Montrose1100

6 minutes ago, arche_757 said:

This view has changed only a little since 2001!  A shame Ballpark Place never was realized 😂 😂 

Everything in that picture is new since 2001 (except for the building across the street and the defunct square concrete jail)?

Plus all the beautiful additional advertisements in the ballpark. 

Didn't we have a HAIF Meet at this place like 10 years ago?

Austin has an new edge that Houston and Dallas don't. On the flip side, Houston and Dallas have gravity that Austin will never. Pick which one works for you. That being said, we all froze just the same this year. 

On 6/26/2021 at 5:46 PM, por favor gracias said:

This is a problem all over Houston. Aside from Main St, Dallas St, Post Oak Blvd and recent landscaping improvements on parts of Richmond Ave, our major thoroughfares are largely neglected. If we just spent the money we wasted repaving roads that haven't had a pothole in decades (like Westheimer and Highway 6 right now around Bellaire/Beechnut) or those giant poles they're putting all over town that hold our traffic signals, our street grid in parts of downtown and midtown could be in much better shape. Just basic on and off road maintenance that is so desperately needed on our streets themselves...all those things you mentioned and lane/crosswalk striping and better signage are glaring needs here. It's like someone in the giant pole industry knows someone who works w/ COH...so this is what we get. I'm sure the tourists are lining up for that experience. SMH...I'm starting to think some of our management districts are run by Oakland A's fans.

Most of the streets in midtown are also too wide and limit options for development and landscaping. 

Not sure what the solution is to the homeless problem in midtown, but I am open to the idea of relocating the concentration of shelters in the area.

I'd be willing to bet these are the biggest reasons why some of these developers are pulling out of midtown. It has so much potential, but it will only be reached incrementally unless/until this changes. Hopefully, the Pierce Elevated and submerging 59 will also happen sooner than later.

Bagby is a great example of what to do with the streets in Midtown. Reduce the lanes, expanded sidewalks, street parking, Bagby has it all. 

As for the Homeless, unless we open up rehab or more state mental institutions again, I think they're here to stay. 

On 6/26/2021 at 4:22 PM, hindesky said:

Since Les Givrals near me closed people have recommended Roostar as an alternative, although it's not close by I want to try it.

If you're ever Downtown during business hours, try S & T in the Binz Building. They fed me often while I was working from home.

Excited to have something this close open up. One less trip over 59 is a win. 

On 6/26/2021 at 7:48 PM, editor said:

Yeah, the big crash.  I don't even remember who hacked HAIF, it was so many years ago.  I vaguely recall that we lost something like 100,000 posts.  

If I recall correctly, you were the first person to even be banned from HAIF.  Years later, you came back a different person, and have since become an asset to this group. 

I think of that sometimes when I see people on the internet being pilloried for things they did five, ten, twenty years ago.  It is folly to judge people today by who they were in the past.  We all learn and change, every day.  The internet has taught people how to be vengeful and scornful.  How to hate and how to persecute.  But it has not yet taught people how to be patient, and how to forgive.  I think that's why the internet so often seems at odds with the values that have shaped the world for thousands of years. 

Was I? I know I got in trouble for arguing with Dalparadise in every thread, but I don't think I was banned? 

Anyway, thanks for forgiving me 😇.

13 minutes ago, Luminare said:

Am I even going to recognize Montrose the next time I'm in town?

Michael Hsu Architecture doesn't seem to disappoint.

Probably not. When I venture into other parts of town I often do double takes from just a few months ago. 

15 hours ago, j_cuevas713 said:

How is expanded freeways considered a success? We need commuter rail in Houston. Screw another freeway expansion. 

It's supposed to be freeway "improvement". I'm all for trenching 59, and wrapping 45 around to get rid of the Pierce Elevated. I'm all for "improving" connections between the freeways, and completely repaving them to get rid of pot holes and flood spots. This is infrastructure and freeways aren't going anywhere. As much as I would love for billions to pour into a rail system, it's not happening. We can't even get more light rail.

ChannelTwoNews,

I used one of your photos.

Forgive my crude, coffee break, paint job rendering... but I'd much rather them have utilized elements of the building. The steel and gray design of the building could be timeless, especially given a few more years. Essentially, they have aged the building (in a bad way), by adding this white and glass lobby structure. 

