quietstorm

The District looks to be close to opening.  Furniture and signage is in place.  This is in the Chase garage building, across the street from the Rice and the new Hines tower at 609 Main.

 

Still much work to be done inside Morningside Thai, but they are busting their asses and working on it late. Window decals are up.

 

Is this from the District 7 Grill folks?

The Buffalo Bayou Grand Opening is October 3rd.

 

http://buffalobayou.org/event/bbpark-grand-opening/

 

 

Go to downtown Fort Worth. The Bass family pays for private security to police downtown, and as a result it's very nice, and far safer than most major downtowns.

 

IMO, downtown Fort Worth is a great example of planned urbanism similar to that of City Centre, et. al....the area is vibrant, family friendly and diverse; although imo, it doesn't reflect a "sense of place" anymore than Sugar Land/Pearland/Woodlands Town Centers, The Domain in Austin, etc.  So, I'm not sure the town center-type development route would give Houston the organic urban feel befitting the fourth and fastest growing city in the nation.  

 

However, I do believe that there are lessons ( free parking lots courtesy of the Bass family also :-) that can be learned from the Fort Worth plan that would give our downtown (which is a LOT less vibrant than Fort Worth's at the moment) the needed push to transform.

As an area resident, I am happy to see this.

Cool photo from Russell:

 

Sunrise by russell.hancock, on Flickr

 

Love the juxtaposition of the geometric shapes.

Complete snoozefest. Am I the only one who gets annoyed hearing a monotone voice with a slight lisp saying "Houston" as if it were a name drop a million times with fun facts found in tourist video from 10 years ago?

No?

Why did I expect more? Trick question. Conventions are lame. Gun Show, Boat Show, Car Show, Wedding Expo, yawn yawn yawn. I've worked some and I've been to more than I'd like to admit. Welcome to the late 90's Houston. We did it!

(Yeah I know some business expos are slightly more interesting if you're interested in your industry, but I don't fancy those either).

I understand your point, but I suspect the dollars these events bring to the city are the focus rather than the wow factor of the events themselves.  With the revamped convention district, those who attend the conventions, expos, etc. will have an opportunity to engage in a more lively downtown atmosphere rather than wandering aimlessly looking for something to "do" outside of Discovery Green amid the vast surface parking lots and half-empty Green Street.

 

Also, those quilters are a pretty lively bunch :-) 

Dallas street reconstruction started a few weeks back

In case you're wondering about the final product:

http://downtownhouston.org/site_media/uploads/attachments/2015-03-06/150304_SDSI_Streetscape_Plan.pdf

Here is the location.

On 5/15/2015 at 3:29 PM, Naviguessor said:

Its the roof top of the Harris County Jury assembly center, or something. It won awards, I believe.

 

Yes, it's on top of the county's "jury processing center"....it's a rather nice building before potential jurists are "cattled" into the basement area below.  The plaza area itself is stark.

 

 

I agree, though it probably wasn't really worth investing a lot of money into that site. Pretty seedy part of downtown with all the courts and homeless people around, and it's not like there would of been much economic development from it. I see one vacant site, catty corner to the "park". And who's going to want to build residential with those surroundings, or an office tower without a tunnel connection. Not many incentives to make it a decent park.

I've been there a couple times for jury duty. There are hundreds of folks from all over the city there each day. IMO a plaza would be welcome during jury/lunch breaks. Folks go to court for various reasons and not all reasons are nefarious. There is no reason why this area representing our city and county judicial system should be neglected.

So sad that they are planning to tear down the original Quad dorms. I think they could easily repurpose them and offer them as a less-expensive option than Cougar Village/Cougar Place. The arms race at colleges is getting down right ridiculous. The new dorms at UH are so much nicer than those I saw at Rollins, Eckerd, USC, Claremont-McKenna, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine, and a few other schools I just took my nephew to on his college search.

