly suburbs.

Let's not speculate.  I'm sure if that person wants to be known, he'll make himself known.

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sorry. I edited my post.

Boston feels bigger than Houston?  Really?  I didn't get that impression, but I guess everything in Boston is pretty centrally located.

I hope these people don't change their minds once they get caught in traffic on a nice August afternoon.  That's the worst Houston has to offer.  It's nice to know that outsiders finally see the best we have to offer.  I still think that people make this town great.  You can't recreate that or build it up.

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Wouldn't you say this feels larger than Houston? I love Houston, but it is really based on a suburban lifestlye. Here are some pics I found on skyscrapercity.com

Pics don't justify this place, you have to experience it yourself.

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429943.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429945.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429946.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429948.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429949.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429956.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429957.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429958.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429962.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34429965.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430373.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430380.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430385.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430386.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430388.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430391.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34437495.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430395.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430837.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430844.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34430848.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34437492.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/citylover/image/34437498.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/selvin/image/30400296.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/selvin/image/30400295.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/selvin/image/30462498.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/selvin/image/30868195.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/brideauj/image/1431988.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/brideauj/image/1431990.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/richard_b/image/38124089.jpg

What boston has that houston don't?

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One of the best subway systems in the country. The history, the rowhouses, architecture, downtown shopping(think of the Galleria, but outdoors, just beautiful), no oversized parking lots anywhere,heavy pedestrian traffic outside regardless the weather, vibrant downtown, fantastic waterfront, etc, etc. I'm surprised I am the only one that thinks this.

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Whew. Thanks for reminding me about this.

They said so much good stuff about Houston, the diversity, and how "cosmopolitan Houston is." They said Boston is much smaller than Houston, and has much more to do. They also said the only reason they like Boston is because it's so close to New York.

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These people are insane.

j/k

But no city can compare with Boston, and it feels a lot larger than Houston.

Later on I will tell you guy's about how impressed some Bostonians where with Houston. There even moving to Houston because of the impression. I showed them everything nice like the Uptown Village.

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I surprised someone from Boston would be impressed with that strip mall.

I never saw this rendering. Which looks a whole lot better.

They are finalizing the construction documents and are planning on starting construction in April. They have almost met their requirement in order to get the title from the bank. Remember if the developer is taking out a substantial loan from the bank- the bank owns the project and not the developer which could delay things.

And if anyone here knows anything about the process  required(design, engineering, bidding, permits, finacial, marketing, etc.)  to get a project of this size you would realize they are actually progressing quickly. When did they offically announce this project- wasn't it near the Super Bowl (Jan. 2004)?

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We have heard this from summer 2004 to December. What makes it different now?