Luminare

O.O wait what.....wait... wait.. what?

At first glance it doesn't look like it's a redesign, but in fact there are definitely some changes. Most of these seem to be in front of the building and how the building addresses the street condition. Before I point out what the differences are though. I would say that for once the redesign is actually better than what was before which hasn't been the case lately. First look at both pics old and new. I really don't have the time to do all this stuff as I literally just arrived at work and this is usually 'catch up on the news' part of my morning. If someone would like to make a post with the old and new back to back that would be great Once you look at the bottom fronts of the old and new the changes will be more apparent. The old one had a very awkward front facing the street. For one it didn't really acknowledge the street. instead whoever is designing this thought that it would be cool to throw in what I have termed "the glass sandwich" and stuck it on the side and said 'oh look at me I'm a clever designer and I'm current with the architecture of the time. All done'. This approach to the building seemed like an after thought, and if you look at the new image you can see that clearly an attempt was made to better this part of the design. It's not perfect, but it very much succeeds where the other didn't. So what about the new entrance? Probably the most striking is it's massing and geometry. Instead of an enormous vertical edge right from the sidewalk. It seems they moved the building back a bit and elongated the entrance to create a sort of stair step effect. Now you have an entrance that is more at a human/streetlevel scale. I'm also glad they redid the goofy 'glass sandwich'. The entrance simply has more variety. From what it looks like the majority of the building looks the same. Most of the same materials are still there as a whole. The overall look is still the same. I think we all want to take a look at the other side to really confirm that it really hasn't changed. I make my deduction of this from the garage. It literally is the same form and same material usage as it was before. Thankfully it looks like they are keeping the office from before as well, but I'm sure there are some minor tweaks in that one too. All in all it's actually a more mature design and they actually resolved a problem that I saw in the original.

This one is going up really quick! These people aren't messing around.

I believe some "quotations" should go on the word's "complete" urbannizer I drive past this almost every morning, and they seem to have stalled with this one. The back townhomes have been without any plaster for what seems like forever! I just saw them like a few days ago covering the area up with a plastic sheet over the scaffolding getting the area prep'ed for plaster.

slowest....renovation.....ever!

I'm of the opinion that this will do wonders for the heights. It certainly needs a good project to draw some attention to itself.

Nice job Well I will say it's a little bit to simple, but at least it's sleek and is very open with what seems to be a good amount of tall spaces.

Thanks for agreeing fernz West Ave retail is going to have a rough time for a little while until there are more developments of that size in the area. When keeping retail in mind they need to remember that to be successful they don't need luxury retail! Not every place can be the galleria lol. Since Kirby is listed as a major thoroughfare in and out of the city, it would be nice if this was picked up by a really good firm/architect. It's a pretty prominent street corner. Get it right and it will be come a very nice gateway type building for the district.

That's what I'm wondering. You would think with the developments going up across the street that this would be in mind. I remember there being a post about Office Max or which ever store like that is in that strip center (can't seem to remember) was starting to downsize their stores overall so maybe that was a contributing factor to this? I know it was the largest tenant in that strip center.

What this will really be good for is when IAH starts to really get underway with massive renovations and rebuild. So is this terminal going to be for small nations or nations in this hemisphere?

On the topic at hand an international terminal at this airport will be a great addition. I haven't really seen the need to comment because I scanned through and saw no renderings, floorplans, or links to what it's going to actually be there, but it would be nice if anyone has any info or links that would be much appreciated.

Well, I am thoroughly uninspired!

not bad. Wondering how the BRT and University line ties into this. It also looks pretty conceptual. I wonder how recent it is.

Drove past this area this morning. Looks like they have their special crane set up. Looks like they also have some sort of mechanism to help pour concrete as well.

in terms of music: Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC* (those last three i mean can you blame me. I was a 90's kid lol). All these would be guilty pleasures As for movies...really going to have to think about that one.

>.> well fine then

when you add the fact that college station is becoming a research, medical, and bio corridor mecca it would be foolish not to connect to that especially since it isn't on a major interstate freeway. Many past rail proposals usually had Bryan/College Station as a middle station in a proposed rail line. Many high speed rails do at least have a couple of stops along the way. Not a dozon or so that you normally seen on commuter rail, but at least ones that stop at larger towns. The Brazos valley is one of the fastest growing areas in the state and will continue to be a emerging market in the future. The more populations you get too the more people will use it. Plain and simple.

Found this on Chron.com this morning. It's an animation walk-through. It's pretty impressive. The company that did this seems pretty good. I know the firm I work at hires animation company's to do cool stuff like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Y4bAZZLWk

Lets just say that the German thing was what they wanted to do 6 years ago......they wanted a very contemporary look the second go around. The 6 year old exterior won. Maybe I will throw it up sometime or maybe I won't lol. Anyway, at least it should be a nice building when completed. Overall the building is over 665,000sqft so it's certainly up there with Klein High.

