Valhalla

On 4/12/2024 at 7:29 AM, 004n063 said:

 

Absolutely insane that they're widening the moat between downtown and the east side, but that's TXDoT for you.

They're going to cap the park through most of downtown, so in effect they're not widening the highway.. they're getting rid of it

Why do they put the exposed parking garage side facing the main street? I'll never understand these bonehead decisions.

It seems more and more architects can only be bothered to design half a building. I wish i could go to work and only do half my job, take a crap in my bosses office, and then get a pay raise to boot. 

How is this conversation ridiculous? People expect their art museums to be well . . . artistically redeeming. The only thing that separates the Beck building from any other nondescript building is the fact that it has "art museum" written all over it. My only point is that the Beck museum is nothing more than an architectural mediocrity.

15 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

People with minimal observational skills can probably figure it out by reading the words carved into the stone (and yes, the building is stone, not concrete).

There's a scene in game of thrones where Tywin tells joffrey that no true king has to say "I am king!"

If you have to write art museum on your building to distinguish it from a central chilling station, then you're probably doing something wrong. 

I went to the contemporary art museum in DC and there was an exhibit that was just a blank white canvas. The Beck museum is the architectural embodiment of that canvas. 

what kind of temple shoots off fireworks every week? Like, I could be looking to convert.

7 hours ago, bobruss said:

Thats what the banners are for. I don't want to see murals painted on any of the fine arts buildings. Paint on the Mies building. No way. Or the Moneo no. There are plenty of sculptures around the campus . They are about to add an impressive work by last years Venice Bienalle U.S Representative Simon Leigh to the Kinder building near the entrance to the sculpture garden. That is going to be quite and  accession, that will add to the already wonderful outdoor public sculpture garden which anyone can walk through for free. Lets save murals for ugly cinderblock walls and leave the world class architecture alone. I dont think Mies, Moneo or Holls would think very highly of someone slapping a bunch of paint on the sides of their buildings.

Don't disagree with your take on murals. But calling the Audrey Jones Beck building "world class architecture" is a stretch. The thing is a concrete block. 

Actually this picture best illustrates what's going on. In fact, the first two floors appear to be perfectly parallel with runnels st. From the 3rd floor up things get swooshy.

Yea the curve is visible from multiple angles and even appears in the drawing. I find the curve strange because that section of runnels street (on the east side) is completely straight. So rather than conforming with runnels street the building actually curves away from it. A curious design decision to say the least. 

I don't get the slight curve with this one away from runnels streets. Maybe I'm missing something but it doesn't seem to serve any purpose? 

1 hour ago, Texasota said:

Do you actually like the color of dyed water?

I don't. I'd much rather have the bayou be its actual color than an unnatural-looking blue. 

Easy on the copium hits dude. 

The water looks objectively disgusting, like toilet water after a late night taco bell run disgusting. Every time I take someone to the bayou downtown they comment on the color of the water.

I grew up in San Antonio and no one would ever go to the river walk if it was this color. There's no reason the bayou can't copy the success of the river walk, but the color of the water is a major factor holding it back. 

I'm not sure if permanently dying the water is even possible. If it is, however, that's clearly the way to go. 

I see they're planning to dye the water blue! That's an awesome addition!

In all seriousness, why can't we change the color of the water? If chicago can dye their river green for saint patties why cant we dye ours blue?

this is one thicc boy

What is the purpose of the netting? To keep stuff from falling on passerbys?

On 8/3/2021 at 1:40 PM, scarface said:

But what is the problem with downtown Houston at night? It seems very dark, bland, and underwhelming to be the State's largest city's largest skyline.

Very few people live downtown. And most people aren't at the office at night.

The new Hyatt in Austin is easily the thinnest highrise in Texas. I dont even think I could lay down sideways in that thing. 

I've always wondered why you never see wrap apartments higher than 15ish floors. Would it just be too many units? Or it there a structural problem I'm not seeing.

if this is the beginning of a neo-classical skyscraper renaissance, I'm here for it. 

name a single master plan that's ever been followed perfectly 

2 hours ago, HNathoo said:

I understand why they're replacing glass with screens on the garage, but was hoping this would be a vanity project for the owner/user that disregarded economics.

Vanity is the problem. I think the owner blew all his money on that winged statue.

He is also a little delusional and once described this building as "timeless." Like anything with five floors of parking is instantly disqualified from that category, let alone five floors of parking covered by mesh strainers.

4 hours ago, Squirrel said:

Dense is relative, each of those big townhouses has maybe 3 people

Relative to what, Manhattan? Ok then.

Houston has the greatest population density in Texas. Austin has more people living downtown than Dallas or Houston, but outside of downtown, Austin's population density plummets to endless rows of single-family homes. Developers there have to fight tooth and nail just to build the kind of townhomes that we're so quick to take for granted. 

11 hours ago, tangledwoods said:

I am not an expert in dimensions but wouldn't a 3D file suffice? 

So I guess you've never seen Night at the Museum 

So fast! i think the fastest construction occurs on university campuses because they have to take advantage of breaks where students are away from school. If only there was a way to apply the same pressure to the rest of developers.