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But why is that now the goal?

In the past when the Texas Triangle or Texas Tbone has been discussed.. part of the goal was intermediary population centers. The Texas Tbone recognized the value of getting BCS, Waco, Temple(Ft Hood) in on the system.

 

How is having an additional stop in houston that serves the airport/major population/commercial center of little benfit?

How is it not a benefit for someone in north houston to not have to drive half an hour in the wrong direction to load a train downtown before heading in the right direction ?  **

How is adding 2 universities and allowing students and the work force to connect to two major metropolitan areas not beneficial to both the univiersities and metros?

 

Adding 1 stop in North Houston to get IAH/Spring/Woodlands plus having 2nd stop in BCS, and a 3rd in Waco.. That's approximately 40 miles of additional track.

 

Their site says Houston to Dallas in 90 minutes.

If you do the math.. an extra 40 miles adds 12 minutes

 

** The rail is supposed to compete with Southwest Airlines and one of the pros is not havign to deal with parking miles away, half hr security lines, etc etc.. The rail loses a big positive for anyone in N/NW houston if it takes just as long to get to the train that the benefit of not dealing with the pre flight crap is neutralized. Having more than 1 location in the destination cities makes sense.

 

All of your arguments are valid, but it's all about that first push. Baby steps dude. Baby steps! With something this big rarely can you go in full force. One toe into the tub......not a cannonball!

EDIT: Plus many of those places can be connected via commuter rail later on. When I was in Europe even large population centers didn't always have EuroStars. Sometimes you had to to take intermediate connections to get to the one you want. That's the true power of a very good Transit system. It doesn't have to go everywhere. It just has to be flexible enough to get you to that next destination so you can then move onto the next one after that.

aww I apologized and everything in that post too ;( darn you bachanon! DARN YOUUUUUUU!

from Cohens  enewsletter

Community Considers High-Speed Rail Proposal

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) and the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) are preparing an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) on a proposal by Texas Central Railway to create a high-speed rail line connecting Dallas and Houston. Both of the two routes currently under consideration include portions of District C neighborhoods. While Council Member Cohen supports high-speed rail as a transit option, she opposes locating the route within close proximity to residential neighborhoods. Two community groups will host public meetings to discuss the proposal before the public comment period on the EIS ends January 9th, 2015. The first of these meetings will be hosted by Super Neighborhood 22, which represents the Washington/Memorial Corridor:

SN 22 Public Meeting: High-Speed Rail Proposal

Thursday, December 18th, 6PM

Houston Council on Alcohol and Drugs

303 Jackson Hill, 77007

(MAP)

Super Neighborhood 12, which represents the greater Oak Forest/Garden Oaks area, will host a follow-up meeting in January. Questions and comments on the proposal should be submitted to the FRA and TxDOT.

The only reason they oppose it is because they automatically assume that Train = lots of noise, Train = huge potential for it to explode or derail.

All of those are only associated with regular freight lines! Lets hope that TCR has incredible PR to show the spotless operation record that this train has in Japan in areas of HIGHER density, and the fact that it is virtually quiet.

....or we can just oppose it because we don't like change because change is bad -.-

I don't want to read this thread again unless it includes the rendering.

And Urbannizer heard his plea and proclaimed: I shall post renderings......whenever they feel like providing them.... But I will when they do *in a god like voice*

So this has been going on swamplot for a little while now. I think it's pretty clever lol.