Could have been brought up to date in a more sophisticated manner. Understand the reverse triangles playing with sculpture, but the stark white and sharp blue glass do not compliment either. The only saving grace would be to paint the steel a matching gray, and tint the windows IMHO.

17 hours ago, Urbannizer said:

Listing confirms Caydon has abandoned Houston.

https://res.cloudinary.com/jll-global-cmg/image/upload/v1621883691/IC/Img/Original/d8e8aya8h89skoblbyhe.pdf

Fitzroy Residences no longer exists on their website so no Phase II.

I love how River Oaks and Upper Kirby have swallowed half of Montrose on slide 10. 

It's a huge shame but perhaps a different developer will add some diversity in design there. I've done yoga nearby and my dentist is across the street. It's a beautiful area. 

What will the county be contributing to the future retail destination that is Dallas Street? GFR? /s

1 hour ago, arche_757 said:

Floor-to-Floor

or sometimes finish floor when used on a drawing. 

I’d imagine the floor heights would be challenging, but nothing is impossible.  It is the location that stinks.

It's a 4 block walk to Green Street, 1 block from the YMCA, 1 block from Main/2 blocks from both Skyhouse Retails, 3 blocks from the restaurants in the Hyatt Garage, 2 blocks from Chevron/Ex-Enron/Allen Center complex, 5 blocks from the law School. Granted, it is surrounded by a small sea of surface lots. But, that is a sea of potential.

Hamilton's location stinks, but people still rent there.

1 hour ago, thatguysly said:

This building is an example of what is going to happen to a lot of buildings around town that are aging. The owners will have to find ways to adapt or there will just be old empty buildings from the 70s/80s that no one wants to rent.

This has been going on for a while now, nothing new. 

15 hours ago, tangledwoods said:

the FF heights dont work, you would have to blow out portions of every other floor (which would make for some dope loft style units) but not sure what the market would be for that.  Also the core depth of this building makes it inefficient for residential or hotel conversion.

FWIW the comments above are largely from a bar conversation with a developer that doesnt like Shorenstein  so take all of that for what it is......

If the floor height doesn't work for residential, how would it work for office? I'm sure whatever renos Shorenstein had in mind, like totally changing the façade, could be put to better use $ on the interior. 

16 minutes ago, tangledwoods said:

here is the problem with 800 bell:  no one wants an old 1.3 million SF building with low FF heights and extremely old infrastructure.

The "sell" from Shorenstein is that you could deliver a "reno" of this building to market faster than a new tower but there are not a whole lot of anchor tenants looking for the kind of SF they would need to kick this into gear.  Even with top tier renovations this will never be able to compete with new construction Hines or Skanska buildings.... 

I'd be really happy if they converted to apartments/condos and maybe mixed-use with a Hotel. The top of the building, ex-petroleum club is dying to be used as a fabulous resort pool. Could definitely open the roof. Think of the views and cocktails.

I doubt it would ever come true. I think the best hope for this building was the city buying it. 

My father moved back to Houston in the late 90s in a townhome off Blossom Street. Growing up in Spring, I spent all the time I could with him in the city to follow my fascination of architecture, city planning, transportation, and to escape the general boredom of the suburbs. Coming of age and surfing the web, I believe I stumbled on HAIF looking up information on local buildings for an art project. He moved away again but I could drive by then so the first thing I did was head down 45. 

I think there was maybe one point in time I contributed photos on my brick digital camera that was a whopping 12 megapixels.

And wow, unlocked memories, I completely forgot about the muddy cowboy. Also, could have sworn the HAIF icons changing for holidays/special days was because Google owned a copywrite on holiday logos? Someone probably posted that a joke.

Redscare & TheNiche going at it felt like watching titans battle. Entertaining, annoying, and sometimes educational. 

How could you forget the site crash? I checked every day to see if it would come back. 

Big Head on Main Street.

Every thread ending up as a Dallas vs Houston.

Speaking of, the Port of Dallas Thread.

Heights Walmart... I'm pretty sure I took a break from HAIF during this time. The people involved with the arms race migrated to Swamplot and didn't come back. 

