KinkaidAlum
-
Posts
3,911 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
33
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Events
Everything posted by KinkaidAlum
-
I just received an email from the Mosaic at Hermann Park group. They mentioned they will be having a public ground breaking next wednesday for the "vertical" portion of the tower. They also called it a twin tower project. Does anyone know if they are going ahead and building both at the same time? Maybe both are rentals now? Anyone? -
Well, now that I have resigned myself to thinking both will be goners, all I can hope for is this; They rip everything down and put in generic shops and totally lose the great "feel" of the neighborhood. People then realize that much of the same things can be found downtown at the Pavilions. Weingarten then loses its shirt because there is no more historic shopping center to lure the old monied Houstonians and the people that used to head to dinner and art films are now completely heading to downtown's Angelika and Pavilions instead!
-
Hey Lisa, Thanks for all your hard work and for keeping this story in the headlines. I certainly appreciate it! Here are some things that have happened to old Boston theaters. Luckily, the college/university scene has really helped keep some of the old grand theaters around. Special kudos goes to Emerson College. Their restoration work has been amazing! The Metropolitan is now the home to the Wang Center for the Performing Arts. Completely restored. Shows small concerts like Annie Lennox to the Nutcracker at Christmas. The Tremont is now a Jewish Temple. Facade has been saved as well as original balcony. The Orpheum is now a VERY successful concert venue. The Cheri is now a popular restaurant (SummerShack) and hip bar/lounge/bowling alley (King's). The interior was gutted but the exterior remains the same, including the Marque. The Savoy is now the new Opera House, which shows touring Broadway plays. Completely restored. Beautiful. Cinema57 is now the Stuart Street Playhouse. Home to Blue Man Group. Quite popular with tourists. The Exeter is now a Montessori School. Not sure how the renovations turned out as it just happened after it sat vacant for years. The Symphony is now home to Boston University's School of Theater. The Majestic is now home to Emerson College's Theater. It's also a performance hall for the community. Completely restored, including the original stain glass facade that was uncovered by the college. The Fenway is now home to Berklee College of Music's Performance Hall. Open to the public and a great cheap date place to catch up and coming musicians from the school. Really great jazz played here. The Paramount is Emerson College's newest project. Creating two performance halls out of the old two screen theater and adding a 15 story dorm to the empty lot next door. The college is working with local historians to rehab it correctly. Copley Place is now home to Boston's first Barney's of New York store. To be fair, this theater was built inside a mall and it isn't "historic." So, it seems that the best options would be to hit up local colleges (UST, Rice, UH, TSU???) or theater groups like TUTS, Alley, Stages, etc...
-
Instead of Sweaty Palms Park, why don't we name it... The George Michael Tea Room Park.
-
The St. John's Rebels are now the St. John's Mavericks. I never had a huge problem with the mascot name but I did think it was odd that in 1989 (my senior year), they were still flying the Confederate flag at games. Now, as for everyone having such a hard time with "pc" naming debates, I wonder what your opinion would be if your white child had to attend Malcomb X High?
-
Oh, I know the difference between the Mark and the Mercer. My question was, didn't the same group of investors build both? I thought that after the Mark was completed, they came together to produce what was originally called the Mark II but later the name changed to the Mercer. Is this correct?
-
I always thought the "Mark II" was the initial name for what became the Mercer. Is that wrong? Turnberry is a national player. If they want to build in Houston, they'll build. Not sure the market is there however...
-
Reading the pessimistic posts on here leads me to "Naysayer's Knoll Park."
-
Tuscan Builders' web site doesn't leave me with a sense of hope for this highly visible location. They build a BUNCH of crap. When you are reduced to showing suburban style Hibernia Banks, empty strip malls, and an Applebee's as your "work," well, ugggghhh. Strike another blow to Midtown.
-
Why is a post about Riverside Terrace in the Woodlands thread? I know Niche doesn't think Riverside is part of the 3rd Ward, but the Woodlands?
