HoustoniaNYC

None of the designs for the Bank of the SW ever did anything for me. The winning design looks like the 2 tallest buildings they buily in Philly around the same time. Besides a few examples, mostly in Houston, I'm just not down with post-modernism. Houston's downtown skyline is almost perfect in several ways. I've always had a hard time imagining an addition that is taller than the current tallest 2 buildings, whatever they may be called nowadays.

It'll happen, and for the cities' sake, I hope it does, but I don't like the proposals that have been submitted so far, regardless of whether they'll be built or not.

Such a sad way to flame out. Thankfully, he left us with so much great work, among which is the most elegant, most accurate, and most poignant single sentence ever composed about our beloved burg.

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Just like Intercontinental, it's always going to be Transco to me.

I didn't like the new lighting when I was down for X-mas. It doesn't do anything for the building except make it look planer than it appears during the day. I hope it was just the uptown x-mas lighting and not something permanent.

The closing of the Post was a travesty that Houston has yet to recover from. The Post was a superior paper in every facet than the comical. Ultimately, the comical had to resort to dirty tricks to take down the Post, and equally outrageous was that nothing was done about it. Houston would be a much better place with the Post still around.

This quote makes me homesick.

Bring back "The Thunderstorm".

That's what Greater Katy is all about. Shouldn't surprise anybody. If you wan the old Katy, move there.

Michael DeGeorge's mansion was located in the downtown neighborhood Quality Hill and located at 918 Bagby Street in 1895.

I have to say that the building is growing on me. I didn't like the design initially but it's turning out to look better than I expected.

I also agree that Houston seem to have lost it's cutting edge spirit in a lot of things including building design. This is suppose to be Space City. Personally, I would have loved to have had Minute Maid Field, this new Criminal Justice Building, a lot of the new condo towers going up, some of the new projects in the Medical Center etc., with a more "forward" cutting edge look. It appears Atlanta has taken the "future" cutting edge title Houston used to have. Houston, shouldn't forget what it is.

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It's not about "looking" cutting edge, it's about being honest, and maximizing contemporary materials, methods, and design to their fullest potential. An elegant, clever, or bold facade is one thing, but there's more to it. What is this building supposed to do and how do the architectonics of that building facilitate and/or accomplish this program? Ultimately, since the building has such a supposed high purpose in our society, then how does this building reflect upon that and therefore upon us?

More than anything, this building isn't exceptional at all. It's quite banal, even with it's facade and tacky top. If we live in a representative democracy, a government for the people by the people (via elected surrogates), then this municipal building speaks of our government, and therefore us, as being as unexceptional as it is.

I refuse to believe the city that built the Astrodome more than anything else as a monument to our ability to land a man of the moon as unexceptional, although there are many who believe it is. I'm not just talking about folks outside the metro area, but people who live and breath and make a living in this city without much less a damn or even contempt for their environment. It's called apathy, and it's a cronic disease this city has suffered through time and time again. This building is an exceptional example of that.

Hey thanks y'all for the warm welcome. This site is a fantastic resource. I had no idea that this forum was older than it appears. I was just giving a suggestion to what seemed a young site. I'm looking forward to building this thing up again.

Density folks! If we're going to preach it, let's start here! This site could almost be concentrated to 3 geographical forums: Inner Loop, Suburbs, Exurbs. Cities are diverse with everything interconnected in even the strangest ways. This site has everything too catergorized. Why shouldn't a thread on the Shamrock be right next to a Houston MOD thread right next to a Light Rail Thread. It's the way in real life.

Just my $.02

No, but I just wanted to start a topic flaming Katy.

SWA is to blame for killing the preposed revitalization of rail in Texas. Imagine being able to go from Dowtown to downtown S.A., Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth with a few stops in between and not needing a car to get to and from the airport (which is often a nightmare) much less not dealing with airport security and such.

The rail networks of Europe and the Northeast, in particular the one here in the NYC metro area should be envied. It's a wonderful way to get around and an incredibly efficient way to move massive amounts of commuters.

