jmitch94

11 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

These seem to continue looking better than the renderings. All of this affordable housing looks pretty damn decent and is great infill. I hope the one in Midtown on Caroline looks just as good. 

Yep, nothing about this makes you think affordable housing. Nothing ground breaking but a good addition IMO. 

I’ll give them credit for not being a developer that demo’s coolish historic buildings and then doesn’t actually build anything *cough* Exxon *cough*

Any idea why that one floor hasn’t had any framing when pretty much all the others are at least weather tight. 

East Side King and Thai Kun are both from Austin too. In fact I think a large portion are not local. 

Wow this is odd and a little alarming. Hopefully they don’t drive out others. 

This garage has to be one of the tallest Ive seen. I can’t imaging having to make that many loops to get from the top to the bottom everyday. 

1 hour ago, Amlaham said:

Its actually a lot nicer than the renderings, which is a nice surprise! I like the fact that it also sits right across from another multi-story dealership.

I wish they would paint the concrete on the garage that is facing towards the freeway but other than that it’s a pretty decent addition. 

Why does it seem like downtown has so many mid rise projects that take an eternity to build. The other two currently being build are just dragging on and on and this isn’t the first time either. 

Loving the density here. 

3 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

Any updates?

Almost completely framed up. I drive by every morning but I’m driving so I can’t take pictures really :(

30 minutes ago, phillip_white said:

Just gonna go out on a limb here, but I don't think Houston needs ANY pubic transportation. 😅

My bad. I guess I would have made Freud proud with that one. 😂😂

On 1/21/2022 at 6:46 PM, august948 said:

I think it would be more accurate to say if Houston wants less parking it needs to provide transportation options that are better than privately owned vehicles. 

So… public transportation? 

2 hours ago, freundb said:

You guys seem to be getting personally offended by this simple comparison. Its just a little fun fact

Haha exactly. Like I get it guys, Houston isn’t a 500 year old Italian town. I never said we should be either. It’s just a simply way to show the two extremes of urban development. On one side is a city where it is next to impossible to live without a car and the majority of public space is dedicated to cars, and the other where it’s nearly impossible to own and use a car.

23 hours ago, aachor said:

I'm pretty sure that interchange can move a lot more people, goods, and wealth than that medieval town can. Which is probably why Texas has a per-capita GDP nearly twice that of Italy's.

Some of us just have different priorities. I don’t see a city maxing out it’s GDP as the most important metric for a city. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to a degree. 

28 minutes ago, iah77 said:

I think they think if we get rid of freeways we will magically have a beautiful city like Sienna complete with medical churches and olive groves... 

No, believe it or not I am capable of understanding that Houston will never be a medieval European city. I’m just saying that maybe we should stop using the same solutions that are not working simply because there are decades of inertia behind them. Maybe we cater the infrastructure to the needs of the people in the city instead of prioritizing suburbs.  

14 minutes ago, august948 said:

Exactly.  The problem you have to watch out for, other than using a portion of the data to present things in a certain light, is that there are other factors at play.

That’s called induced demand and is exactly why expanding freeways in like adding a hole on your belt to cure your obesity. 
 

You’re right I guess I can only compare Houston to Houston. Comparing one city to another is definitely apples to oranges. And don’t come back with the whole Europe was built before the automobile and America wasn’t because they tore down huge swathes of dense urban centers during the urban revival movement of the mid 20th century. 

“Keep calm and frac on” must mean whatever burns the most oil is the best solution. 

This pretty much sums up generally what I dislike about mega freeways. They prohibit walkability and create a fractured non contiguous city that encourages people to use cars as their only mode of transport. 

I think he meant awful in the, “this is a horrid waste of space/resources and it divides a city in two and is emblematic of our terrible public transportation and is the antithesis of good urban planning”

6 hours ago, shasta said:

Uh...No. We have some of the worse infrastructure and planning of any major world city that claims to be "alpha status".

We desperately need some kind of city plan, or vision, or we will continue to have have haphazard developments , some quality, but surrounded by poor sidewalks, no connectivity, even ditches a block or two over. .....quite pathetic

The strategy for Houston, and most of Texas, is to pass on the costs of infrastructure on to the developer. You want this development YOU help pay for the sidewalk upgrades, etc...no coincidence they are doing sidewalk and street upgrades right now around Regent Square and the Hanover project.

I'd love to se the actual breakdown of who paid for that.  The city of Houston sometimes applies fro Federal money for improvements...but this is Texas so they do so lightly because those sitting in the Capitol Building in Austin do not like that move.

Texas even rejects federal funds that were GIVEN to us (i.e. Tom DeLay rejecting light rail funding). The joke is on us because THOSE funds just go to competitor cities that gladly take the federal funds that taxpayers ALREADY have paid for...

It will be very interesting to see how Texas handles President Biden's Infrastructure Bill....so we ACCEPT the federal funds earmarked for improvements in Texas or do we REJECT the funding out of political pride and grandstanding?

You know damn well that the major cities in Texas will not see a single cent of that money. All of it will be funneled to rural areas because that is where the state governments voter base is and “big city bad.”

Looks terrible in my opinion. 

Does anyone know when they plan to start with the street improvements? The streets around this project are in atrocious conditions and are downright dangerous for pedestrians to use. 

When are the upper floors planned to be built out? When I drive by at night it looks like the upper two floors are still empty shells waiting to be built out. 

Other than this development do we have any other towers downtown that are proposed but not under construction yet? 

It looks like a protective film that is over the cladding to protect it during install. 

I believe that some of those lots are owned my a Malaysian company that has no plans to sell or develop them unfortunately.  

4 hours ago, wilcal said:

Half block of surface parking converted to something else is a win. 

A surface parking lot has potential to be something decent. This will be a storage unit facility that adds nothing to the community and will be that for decades and decades.