fernz

I thought it was just jail. There's no prison there, right?

pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference?

There two open pieces of land which means downtown and TMC skylines will never be connected: Rice University and Hermann Park.

And also, TMC didn't just happen by itself. It was planned and the land was donated - without master planning, midtown will always be the random collection of buildings and uses it is today - which is just fine, it gives it a unique identity.

That's a pretty huge floor plate. The rendering makes it look kinda thin.

But if that's what it takes to get a 40 story residential building in downtown then that's fine

Awful

Emporis says it will rise up to 405' ft. Is this correct?

http://www.emporis.com/building/6houstoncenter-houston-tx-usa

It makes sense. Standard floor-to-floor for office construction is 13'-6". If you multiply that times 30 floors you get 405'. So it will pretty close to that.

Yes, their average is more like 30 million, but that wasn't my point. My point was to contradict fernz' assertion that "they don't shop" and to argue that some retail is possible without rooftops, and that office workers do contribute something. Otherwise, where did the $15 million come from?

Ok, they do shop, but not enough for the stores to be profitable. So my overall point is still correct, office workers don't support retail.

I worked downtown for serveral years. On weekdays that the weather is nice the streets are crowded with people. It's not dead. A LOT of people come out of the tunnels.

But they don't shop, it's been proven. Look at what happened to the shopping center at Houston Center, all their brand-name retailers left. And look at what happened to Foley's. And Houston pavillions couldn't get any retail other than restaurants and entertainment. Retail follows rooftops, it's an old adage, it's tried and true.

Amegy has been in the market for awhile although I assumed they were looking at one of the westcreek sites. They'll team up with one of the big name office developers. I would be a little shocked if they only built 10-12 stories, though.

Exactly. It wouldn't make sense for them to build their own building, when there a tower looking for a tenant about to be built in in Westcreek.

I agree, and I believe that this consideration is factored into the 1/100th estimate. Surely the 150,000 people who work downtown must contribute something toward the success of retail? Not very much, but something?

They do contribute, that's why you have all the fast food restaurants in the tunnels. Beyond that, they don't support much more.

Do you have any pictures of the nice brick work? From the view I have from my office it doesn't look all that great from afar.

I don't, I was just noticing when I was driving by the other day. The are using light tan and almost black brick, and tehy are doing some sort of fins running vertically; looks nice.

The Hanover building is turning into one of those rare cases where the building looks better than the renderings. The building has some really nice brick work going on.

Would that make if the tallest residential building in Houston?

Thanks for the pictures! Did not realize they are so far along.

Yes, to the above post. I can almost experience it. But, not to sound too backwater, is it just me or does this seem a bit pricey ($40 mil) for a 30k sf structure which won't go over 16 ft in height? (btw, kudos, though, for respecting the surrounding environment). I like the design. Seems very Frank Lloyd Wright-ish. Just, hmmm, 40 mil? I need some convincing it's worth that much. What am I missing?

You're missing the artwork inside the building - that's what makes the cost of the structure worth it. Like all the previous buildings in the campus, this is supposed to have a special filtering of natural light

Beautiful! Perfect sense of scale

It's likely to stay exposed, I think. Montage/Mosaic have that on their facade as well.

Most Novare projects have exposed concrete; it's kind of their thing.

Is it just me or is this tower 'lost' in the midst of everything else. When driving along the west loop or down the southwest freeway, you really have to be looking for it to see it....at least that's been my experience.

It is you.

The base is already up. I drove by yesterday.

The crane is up. It seems really close to the edge of the street. Sorry I couldn't take a picture.

One side usually looks like a jail, and then he Vegas's up the rest.

That's the best description I've seen of his projects!

"Let us think that when we build, we build forever." Read that somewhere.

That would be nice. Not in Houston though.

They should have planted densely along Main in mainstreet square. Lots of big thick trees with hanging moss. Then the water feature should have been landscaped with sLopping grass covered mounds.

Make it look like the train is navigating a bayou. It is the Bayou City after all.

The fountains were a good idea, but it never seems to be working.

The fountains were meant to be a splashy feature (pardon the pun) to be showcased during the Super Bowl. They served their purpose.

I do think it is unfortunate that McDonald's got the larger end of the plot.

It really does look cramped. McDonald's ruins everything...

McDonald's sold part of its land for this development. I wouldn't say they ruined anything, they enabled the development.

I would credit downtown residential incentives more so than Discovery Green.

You're absolutely right.

Wow, I didn't catch that. It took over a decade but look what a downtown ballpark brought!

I would credit Discovery green more so than the ballpark.