HouTXRanger

Hmm. This is pretty enlightening, although it sucks to hear this is why the project fell through.

Considering how other projects/proposals have gone through Planning ect. with overwhelming positive feedback, I thought it was really weird how this specific project fell through when it seemed on the outset to be a slam dunk: take expensive infrastructure off the city's books, increase pedestrian safety, local homeowners get less traffic on their neighborhood streets. Considering how much it usually takes to get a city initiative cancelled in Houston, the opposition seemed very disproportionate to the response.

Honestly kinda glad to know it was a cluster from the start, because it gives me more confidence in the current and upcoming city initiatives that I know are being done correctly.

19 minutes ago, dbigtex56 said:

Are Half Price Books pockets deep enough to survive a store closure for however long it takes to construct the new building?

No, nobody has the money to sit around with zero income while a building is built. They're going to have to find some other place to move to (where they'll stay for the foreseeable future), and someone else will move into the new building.

I know for a fact there's a neat stripcenter just south of Shepard and Richmond that has tons of space, might feel right at home for them. I do hope they don't leave the neighorhood.

Are they ever going to cover the parking podium with something? I can't believe they've left it as bare concrete, it's incredibly ugily . . .

5 hours ago, cspwal said:

Wow

I only recognize it because of the street sign

I walked by there a few months ago, and the streets had already been repaved with only two lanes instead of the old four. I had to do a double-take.

1 hour ago, Squirrel said:

I'm guessing the developer is overjoyed they chose concrete over wood frame considering lumber prices currently. 

 

Also does anyone live in block 334 or on the red line? It's horn is actually really loud I can hear several blocks away I couldn't imagine living right next to it. 

It's not so loud, I honestly hear the bell and the train over the track switch in front of the greyhound more. Kinda pleasant to hear honestly, makes me feel like I live in a city

3 minutes ago, Triton said:

A few new changes. Here's a new bridge added:

 

A bike/ped only bridge in downtown?????? In HOUSTON? Is that for real???? Incredible. 

2 hours ago, Montrose1100 said:

It's a cool feeling seeing this interaction with the street. It goes against everything in the original vision.

 

The contrast in glass is kind of ugly, but I guess I'll reserve judgements until it's complete with some greenery. 

I think the contrast is pretty neat, from a historical perspective. I'm going to enjoy pointing out to people why there's such a stark break between the old building and the new renovations, and the 180 planning philosophy has made since the Houston Center was built.

10 hours ago, MarathonMan said:

Looks to me like the crane is being used to do some exterior work on Drewery Place.  Can’t imagine they’d need a crane, much less one extended that far, for work done on on an empty lot.

Yeah, you're right . . . . they started using it to move stuff onto the pool deck. 😭

Well, guess this thread'll go back to hibernation for another month or so. What a tease!

edit: crane packed up and left, nothing's changed with the new site except an old dumpster full of demo garbage is gone that I'm pretty sure was removed a few weeks ago.

Most of the adjacent property is actually owned by Rice, the guys developing this, so I don't think we've seen any values fluctuate just yet. Especially with how unstable the housing/renting market is right now, I think it'll be a little while before we can accurately say what the effects on property value will be, but it's a safe bet that it'll increase someone's rent . . . 

1 hour ago, Houston19514 said:

 

Not entirely certain about this, but I'm not sure it's Episcopal Health Foundation that has "allowed" the homeless encampment.  My understanding is that they have tried to get the city to take action, but the city has not been cooperative.

I wonder exactly how that works. The city has been successful in keeping encampments out of some places, but clearly have given up in others. What's the deciding factor?

42 minutes ago, Andrew Ewert said:

As a resident of EaDo, I see this project as more or less a break-even. I can say that the presence of 59 feels psychologically like much more of a barrier to downtown than GRB does. When I'm walking to Astros games, crossing under 59 is ugly at best, scary at worst. That said, GRB is huge and I wish it could be split in half and have Lamar or McKinney continue through it. The current shape and alignment of Discovery Green makes that basically impossible, but it's a nice pipe dream. Losing Polk as an entrance to downtown isn't thrilling, but I know I'd be more inclined to walk to downtown than drive if the cap parks existed. I really only see the project as being potentially worth it if the caps get done.

