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....how dare you take Robert Downy Jr. from me D:

They would do better to just divide this building up in pieces and rebuild the entire thing in phases or maybe getting different architects to design each subsequent section. That could be interesting. The biggest change that needs to happen is to make the area more pedestrian friendly.

A. No one has said anything about the Foley house. And it's not my claim, I do not have insider information. I'm just connecting the dots based on the Foley House's disappearance from all recent renderings. Nothing more.

B. Who said they were relocating the Foley House? Or is that your claim? I didn't hear anything in regard to 'we are going to relocate this other house we aren't using'

yeah you got me

I'm going to jump right in and say that this is normal for rebar to do that before they put the form work in place to create the column. Another is just the image. It looks like the image is compressed so it's exaggerating that.

And who said they are getting rid of the other house? Or is that your claim? I didn't hear anything in regard to 'we are going to destroy this other house we aren't using.' Quite possible they will just relocate the house somewhere else. Make it a monument and call it a day.

If there was ever a hit that needed to be placed on an architect....its for that building >.>

Yeah thats on the field. Thats just shitty. The brick on the exterior is great, but yeah lets not place either building on a pedistal i think is what should be taken away from this.

this is all i can think of any time i see pictures of the renovated stadium.. its a shame they had to go with pre fab construction materials and didnt have time to build a quality brick work stadium like Baylor. the end result looks cheap.

Ok I don't understand this! Sure I wanted something more contemporary (I'm sure others did too), and sure it would have been nice if it wasn't "prefabricated panels", but what they came up with is pretty ingenious actually. Not to mention if this wasn't prefabricated then this project would have taken another year to complete with a possible whole year of football removed from the stadium.

I also don't understand this notion that "pre-fab" equals laziness or cheap. If done incorrectly it can be so, but almost every project today is done with some prefab. I mean all of what is on your construction site today is going to be "pre-fab". It's like peoples argument about "processed food" and "organic food". It's a bit silly.

Also another myth about the seams that you see. You would see the same seams on any type of masonry project. They are called control joints and they are essential in this type of wall construction. You see them on any brick wall! It's more noticable due to the scale a shear vertical nature of the towers. where most of the brick used in Baylors stadium is keep relatively lower to the ground. Furthermore lets not have a circlejerk about Baylors stadium (a stadium I really like btw...no seriously its very attractive), but lets not apply that situation to here. They are completely different buildings both built in entirely different circumstances. One is a renovation and the other is a completely new building. With a completely new building you can do different things than with a renovation. Renovation also implies that you are "redoing" parts or the whole of a building while keeping it's central integrity which is what they did. Baylor, yes, does have brick in it's stadium but it's not used in a monumental facade type way as it is being used at Kyle Field. I mean Kyle Field is almost all Brick from top to bottom while Baylor it's not. It only goes up to about halfway and then transitions into other materials. It's also not the main feature of the building while the brick facade is for Kyle Field and that's because it's suppose to feel more traditional while Baylor is more contemporary.

Sorry for the rant, but I couldn't let this get any further from the truth than where it was going. If you don't like it aesthetically then that's perfectly ok! I would rather have something different, but when you build a stadium for $450 million dollars....they aren't building it on the cheap -.- They are building it for the speed of construction and that means that certain ways of doing things aren't going to be optimal. One last thing....it's the same kind of brick. I bet my salary that both projects are using King Brick or some sort of Modular Brick, but it's all the same.

yes, but these are serious bird crap catchers.  not to mention birds nest hoarders... no one wants this downtown houston.  on with the gorgeous uplit palms!

I'm sorry monarch, but this has to be the lamest excuse to not put a kind of tree in a location....because BIRDS. That's like saying don't put grass on the ground because a dog will take a crap on it or something fabric wise because a cat will scratch it, or put a bench on the street because, lord forbid, someone will sleep on it.

I personally think palm trees are kinda useless. They don't provide much shade. and they don't provide a good way to break up a streetscape in terms of the interplay between buildings, the sidewalks, views from further away, and the street itself. The only palms I think are relevant to Houston, and streetscapes in general, are ones that are used for ground cover. Not to mention when you think of Houston...you don't think of Palm trees. Leave that to Miami or a city right on the coast.

Ok....I'm I the only one who thinks the small "Post" signs are a bit awkward and goofy lookin?

Not really a Palm tree fan. Just don't really see the connection with palms and Houston. Now Oaks and Magnolias those are Houston. Overall I like the improvements they are very subtle, but even small improvements can make a world of difference.