But hey, we got the best highways in the nation (as we should, because more money on highways than education, but I digress) and they're almost never crowded with traffic, especially when they've been expanded to 50 lanes wide.

My grandma lives off of old Austin highway in a small neighorhood down by the river. She loves it. She's less than a 1/2 mile from the HEB, the old HEB/walmart stripmall, and the supersized Walmart, but once you turn down the dirt road down the slope of the river you'd never know. They've built a neighborhood with standard detached housing you'd find anywhere right next to her little neighborhood, but it's hidden by a huge over grown undeveloped lot that will stay that way. She lived in an old house that was originally in Austin but she cut it in half and moved it down the highway. It's been a great place for her to retire and I have many fond memories being there.

If you wanted more seclusion though, and I'd suggest the other side of the river from the development on the highway.

Bastrop was so stupid to not build feeder roads and allow development to front the highway. It's practically a glorified boulevard now. I wonder if they'll eventually have to build a spur like La Grange did.

The architectural, historical, and cultural icons of Katy must be saved!

I think they would make great apartments. Imagine living in the "Rice Tower" with massive concrete walls for insulation and punched out windows with stunning views of the big box development, mall parking lots, and unchecked suburban sprawl.

I bet it would sell like hot cakes!

Austin, gritty? That's funny.

Why do you like the building? Do you like the way it's going to function as a municipal building? Do you like the planning and layout of the design? Do you like the way it relates to the plaza and surrounding buildings? What does it say about Harris County, the city of Houston and the it's people?

I was born at the TMC. I was raised on the west side. I was sentenced to high school in Katy.

NYC is great, it's the Capital of the World. They put much more pride and effort into their city than Houston ever has. Not to say Houston hasn't improved in leaps and bounds within the next decade. I've seen that transformation myself with my own eyes too you know. But we still have a long way to go.

Kudos to the organization and good folks behind it. Y'all do great work and eventhough I'm over a 1000 miles away, I support y'all %100 and wish I could be a part of it.

David Carr needs to sack up and fast. Maybe Roethelisburger (sp) in Putzburgh will light a fire under his buttocks. He's still making rookie mistakes, although put him behind the Pat's or Steeler's line and I think we see a different man,

But what do I know, I only get to see 1 or 2 games including TV/radio/internet up here.

It's Republic Bank, just like it's Transco Tower, it's Texas Commerce, it's HOUSTON Intercontinental Airport etc., but I digress....

I'm no post-modernist, but I've always appreciated that building. Houston is definitely a "gothic" place in spirit. I think of our beloved downtown skyline as a composition of beautiful objects, and I've liked how the Republic Bank played off of it's decidedly modern counterparts.

What I've never understood though is why Johnson didn't equally stagger the 3 volumns of the building. The difference bewteen smallest(North) and the middle volume is greater than the difference between the middle and the tallest(South) volumns. Was it purely economical or programmical, or was Johnson trying to play with perspective? Impressive if he was since he apparently got away with it, except it doesn't really work in my opinion. It just looks wrong, like they meant to make the staggering equidistant but didn't.

That courthouse in Austin looks absolutely soulless and inhumane. Seriously, they could use that exact picture for the cover of a Kafka novel. When did America start wanting to be like Europe?

Ugh. Europe.

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Yeah. What do those yokels know about architecture and urban planning?

Houston's insecurity with being young, raw, and unappreciated by it's metropolitan peers has gotten the better of itself, as least as the county is concerned. What the hell is that building supposed to be, a Las Vagas casino disguised as something else? Is that excuse for a dome actually functional as one, or is it just a fancy way to hide the mechanical systems and squander tax payer dollars while giving some fat and bloated good ol' boy judges and commisioners a faulty sense of accomplishment?

The supposed "Space City" always suceeds when it embraces its' zeitgeist and looks ahead into the future.

That abomination to our skyline is a just a pathetic attempt to manufacture a history that never existed.

But hey, at least it's not a strip mall.