What is your favorite Houston Design Cliche of 2014? Any specific examples of your "fav" ?

http://swamplot.com/favorite-houston-design-cliche-the-official-2014-ballot/2014-12-11/ 

Wouldn't the sound of a train though not be a draw? lol

The problem is not with swtsig's insight. We all appreciate his opinions because of the field he is in, but I don't care about real estate, the oil industry, etc.... I only care about one thing and that's Architecture and because this building is still scheduled to go up I think thats a topic worth discussing rather than all the industries that circle it because at the end of the day that's what this forum is about, Architecture. Everything else goes into it and it has too for it to get off the ground, but the fun thing about architecture is that it can be discussed without all those things and be touched on purely for architectures sake which I think is sometimes missed here. If I want to talk real estate then I will go somewhere to talk real estate. If I want to talk about oil then I will go somewhere to talk about oil. Hell architect's thrive on surrounding themselves with experts from other fields because by default we are generalist by nature. I really do appreciate swtsig's insight on the matter, but it's the timing of the insight. I mean the project literally just begun and already he foretells of it's impeding doom and that's a bit daft. Now if the project got canceled and you have insider info on why, how, and what then that's the perfect time to play that card, but why now? Why not shelve comments like that until they actually happen and for now discuss the actual project, the actual building?! This isn't for this thread either it should be for all of them. Just because you have the opinion at hand doesn't mean you have to use it. Many of these kinds of assessments are untimely and purely speculative. When the spaghetti hits the fan then we will deal with that then. By being a professional you should know when it is best to properly display your knowledge of a particular topic because since you do work in that field your comments hold weight!

you're the only one being dramatic here... i was just making a comment about the project's likelihood.

 

whether you want to hear it or not a lot of these projects will get shelved. it's a reality. it's fact. get used to it. no one is looking for pity; rather we're trying to shed some insight. need you reminding that this is the GOING UP section.... discussing whether or not these projects actual GO UP is a fairly relevant topic.

 

i have better things to do than go in cirlces talking about projects that will never see the light of day... ymmv though.

Look if you want to waste your time talking about all the numbers of ways a project will never get built, never will see the light of day then go ahead my friend.

Lol Urbanizzer will be out of the job with that attitude. Oh what would he do with his day!

I'll be over here talking about what we can build, what we might build, what we should, could, would build, what they say we couldn't build, but we did it anyway, and could never be built.....but would be awesome if it did.

So I agree with you. Lets better utilize our time to discuss this project which is currently being built and will see the light of day because as I see it....it's still "going up". The day it gets put into your dreaded 'canceled column' we will mourn the lose of what could have been great....and then quickly discuss the fabulous future of what will be next.

Also technically a large portion of these projects might not see the light of day, there are thousands that never leave boards that most people here never ever hear about, but that makes them unworthy of discussion? Unworthy of our attention? Unworthy of inspection/analysis? Unworthy of our time? I don't know if you have noticed, but architecture is a business of potential, hypothetical, theoretical. We don't deal in absolute's or guarantees (the insurance company does that ). I'm sorry that it's not a sure thing from which you feel like you can properly waste your time on. Because we all know that when you are on the internet you are doing something that isn't wasting your time... Why are you on an architecture forum then? That's just baffling.

as of a few weeks ago i was told this one was still moving forward but we've seen one hell of a decline in crude even since then... let's see what happens.

...yeah because they are just bulldozing everything just for the fun of it, right?

I'll post something either tomorrow or later this afternoon.

Oh well, we can't get mad at them for trying something new.

Agreed. They certainly pulled all the stops, but luckily their hasty decision didn't put them in a precarious position. Some might say this design choice tittered on the edge a little and just fell flat, but I would have to disagree with such a jump to conclusions. Certainly the designers would not exhibit such a gaping pit in their logic from which a person could toss a vehicle full of malice.

I wonder if they could move the house to another lot? They also need to do some serious road infrastructure if they are going to drop more multi-family/mixed-use.

I don't know why, but it gives me an Egyptian feel, weird. The ground level design seems to give it a very lively feel. I dig it.

I'm surprised with the lack of a single unifying clarity, in terms of style, over the last decade that we haven't seen a sort of return to the Battle of the Styles of which consumed the architectural discourse before the rise of Modernism (which I really hope doesn't happen as that was complete chaos!). I can slightly see where you pick up an "Egyptian feel" I think it has to do with the vertical nature of the building and the brick patterns, but it looks more like a splice between Neo Deco, and early Modern.

