WesternGulf

Making a Houston Riverwalk won't solve anything.

Of course not and I really do not believe that is what anyone is trying to get across. We nickname Houston the Bayou City although we have not embraced life on one of our few geographical feautures while this city has grown. We struggle to come up with identities for this city that are now a dime a dozen across this great country and Buffalo Bayou, Houston's birthplace, is no different although it did not have to be that way. We can only imagine what our city would look like if the city was actually built around our bayous and maybe our identity wouldn't be in so much of a crisis. My point is, it is sad we our just now realizing what potential our city could have been and now all we could do is salivate at some visions drawn out by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership and hope it will all be done in the next 20 years. Note this is in no way belittling the efforts made by the Buffalo Bayou Partnership to bring attention to the bayou.

Well I wouldn't say Houston is a laughing stock - at least I hope not. And like it or not, weather is going to have an impact on how cities develop.

Yeah and our architecture use to reflect our weather also until we thought underground tunnels were better than having awnings over retail like the Rice Hotel and FOLEY's building. New Orleans and Miami Beach are just as hot and humid as Houston but it does not keep everyone indoors.

I wish they would open an Apple store. I know it won't happen, but I can dream can't I?

I like to see these type of stores in urban settings because they can get pretty creative on their street presence and how they use their store fronts. Hopefully Houston's Downtown retail district is not confined to this area around the Pavilions. I would love to see how an H&M, Apple, or a Diesel would use those historic buildings with storefronts in the historic district near the Preston Station. The Byrd's Loft building has tons of potential for retail spaces like that and so does the space next door, if that hasn't been filled up yet. I haven't been paying attention.

From this it looks like Chicago is having its share of preservation issues too.

Oh lord!

I agree that the Pavilions would have been a little more self sufficient if there were actual residents on the property 24/7, the hotel would have helped also, but I do not believe it will be "Bayou Place South" simply because of its location. There are NO residents that live in the vicinity of Bayou Place and the I-45 location is not exactly inviting either which makes it a pretty dead spot in downtown. Pavilions will not succeed on its own. That is why I like the fact that there will be other soft good retail places opening in the near vicinity. The only reason this area of downtown is not the safest is because there was no Houston Pavilions there to begin with. I am looking at what Houston Pavilions will spur in its vicinity. Too bad most of the historic commercial buildings were torn down and replaced with office buildings with nothing but lobby space on the bottom floors so we will be limited on how much retail will open around the Pavilions. By the way Disco Green does not seem as connected to this development as some make it out to be. That's just my opinion.

there's already parking out front.

I see that. I am just saying if this building was not in the strip form format of mixed use and there was retail on say a 8-10 foot wide sidewalk, would one be able to parallel park on OST?

What was Cathedral Gateway again? Never heard of it.

I believe it was all part of the Downtown Development Framework 2025 as a community around the new cathedral. I even believe there were plans to create a diagnol street in downtown where the cathedral would dead end the street at the end. If I am not mistaken I believe Cathedral Gateway was propsed by Morris Architects.

I must say the bell tower did the trick. I was not feeling the modern aroma this place was giving off, but the tower made for a nice addition. Atleast it looked nice when going to classes this morning and looking at it from the Pierce elevated. By the way whatever happened to the mixed use the Cathedral Gateway that was suppose to be next door on the Downtown Transit Center station? Insiders?

Interesting report. It would be nice to have a city ordinance that called for better land use when building in a (pick a number) block radius of any rail line in the city. With this being Houston, developers will probably avoid those blocks while the boom would happen on the edges of that radius.

I like the recessed lower floors. The overhang would give pedestrians shelter from the sun.

Ditto. I wish more Houston buildings of the 70's and 80's would have practiced this. Would have been a smart and cheaper practice in hot and humid Houston than building out the tunnel system with the ground floor retail one floor below ground in every building.

DT LA may not have your Starbucks, Sephora, Coldwater Creek, and Williams Sonoma type retail but the experience that is found on Broadway is overwhelming. There are a lot of historic buildings that need to be rennovated that house a lot of flea market type retail offerings that brings out the folks of East LA.

i will be a hater......pete's dancing marlin has closed.....seems their employess weren't informed of the closure. downtown is sure is DOWN. this was one of the few original businesses left.