So I'm not going to add any commentary to what I'm about to post, but this was a comment I posted on the fb site. I'll let others decide what to think about it before I respond further: [Luminare]: LOL you all are absolute fools if you think any of what is there now is "virgin" xD I'm going to literally die from laughter! Almost all of what is there now isn't even what was there long long ago. Go read up on your history. Most of what is now Memorial park was a former military base called Camp Logan during WWI (its why it's called Memorial Park....as a dedication to that Camp). To build that camp they pretty much had to lay waste to most of the "natural" vegetation. Also the whole bayou has been dug up numerous times in attempts to straighten the river to control flooding (which never works). The map you so detest is a map that shows plans to help bring back some of the natural curves of the bayou! Yes it is a plan to help the bayou and restore it's proper flow. Not only that but they are helping to bring back natural vegetation that is actually native to Houston. I also see comments about the Sierra Club, because they know so much about our city and they certainly are not propping this up just to get attention. Absolutely not! *sarcasm* Anyway sorry for raining on your tiny parade with actual facts. Please abandon your sad environmentalism and join the side of environmental stewardship and conservation. Thank you. Save Buffalo Bayou: Goodness, [Luminare]. Where to start? This stretch of the bayou is completely natural and has never been channelised except for a tiny section at the downstream end of the project area near the Hogg Bird Sanctuary. You can read that in the archeology report included in the Harris County Flood Control District's permit application to the Corps of Engineers. See page 587. The existence and remains of Camp Logan, a World War I military training camp established on both banks of the bayou in what was later to become Memorial Park and the River Oaks Country Club, are the reason why this area has been designated a State Antiquities Landmark. Another good reason why these banks should not be bulldozed. Camp Logan was established 100 years ago. Clearing some trees and vegetation a century ago does not make the trees and vegetation that grow back unnatural. No one is arguing that this riparian forest is an old-growth forest. There is very little old-growth forest left in the world. And there is very little riparian forest left anywhere in a major city. That is why we are fighting so hard to protect it and our natural bayou from the bulldozers.

Maybe I can do a couple of sketches of maybe what you are talking about, scan them and post them, because there really does seem to be a disconnect here. Also I made a rather large comment post onto Save the Bayou's fb page and just received an equally lengthy response which I will plant on this thread which can further this debate.

Ok since someone is not looking at the bigger picture here. Let me explain myself. I'm against "environmentalist" like the fundamentalist kind who only attack on these issues just to get attention, or because they just like trees, or believe humans are all evil, or worship mother nature, or run these kinds of groups like cults. As someone who works in the profession of building/designing buildings that will sometimes go on undeveloped sites its important for an architect to develop a sense of environmental stewardship as well as principals of good conservation. What these people practice in groups like Save the Bayou are not that. They are drones who do not govern themselves by logical reason and are instead guided by pure emotion which leads them to formulate silly opinions about the earth and the environment which are both naive and completely ridiculous. A professor I had in college once told me that "tree huggers" are dumb (my synopsis). You are not going to positively change the environment, protect, preserve....whatever it is by going up to a tree and hugging it. By the way, he wasn't some raging conservative or bagging money from big oil. He was professor of Building systems at my architecture school who truly believed in global warming and was very liberal. He also had also developed many HVAC systems for 20-30 years. Environmentalism that we know today is not the environmentalism that existed before the 1960's and 1970's. Probably the first great "environmentalist" was Teddy Roosevelt. However if you asked him what an environmentalist was in his time he would probably tell you it was about conservation, and stewardship. Fast forward to the radical counter movements of the 1960's and 1970's when this wasn't the case. Instead environmentalist was essentially co-op'ed by progressives. They changed the notion (just like they changed the idea of liberalism) and brought about environmentalist movements that no longer were environmental goal oriented, but politically oriented. Not to mention they were no longer about a balance between human and nature, but a world view which humans were the enemy and nature was elevated to the position of deity making it pretty much a sin for humans to do anything to the environment because we were essentially evil. You can have an environmental group, but that doesn't mean that it is "Environmentalist" in the notion that many think about today. BPA is a conservationist group as well as restorationist one. It seeks to bring back a natural order of things through human intervention. While it is always smart to ask questions and not blindly follow something, it's another to completely write it off on the basis that "oh they are going to cut all these trees! It must be bad! Protest!" BPA isn't perfect, but its logical and is a sound solution to not only Buffalo Bayou, but probably all our bayous going forward.

The fact there are so few multi-family or midrise residential in this plan baffles me. I guess its a great first step and is huge improvement from what is there right now, but still I'm very disappointed in the overall planning of this.... *sigh*

You sir need to reread what I posted. Plus you need to learn the definition of hysteria. I show no support for what this group is saying or doing. I support the city and the development plan. I'm certainly not hysterical, and I'm only providing rational for why these people are insane. The funnest stuff is on the fb page. You could just imagine them with tinfoil hats lol. One commenter was like, 'oh this looks like a great spot some condo's'. The rest are nothing but sheep. Honestly, I just can't stand ignorance of this caliber.

I wonder which route they have chosen. The most sensible path would be up 290, 6, and 35. So the probably stops would be Houston, College Station/Bryan, Waco, and Dallas.