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4 hours ago, toxtethogrady said:

You want a high-rise storage facility instead?

There are a number of storage facilities in this city that are less of an eyesore than this.

On 5/8/2023 at 8:15 AM, thatguysly said:

This one is becoming very visible from 288. Love pointing out construction to my wife as we drive and she pretends to be interested.

Same. Then I describe what it's going to be, and she asks "how do you know all this stuff?!" 😏

On 5/11/2023 at 2:35 PM, kennyc05 said:

I hate that another building is gonna cover 2727 I like looking at that building driving down Kirby 😵‍💫

I've always thought 2727 was one of the uglier high rises in the city. 

To each his own, I guess... 👍

4 hours ago, HoustonMidtown said:

 

The city is healing.

12 hours ago, DotCom said:

“We are not against development,” Patterson said.

L O L

I feel like the renders that TMC puts out fail to do justice to the scale of this development. Every time I drive by and see it, it's almost jarring. Sure, it doesn't have the height of MDA's mid-campus building. But the size of all of it together...it's massive. 

On 1/18/2023 at 10:08 AM, Paco Jones said:

Address:

3120 Buffalo Speedway

 

Architect:

The Preston Partnership

 

Information:

Residential tower consisting of 28 levels above grade with one level of below grade basement.  Parking is at basement and levels 1-5 and residential is levels 6-28.  317 units with a total of 378,387 SF of residential space.  Ground floor retail space of 15,209 SF.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really like the setbacks from the one angle. It almost looks art deco in it's massing. 

I like setbacks. 

On 2/28/2023 at 9:01 AM, Montrose1100 said:

Light Pollution isn't that cool. 

The impact of a few LED strips is minimal compared to the dozens of square miles of parking lots with unoptimized high-intensity LED lights. If you want to fight light pollution, ensuring that your parking and road lighting isn't also illuminating the moon is a good start. 

However, I think that aggressively fighting light pollution in an urban core is a fool's game. I think the better strategy is to, on a statewide level, champion and promote dark sky preserves and accept that a city has a land use type that is distinct from the Davis Mountains of West Texas. Fortunately for us, the earth's curvature makes isolating light pollution, on a large scale, easier than controlling it at the heart of the nation's fourth largest city.

One of the things I've enjoyed seeing in Chinese cities is how many of their modern highrises and skyscrapers are outlined and lit by colored LED lighting like this. It really makes the cities look more vibrant and exciting at night. I'd love to see it catch on in the United States. At night, so many of our buildings are just formless, lifeless blocks. Sadly, the most exciting illuminated features are often the dim aircraft warning lights.

I'll be really happy to see this lot being developed. For how many people that the med center employs, there is a serious lack of good housing options in the area. My wife and I lived in the area for six years, and lived in two separate apartment complexes in that time. Both times that we were shopping for a rental, it was shocking how limited our options were if we were trying to stay within two miles.

This location is a couple hundred feet from the MacGregor bus line which puts you within a stop or two of MD Anderson, St. Lukes, etc. With the TMC3 and Levit Green developments going on, I don't see how any competent housing developer could lose in this area. Especially if they can keep rents in the price range of a nurse or office worker.

In my opinion, a mid-rise condo building would also be a great fit. What ended up forcing us out of the area is that we wanted to buy rather than rent. There were simply no good options in our price range, unlike other neighborhoods within the loop like Montrose, Upper Kirby, Midtown, or the Heights. Heck, the Downtown has much better condo options and has the advantage of being on the rail.

There are quite a few lights on inside the tower at night. They must be making progress on the interiors. 

I drive past this once or twice a day. It's not nearly as ugly as I was fearing it was going to be. Maybe it's just because it's new and the metal and glass are still clean and shiny. But they could have done a lot worse. 

E.g.:

Quote

I wish they would put some giant mural on the highway side.

If it was good artwork, it could actually turn this into an aesthetic positive.

10 hours ago, editor said:

People commute to work by bicycle in the summer in cities a lot hotter than Houston.  I've seen plenty of it in Phoenix and Las Vegas.  Those cities are sometimes — but not always — less humid.  Yes, 107° and 95% humidity is a thing out there. 

Can't big tough Texans handle a little humidity when they're cycling, or is that only possible after driving luxury farm machinery to an air-conditioned gym and hopping on a stationary bike while watching Fox News on the big-screen TV and barking into their iPhones?

 

I think Las Vegas and Phoenix can be quite pleasant above 100°. I've been hiking in Southern Utah at 106° and, so long as I had water and a hat to cover my head, it was beautiful. 

