texan

Well good morning, Aggies! https://www.thecentennialcampaign.com Football Indoor Performance Center: Academic + Wellness Center: Indoor Track Stadium: One step better, although our steps are measured in increments of hundreds of millions of dollars

Abbott recently proposed a $1 billion transfer into Tech's endowment to quell people who want to open the PUF up to more universities as a more realistic option. Probably the same thing happening for UH.

There are renderings floating around but they were not approved due to the location (right next to the pond). Instead, this building will be on the right as you near the library in the area enclosed by the road, service driveway, and library building. Additionally, there is a request in with the Air Force for one of the current Air Force Ones (I know that's the callsign and not the aircraft name but that's what everyone knows them as, you nitpickers) when they are decommissioned which were introduced during President Bush's presidency. I think the library has a good shot at getting one, especially since the request included a letter from the late president shortly before his passing.

Also can't forget to mention How to Survive on Land and Sea just a couple blocks down (with the incredible Ghost Hand Pasta occupying their kitchen, if you haven't checked them out and like pasta you absolutely need to).

One of the attributes of the development is "walkable". I will never understand the suburban obsession with driving to a walkable area when they could just live in a walkable area.

Exhibit 1 states the suggestions to move 45 to the East and trench the entire thing came from Central Houston which arose out of community concerns. The trenching specifically benefits Third Ward (historically African-American) and East End (historically Hispanic). Additionally, the Four Corners Park would be a union point for these two neighborhoods with downtown and midtown. That park along with the EaDo cap park is a direct benefit for these communities. Exhibit 2 states Central Houston got TxDOT to pay for the cap. That brings the timeline for the cap park forward by a number of years since it eliminates a major funding hurdle for the city. Major benefit for EaDo/East End. Exhibit 4 states Central Houston got TxDOT to commit to building extra wide bridges to accommodate garden bridges. These will be placed in Third Ward, EaDo, and Fifth Ward. These allow for comfortable pedestrian and cyclist access between the communities and with downtown and midtown. That's a direct benefit, especially for individuals in those communities who may not own a car. Exhibit 8 highlights TxDOT's accommodation of the green loop which will go through EaDo and Third Ward. This is a direct benefit. Parks and connectivity do improve the lives of all whom they benefit. And yes, I do think the Andrews St reconnection is important. That's one of the few instances in America of physically fixing racial divides caused by the interstate system. A DoT administration that talks about the structural racism built into the interstate system should very highly value an opportunity to undo even a small piece of it. Additionally, physically connecting Antioch with the African-American institutions across I-45 does benefit the African-American community due to better access between them. Attached are sheets from TxDOT that show their view of the benefits provided to the traditionally minority communities of Third Ward, EaDo, Fifth Ward, and Independence Heights (assume this is what you mean by "been made better for minorities"). Third Ward: https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/project-sites/nhhip/docs/i-45-nhhip-direct-community-benefits-third-ward.pdf EaDo: https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/project-sites/nhhip/docs/i-45-nhhip-direct-community-benefits-east-dowtown-eado.pdf Fifth Ward: https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/project-sites/nhhip/docs/i-45-nhhip-direct-community-benefits-fifth-ward.pdf Independence Heights: https://www.txdot.gov/content/dam/project-sites/nhhip/docs/i-45-nhhip-direct-community-benefits-independence-heights.pdf

Did you even read the document? The portions of the meeting packet related to NHHIP are part of a letter sent by Central Houston to an investigator with the Federal Highway Administration's Office of Civil Rights. This isn't a news release "counting old news as a new win" or "part of a campaign to sway public opinion", it's the fact finding process as part of the investigation instigated by the county. The reason it seems like news to some is because these are details conveniently left out by leaders looking to cash in on political clout at TxDOT's expense. What this document provides that is new is the side by side of how specifically TxDOT has responded to community needs and what further Central Houston wishes to secure from TxDOT.

Your first point was the most important thing I saw in there. It significantly reduces the financial obligation of the city and partners to build the park. Can we go ahead and start digging yesterday?

http://www.downtowntirz.com/downtownhouston/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Board-Book-FINAL-3.8.22.pdf Plenty of red meat here for y'all to argue about. For what it's worth, I did genuinely find this informative and very fair in terms of how well TxDOT is working with Central Houston and how they are actually open to negotiation/changes. Very different from the story given in the media.