-
The original tall-girl host was an alum of Kinkaid.
- 4 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- tanglewood
- studiored architects
- (and 4 more)
-
Unfortunately, money is THE ONLY issue in Houston. A myth exists in Houston that the only way to make money is to build bigger and newer and provide ample parking right out front so nobody will have to walk more than 500 feet! Funny thing is, cities all over America are finding that historical preservation, smart growth, mixed-use, and green buildings can be wildly popular and wildly PROFITABLE. Unfortunately, by the time Houston developers pick up on this trend, there will be nothing left to convert. On the bright side, in 25 years when the fake stucco strip malls, vinyl siding suburban style condos, and drive thru pharmacies start to show their age, maybe we can just bulldoze most of the Inner Loop crap and start all over?
-
Highland Park Amusement Park On Interstate-45
KinkaidAlum replied to Ron4tx's topic in Historic Houston
Wow. Native Houstonian here and have never heard of this place. What the hell were we thinking getting rid of something like that to make way for a freeway? Oh yeah, this is HOUSTON.- 22 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- houston electric company
- park
- (and 2 more)
-
Niche- Why would a non-profit start a fund to help save the River Oaks Theater from a company that just posted a $90 million quarterly profit and floated around a $700 million offering last week to raise cash for general business practices? Seems to me that MONEY isn't the issue here. Weingarten has plenty. From all intents and purposes, The River Oaks Shopping Center is successful. The impending demolition has NOTHING to do with a failing retail center. What we need are simple laws. They seem to work every where else BUT Houston.
-
I don't mind the parking garage and the Chronicle did reveal that the new B&N would be multi story, so they are going vertical. The problem I have is that the "pod" Starbucks will remain and a 6,400 sq foot restaurant pod site will also be added. Strip malls with pod sites do not excite me. NMain also alluded to ample surface parking and the set backs seem quite a distance from the streets so that may indeed be the case.
-
TJones and Niche- Both of you keep throwing out that we should buy the property. Last time I checked, it wasn't for sale. If it was, I guarantee you someone would make a play. Additionally, how does building a tall condo tower on West Gray all of a sudden make the area more urban? Do you two really think that plopping a tower down somewhere is the definition of urban? How sad for you.
-
Last time I was there was in February, which also happens to be the last time I was in Houston. My mother went last Saturday to see the Inconvenient Truth. She went with her best friend. When I lived in Houston, I went to the River Oaks about once a month. Have seen some great films there and always enjoyed walking from my house on Elmen Street.
-
Again, I guess a $90.3 million QUARTERLY profit isn't enough. Anyone else notice that they (Weingarten) just announced a $450 million offering to help raise cash for "general business purposes" yesterday? How timely. Weingarten owns 53 shopping centers in the city of Houston. Most of them are typical crap. Why can't they build a nice multi-floor Barnes and Noble with a parking garage at one of their other centers?
-
Hmmmm.... Weingarten just released their quarterly earnings. $90.3 MILLION. A nearly $20 million increase year over year. Seems like their properties are doing quite well as is...
-
"Objective idealogues like myself that aren't strapped in to an emotional position and instead take a viewpoint from 10,000 feet up are far and few in between. We're also not popular." LOL. You truly crack me up. I'd love to meet you in person because I am sure you'd be fun at a dinner party. I'd wonder though if you'd grace us emotional twits from your perch in the clouds? It's fine to play the objective business man with no emotional attachments from time to time, but at what cost? It also takes a man to grow a pair to admit that some things are worth responding to emotionally...
-
There are some great comments on that petition. I love the part about "who would have thought Weingarten could out think themselves by putting two Starbucks across the street from each other! Please out do yourselves again and find a way to save it."