Stalin would be proud.

so sorry its not faux classical

This is a good one. I wouldn't go so far as to say "sophisticated", but this building speaks more to the present and I like the contemporary materials and overall composition.

The fact of the matter is that the Dallas side is simply further along in planning and so I would assume there are more details as well as traction within city government to get this moving. Give it time. There is still so much info that isn't known about the Houston end. It will get the coverage it needs when there is more stuff to cover.

More info about TCR and a new addition to the team:

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/transportation/20141124-ron-kirk-joins-dallas-houston-bullet-train-developer.ece

Look at the Dallas Morning News article. Texas Central has named a site adjacent to Union Station, just north of I-30, as one of three possibilities.

 

There's even a map.

 

The second DART LRT alignment and expansion of downtown streetcar services are DART plans, but the downtown HSR station is all Texas Central.

A diamond in the rough. Thank you, sir.

Welcome to HAIF

From my understanding they are getting back to work like the next day after the Thanksgiving game! I don't know when the actual demolition is, but it will be the next couple of weeks for sure.

I think there should be some sort of design summit of Houston architects or architect's that design in Houston to discuss potential ideas for parking podiums moving forward since it will remain a fixture of buildings for some time to come. While the objects that are protruding the podium aren't bad (kinda on the bland side though) the complete thoughtlessness that goes into podium design is ridiculous! I mean just a few blocks from my work is 3737 Weslyan and that is an example of at least an attempt to camouflage a 3 story parking podium that is within the structure itself (i'm not talking about the enormous parking garage on it's side of course). But look at this thing!

Other than that it's incredible what is going up in Midtown! I mean seriously this is a complete fundamental transformation of an entire area of town in less than 5 years! Craziness. I'm hoping that this gets one more pass through during Design Development.

Quelle surprise!  The Dallas Business Journal has a Dallas orientation!    Quick - fetch the smelling salts!   

 

In other news, the sun rose in the east this morning. 

 

The Dallas station has a particular place to go that makes tons more sense than the other locations that were in play - it's adjacent to the old, yet still in use Union Station.  The SP terminal got torn down almost 60 years ago, and not only was Union Station a "back in" design but it's also now a baseball stadium - so the decision in Houston is a bit more complex.  Given that, why wouldn't the concept for the Dallas station perhaps be a bit further along?  I have no doubt that whatever ends up getting built for Houston will certainly surpass the current Amtrak station's... ummmmm... unadorned functionality.

I also read somewhere that....get this....water is wet *faints*

Union Station for Dallas, of course, makes perfect sense and there is an enormous trend right now both in Europe and the US in transforming these older stations. Two in particular I can think of right now is the Denver Union Station which was redone by SOM, and the other is the LA Union Station transformation which Nicholas Grimshaw just got the commission for.

and today the high speed rail thread took it's obligatory Hou vs. Dal flame war tangent....

I honestly do know why this has been reported as being such a big deal for the galleria. It's just another strip center with a contemporary paint job on it...

Hell....freakin....ya! I'm sure we were all wondering when the East End would get it's own signature development. Of course holding back expectations till we get more tangible info/renderings/site plan. Lets hope though that when they mean mix-use and density that they actually mean it. Lets hope that they aim high and do a lot of careful planning and not a quick thing to get it out the door.

The other advantage with the Post Office site is that it was once the site of a Central Station. I think we all forget that on occasion and that precedent does give it an advantage.

Ok I welcomed you on another thread.

Dude don't be lazy copy/paste the same exact thing on every relevant train thread....might as well not even post at all.

Well all of those (myself included) that saw a possibliity for Houston to really get it right and have a true central station can stop hoping.  Hardy Yards first development is now under construction.

 

http://www.houstonar...project/page-12

 

The problem with this is that while the Post Office site is still available downtown, this was the only location where you could easily see the ROW to the site, as well as it easily tied into the in town transit systems (Light Rail already has a stop there and Busses could easily be added to the area).  Now any downtown station will not have convienent access to the in town rail system, it will be a several block walk through downtown.

Welcome to HAIF

I wouldn't bet on it. I think they are just keeping it open for access to the infrastructure project. Keep in mind too that even if Hardy Yard's gets redeveloped it won't be anytime soon. We haven't even heard any official announcements and even if they do go forward it won't be all of Hardy Yards. Best not to jump too conclusions. Plus this is a thread to simply design your own Houston Rail as sort of a place to show your ideas. I wouldn't weight yourself down with the thoughts of what those developers have planned....because we don't know.

Now that's what I'm talking about! Then you start flanking this with mixed-use and mid-rises and all the sudden you go something truly special in the works.