KinkaidAlum

If you live and work downtown or anywhere along the rail line, you could save a lot of money by not having a car. There's also Lyft/Uber when needed and plenty of places to rent one. 

I know a handful of Houstonians that don't have cars and they live happy lives. I couldn't do it even though I drive about once a week these days because I'm still working from home in LA.

I walked almost daily at Memorial Park over the Holidays. I was a bit worried that it would be over programmed but man, did they knock it out of the park! Everything is looking so nice. Next step, tunnel Interstate Ten!

I just got back from my first trip to Houston since 2019. I stayed at the Blossom Hotel. What a quirky place. I really liked the rooms and that bathrooms and the air con was top notch!

FYI, the views from the 13th floor pool and deck of the TMC3 are quite nice. You really get a sense of the scale of the entire project. 

Love this development but am I the only one that finds it odd that the second office tower gets a better location than the hotel/residential tower? Seems like you'd lure more folks to rent/stay if there were views of Discovery Green and not the electrical substation to the East and surface lots to the South. Also, for large conventions, people at the hotels quickest route would take them by the substation rather than the edge of the park and by tower one's amenities. 

I appreciate you labeling the pictures. As an out of towner, I have trouble identifying what's what!

Interesting. And the Census is notorious for undercounts and the 2020 one was especially bad (pandemic, shortened time frame).

Did the 50,000 growth figure from 2010-2020 come from the Census or a city estimate? 

It's better than the typical 1970s office buildings in that area that are surrounded by a sea of surface parking. That said, those poor houses that back up to this. Sure, I know... buyer beware. But you'd think we'd grown enough to have a design review board. It wouldn't cost much to screen in the garage and protect from light pollution at night. 

SoDo? More like SoDumb. 

I find looking at pictures of this fascinating. I have zero clue what the final product might look like even though it's pretty much topped out.

Man, I hope your knee heels up. I think the thing I miss most about Houston is riding my trike around all over the place. It's too hilly here and Houston is much more bike friendly than my area of LA.

Was worried that you had been hit by a car and I was missing your updates. Glad you are alive!

When Hines announced these two towers I thought the office tower was fine if not a bit boring but that I'd love the residential. It's the exact opposite. This office tower is really a nice addition. I don't really like the residential one. Don't hate it but don't like it either.

Buffalo Bayou University. Ditch the Gators and become The White Oaks. 

I'm not big on cookie cutter builder stuff but Toll Brothers is pretty nice out West. I'm surprised though, because they usually play it safe with suburban stuff in Orange County, Scottsdale, or Vegas.

My Bad.

It's two blocks west of the elevated 44

Due North of 64

And just to the West are two overhead flyover ramps into downtown. 

I was in the back of an uber and I am old. That said, Minute Maid feels more connected to downtown Houston than Busch does to downtown St. Louis.

This is the newer rendering they're still shopping around for a lead tenant. It is so much better than the Hines clone notched tower. I hope this gets built eventually but it's been around for years.

Was just in St. Louis this summer for the first time ever. I'd love to have something like that. It's a similar footprint as Minute Maid with the only difference being the ballpark in St. Louis is just on the other side of a freeway from the rest of downtown similar to Dynamo Stadium.

St. Louis was a fascinating place. So much potential. So many grand brick buildings. So much decay. You can really tell it used to be an "it" city 100 years ago. 

Is there a level underground? 

1) Houston Center development tore down a lot. It was going to be much bigger than it ended up.

2) Parking makes more money than most tiny buildings or old houses that were torn down.

3) Zero preservation laws. We are a developer's wet dream and a preservationist's sad tears town.

4) Lots of land speculation that bombed with oil crash. Nothing of note was built in Houston, especially downtown from the time I was 12 until the time I was 25 or so. 

Edited to add

5) 1970s Houston was much different than today's city. The inner loop, especially the East side, was seeing population loss with a ton of white flight. Most things East of Main was seen as the ghetto. This magnified with the oil bust. 

Sorry, didn't mean to imply a full service hospital. However, it is my understanding that with a heavy focus on producing primary care physicians that the new facility will include patient care services. Most faculty will be primary care physicians who will run practices out of the new building. So there will be waiting rooms, exam rooms, and patient care rooms at a minimum. 

That could be part of the answer. Medical classroom space is not the same as advanced biomedical research lab space. I bet the hospital will have patient rooms, doctor/professor offices, and classroom space and the BioMed Building will have advanced labs. Labs can cost tens of millions to build out. 

This is from memory and I am officially old so it's not reliable, but I think UH built the building but several floors were not built out. Could this be funding to actually build out different labs in shell space? 

So Rice is creating a new residential college! Makes sense since the plan is to add 800-1,200 undergraduate students bringing Rice to 4,500-5,000 undergrads. Great move, especially if they can keep the academic profile the same. 

My dream for the city is to have Rice get to 10,000 or so undergrads and have UH improve to be a top 30-50 public institution. 

Good photo but I hate this angle. It looks like a market square II without balconies. 

I don't understand the top. I don't mind the materials change but it feels like it requires setbacks or a pitched roof or something. Overall, it's the best Davis building I've seen rendered. I'd actually really like it if it was all painted brick and simpler.