-
Geeze Louise! How can you say it will have the same boring stuff? Last time I checked, the only announcements for the Pavilions were a very large House of Blues with a concert hall and a Lucky Strike Bowling Alley. Neither of these things are in Bayou Place and neither of these things are boring. Now, a Hard Rock Cafe is boring unless you are from Itta Bena, Mississippi!
-
For anyone who says that there has been NO development on the Main St/Fannin line, then they obviously NEVER went in that vicinity before the rail. Here's a list of things, off of the top of my head, that have been built or are planned for the Redline area... 1) New UH Downtown classroom for Criminal Justice 2) Hotel Icon 3) Main St Square 4) Commerce Towers 5) Humble Tower Apartments 6) Kirby bldg condo conversion 7) Marriott Courtyard 8) Residence Inn by Marriott 9) McKinney Garage with ground floor retail 10) Catholic Diocese Hdqts 11) Metro Hdqts with transit center 12) Citiplace Apartments by farb 13) T'afia 14) Byrd's Lofts 15) Hotel ZaZa 15) 1000 Main/Reliant Energy Plaza 16) Laidback Manor 17) Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza 18) Texas Woman's University Health Science Center 19) TMC Transit Center development by Transwestern 20) Heart and Vascular Institute 21) Texas Children's Nureoscience Center 22) Texas Children's Maternity Care Tower 23) Museum Tower Apartments 24) American Apparel 25) Inman Gallery at Isabella Courts 26) Calais at Courtlandt Square Apartments 27) Ventanna Apartments by Farb 28) Toyota Center 29) Hilton Americas Hotel Stop lying.
- 258 replies
-
- 1
-
-
- midtown
- metro line
- (and 5 more)
-
The Pavilions is a much different animal than Bayou Place. Bayou Place is a conversion of an old space. It's got a funky location that feels somewhat disconnected from most of downtown. The major hotels aren't well situated to the complex either and it is fenced in by what was at the time a crappy looking bayou, an elevated highway, and the Memorial Parkway ramps. The Pavilions will be MUCH MUCH larger and much more visible. It will be connected to the light rail and Main Street Square/Foley's. It's closer to the major office developments as well as the new 1200 room Hilton and the Marriott Courtyard and Residence Inn. Plus, it will have condos in the developments as well as in the nearby Four Seasons, Commerce Towers, and Capitol Lofts. Don't forget the nearby apartments at the Humble Tower, new Kirby Bldg, and the Houston House either.
-
UncertainTraveler, It's just foolish to say you can just rebuild the Landmark River Oaks Theater. You simply cannot. It's the last theater of it's kind in Houston. I can sit in a seat that my mother may have sat in when she attended Lamar High in the late 1940s. I can get a sense of history and feel connected to my hometown. You can't get that at a Loews or Edwards. As for the shopping center, it's also a piece of our collective history. I've eaten at Tony Mandola's Gulf Coast Kitchen, the Black Eyed Pea, and used to eat at the old Chili's and One's A Meal. I've shopped for countless gifts and personalized stationary at Events. I used to get my camping gear at the Wilderness Company. My sister used to work at another local store made good; the Cotton Club. My first date was a dinner (Birraporreti's) followed by the Unbearable Lightness of Being at the River Oaks. When I returned to Houston after college, I moved to Elmen Street just South of West Gray so that I could walk to two unique places; the West Gray Shopping Center and Lower Westheimer. There are many people in the neighborhood just South of West Gray that walk to the movies, restaurants, and stores in that center because it is one of the few that can make a pedestrian feel somewhat welcomed. The real problem is that this is it for Houston. There are no more chances once the River Oaks gets ripped down. We cannot turn back time and wish that we had done things differently. It's the LAST ONE standing. I suggest that you attend a movie this weekend. Take a date or a friend and grab a bite to eat before hand. Stroll around and window shop after you eat. Enjoy a high quality film. Maybe afterwards you can walk down the block and grab an ice cream or go get a drink at one of the area bars. Maybe then you'd see why the place is special. You cannot get that from looking out your driver's side window!
