Jump to content

'Stonian

Full Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    232

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

 Content Type 

Everything posted by 'Stonian

  1. 'Stonian
    My bad.., chill out bruh. I guess stone looks a lot like stucco to some. But I agree most of the newer stuff is a step down from older buildings like Four Leaf Towers.
  2. 'Stonian
    This building puts me more in the mind of the nicer buildings in Miami and the two condo buildings in Uptown Park (same developer - Interfin - a class act IMO). I've always loved those buildings and for the record they're not stucco! From the rendering it looks like this one will be cast stone with glass balcony railings and not cheapish painted stucco, so No Complaints Here. Houston could certainly use more buildings with sloped "roofs" rather than flat tops but I kinda like the interesting roof line on this one with the day-lighted penthouse patios. Every new building doesn't have to be all glass with a spire on top. Atlanta's skyline has too many Spires for me - but the night time lighting is AWESOME!
  3. 'Stonian
    Awesome Pic!
  4. 'Stonian
    I was in Houston over the Memorial Day weekend and saw this building. Even at only 12-13 stories it has a dramatic effect on the Med Center skyline from the east.., it just stands out and appears significantly taller.
  5. 'Stonian
    Latest updates from HBJ http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2013/05/20/exxon-mobil-campus-construction.html Slideshow http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2013/05/20/exxon-mobil-campus-construction.html?s=image_gallery
  6. 'Stonian
    Block 350 is the under construction 23-24 story SkyHouse Houston, Broke ground early 2013. http://www.bizjourna...-group-inc.html
  7. 'Stonian
    Remember it's in Toronto and NOT Houston. $300 million doesn't go quite as far there. I would also think the total includes the cost of the museum's collection of artifacts and not just building costs. Who knows, one painting could be world millions.
  8. 'Stonian
    No renderings yet for the Houston Aga Khan Ismaili Centre but here is a rendering of the (under construction) $300 million Toronto version to be completed later this year (scroll down for detailed renderings): http://urbantoronto.ca/news/2010/05/prime-minister-harper-and-aga-khan-aga-khan-museum-ismaili-centre Maybe we can expect something similar - Toronto's version appears to sit on similar acreage (15 acres), the site here is 11 acres. More of an Islamic Arts/Cultural Center and Museum..., This thing could be huge. Facebook page with good pics: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=571658612858938&
  9. 'Stonian
    Expect this one to go up extremely fast! I wouldn't surprise me to see it topped out by Thanksgiving and open around March 2014. I live directly across the street from the second Skyhouse building going up in Atlanta and I'm amazed they're on the 9th floor already after just starting in February. After spending the 1st month setting up the crane and setting columns in the ground, that's 9 floors in 2 months or about 1 floor/week.
  10. 'Stonian
    Oliver Mcmillan's Buckead project in Atlanta should really have no bearing on what's going on with Houston's River Oaks District. His project here in ATL has been a slow go since they acquired the 10% completed property a couple of years ago (the former "Streets of Buckhead" project started in 2008 and sat idle for 4 years with 4-5 cranes just sitting there). FOUR YEARS! Although limited construction has resumed in 2013, they still have not secured a full construction loan from Wells Fargo (or any other bank) and have been financing recent construction with their own capital, however the current progress is minimal at best.
  11. 'Stonian
    Actually this one looks more like Energy Center III that broke ground in the Energy Corridor this January rather than the new BBVA building near the Galleria. Almost an exact copy (with slight modifications) so probably the same architect. http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/breaking-ground/2013/01/keep-an-eye-on-energy-center-three.html?s=image_gallery
  12. 'Stonian
    I actually do not think the building looks as hideous as some are making it out to be. It's not a world class stunner but neither is it a piece of crap. It's a tab bit above "average" IMO. I mean, what if it was simply all precast concrete between floors with glass windows giving a plain striped effect as on the back side - now that would be boring. What we have is a balcony/sky garden on the 7-8 floors and multiple facades all around which makes it somewhat atypical.
  13. 'Stonian
