Jump to content

mattyt36

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,269

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by mattyt36

  1. mattyt36
    Allusion to water being up to the ceiling the next time White Oak Bayou floods?
  2. mattyt36
    Well they took some license with that advertising, didn't they?
  3. mattyt36
    It's a bit more intricate than that if you look at pages 13-16 of the PDF (document pages 20-26): https://www.centralhouston.org/filer/0/1615334642/470/ The plan suggested pretty major roadway modifications in Downtown, Midtown, and EaDO, probably akin to the recent Bagby Street redux: Create a trail with a generous pedestrian path, an amenity zone, and a two-way bikeway. Paving, materials, and patterns should be high-quality and consistent to brand the trail. In fact, Pierce was one of the key streets identified. But thanks for posting this as it is just now clicking with me that the cap park isn't flush with the GRB (probably due to the interchanges), but rather it will be from the center of the GRB to 3 blocks north of MMP, which is much bigger than what I expected. Should make the lots north of MMP more valuable and a logical place for additional residential development.
  4. mattyt36
    From the article: "Baumgardner and SWA Houston are the designers behind Buffalo Bayou Park and GRB Plaza. They were tasked with figuring out options for Pierce Elevated." My question: Tasked by whom? As that makes a difference in how "serious" it is. Good to hear. (Doesn't seem like an ideal place for hill sprints šŸ¤£)
  5. mattyt36
    As you said, itā€™s all in the use of the word ā€œconversionā€ā€”you donā€™t tear down something youā€™re going to ā€œconvert.ā€ Seems pretty clear they limited themselves from going back to the Downtown Living Initiative approach for new construction and are focusing now only on conversion. Perhaps a refreshed, less ā€œrichā€ DLI could be launched at some point in the near future, as one would think it shouldnā€™t cost as much to entice additional development now that the area is much more ā€œprovenā€ for residential development. Concepts for the Sakowitz conversion will definitely be interesting to see. Hopefully we are about to start a third wave of residential construction after the 1990s Rice/loft conversion, then the DLI, now this. šŸ¤ž
  6. mattyt36
    Well one can only assume (hope?) the 901 Main St would be restored to the original exterior--look at those windows! Would make a unique place to live in. Just will need lots of noise insulation. Image courtesy of @Urbannizer from this thread:
  7. mattyt36
    I have admittedly not been there for a while, other than driving by--it seemed very lightly used. But maybe it is a roll of the die. Bagby Park has turned around thanks to La Calle--could you be thinking of that? Hopefully the LaCalle rebuild only takes two months as advertised.
  8. mattyt36
    The Houston Spaceport is unique--it's intended to be more of a development/industry hub than a major center for spaceflight operations, at least not in this phase. Indeed. It's certainly breathing new life into what was a long dormant employment driver for the area.
  9. mattyt36
    If people are so wedded to this Sky Park, wouldn't a compromise alternative be to just leave like 2-3 blocks up instead of the whole length of Pierce downtown? Maybe integrate this shorter section into the "Green Loop" somehow?
  10. mattyt36
    But the "they" is finite, and if "they" decide to start going to one of the shiny new parks, you risk the existing infrastructure becoming "forgotten." In general this is a frustration I have always had about Houston--very little coordinated development and they all compete against each other, I guess as a side effect of zoning. You get a development like Post in one place, then East River a couple miles away, then the Autry Park and Regent Square stuff a couple miles away in the opposite direction. We go from nothing to four or five similar developments in a relatively short period of time. Downtown residential spread over Market Square, around Minute Maid, and on the south end. It just seems it would've been more impactful if the development were centralized and radiated out. But I suppose I shouldn't complain. And I hope I'm wrong. Guess it's called the "Green Loop"--see https://www.centralhouston.org/filer/0/1615334642/470/, page 13 of the PDF. I haven't seen that it is anything other than a conceptual plan, but, then again, so is the Pierce Skypark.
  11. mattyt36
    I've said this many moons ago and it wasn't well received, but the one thing that concerns me is that we may be going overboard with parks here after years of not having much. It is going to cost a lot to maintain Disco Green, the new cap park, Trebly Park, Market Square Park, Lynn Wyatt Square, Buffalo Bayou Park, not to mention the proposed greenbelt and now the Pierce Elevated Park. If they're not all regularly teeming with people, I just fear they will become overrun with homeless or become neglected and turn into something more like Tranquility Park or Midtown Park. Not to mention, who in the heck wants to go walking around the Pierce Elevated for 6 months a year without any tree cover. (There's the same problem with the Post Skylawn.)
  12. mattyt36
    Great intel, Houston19514
  13. mattyt36
    I apologize for being more than a month behind and thinking I had news! šŸ¤£
  14. mattyt36
    Moxy signage is up.
  15. mattyt36
    How about Opening Day?
  16. mattyt36
  17. mattyt36
    Sounds like now is the time to have conceptual renderings then! (I doubt the 11-month development "starting" timeline requires them to actually "move dirt" in that timeframe, but rather reach a certain design milestone that would allow them to obtain some permits or financing, etc. Regardless that which City Council has granted, it can grant again with an extension of the development period.)
  18. mattyt36
    @Montrose1100 summarized it If transit is included somehow in the above, I assume only from the perspective of trade value (e.g., purchasing more rolling stock). The truth of the matter is Houston's economy has not been a great performer pretty much since the JCPOA with Iran was signed and became effective on 1/1/16--ESPECIALLY when compared to Dallas and Austin. We're now starting year 7 of this post-oil-bust period and have lost a lot of ground. As I recall, we used to have the fourth (or maybe even third) largest gross regional product of any US MSAs, which meant we really punched above our weight as being only the 7th largest by population. We've fallen quite a bit. If this index relies heavily on trade value, I would expect that value to vary considerably based upon the price of oil. I'm sure next year we'll go up in the rankings (or whenever it measures 2022 data. Your article is dated 2/17/22, with data delays, especially when considering the fact that one has to get data from however many countries, I have a feeling it was probably based on 2020 data.) Most of these rankings seem to me to be one-dimensional but boy do they make good clickbait. The truth of the matter is Houston is widely known as the "Energy Capital of the World," which should be more "revealing" than any of this sort of measurement--try filling in the blank for "__________ Capital of the World" with Dallas, Austin, Philadelphia, etc.
  19. mattyt36
    Seems strange not to announce something ahead of the 2024 season on the momentum of the World Series victory purely for marketing purposes . . . it's not like they have to move dirt any time soon.
  20. mattyt36
    Yeah, that'll definitely do it. Nothing like a local BRT line to elevate a city's ranking largely measuring trade and degree of globalization.
  21. mattyt36
    I feel like W Hotels were overrated from Day 1. As far as I'm concerned, getting a W here would just send the message we are 10 years behind. I may be wrong, maybe there is a refreshed W concept that would be better, but the original one, just plasticky kitsch.
  22. mattyt36
    I'm even more interested in the probability that the details on this get announced before Opening Day.
  23. mattyt36
    Strange placement for team store considering where the "Ballpark Village" will be (still not liking the silence on this one!), but I guess there weren't a lot of options.
  24. mattyt36
    There are no new passengers by definition! Transportation is a derived demand!
  25. mattyt36
    Well thereā€™s that, too, now that you mention it. šŸ™ƒ Structurally integral underground cables on adjacent blocks? Iā€™m no engineer but rings hollow to me.
×
×
  • Create New...