Captain Impossible

My source at Simon says that in the near term, the residential tower is unlikely. It's going to take a few years, or at least that's how it's looking now.

I like the part where the university suckered its ignorant students into voting for (I, for one, voted against) raising fees to help pay for this scam and then turned around and sold the naming rights for many millions of dollars. It's good to know that a small piece of my student loan repayment (plus interest) is going to this because they clearly needed it so very much.

We need a cat park!

We have one. It's called everywhere.

Many called it completely unlivable.

Some things don't change.

Thanks, Subdude. I've been lurking so long, I already feel like I know many of you (but not in a creepy way).

There's no way that's not creepy.

Yeah, cool project! Someone else beat you to it though. It's called the store directory.

I like the old YMCA building, and I understand that the Y wants a new building, and it's great that they are building it on a parking lot.

Too bad the new owners can't find a way to use the old building rather than tearing it down. Hopefully it won't become a surface lot or sit around empty like the Savoy and Days Inn and Central Bank buildings...

That pattern has already been established for Houston. You really think this will be an exception?

Rumor has it that Shriner's Burns Hospital will not reopen. They got two feet of water in their building, now they want to call it quits. Come on, Methodist Hospital had two floors totally inundated in 2001, along with Baylor, Memorial Hermann and others in the Texas Medical Center. There was never any discussions about not reopenning. These instituitions rebuilt, and protected themselves from it ever happenning again. What is it with these Shriner people?

They're part of the Freemasons, a more than questionable secretive society whose supposed benevolence is a total sham?

I realize Books a Million isn't Barnes and Noble but they sell pretty much the same stuff! Who cares what they call it.

I do. It's a horrifically bad store. Though, fitting for this project. It's all the worst things about the retail experiences of Florida and California all in one convenient location.

The Mosaic towers have indeed formed their own skyline...and that new skyline blocks out half of the previously fantastic vista of the downtown skyline looking north up Almeda.

What is it with you people and views? I admit, I like them as much as anyone else, but it's the same story in Dallas. As soon as someone builds something that "blocks their view" they freak out. Calm down.

This continues to be the best looking development currently being built in Houston.

Also keep in mind that a building like Williams has behind its design one of the most important figures in architecture over the last century.

Your view was better than mine. I was on the other side watching down Fannin. I think it was Fannin. I won't post my video, because it's the same, but that was awesome. I can finally scratch that off my list of things to see.

I think I might have been where you were, and if so, we were looking east down Rusk. I didn't know that view in the video would actually be there.

I think it's a great landmark. I don't like the fact that we tear down everything as soon as it hits 30 - 40 years old.

I agree. I was just by there yesterday shooting a band, and it really is an amazing piece of mid-century architecture. I've never been inside, but it needs to stay. It belongs there.

I think he just did a house in one of the neighborhoods.

He also designed the Dallas Theater Center.

Demolition by neglect.

That seems to happen a lot in this region of the state.

Everything on that block but Stowers.

How unfortunate. There are so many parking lots. And uglier buildings.

Sorry if I'm late in the game on this one. It's just frustrating when good looking stuff comes down instead of the things that need to go.

Forgive my ignorance, but are all of those buildings coming down for this project?

So this means it will definitely be on the east side of 59?

Yet another of the same thing. How about some variety?

Luby's only fronts as a restaurant. They are actually elderly manufacturing plants. That's where all old people come from.

There's a guy at Rice who drives a segway around campus too.

What a nerd.

There is the inferiority complex thing. Stuff that's constructed in San Francisco or Seattle are construed as automatically better than what's in Houston. Personally, I think San Fran's skyline is just an overgrown version of Ft Worth's, plus a nice pyramid. Seattle, I don't get either. I've never seen an angle of the Emerald City's that compares to H-town's skyline views going down south on 45 or from the up ramp coming from 288 on to 59 South. Those are nice skylines but they don't look as sharp or striking as Houston's.

Perhaps, but what they lack in skyline, they more than make up for in real city life, which is more than can be said for Houston.

...it started in California and there are more locations in Austin that in College Station....yep, definitely an Aggie thing!

You wouldn't believe how many people don't know that.

If you're going to head over to UH, don't forget your bulletproof vest. The 3rd Ward isn't a pleasant place to stroll around in.

I personally haven't run into any trouble down there. I have a friend who lives nearby, on the other side of I-45, on Rusk. It's actually a good (though, maybe not in some traditional senses) neighborhood that is simply in need of some fixing up. Isn't the light rail supposed to go down that way, anyway?