    At least it's all brick/stone on the exterior which has a timeless architectural appeal. Let's hope the planned landscaping will make it a tad bit more appealing.
  14. 'Stonian
    Ohhhhkay - Back to All-Star Weekend I had a lovely time visiting my hometown that weekend and the weather was absolutely spectacular. A friend traveling with me commented she thought Houston was always hot & humid. Surprise, Thursday-Sunday it was nice and cool, & not a cloud in the sky! I really wish I would have Tivo'd the game including pre-game coverage because the shots of downtown were the best I've ever seen of Houston. Downtown looked so alive with lighting and the shots of the skyline a night!! BG Group Place really stood out.
  15. 'Stonian
    Love the water color - beats dingy dirty brown any day.
  16. 'Stonian
    This project looks like a smaller City Centre or more appropriately - Uptown's version of The Woodlands Market Square. Great addition to the district IMO.
  17. 'Stonian
    This will be TWO 12 story buildings! http://www.sunriseluxuryliving.com/2012/shell-close-to-construction-on-two-new-buildings-5-4-2012/
  18. 'Stonian
    I believe the previous posters were referring to the additional part of the garage to the left in this rendering: http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/files/2011/11/Skanska2011.jpg
  19. 'Stonian
    By 'this project' I'm referring to the entire Regent Square development and not just this Sovereign residential tower. It's the one current Houston development that I believe adheres the most to conventional urban planning IMO. All others, accept the Convention District projects taken collectively will mostly require driving to a destination, parking, then getting out of your car and meandering around limited boundaries before getting back in you car and leaving. I believe GID is being careful to blend its development into the surrounding neighborhood strategically enough where casual observers are not exactly sure where the existing neighborhood ends and where Regent square begins. http://www.gid.com/d...ent-square.aspx Their overall design creates a truly walkable urban streetscape where none exists today - one in which buildings relate to each other and lower levels are built to a human scale allowing ample on-street parallel parking along with wide sidewalks and street trees that encourage and buffer pedestrian activity from traffic. With the exception of Allen Pkwy to the northwest, the streets all involve slower moving traffic which least intimidates pedestrians. Additionally, I appreciate the fact they're using a combination of 10+ distinct architects in an 'attempt' to avoid creating a homogenous development. They have a 10 year development plan and appear to be sticking to their guns to get things right rather than just throwing something up and moving on. I'm in the construction business and although it seems overly simplistic, I can usually gauge the quality of a developer or builder by the cleanliness and organization of their job sites. Yeah, super excited about this one!
  20. 'Stonian
    Man that's a clean construction site! I have total faith in this responsible developer (GID Development) and of all the projects going up in Houston over the next few years, this is the one I'm most excited about!! And that includes City Centre, BLVD Place, and the River Oaks District. The only project(s) that come close are what's going on in the "Convention District" downtown.
  21. 'Stonian
    Every time I've traveled to Dallas I've made time to ride the light rail lines just to see what Houston's METROrail can eventually become. I've even spent 2-4 hours at a time exploring the region on the rails and believe me when I say it takes FOREVER to get somewhere unless you're just traveling a couple of stops and you'd probably be better served just getting in your car and going (unless you do not own a car). While I'm impressed with the amount of miles DART has been able to complete, I really do not believe that's a good measure to compare METRO and DART. Dallas has invested $6-7 billion into this thing but I wouldn't necessarily call that investment good or wise. I believe the mistake has been to make it more of a commuter rail line system. The fact that DART member cities are spread apart far and wide has forced them to make these lines "long and thin". Trust me, that is not what DART would have preferred. When a small city like Rowlett has "only" invested $80 million in sales tax revenues into the system since 1983 and DART is forced to spend hundreds of millions extending the rail line 5-10 miles to reach "downtown Rowlett" to apease city leaders, then you begin to reassess the wisdom of that investment. I love the fact DART jumped on the rail "bandwagon" first