MyEvilTwin

yep

linens and things is closing!

the banners are up and at 10 to 30 percent off, they are still more expensive than target or walmart

anyway...please let it be a pappasitos coming to the plaza or the area.

working and living just a block away from a pappasitos would be a dream come true haha!

I can't imagine a Pappasitos moving into a newly renovated, bland shopping center like that. Don't they usually spend a lot of money making their restaurants look more... uh... antique? If they're moving into the area, I'd think it would have to be in a different location nearby, no?

This made it into today's Chronicle. Not much new, except to mention that they're trying to lease some space to some of the other Arts organizations who perform in the Theatre District (I'm not sure if that was in the BizJournals article or not).

It's pretty clear from the article that the design is far from finalized. Also, funding seems speculative at this point. I hope it goes forward.

Today's Chronicle reports that the Rodeo & Texans are sounding a little more open to the proposed Astrodome Convention Hotel project of late. Not surprisingly, it seems it was always about negotiating a better deal...

"Despite their previous staunch opposition to the project, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo and the Texans signaled that they may be able to coexist with a convention hotel that would be built in the Astrodome...."

I thought the Westcreek Apartments were supposed to be torn down. My friend just signed a two year lease with them. It doesn't seem like they're goin' anywhere.

Does your friend live on the old Audubon Park side (the Westheimer side, no courtyards) or the Westcreek side (the courtyard-based side that actually faces Westcreek street)? It's the Westheimer side that's supposed to be going down to make way for the first phase of the River Oaks District (plus a little of the Westcreek side). Most of the Westcreek side is in the footprint of the eventual phase II of the River Oaks District. So if your friend is over there then the two-year lease would still make sense (without making us nervous about River Oaks District).

Anybody notice the "W" on one of the River Oaks District buildings in that High Street rendering? Is that an actual W Hotel logo? Have we noticed that before? I know there's been a lot of speculation about the W in the River Oaks District, but I didn't realize it was showing up in a rendering.

This rendering makes me think of Denny Crane & Allen Shore smoking a couple of cigars & drinking scotch at the end of a Boston Legal episode. Cracks me up!!

It's a beautiful building.

If the beacon really was a problem for another tower going up, couldn't they just put something up that blocks the light as it moves in the direction of the other tower? After all, isn't that what they do with lighthouses as the light turns towards land?

As a glass-half-full kind of guy, here's the way I look at the various criticisms we've seen of HP in this thread:

1. Yes, the architecture is a little bland.

2. And yes, a little patience might have led to a bigger & better use of these 3 blocks decades in the future.

But at least point #1 suggests that the preservationists shouldn't have much objection to the wrecking ball when somebody decides to replace HP with something taller & prettier in the Houston of Tomorrow.

These new renderings are nice. Earlier on I think someone (Trae?) mentioned that it would have been better had they designed the building to follow the curve of McKinney Street. At the time I agreed -- but now that I see these renderings I'm kind of liking the fact that by setting it back from the street they essentially extended the park a little further. Between that, the wind turbines, the LEED certification, and the ivy-covered parking garage, they do seem to be making a pretty comprehensive effort to tie the building into its Disco Green surroundings.

I don't understand the hysteria over this. Do any of us really think Randall Davis is going to just leave this ugly blank wall on this tower, contrary to the renderings and, more importantly, while he's trying to market an even more upscale condo tower across the street? Come on. The final product may not be up to the standards of some of us (I'm not that big a fan of the Cosmo myself), but he's not going to do something that boneheaded. Cut him some slack until the building is finished and the ivy starts growing (or whatever the final product is)...

Has anyone else noticed that they haven't made any progress on the "crown" in about two months? The rest of the building appears to be complete, "skin"-wise, but that stupid crown is still just sitting there all skeleton-like and creepy. What gives?

Yeah, I've been wondering if they didn't realize the windows for the crown were too big to fit in the service elevator before they disassembled the crane...

Well, I would assume a $450 million convention hotel in a building the size of the astrodome would have amusement park-like features... like the Gaylord convention hotels (You can almost see them doing something like the Gaylord Texan).

I just don't see this having a significant negative impact on revenues of the Texans or HLSR, especially not out of proportion to the benefit to the city and county.

I agree too. And I wouldn't be surprised if the HLSR and the Texans agree (privately) as well. Nonetheless, if they've got non-compete protection in their contracts with the county, then they probably see this as an opportunity to coax the county into sweetening their deal just a little bit.

I'm not that worried about the oppostion from the HLSR & the Texans. If this hotel deal turns out to be viable in the county's eyes (who knows whether that's true?), I believe all the parties will come to some agreement. This just sounds like rich people with lawyers wanting to get what they think is theirs. In the end, they're rational businesspeople.

No, in the end, they are saving their revenue's, one of which is a non profit who provides far more than any hotel would provide to Houston. They are looking out for their LEGAL contracts which are thankfully protected by law, not just the whims of people wanting to give away county owned land.

Yours and Kinkaidalum's comments aren't mutually exclusive. In protecting their rights, they could still be doing themselves a disservice, PR-wise. People around here love their Texans and the Rodeo, but like it or not some love the Dome even more. Woe be unto he who brings the wrecking ball to Judge Hofheinz's baby.

I'm not thrilled about this garage at all... They've reached the top in construction already, though only on one side of it. Driving in from Allen Parkway, it looks like it will hide a majority of the Doubletree from the skyline view when completed. I hope it looks ok when it'd done, but I'm not that optimistic.

The Doubletree guest rooms are definitely losing their views.

Now remember, he's interested in the High Street Project. This is the Highland Tower Project site.