Isn't one of their pictures on the website from Plan Downtown near the north canal?

I believe it's temp space just because they're growing insanely fast and haven't started construction on their campus at the spaceport yet EDIT: I wonder if they'll make use of the ISS model inside 🤔

https://powderkeghouston.com Well this ended up being very different from the originally proposed rendering. Sad the rest of this project has gone nowhere. Could've been something great!

They have an incredible menu of matcha lattes which I'm most excited for 😋

Venus Aerospace has raised an additional $20 million to advance their technology. No mention of their new facility though. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/Houston-company-developing-a-hypersonic-plane-17058471.php

And another from yesterday...

Finally more progress... Photos from their Facebook page posted over the last week or so.

Officially permitted. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/augustine-verrengia_austin-texas-engineering-activity-6913483838102884352-XJZ-?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

And to an extent Austin has already (albeit temporarily) happened with their SXSW exhibit.

This is so exciting! Meow Wolf began in Santa Fe with a donation by George R R Martin (of Game of Thrones fame) and now includes exhibits in Las Vegas and Denver as well. Houston is a perfect expansion spot for them, especially considering Martin has pledged his entire life's work to Texas A&M and spends some time in College Station. I'm going to the Santa Fe location next month and cannot wait to check this out when it opens!

I first interpreted this as saying you wished Midway would've skipped over Town and Country to build CityCentre downtown (didn't see the article at first) but then realized what you were actually saying. I agree with both my first interpretation and what you actually meant. I'm glad Midway went inner loop with East River and just wish they'd quickly start on the next phase of Buffalo Heights. The north side of the Bayou is going to start looking very short compared to the south side!

One new project by Parallel Co. is in the works and another property will likely soon be redeveloped as high-rise student housing. The block bounded by Wellborn, First, Louise, and Maple Streets will become a 10 story student housing complex replacing multiple very old duplexes and fourplexes. https://www.cstx.gov/common/pages/DisplayFile.aspx?itemId=18348854 (Page 3) 509 University Dr, the former FedEx, is for ground lease for high density student housing. https://d3k1yame0apvip.cloudfront.net/website-5285/f9e236c05ef7f86/509_university_drive_om_red.pdf Development of these two sites will do wonders for Northgate!

Exciting updates! Venus Aerospace is planning a 250,000 sf facility. Two additional projects are being pursued will be over 600,000 sf and provide 1800 new jobs. Excluding Venus (numbers not provided), in the next few years there could be 3300 people working at the Houston Spaceport! https://communityimpact.com/houston/bay-area/development/2022/02/23/2-new-major-developments-coming-to-houston-spaceport/ Discussions have begun between Houston Spaceport, the airport system, San Jacinto College, Rice, Texas A&M, Texas Southern, and UHCL on the establishment of a Houston Spaceport Center for Research Education and Workforce development (HS-CREW). https://bayareahouston.com/business-briefs/

A few smaller updates have occurred since early December. With Intuitive Machines' and Collins' facilities under construction, Axiom's site is moving ahead in the planning stages and they expect to move their headquarters to the facility next year. Recently, Axiom awarded Jacobs a design contract for their assembly, integration, and testing facility's construction. The first pieces of the Axiom Station are expected to arrive in Houston from Italy in early 2023, according to Axiom's website. https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2022/01/07/has-iah-spaceport-construction.html https://www.axiomspace.com/axiom-station https://executivegov.com/2022/01/axiom-space-selects-jacobs-to-construct-facility-at-houston-spaceport/ The spaceport was awarded a $5 million grant from the state out of the Spaceport Trust Fund for infrastructure development (SpaceX's spaceport in South Texas was also awarded the same amount). https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/space/article/Abbott-grants-10-million-to-spaceports-in-16773595.php

I don't necessarily hate this idea although I would much prefer the entirety of it be greenspace like the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston with high-rise development encouraged right up to the edge. I really like the city's vision shown in the following presentation. http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/nhhip/east/public-meeting-east-side.pdf

To my non-architect eye the buildings between Industry Building 1 and the hotel seem to have grown in the new rendering as have the buildings flanking the Collaborative Building (which I believe are marked as industry buildings in the master plan). If A&M and UH are putting their buildings on a shared base it'll likely require approval by the boards of regents so we'll hopefully get better indication in the next couple of months when those meetings take place.