 

I think UH has to have nicer dorms to attract students, whereas other schools may not.  My daughter is at UT and Jester, is still well...Jester.  Not much has changed since my husband and I were there in the 80's....Private dorms/housing is pretty nice, though.  Our son will be at Stanford in the fall...the dorms are are not "nice" there either....I live near UH and love what it is doing to transform/rebrand itself into an top tier public urban campus, in terms of academics and facilities.  "Go Coogs"!

With all of the new residential coming in a Trader Joe's would absolutely kill along Dallas.  Plus they utilize a small footprint so they could probably squeeze in.  I could also see something along the lines of a deli working.  

 

Love the idea of a Trader Joe's, but wonder if a location along Dallas would be too close to Phoenicia. I think a Trader Joe's near Market Square Park would help to nicely balance DT grocery options. The former Georgia's Market space might be a bit too small, but would, IMO be an awesome location for a Trader Joe's and would be an interesting compliment to the rumored UHD housing, bars along Main and residential coming around Market Square.. 

@lockmat I definitely understand your frustration. It's interesting that retailers like Zara, H&M, etc. either weren't courted or had no interest in Green Street, especially given that Forever 21 was one of the first tenants.  IMO a Zara seems like a 'no brainer' for attracting downtown office workers, much like Foley's/Macy's did in its heyday.

I believe that the success of Discovery Green disproves the assertion that DT isn't 'family oriented'. Many of the scheduled events in addition to the water features, seasonal ice skating and play areas are definitely child/family focused and packed with children and families on weekdays (school field trips) and weekends.

 

What I love about DG is the multigenerational appeal of the place.  There is something for everyone and speaks to one of Houston's strengths....its diversity.  IMO, Discovery Green is vibrant because it doesn't cater to one single group (e.g, young professionals).

http://issuu.com/sdeita/docs/reshapinghoustondowntown_for_issuu__43d1e9ce8af7b8

 

 

 

 

Nice, but are those people "walking on water"?

Awesome crane action

The problem is that HISD is completely unreasonable when it comes to their sqft pricing. They are way behind the times in terms of the costs it takes to build a school and to build it very well with decent to good materials. Conroe ISD on the other hand is very flexible and understands what the market is and at the same time is willing to invest in the materials necessary for the job. HISD just doesn't want to spend the money. They are in for a rude awakening when they get all these kids 10 years from now from milennials and gen Y who actually expect their inner city schools to be on par or above those of their suburban peers. Hopefully by then the old guard who were satisfied with provided lower quality schools to inner city kids (mostly minorities) will be replaced by more forward thinking individuals who actually want to provide better schools for every race of people who live in the inner cities. The interesting thing is when the wealth flips from suburb to inner city. Will we see the same thing that happened to inner city schools last century take place in the suburbs?

 

@Luminare

 

Do you think the HISD schools built what this last bond proposal were poor quality?  I ask because my kids went to Lockhart Elementary, Lanier Middle School and Carnegie Vanguard High School.  Each of these schools represents a very different dynamic.  Lockhart is predominately black and in Third Ward.  Their new facility was built a few years ago and doesn't appear to be poor quality, but I'm not sure about the building materials.  Lanier is an old building, but is still considered a "good" school; while the new Carnegie Vanguard moved from Sunnyside to Midtown and has become even more desirable.  A friend's daughter is #998 on the wait list. I'm wondering if building materials at Carnegie are any better, or if a school's zip code causes folks to presume building quality.

I seriously doubt the high-end luxury retailers would give up their west side locations for Downtown. I mean, a city like New York only has 2 Chanel locations (and we are light years away).

 

I can see affordable middle class options opening up Downtown, the kind of stores you see in suburban shopping malls. It's already happened with just a hand full at Green Street. I don't see why the stores would necessarily have to close shop to open Downtown. While Downtown has a few multi-million dollar condos,  it has no where near the money power of the Galleria. 

 

Certain stores can it make it that close. All they need is the demographics and the population. Look at Memorial City and the Galleria. Downtown +/- that close.

