C2H

Unless all of the buildings are dark at night, we absolutely have a nighttime skyline. With few exceptions, the lighting is subtle and the buildings don't compete with each other for attention. When the second(?) tallest building in the center of downtown decides to show off its height, it attracts too much attention to itself and disrupts the way the eye flows across the skyline. That is what Wells Fargo is doing for me, at least.

I guess everyone can't share my viewpoints. I just can't understand why anyone would want a dark and subtle skyline for the 4th largest city in America.

One of the blades flew off and hit a car. If I had to bet, they are gone forever.

I'm with ricco, How do you know this?

I absolutely love the new Wells Fargo lighting. I liked the color changing scheme it had last night but agree they should slow the color changing down just a tad. It was so busy, it almost reminded me of the Reunion Tower Ball in downtown Dallas, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I just don't want them to give stupid residents a reason to start complaining and thus ruining it everyone.

That's the Wells Fargo building. I can only hope they are trying to pick the perfect color to ruin the nighttime skyline with. Any will do.

There really is no nighttime skyline to ruin. The Wells Fargo lighting is simply adding character to an otherwise dark and drury skyline. What are you talking about?

It could be a W ... the NY Union Square and French Quarter locations are both renovated historic buildings. (I'm just assuming that your reservations are based on its more common image of being a more sleek and modern hotel chain)

Guilty!

I was merely besing my reservation on the one in our neighbors to the north!

http://www.bizjourna...-slam-dunk.html

Magic Johnson and his new investment partner plan on turning the Hotel Icon Downtown into either a W Hotel or Ritz Carlton (within the next 45 days). Just in time for the Final Four this April, too.

I can't really see a W or a Ritz Carlton going in that building unless they do a complete rennovation and building conversion. This is great news nonetheless!

yes great news, except for the reduction in retail!

So Reliant is moving into H/P? I wonder what's going to happen to 1000 Main?

And will it go dark like the former Continential Building?

this is great news. I still wish we could get more retail in this establishment though!

No ground floor retail is what I've been told. I always thought that would be a good place for a patio pub, but not gonna happen.

how whack is that? no retail, restaurant, nothing?

I don't get it, this is a perfect opportunity to do something great. That location is prime for some ground retail or restaurant development. Right across the street from the Park! Why can't these companys do that in downtown Houston?

Wow - Shadow Creek Ranch..

http://www.redcatjazzcafe.com/

http://www.shadowcreekranch.net/redcat/index.html

Good news for Pearland. Bad news for downtown. I thought things would be getting better for downtown once the Pavilions and Disco Green got off the ground. If downtown is in the maturization phase from the hip hop club scene, it sure isn't making for a more active downtown.

While that's true, I don't think it fully answers my question. At least the last picture was taken during the day on a Wednesday. Today, downtowns daytime population I'm betting is much higher than it was that day. The only thing I can think of is the tunnels and we now have less retail. So even if there are new hotspots today, there are still more people downtown now.

day source: http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/?year=1955&country=1

Like someone said earlier, air conditioning also has diluted the street scene from downtown. You're forgetting that alot of those new people from the population are in the tunnels.

I don't know what other answers you could be looking for.

Why were there so many people walking around? Did the tunnels exist then? I'm sure there are many more people officing AND living downtown now than there were then. I'm also guessing a big difrerence is that there was more retail back then?

Downtown was the hotspot then, the only game in town. That was before sprawl of Houston took over and before downtown had competition from other areas like: TMC, Uptown, Greenway Plaza and Greenspoint.

Looks like the night scene has definitely moved away from downtown to Washington Avenue. It sure would be nice if both areas could keep its night activity without one sucking it away from another.

bummer. now it looks like DFW's fortune 500 list is equal to or even may surpaass ours. We just lost Continential. It's looking like a dark time for Houston!

good news. i hope this ignites a spark that eventually lead to redevelopment of the ugly stretch between downtown and Greenspoint.

The building is real ugly but what would be worse? It would have been worse had this hotel went the way of La Quinta and gotten scrapped altogether. Considering Houston has had a history of plans getting scrapped, i say that the fact the hotel got built at all is a good thing.

Those pics that urbanizer posted show the true scaling back of this project. If the final design of this building was a person, it would look like the equivalent of their head being chopped off and only leaving the shoulders.

I do tomorrow, heh.

Another 1980 baby in the house! Happy Pre-lated birthday!

My guess is some of them either have a vested interest in promoting Washington Avenue... or they just don't get out enough.

I probably don't get out enough. Maybe it has something to do with me turning 30 this year. LOL

I know people have been saying this area has been slowly dying for years since 2004/2005.It seems like this area has fallen off extremely. It used to be filled with people. I'm not talking about the 2004/2005 era, even after that, the street still managed to stay crowded with people on Fridays and Saturday nights. I went down there this past Friday and the scene was depressing. There were a few people down there but not like the crowds there once were. Even last year or earlier this year, there was still a crowded scene off Main Street.

I thought with the addition of Houston Pavilions and other surrounding developments, the area would have gotten better, not worse. House of Blues didn't have much action going on. There was hardly no one there, and it appeared that quite a few of the clubs had closed. Maybe there's my answer, but does anyone know for sure? I don't think this area lost all of its energy when most caucasions decided to start hanging out in Midtown. even afterwards, it still managed to stay pretty LIVE with Hip-Hoppers. Club Glo at night used to be bumping. The area where the M Bar used to be also still had crowds around that area.

Is this area becoming a thing of the past for nightlife? I'm not sure if Washington Ave is sucking the night scene from downtown, but I think it would be cool if both areas had something going on at night. Me and my fiance couldn't believe how dead this area has become at night. Is there still hope for it? Opinions please?

That's not an analogy that I think that most people will be able to relate to. And it's a weak analogy. Nobody promised you anything.

It made sense to me!

713/214 may speak some truth, but most of the time he sounds reeall bitter. I guess he got so used used to the buildings that actually do go up in Dallas and sit empty, thus adding to the already extremely high vacancy rate.

713/214, how bout we meet at the NOVE in Victory Park. I'll buy you a drink.

I haven't had a chance to look through the PDF yet but anyone know why the project isn't going forward?

That SUCKS!

I'm glad that plans are still being talked about west of downtown, but I'm more interested in seeing more aggressive plans about developments and cleaning the Bayou downtown. Like Scarface said, the Bayou is filthy and is more of an eyesore than an assett in the areas of downtown. They need to get a plan to clean up all the trash and actually clean the water of its muddy appearance. There's so much potential with this Bayou and its not being realized.

So, what? Is the movie studio idea dead now?