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gwilson

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Everything posted by gwilson

  1. gwilson
    Sharpstown Mall also had an honor as the first enclosed/climate controlled mall. Everyone is first at something.
  2. gwilson
    this is a GREAT street. We tried buying the lot two doors down from there to build a house for resale a few years back. The lot was GORGEOUS with a three level terrace down to the stream below. It was a real shame the project didn't happen.
  3. gwilson
    Smokers need to quit complaining. It's very simple. If you can keep your smoke out of my lungs, great. If you can't, don't do it next to me.
  4. gwilson
    I'm glad I'm not the only one that likes the hotel/condo concept. As a single man, the concept of living in a condo with 24 hour room service to feed me, as well as house keeping, in house laundry, valet, concierge, etc is great to me. condo complexes like the ville de este and montebello cannot even compete with these services.
  5. gwilson
    I love the smoking ban in bars. I don't think it should go so far as tobacco shops or places that are specifically smoking lounges (Richmond Avenue Cigar, Robustos, Tobacco Habana, etc). I know places that don't allow smoking certainly aren't hurting, so there is no financial reason to do away with the ban. Johnny's is a no smoking place. Get there at about 1030 tonight, and as you elbow your way through to the bar, tell me if you really think no smoking is hurting their bottom line. The smokers simply head out to the deck.
  6. gwilson
    That person sits there every day and will gladly chat you up if you want to stop by. That is right across the street from the pastel townhouses and a block away from Valentine.
  7. gwilson
    I see no problem with doing some house cleaning and getting rid of some old buildings. Being old does not equate being historic. We have sort of a pack-rat mentality about things like this. We cannot continue to grow without weeding out some of the old. There isn't anything particularly historic about this block. Sure, the buildings were cool looking, but they will be remembered long after they are gone for nostalgias sake. Quick sort of off topic question: When these 600-1000+ foot tall structures outlive their life expectancy, how will they be demolished? Just collapse/implosions? Have we had any examples of really tall towers being brought down with controlled demo in an urban area before?
  8. gwilson
    I just put a well in at a job in the city in November of last year. CoH permitted as well.
  9. gwilson
    Here is something I found. eco18 This building uses solar and geo-thermal as well as many other technologies to be eco-friendly. While my motivation isn't necessarily a penchant for tree hugging but rather a desire to keep the building sustainable even in a time of crisis/disaster and to keep costs down over time, the techniques and technologies are still the fundamentally the same. Here is an article about it. First building to meet Tier Three status under Chicago's Green Permit Program.
  10. gwilson
    I didn't intend natural gas or diesel for primary power generation. When talking about a building on the scale of 40 stories, there is plenty of room for photovoltaics and with proper engineering, wind turbine power could be used on the roof. I've done no research in to how much this would cost over traditional electric sources over time or what the impact would be on the construction budget. Geothermal technology could be used as well. While it would be great to have a building completely self sustaining, I suppose the primary goal would be to just make it as sustainable as possible. Energy efficiency, low heat gain, alternative methods of heating and cooling. Condo buildings are usually built as shells, but there is a per square foot allowance in the purchase price for basic build out. So there is a basic build out cost included in the construction of the building. The owners simply have to supplement that if they want anything that isn't part of the basic build out.
  11. gwilson
    I'm no engineer but I imagine well water could be used to supply the building. I've already had a couple projects in town where I've sunk wells and they provide a lot more water (with the right pumping and storage system) than people realize. Waste is another issue though. I read not too long ago of an office building in Nebraska that collected all of it's waste water, treated and filtered it and used it to maintain grounds and public areas (it was what came out of the water hoses to wash windows, grounds, it filled the water fountains and toilets in public areas, it watered the grass, etc). This concept could be extended where the waste water re-use is used for all toilets and such. Solid waste was also collected and treated and turned in to composted fertilizer and sold to nurserys. I don't know how well any of that would work on the scale of 600,000 square feet though.
  12. gwilson
    I never make judgements on houses until I see the master suite & bathroom. From what I can see, the house is nice. There is nothing wrong with the area.
  13. gwilson
    Well, I guess I'll keep with building big houses for a while. But who knows.
  14. gwilson
    I did some searches of projects on skyscraperpage and most of them in the sub 40 floor range are well under 100mm. I've always wanted to build a tower. My goal would be to build a completely self sustaining mixed use tower that combines office and living space and some dual spaces (living spaces with attached working spaces for at home professionals). ideally, the building would be able to keep running in spite of power outages, etc. It would also turn it's ability to generate power in to a revenue generator where the building could sell it's power to it's residents at a substantial discount over being on "the grid" and paying reliant or someone else.
  15. gwilson
    wow. Is that in large part due to land cost, or is that construction only?
  16. gwilson
    I'm curious. What do you think the estimated cost of building a 50 story tower like this would be? +100mm or -100mm?
  17. gwilson
    The pictures are up. There are drop ceilings throughout the ENTIRE house. I...just don't know what to say. 31,000 sf of drop ceiling (less pool). What in the flying f...
  18. gwilson
    wtf drop ceiling?
  19. gwilson
    I didn't say cheaper. I said more accessible. They are building combination of $400k townhomes and low income starter homes.
  20. gwilson
    Much of the development is by black owned companies. The company I am working with, for example (that built the three pastel colored town homes, the retirement center and the row houses across the street) is working to make home ownership more accessible to those who it would have been out of reach of before. It is a mutually beneficial situation where a company can make money by helping others build wealth. This isn't to say that they don't make deals to help improve the area overall as well.
  21. gwilson
    For $250k I could build you a pretty nice 1300+ square foot home in that area. Companies like Camden who are almost singlehandedly responsible for "Urban Warehousing" style apartment development are setting the MFH market up for a problem in the future. The only saving grace is that the market is cyclical. When apartments in Gulfton are being torn down, places like Camden developments will be downgrading their renters and new nicer complexes will start being built. It is tough to see how some of these are going to convert though.
  22. gwilson
    The sign is actually for the townhomes across the street (also pictured in the original post). When I walk though there, there are a number of sweet old ladys who are sitting outside, knitting, or just rocking and singing worship. It is quite amazing actually. The last time I walked through with my client, an old lady was sitting on the porch of the pic below singing worship with so much joy. It was hot outside, she lives right across the street form a cemetery. She knew my client well and invited us up on the porch where we sang with her for a bit and simply enjoyed her company and the world. I never though I could have so much fun and feel so good just standing there. That is the mentality of most of these people. They see it as the world moving on and they don't dwell on it. If you ask me, we could all stand to learn a lesson or two from these folks.
  23. gwilson
    They are pretty decent inside. Pretty much the same as every other three story town home in town though. Not bad, not great. The guy that had those three townhomes built also built the retirement home down the street (in one of the pics) and the row houses across the street from it.
  24. gwilson
    One of my customers built some of those. the view of downtown from those pastel townhomes is awesome.
  25. gwilson
    I'd love to see those statistics because every set of numbers I look at show Sharpstown on a whole being a virtually violent crime free area.
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