CaptainJilliams

Drove by the Village today, looks like the Apple Store is completely covered and is undergoing renovations.

1 hour ago, brunsonpark08 said:

I’m thinking studio movie grill or a boutique Cinemark like the woodlands market street. A six screen or so playing a mix of hits and art house. Praying to the heavens it’s an Alamo Drafthouse.

An Alamo Drafthouse inside the loop would be fantastic.

Now I'm starting to connect the dots. I saw the fence up about 1-2 weeks ago, but I forgot what development was going here. Great stuff.

I've seen on several Houston Instagram accounts that there is new signage around the park that indicates the land bridge will open in 2022.

If I find a picture I will post.

Perfect location for access to the East River Project.

I just want this one to start so bad!

Finally, they cleared everything and teased us for a while. Good to hear construction will kick-off soon.

17 hours ago, Avossos said:

 

I wonder how much of 609 is leased... 90% yet?

You'd think, right? At least somewhere around 80-85%. I wish I knew for sure.

3 hours ago, BeerNut said:

Houston leaders asked to commit $100M to massive I-45 rebuild

 

 

So they would be committing money towards the portion where the proposed highway caps would connect midtown to the museum district as well as where the big cap would connect EaDo to Downtown correct? (If, of course, they agree to commit $100M)

 

 

 

On 7/6/2019 at 6:31 PM, BeerNut said:

Parkway Completes Renovation For Phoenix Tower In Greenway Plaza

Golf out, lounging in at renovated Greenway Plaza Sky Terrace

 

Looks like they added a giant blender ball.

On 7/2/2019 at 9:04 AM, HoustonMidtown said:

Meanwhile, in Austin:

 

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/starting-monday-homeless-people-will-be-able-to-camp-on-city-sidewalks/

I saw this story, these new rules have me very worried for our neighbors in the north. We've always joked about Austin being "New California", but it seems as though they are failing to learn from homeless situations on the west coast.

Good to see they are getting some traffic! I figured they would.

Interesting read. I wasn’t aware Dallas had surpassed us in terms of homeless population: 

https://www.texastribune.org/2019/07/02/why-homelessness-going-down-houston-dallas/

I can echo the disappointments of everyone above. 

It's not an awful design, it's just boring and that parking lot surrounding it doesn't help the look.  

I agree with Crock on this one. Sure, it's the former site of the Spaghetti Warehouse, but it's transforming into a completely new concept.

The actual Spaghetti Warehouse (Warehouse 72), is outside the 610 loop. It's good info to know, but it doesn't make much sense to include that information on a thread for a restoration.

1 minute ago, Visitor said:

This might be one of the longest demos I have seen.  Going on 2 months now.

True, although this is a massive site. I'm impressed by how after they tear one massive building down they move on to the next one only a few days later.

Honestly, if this project ended up getting canceled I really wouldn't care. It's a shame that they already did the work of pouring the concrete and getting up to street level, but the dated design and lack of verticality would be much more disappointing in my mind.

7 minutes ago, Triton said:

 

Just wish the facade had more glass, like they planned to do at 800 Bell:

 

 

They should at least do something with the plaza. It's wide open and serves no purpose right now.

 

 

Man I hope they kick-off the renovation of 800 Bell within the next couple years.

The tower looks sharp in that 5th picture! Love how this thing turned out.

It's exciting to see all these moves, I'm hoping renovations draw more companies back to Downtown.

11 hours ago, samagon said:

 

Why should he (or any group that provides opposition) need to present any alternatives?

 

...well, considering the city's continued growth, the deterioration of current infrastructure, and current traffic problems that will only be exacerbated by an influx of people/business, the current set-up will be inadequate for future generations. Considering how car-centric of a city Houston is, we can't simply assume people are going to start relying more on public transportation or that the highway in its current state can get the job done better than a reroute or major overhaul.

Now this isn't to say I agree with every part of TxDot's vision for i-45, far from it, especially the hefty price tag that comes with it. But this continued catastrophizing mentality when it comes to new construction projects is starting to get old. Alternatives are a necessity given the current highway system won't last forever. Regardless of how anyone feels about the situation, something will eventually need to be done. All this talk is procrastination, it's not beneficial or constructive discussion. Speck and other groups need to provide alternatives to fix the very real problems we deal with everyday on our highways, instead of spouting off hyperbolic nonsense. It's even more frustrating when Speck, a non-native to Houston who will likely never live here, comes in with a mentality of "you're wrong, let me show you how you are wrong" and offers little to no solutions. 

11 hours ago, samagon said:

 

There are lots of possible alternatives, none that TXDOT are pursuing...

 

I would love to hear these alternatives, I've heard very few from the camp protesting the project. At least with an alternative we can iron out the kinks in TxDot's plan and potentially lower the price tag associated with the project.

11 hours ago, samagon said:

There once was a time when 225 was supposed to come inside the loop and connect to 59, the opposition provided no other alternative other than do nothing. and it has worked for over 30 years. there is a community called the east end that has thrived because of that decision to do nothing.

I'm not quite following the logic that suggests "doing nothing" leads to "thriving". I think there are several levels of factors at play when it comes to determining how different areas grow. It would be far to simplistic to suggest that it was only blocking the 225 project that allowed the East End to experience so much success. Furthermore, you are attempting to apply a single case from 30 years ago to the current situation today, suggesting it would produce the same results.

Correlation does not imply causation.

It's incredible just the past year what is happening downtown.