Building needs a hell lot of TLC, but you are right. In the right hands it could really pop. I like how the large Mid Main development is preserving the smaller stores that are next to it on Alabama & Main and Winbern & Main. Probably the only area of Midtown that has some character.

Drove by this morning and demolition has begun! The first to go was the old funeral home (the white building with the faux classical columns).

Do we have a master plan for the surrounding area?

I know right? It's when you really know that post-modernism has gotten a little out of hand...

I agree. It totally clashed with the rest of the architecture...

Almost all major newspapers will have a kind of dumby site in lieu to the real thing which you will need to pay for. When you do pay for it, from what I hear, the content is quite good and fleshed out.

Lets also remember that the Chronicle was one of the first to move from Newspapers to mostly Online. While not every article like in every newspaper or opinion column in paper or tv, it does do a decent job of covering Houston and other areas of town. It also does just good enough for articles to be picked up nationally and I do see chron articles mentioned in reddit feeds frequently.

The biggest problem is that they have succumbed to the same problems most other journalist have, and that is the quickened pace of putting out articles just so they can be "first" rather than verifying sources, or correcting grammar, or what's worse is when you are trying to type articles up so quickly you own biases and inclinations will start to seep through instead of a more neutral informative article some major articles feel as if they have an agenda.

The biggest improvements they can make is by disabling comments on general news topics and restricting it to only opinion pieces. CNN has done this on their website. At one point you could comment on almost every article, but then it just turns into a cesspool of racism, trolling, and downright despicable opinions. Of course CNN has also done the most terrible thing ever which is literally becoming the reporters of "Twitter News" *facepalm*

When you put it up against other papers it's about the norm with current journalistic trends and attitudes. The great paradigm shift will be when cable/satellite tv takes inevitable plunge which will then kill the 24 news cycle as we know it and then you get news which has to survive purely for it's journalist merits rather than just.....omg we have like 8hrs of programming we have fill.....quick make up something! Of course it could create a feeding frenzy where news becomes so bit sized to get out stories quickly that it becomes insignificant.....but I'll take the former than the latter. Again I think the death of TV will be the big change when it comes to problems stated above.

Alright I don't really want to divert this to another topic, but the only way to bring the train below grade is to reroute the entire drainage creek that runs along side it from Buffalo Bayou to Brays Bayou. It can be done, and should be done, but man that would be expensive. It's an option that should always be on the table. The biggest problem is also Afton Oaks. They are the biggest stalwarts to real progressive redevelopment in that whole area. Which funny because it's not like they are trying to stop general construction, just construction that they feel goes against their suburban attitudes.

Now when I said before that this area is pretty upscale and so non-diversity is ok here because it will make the area rather distinct, I think that whatever happens to that Target or other bigbox stores in the area should be turned into market centers of mixed-use more inclined to those with modest to slightly affluent income so it balances the area out.

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2014/12/dolce-gabba-intermix-and-others-to-open-in-luxury-development/

Thats a pretty impressive lineup... Lots of diversity in those stores and restaurants and the movie theater will be huge for that area in terms of foot traffic for all those other stores. While I was going to knock it for less diversity in terms of income variety in retail.....lets not kid ourselves here. This is meant to be a draw for upscale living and intends to draw a particular clientele. It knows what it is and is really trying to hit it hard.

Why the hell are we talking about oil, possible recessions, and OPEC nations, in a thread about an East End Midrise? (not just here by the way, but it's happening everywhere!) Just because oil prices drop below $70 doesn't mean this has to be discussed in EVERY thread ad nauseam! Especially those of you doom and gloom guys who at every chance a potential shortfall/crisis happens you see it as a pass to spell doom for a project and it's disgusting. Get over yourselves already.....Leave the over-analysis and sensationalism to the much maligned 24hr News Cycle. 

There was lots of activity on the site this morning! Looked like a lot of electricians and civil workers getting everything ready for demolition.

Isn't this near the neo-deco strip center on Washington?

Isn't this near the neo-deco strip center on Washington?