 

What it will do:

Make Houston a much more beautiful city to live in

Make pedestrian and bike access from midtown and EaDo into downtown much safer and more inviting

Reduce homeless encampments

Cost a lot of money

 

What it won't do:

Reduce congestion on any of the freeways

Actually solve any of the problems of homelessness

I'll just put this in as a bonus, but not for the cap, for the project overall: if we get two way all day HOV lanes (which is planned for all highways inside the loop between this and MetroNext), Metro is going to expand their P&R service to two way frequent and P&R-to-TC/P&R-to-P&R service, it'll be a wierd citywide express bus service instead of a commuter shuttle that I think has a lot of potential.

19 hours ago, InTheLoopFromNYC said:

At least that unnamed developer you allude to leaves most of the gold on the inside. Some of his buildings aren't bad from the outside, like the famous one on 56th and 5th, but by his interior design taste, you'd think he fancies himself an 18th century French queen! Who knows how he dresses up once he's alone in the "His" bedroom at night!

Good lord man, he deserves to be made fun of, not murdered! He (might) have a wife and kids, have mercy! Someone call a burn center . . . 🤣

3 hours ago, cspwal said:

It would be nice to have at least one through pedestrian pathway through the convention center, but I don't see how they could realistically do it

They could do some kind of breezeway. It would take a ton of remodeling, but i'd advocate for it.

1 hour ago, Naviguessor said:

Sam - True that blocks will be lost in Eado and a few of those blocks are presently built upon.  But, East End isn't an ultimate looser in the deal.  EADO will lose the barrier of an elevated Highway and most likely gain significant green space and build-able real estate, as envision in the latest plans.  The cap-park, could be a real connector and it also appears that the GRB, would now have an East Facing entrance on the north end, further connecting the east to downtown/convention distinct.  Regarding Clayton Homes, most of this was deeply flooded in Harvey and the units are planned to be replaced in the area.  

Additionally, although I can't confirm it because I don't know where I saw the source, but I'm pretty sure 100% of the people in clayton homes are going to get replacement public housing north of the bayou. I think they've already started relocating.

Yeah, segment three is pretty much locked in (the segment from the 59 spur up to the 45/10 interchange on north side of downtown) and it's the first that's going to start construction. The rest of the project, however, is still up in the air.

yeah it got dropped 'cause of covid. IIRC they're gonna have to seek it again, we'll be lucky if construction starts by 2030.

3 hours ago, astrohip said:

My friend bought this building (110 Milam) several years ago, and decided to save it. It was in ill shape, and needed more money than any developer is ever willing to put into a building. He decided to completely refurb/rehab it, and turn it into his residence. Several years and a shitload of money later...

 

The bottom floor backs onto Buffalo Bayou. He acknowledged it was going to flood, and made it an open-ish storage area, with walls designed to handle water exposure. Each floor has a purpose--one for his bedroom, another for living/dining/kitchen, another for work space, etc. His living floor has these huge, commercial glass-paneled overhead doors (like Garage doors) along the back wall (facing Buffalo Bayou & west), that when shut provide a wall. But they can open with a button, and create an open-air environment.

 

Those metal stairs on the side are to meet fire egress codes. On the roof is a stainless steel pool and deck. You can imagine the structural support he had to put in for that.

 

He also collects cars, everything from Ferraris to classic oldies...

 

Incredible. Glad the building managed to be saved at all.

Don't suppose there are any pictures floating around of the place? I wouldn't want you to go and invade your friend's privacy for the sake of curious internet strangers 😁

Looks like a great location! The "year built" lists 2021, will they be able to build it by then? Don't think I saw anything at all last time I was there.

Yeah, I was thinking, if they fit the gauge of the rail bridge they would've moved them last time, right? They need to work something out with a flatbed.