I agree that stores like Target, Bath and Body Works, Marshall's, etc. would work well downtown.  

I seriously doubt the high-end luxury retailers would give up their west side locations for Downtown. I mean, a city like New York only has 2 Chanel locations (and we are light years away).

 

I can see affordable middle class options opening up Downtown, the kind of stores you see in suburban shopping malls. It's already happened with just a hand full at Green Street. I don't see why the stores would necessarily have to close shop to open Downtown. While Downtown has a few multi-million dollar condos,  it has no where near the money power of the Galleria. 

 

Certain stores can it make it that close. All they need is the demographics and the population. Look at Memorial City and the Galleria. Downtown +/- that close.

 

I agree that options like the ones you see in Meyerland (e.g. Target) or a suburban 'Town Center' would work well. IMO DT Houston has the capacity to support a Bath and Body Works, Marshall's, Home Goods, etc.  Stores you find in the strip center on Grey would work well, I think.

 

Incidentally, I was in downtown Fort Worth recently and saw a White House/Black Market there. BTW, downtown Fort Worth is really nice and I think a "sleeper" area in terms of growth and development in the state.

I found out some 'disturbing' information about this project. One of the CEO's of the company paid between $375,000 and $500,000 to have a 40 inch diameter tree moved on the property and have it replanted next to his window. The person, a contractor/friend, told me that and I can assure you, he is in the know...

 

If that is true, shame on them. They make a huge stink about their profits tanking with oil prices but they have money for this.

 

I doubt this...my mother worked for Exxon then 'ExxonMobil' (the old timers refused to call it that) for 30 years and always talked about how 'frugal' (i.e., cheap) the company was .

This is such a travesty.  Every day I look out my window, see the beautiful old building, and then see it flanked by those hideous gray ~1980s monstrosities.  If anything they should tear down the gray buildings, not the old building.

 

At the very least they should leave the façade and build the new building behind it.  That's fairly common in Europe, to keep the historical feel while still being modern.

 

Interesting idea to keep the facade and build new behind that.  Reagan High School in the Heights did something similar, I believe. 

I agree that an Apple store, Zara and H&M would do well here.  The fact that CityCentre getting an H&M and Greenstreet hasn't been able to bring that type of retail  DT is a mystery to me.

This is all good and dandy, but Im with Utterlyurban, if we dont land any major, blue chip retailers on this strip, this is a bunch of money wasted for nothing, kind of like the Houston Pavilions acroas the street....

Not to be so negative, but Im wary of them being able to make this work, such a bad location and the epic fail that drips off the pavilions is going to ooze across Dallas unless they do this absolutely correct, with super wide sidewalks, Manhattan style GFR, BRILLIANT LIGHTING AND SIGNAGE (can we change that stupid ordinance already?), and some major foor traffic retailers (Apple store, Macys, Bloomingdales, Zara, H&M)

Hopefully, the spayed and neutered version of Hotel Allessandra will shock some life into that 3 block lump of failure known as Greenstreet.


FINGERS CROSSED!!!

 

I beg to differ.

If they had built the original plan, none of the retail would be empty.

With a hotel, office building, and apartment building directly above the pavilions, they would have had a built in comsumer base around the clock.

Im sure the reason the retail failed was lack of foot traffic, coupled with every business that tried to make it there failed, and also, they picked some really lame retail (Books-A-Million anyone?)

Well now, as one of our HAIF posters pointed out a while back, they are basically building the original plan, with Alessandra to the west and the Marlow flanking greenstreet to the east.

So lets see what happens after Marlow and Alessandra build out, Im sure at that point it will be far easier to lure reatilers in at that point....

 

I tend to think that the retail choices or lack of interest by certain retailers (e.g., H&M) is the primary reason for the failure.  Forever 21 has done well despite lack of built in foot traffic.  I would venture that similar concepts such as Zara and H&M that one traditionally sees in proximity to Forever 21 in other cities would've helped. 

Interesting news...curious as to what retail will come.