and has put pressure on Houston to get with the program but I actually hope Houston learns from DART's mistakes and make METROrail more of an inner city type streetcar system. I believe this would also discourage sprawl (or at least not encourage it). When you build transportation infrastructure out to far flung places you support more sprawled out development. Imagine Houston without Beltway 8 or - God Forbid - a totally completed 180 mile Grand Parkway - more development would have been forced to center around loop 610 thus encouraging a more dense inner loop. And I'm really only concerned with Hobby being connected to the light rail since it is just 7 miles from downtown and probably only 4-5 miles from the current end of the Southeast line near Palm Center, set to open in late 2014 . IAH is just too damn far and would take too damn long when you're trying to catch a flight. Most of the folks riding to IAH would be those who work there which could be considerable (I guess) but not worth the billion plus it would take to complete a line out there. And this is not at all meant to be a knock against DART's system because I'm a strong rail supporter and just think its kinda cool to see modern trains breezing around the city. My point is - being the first to have something is not always better neither is being bigger always better! Houston could more wisely invest in 30 miles of rail (vs 100 miles) and have similar or higher ridership than DART and all the while encourage more inner city transit oriented developments.
  22. 'Stonian
    To be clear, my comments on Novare's aggressive construction schedule and that they do things "on the cheap" were in no way intended to imply that I believe their buildings are poorly built, simply that we should not expect this building to take long to come to fruition NEITHER should we expect anything extravagant from this developer on this particular project. Prior to the last couple of years, my occupation was in the construction field, specifically a project manager for a top homebuilder/developer. Many times customers would "complain" that we were building their homes too fast and it appeared we were just throwing the house together. Ironically, it has always been my experience that the homes that go up the fastest are generally the best built because fewer major mistakes were made that needed extra time to correct! Additionally, when we adhere to a robust schedule, it limits the amount of time that construction materials are exposed to the elements. 7 years ago I personally bought a condo built by Novare here in Atlanta and I have not had any issues regarding construction quality, in fact I'm quite pleased - and this coming from a construction guy!
  23. 'Stonian
    I live in a condo building in Atlanta also developed by Novare (the developer for this proposed building in downtown Houston). The SkyHouse apartment building that Novare is finishing up here sits a few blocks from my building and is just a "Plain Jane" tower with an adjacent garage. NO LIE - they broke ground on this thing in FEBRUARY 2012 and its is almost completely finished (10-12 month construction schedule!) In fact, the apartment building itself has one of the smallest footprints I've ever seen for any tower so thats how it went up so fast and they pretty much worked 6-7 days a week. Please note that Novare does things "on the cheap". They did at least include an oval roof top in the final design which differed from the same original rendering here, however the building and garage have VERY LIMITED retail and the garage design particularly has been completely degraded by bloggers on the Atlanta Construction Forum http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=166320&page=268. Nevertheless, this would still be a boost with getting more residents living in downtown Houston - so I really hope it gets off the ground!!
  24. 'Stonian
    I love the new orientation of the stadium as it takes advantage of downtown's "Skyline" view! Need a better rendering of the exterior facade to make a judgement call. It looks to be another "breathable" metal exterior in the same vein as Dynamo Stadium. If so, that scares me. I'm certain it reduces costs but college football stadiums are built to last 50 plus years and I worry if a super modern look will be outdated in 10 years, but I'll withhold judgement until a more detailed rendering is available. Thanks for posting!
  25. 'Stonian
    Ah come on folks.., enough already! BW8 and Briar Forest.., TowerSpotter is 2 miles off but I'm happy he spotted this one as I had not seen it mentioned anywhere else. Maybe someone can simply remove the "(I-10)". Thanks TowerSpotter, nice find..., keep'em coming.
×
×
  • Create New...