Idk how many hours I've spent on this website but probably an unhealthy amount. I'm 100% certain there was a thread about how annoying I was posting on literally every single thread - daily. Nothing has changed. 

20 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

Has kind of an 80's food court feel. Greenspoint Mall.

 

It's the OG architect's louvre pyramid knock-off. Personally, being the negative nancy that I am, I absolutely despise this lobby redo.

Now it looks like a DeLorean with a mismatched, wrong colored, scrapyard fender. And this particular portion isn't going to house anything? Why?

On 6/17/2021 at 9:37 AM, Andrew Ewert said:

My insurance would have preferred this were a Walgreens, but c'est la vie.

If that's how I lived my life, my insurance would prefer I didn't live in this neighborhood at all 😭

18 minutes ago, southerncrj said:

A little extra info I found about the projects by the Houston Landbank for their Hardy Yards/Near Northside lots:

"The City of Houston and Houston Land Bank have recently acquired two new sites, which will be the location of development of communities of single-family homes. The “north site,” located at on three blocks at 3201 Hardy and 1406 Hays roads, currently is the site of Yellow Cab Company. The “south” site sits adjacent to the Burnett Transit Center. In total, these two sites represent 16.8 acres of land that can be transformed to enrich the Near Northside, through the creation of homes and community spaces that residents want to see.

These will be mixed-income developments, where over half of the homes will be dedicated to providing homes that are affordable to residents making at or less than 80% of Houston’s Area Median Income. In order to make best use of the space, we are looking to create higher density communities – from townhomes to duplexes to condos. But before development begins, it is crucial to get the input of community members, so we can make these homes fit into the vision that residents have for the Near Northside."

"Developments are mixed-income. Over half (at least 51%) of the new homes will be affordable to households earning 80% of the Area Median Income or less. For a family of three, for example, this would mean earning $57,050 or less as of 2021."


Source: https://houstontx.gov/housing/homes/near-northside.html?fbclid=IwAR26g-DTPxbjhqOPpiiZFfPhFWWM778NezDdJtSF4PTUSPUq0dkqdbSn9kA

There will be a meeting to discuss these projects today at 17:30. https://bit.ly/Near-Northside-Homes-Community-Engagement-Meeting

 

Last, it appears urban planning and design for these projects will be by Asakura Robinson. 

I'm glad they mentioned condos. It would be counter productive to put single family homes/town homes/suburban style development here next to a light rail station and bus transit center. 

I like the dome and what it means as a Houstonian, but this thing is Point Nemo in a sea of parking, in a fenced off convention/rodeo/football mega area. If the dome were next to Buffalo Bayou I would 100% be cheering for something like this. But it's not, I don't see how it's possible for a park, or something other, than a Hotel or Parking structure to workout here.

When you strip it of all its exterior details and invite the elements in, what's the point of have a giant open-air steel structure here?

8 hours ago, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

do some of y'all not know the difference between a local news channel and a national news channel?

Apparently she recorded footage of the (probably also now fired) sales manager of Fox 26 telling how the CDC is buying ads pushing the covid crap, and from what I gather (the sales manager couldn't put two coherent sentences together), the CDC is outbidding other advertisers. These purchases are affecting the news content

Would make sense the CDC is outbidding to put notices to the public. We have a local news reporter trying to push a conspiracy theory. Which one deserves air time?

14 hours ago, Pumapayam said:

Someone is going to ruin it for the rest of us...and they will prob put some sort of fencing or barrier...I can see delinquents dropping objects on cars or doing some crazy stunts for a TikTok video.

Wait a second, did nobody acknowledge Puma's return to the HAIF? Welcome back.

9 minutes ago, pm91 said:

love it, but am I the only one that thinks that at certain angles in the skyline, Brava blends completely into Market Square Tower?

It's the perfect blend in between Market Square and the Texas Tower, particularly from the west. 

28 minutes ago, JVargashtwn said:

https://abc13.com/houstons-disco-kroger-disco-kroger-montrose/10780990/

Grocery store closes = neighborhood collapses. 

The most interesting tid bit:

"Three case studies selected, Fifth Ward, OST/South Union and Greenspoint, were found to have relatively high susceptibilities to gentrification according to our analysis," the report's authors wrote.

Relative to what? Cloverleaf?