Also, in neither case was I expected to show up to work in an office, hold meetings, and represent anyone other than myself. A little salt crust and body odor is perfectly acceptable trekking through a dessert canyon or touristing on the Vegas strip. 

5 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

People act like the majority of people on earth don’t live in warm climates.

The majority of people are earth would love an automobile with A/C. 

1 minute ago, jmitch94 said:

Gee I wonder why that could be. “If they build it they will come”

Nine months out of the year it's 82 degrees with 100% humidity during my morning commute. I don't care if I get a police escort and Sylvester Turner personally cheering me on, I'm not interested in biking to work. If the little non-profit I run starts rolling in piles of cash and we can afford nice showers and locker rooms, I might consider it. hahaha. Until then, I need a nice road for my car, or a nice bus that actually goes to the place I need to go.

I 100% agree that the city is hostile to cyclists. And I think the worst issue is the drivers. I think there is a lot that could be done to improve the streets for cyclists and pedestrians (the sidewalks are a disaster!) before we need to resort to LA style "road diets."

On 12/13/2022 at 7:54 AM, Texasota said:

I think it's supposed to get a road diet and bike lanes between Waugh and Shepherd.

This is so ridiculous. The city will take time out of the lives of thousands of drivers so that five cyclists and the pizza delivery guy don't have to choose between sharing the road with motor traffic or using the sidewalk. A better way to help cyclists would be if the police started enforcing traffic rules. Last I knew, changing lanes without signaling is a good way to kill a cyclist, and it's also against the rules. If the rules are followed, the cyclists can safely share the road.

Also, if you want to encourage people to not use their cars, maybe we should consider turning bus shelters into places where bus passengers might want to wait. Right now they're just the preferred spot for the homeless to store shopping carts of cans or for druggies to smoke crack pipes. 9 out of 10 times I pass a bus shelter, it's being occupied by someone sleeping under their personal trash heap, meanwhile the people waiting for the bus are standing in the elements.

My wife doesn't like to drive. She'd rather take public transport. But the bus situation is very unpleasant. 

Making hellish traffic more hellish is not an actual solution. It will just make living inside the loop more troublesome than it already is.

</annoyed rant> 

On 11/14/2022 at 5:02 PM, astrohip said:

Tried to get some pricing info... rec'd this reply:

Thank you for your interest in 1661 Tanglewood.  Due to the confidentiality of our clients, we are not sharing pricing or floor plans via email, however, we are now scheduling appointments at our sales gallery

Wow. In my opinion, it's rather insulting to the neighborhood to purpose-build a slum there.

Regardless of how cheap those units sell, I'd be concerned that the structure is already full of mold. Or, that the framing was swollen by moisture during construction and there will be excessive settling and sheetrock and floor cracking.

Stay away from this place if you value your investment. 

9 hours ago, cityliving said:

This is clearly a massive deathray mirror designed to torch the Embassy Suites using the light of the setting sun.

3 hours ago, toxtethogrady said:

The Disco Kroger

into a seven-story $68 million mid-rise apartment complex, with two parking garages...

It would seem that the article's authors misread the state permit. The building is now 9 floors tall unless someone botched the permit. But it seems pretty explicit. 

The article feels a bit lazy. 

On 9/8/2022 at 6:32 AM, IntheKnowHouston said:

In the most recent Ion District retail brochure (updated in July), there are building models for future phases. 


The Ion District is a 16-acre, multi-phase district. It will consist of 3-5 million square feet of retail, commercial office, multi-family residential and hospitality  to be built in partnership with best in class developers over the next 10 years. 
 

• Phase 1 (2021/2022) 
• Phase 2 (2023/2024) 
• Phase 3 (2027)
• Phase 4 (2030)

Phase 3 (2027) 
Phase 4 (2030) 

Does anyone know how much of the phase 2 is funded yet? The massive garage they're working on certainly seems ambitious. But what are chances of this actually coming together on this timetable?

If this is more than just a paper project, I can see this spurring a lot more residential development in midtown, which is a happy thought.

5 minutes ago, hindesky said:

They are doing the repair work on Fairview right now. From Montrose to Genesee St. It started about 2 weeks ago.

I see that they're doing something. I hope they're doing more than just patching the patches.

One issue that I see (mostly between the Barnaby's and Taft) is that it seems like street parking crowds the sidewalks because there's no real curb. There are a lot of pedestrians pushed into the street. More development will just exacerbate it until that's fixed.