I admit I have not been to this place in a couple of months but that is some shocking news. They easily beat the Aquarium as far as seafood. It really does seem like downtown is re-inventing itself every few years for better or worse.

Well Tipping Point is finally open. Went there this afternoon to pick up some sneakers. It is a very nice store and they made the most out of the small sapce they have. Very minimalistic interior design inside almost like a musuem space complete with a lowrider bike in the middle of the store. I thought they were kind of brave for opening so far from the Pavilions opening date but the guy working there said he believes he will benefit with more items coming in. Prices are very good for a small business.

I believe the seawall accelerated erosion.

Here are some renderings I found a while back.

Nice sketches Mister X.

Good grief, surface parking is tragic? And the solution to parking is?

Boston has gone to your head.

It's simply land use mixed with aesthetics. It is not so much that there needs to be a solution for parking, but not taking up large swaths of land for parking in a booming area like the Med Center has a simple solution which is structured parking.

"And Lewis, the asset management executive, noted the value of having a group of such stores in one place. "People say walkable retail in Houston won't work in Houston because it's too hot, but it's more about environment," Lewis said. "Climate is just one part of environment. It's more about what you're walking past and what you're walking to.

"If you're walking past little cafes and boutique shops and resale shops, you're going to walk as far as it takes you, but if you're walking to a parking lot, you'll wind up walking right back to your car."

About time someone else mentions this. There are still some people who think if there is simply a sidewalk, walking should not be a problem and the demand for walkable establishments in places like Midtown will come when people protest and walk among strip centers. Frankly I know those people just do not care about the subject, because I am sure their walking habits would not reflect that.

They're just apartments:

http://www.ediarchitecture.com/multifamily/alexankirby.html

It's interesting to me that new retail is breaking ground by a private developer...not just UH. There is retail in the bottom of the new UH parking garage (right now just Sonic and McAlister's Deli), but it seems to me it's easier for UH to subsidize development if necessary. A private developer has to have the project stand on its own merits (it has to be profitable to develop). I think it's a good sign that a private developer is taking the initiative to develop this sign. Maybe we're finally reaching that "critical mass" necessary to attract more development on and around campus.

Well that's nice to know but are you saying the land is not owned by UofH? We know what we get when we don't have regulations in place. I remember that Kinkos/Chili's/Starbucks center coog is talking about but looking at the other developments by Lovett, I was a little uninspired. The drawing looks nice on the surface though.

I'm not entirely sure this is a wise course of action. While quite a bit of foot traffic is being DRIVEN in that direction due to the foot traffic, I'm sure people overall will avoid the area unless they have to go there by necessity. I do think they might do a brisk business from some minor foot traffic from the Hyatt, Marriott, and Residence inn; but I not enough to support it.

I find it interesting that the article deemed it notable to point out that it was being set up along the rail.

Good point. Hopefully they bring attention the first week they are open. Most people who shop at Macy's never go pass Dallas but right to the rail station in front of the store. I wish it success. I sure as hell will be there a lot. With that said, they sound identical to premium goods out of brooklyn that is in the Village.

Let's drop the Aggie posts, please.

Here's a rendering from the design group's website. That brown part looks like a rusty shipping container. Is bland in again?

I like the new renderings but it is easy to tell that the "old" design would have been MCM which I particularly like. Here is a pic I took of some condos on Alabama that has the wood design.

...(as it turns out, I live on the side facing the pool so I actually receive the wireless signal in my apt...saves me about $45.00 a month on roadrunner fees:))

LOL

Midtown Market (in the retail portion of The Post).

Uh, are they still open?

OK. what's so dated about the stadium?

Excting stuff. Since it looks like UH will be an example of what regulated land use can do for an area, it might be our only hope for a true urban environment in Houston. Considering there are so many of us that are salivating for this type of urban development with continuity amongst a large area, I can only see positives for this area of town in the near future. People will no longer have to deal with the guessing game of what my neighborhood will become, i.e. Midtown. Although I will be moving to San Francisco after this upcoming semester, I will have my eye on the progress happening at ol' U of H. Thanks for that update TransitNut. I am proud we have such visionaries working for U of H. Usually when I see plans of things, I would offer my "constructive criticisms" of how to tweak them, I can say a lot of the plans are perfect and puts this area at its full potential. Love that stretch of Calhoun.