The pipes were definitely on the High Street site. I can't say one way or the other about the Highland Tower site -- I was on Westheimer, and Highland Tower is set back quite a bit from Westheimer... no?

It's clear in my head which projects are which. It's the threads that are messed up. Oh well. I'm just interested in High Street for now. Been by lately?

Drove by on Sunday and it looked like they had lots of pipes sticking up from the ground -- must be about ready for some foundation work?

Swimming in that lake is bad. Please let's stop it at that and let's not get personal. I live in surburbia Manvel and have visited the park twice. We dined downtown on one of those visits. My wife can't have enough of the park. By the way we lived in SW part for 3 years and never visited DT. Great to have something to cheer downtown apart from the Rockets.

Not much of a baseball fan I guess.

Just do what I do, watch the break lights.If they flash, go around. If they slow down and there is a bus stop there, go around him. Be sure to do a courtesy honk as you turn in front of him so he knows your intentions.

I didn't think any horn signal translates to "courtesy honk" in Houstonian...

True, but I do wish the police would better enforce the speed limit between Shepherd and downtown. It's not a freeway and many people treat it like it is. There are pedestrians and local traffic, unlike I-10. The speed limit is only 50 and many people drive through there at 60+ in the mornings.

Actually, it is a freeway between Shepherd and downtown. A road doesn't have to be labeled an Interstate Highway to be a freeway... A freeway is just a road that has no at-grade intersections, therefore it's safer at high speeds than the alternative. (See this entry on Wikipedia, for example).

So it shouldn't surprise you that people drive on it like it's a freeway. Though I'm not claiming it's ok to drive 60+ on it.

(Granted, there are pedestrians. But only on sidewalks -- there aren't any legal crosswalks.)

I was at a conference at the Hilton Americas today, and an attendee from Dallas made the comment that Houston is "so much greener than Dallas." Now, Houston's always been greener than Dallas, but I had to wonder if that same comment would have been made had the conference been overlooking a sea of surface parking lots instead of Disco Green.

I nearly fainted when I saw parents allowing their kids to climb on the Debuffet sculpture.

The front page of the Chronicle had a picture of parents actually helping their kids climb on Margo Sawyer's colorful garage entrances. Made it seem like that's what was expected. Is it? I'm guessing not -- and that makes me wonder how long it will be before they have to do somethig to prevent it that makes the art less attractive. Maybe they can try something subtle like gluing shards of broken glass atop the blocks...

Seriously -- unless I'm wrong and those were intended to be climbing walls -- I think it's pretty irresponsible of the Chronicle to publish that picture, at least not without mentioning they're not supposed to do that.

Nice park! What other land do you guys think exists for another similar park? I was thinking somewhere along the LRT line along the East End.

There's a huge green space at the south end of the Light Rail line that would be a great spot for a park! Maybe even an amusement pa...... oh, damn.

I agree with some of the old posters that yeah, some parts did seem a little run down but i guess that goes along with the industrial character. I guess this is due to the fact that this is a rental conversion. There is an upgrade package available but it is pretty pricey and honestly I would rather do the upgrades myself. I do like this look compared to the edge condo's which are next door. The edge is more a traditional look and layout, not your urban loft space like Rise. The edge is also more expensive per sq/ft, I guess this goes along with other posters stating that you pay a premium for a new building. It also has more ammenities, a gym, movie theater and a lounge.

Having watched the Edge's construction daily from my office window... I can say that it's just wood-frame construction on the 4 residential floors, atop a concrete parking structure. It may have better soundproofing than Rise, but somehow I'd have to be a little more confident in Rise's... well, hi-rise construction. I know nothing about that though -- am I wrong?

I'd also add that during construction the Edge went for literally months during the rainiest period of the year with no glass on the big corner rounded windows. Is that really ok? I guess the wood is treated (and heck, trees like rain, no?), but I just felt like that wood frame & floorboards had to be saturated for months. This was last spring/summer, when Houston's rain totals were sky-high. Seemed like they must have had trouble getting those windows ready to go, because the windowless frame stood for a really long time.

So... does this pretty much make Jones Plaza obsolete? I haven't been there for a while (not since Party on the Plaza maybe 5 yrs ago) but I'm assuming most outdoor, small-ish downtown concerts will now be at Disco Green?

There is water in the lake now (not full though).

I think they will have boats you can rent to use, or something to that degree.

To be a little more clear, I think that "lake" is just for model boats. (it's referred to as the "model boat basin" on the DiscoGreen Map)

Paddling around in a life-sized boat in a lake that size could get old pretty quick.

Found what I was looking for.

http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...mp;#entry236925

I could have swore when I passed by it today (Westheimer@Yorktown) that the banner mentioned the "aloft" concept was brought to you by W Hotels.

Perhaps I was mistaken.

Actually I think this might be what you're looking for: http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...;hl=round+round.

The aloft thread that you linked is about an officially announced development of a hotel set to open in March 2009 at 5433 Westheimer. The W thread is a bit more speculative, suggesting there might be a W hotel coming to the same area, presumably the River Oaks District (4444 Westheimer, where Westcreek Apts. is now). It ultimately spawned this thread (http://www.houstonarchitecture.info/haif/i...r+oaks+district.), with updated renderings, etc.

W is a Starwood Hotel brand, and aloft is a newer Starwood brand that they refer to as "A Vision of W Hotels." Why it's affiliated that way with W and not with Sheraton or Westin or the other Starwood brands I can't say, but I think W and aloft are both supposed to be the trendier side of Starwood so maybe they're paired up for that reason. I believe W is generally quite a bit more upscale than aloft, though. (I'm sure I'm butchering their brand positioning -- Starwood, please forgive me!)