They really need to get a new system for dealing with hurricanes for the trolleys. they can't keep restoring them every time they get a bad one, they need to contract with someone to move them off island if one is forecasted to hit them.

I can't tell if there's anything in the pictures out of the ordinary from how it usually looks, maybe Brooklyn just knows something we don't.

Also, they could be cleaning it up to try and sell it to the investors better, hasn't it been gutted and re gutted a few times?

I'd love to see something done with the place but who knows at this point.

4 minutes ago, samagon said:

 

I hope you're talking about reconnecting streets along other parts of this project.

 

along the 59 alignment of this project the reconnecting streets are literally dead ending into the convention center. there is no reconnecting happening on the east side of downtown.

 

as a matter of fact, streets designated by Houston as major thoroughfares, and major collectors are going to be severed by this project. Leeland and Polk.

 

this cap is pretty, and it will be a nice consolation prize when you consider that the state is again destroying the high quality connections in our city that are used by the poorer sections of town, all so they can appease the desires of the rich and wealthy.

The other parts of this project, widening 45 north, is a complete mistake and is absolutely going to hurt and disconnect communities. I guarantee you the "poorer sections of town" are much more concerned with that than a downtown highway cap (and are much more likely to use public transit, which is unaffected if not improved by this project). If I could have my way, I'd only do segment 3 and totally shelve the other segments.

Leeland is also still in the render posted above, only Polk was severed.

Furthermore, this is not about connecting collectors and thoroughfares, or about connecting streets themselves. It's about improving the pedestrian experience by improving sidewalks, parks and buildings in a natural unbroken streetscape that make a city feel like a city rather than skyscrapers separated by deserts of parking lots. Whereas the highway was a barrier to this, the highway cap theoretically unites EaDo and Downtown.

18 minutes ago, zaphod said:

I don't like the EaDo cap. Where is the money going to come from if the city is so fiscally spread thin? Are they going to close down or stop funding other parks or parks services? Why are so many neighborhoods in the city under-served with parks and why are various activities lacking? This would be really expensive project to build a patch of grass next to some "visionary" development locations and put on it a gym and other facilities that could be built at 1/10th the cost elsewhere in town that needs them and leave money over for 100 other things.

 

I like how the 59 trench is proposed. They put in extra wide sidewalks with landscaping to join the two sides together, they went with an aesthetically pleasing decorative molded concrete for the walls, and where a mini tunnel is necessary due to the oblique angles a couple streets cross at they'll put some grass on top and line it with bushes.

 

Why not just do that for EaDo and be done with it? They could set up the trench walls to support a roof at a later date if private funds come from developers who are interested in building adjacent.

Over the past few decades, urban planners and researchers have come to realize that urban highways damage the cityscape it travels through in multiple ways, most obviously by physically separating parts of the city with wide, unattractive, unsafe overpasses like we have right now. Cities are now spending considerable time and effort to reunite neighborhoods originally segregated by the highways back in the 60s. You can see the effects of this in places like Dallas, or in more extreme cases like in Boston.

The effect of literally, physically reconnecting city streets in place of what was once a highway is hard to understate. 

The CoH has been trying to encourage unbroken "real city" development to unite different areas of interest around the inner loop of Houston. Downtown, Midtown, the Med Center, and EaDo. Currently, they are separated by the Pierce Elevated, 69, and 288. So, by burying these and building uninterrupted cityscape on top, they can try and undo the damage done by our urban highways. 

To my understanding you have to build the highways with the pillars and structures necessary to put buildings on the caps from the beginning, you can't do that after the fact. So, they're doing all this planning before they break ground.

Finally, TXDOT is doing all the heavy lifting. They're making the highway, the caps, and the pillars and engineering to make it all work. All the city has to do is build and maintain the parkspace, and encourage private development on the caps. 

33 minutes ago, zaphod said:

That would be seriously wild if 2020 was the year they redeveloped this thing.

I was just thinking that. What are the chances it actually gets developed this time? I'd almost rather they just demolish the thing and be done with it, but this looks like a good plan. We do live in the strangest timeline after all . . .