MyEvilTwin

TxDOT is heavy on engineers. Engineering is one of A&M's core strengths. Generally speaking, A&M tries to focus on developing high-level skill sets utilized for productive purposes in the workplace. UT is more of a liberal arts focus.

Also, A&M's Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) is instrumental in creating traffic volume and congestion datasets as well as making projections. In theory, TxDOT utilizes these projections to design roadway capacity...in reality TxDOT has been known to overwrite TTI data with their own arbitrary data in order to force outcomes preferred by particular politicians and their more wealthy constituents.

Well I'll be. And all this time I thought I was joking when sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on 290 thinking, "Must be Aggie traffic management."

In all seriousness, I would completely embrace efficient rail transportation to downtown from the 290 corridor. I'm just a leeeeeeettle bit skeptical about the notion of funneling everyone from this corridor -- and (presumably) others like I-45 and 249 too? -- onto the Main Street rail line. It does seem like a bit of a bottleneck. Anybody know how they expect to address this? (Or am I grossly underestimating the capacity of Main Street Rail?) Without a real solution there, I'm wondering if it would really take any less time to get to work than the Park & Ride, considering the Main Street Rail connection wait and the time to walk several blocks from Main to my building.

Maybe this is the green feauture that was mentioned.

It would only be appropriate for the world's energy capital to have a power plant in its central business district.

And right next door to its new urban park, to boot!

YES! Looks like the hotel is moving forward! Deal with it Rodeo and Texans.

I'm not sure this release is anything more than spin on the part of the Commissioners Court to appear like they support a future for the Dome that doesn't involve demolition. It doesn't sound like there's any good news in it for the hotel, as it says "and all other interested parties."

In other words... To the Hotel developers: "Get your act together, or we'll consider other options," and to the voters of Houston, "PLEASE don't take this to mean we support the politically suicidal notion of razing the Dome!!"

There's nothing new in it at all, is there? Astrodome Redevelopment Corp. still loses its exclusivity rights, but the Court hopes progress will be made.

Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously Tuesday to encourage Astrodome Redevelopment Corporation and all other interested parties to move forward with plans to redevelop the county-owned stadium once dubbed "The Eighth Wonder of the World."

I'd have to say in general that since this legislation has gone into effect in September of last year, the number of bandit signs I've seen around our area -- particularly from home builders -- is down quite a bit. They're not gone by any stretch, but it's a lot better, IMHO.

That was until today, at least, when I saw the eggregious number of "Vote Phil Camus, Constable, Precinct 5" signs that were placed all up & down the medians on West Rd, Telge, etc...

He wants to be (re)elected Constable -- the guy who's in charge of enforcing this law -- and he tries to get there by flagrantly violating it? Count me as one person who had no opinion on whom to elect for Constable but now will definitely vote for the challenger.

More on the rumors of Whole Foods abandoning Ed Wulfe's BLVD Place. Evidently, retailers across the street are telling people that Whole Foods has pulled out of the deal.

If by "retailers across the street" you mean retailers at Post Oak Plaza -- haven't the owners of that location been trying to compete with BLVD Place for some time now? I think I remember something in the Chronicle a while back about competing for tenants. Could this be a deliberate misinformation effort? If a prospective tenant was choosing between signing a lease now in Post Oak Plaza and waiting a year or two for BLVD place, they might swing towards Post Oak Plaza if they heard the anchor was about to pull out of BLVD Place.

(I'm not suggesting that the rumor is right or wrong -- I'm utterly clueless -- just thinking about the source though)

ps...they have not renewed leases in the old compass bank building at the corner of westheimer and post oak (2200 post oak blvd) and it seems most of the tenants will be asked to leave by summer or end of year...

bye bye ugly building...you will be missed!

Interesting... but that building is not in the BLVD Place footprint. Is there something else going on?

http://www.globest.com/news/1082_1082/houston/167822-1.html

HOUSTON-Legacy Partners Residential Development Inc. and equity partner CalPERS have cleared the site and are preparing to break ground on their 330-unit Legacy at Memorial. ...

There's a crane that went up north of Memorial in this general area at least a week ago. I was assuming that was for this project. Am I mistaken, or is the article a little behind?

Someone has to stop these people. Who's idea was it to rename Westcreek Apartments to "Westcreek at River Oaks"? Does anyone know where these apartments are located? Hint: It's not in River Oaks. Same goes for the currently under construction Fairmont at the Museum District. Could they possibly be located in the Museum District? Unfortunately, No.

I was with you until you got to this point. Of course Westcreek isn't in River Oaks, but it's not far from it (The southwest corner of River Oaks is what, maybe two blocks up the road across San Felipe?), and Westcreek at River Oaks is a much more marketable name than, say, Westcreek at Afton Oaks, or just plain Westcreek. Picking a name is as much about marketing as it is about technical accuracy or geography. So while "Westcreek at River Oaks" isn't technically correct, I think you're kind of nitpicking.

But I'm with you on Regent Square. It does nothing for me.

Apparently there are other solutions than quiet zones, as the Chronicle reports in this article.

Since the Chronicle doesn't keep its articles available on the internet very long, I'll summarize (to the best of my understanding). The city of Sugar Land is reducing noise around RR crossings by installing "wayside horns" at the crossings, which focus their sound in the direction of oncoming traffic only, as opposed to the multi-directional horns on the trains. I guess the trains just don't blow their horns any more, and instead rely on these quieter, pinpointed horns at the crossings to blow. The Sugar Land mayor describes the wayside horns' sound as "much, much quieter."

I'm a little leery of any of these compromises that seem to sacrifice public safety for the sake of property value and/or comfort (particularly when the train tracks were there first). I guess the question is how reliable are the automatic crossing horns, vs. the manual horn of the train conductor? I have no idea, though I suppose neither one is perfect (the conductor might fall asleep!) so maybe it's a reasonable solution. My biggest concern would be that while it would be obvious right away if a train's horn quit working (not to mention that it would seem less likely in the first place), a broken & uninspected crossing horn could go unfixed for days, weeks...

Anyhow, the Chronicle reports that Sugar Land is paying $750K for 10 crossings, if you think you can convince someone to pay something comparable for Gleannloch Farms. That doesn't sound too expensive for such a large community, though I would guess (and this is only a guess) that might be more difficult in an unincorporated area than in a small city like Sugar Land...?

AIM cancelled this (very attractive) plan because of the downturn that followed Enron.

A shopping center and apartment complex have just been completed on the spot.

I received the following e-mail regarding the Bistro Moderne, the restaurant in the first floor of the Hotel Derek. It says that the hotel has been sold and the hotel concept will change (and as a result they're closing the Bistro Moderne). Anybody know what the hotel's new plans are?

Dear bistro moderne friends and family,

I am saddened to say that my team and I will close our operation at bistro moderne on November 17th, 2007. The Hotel Derek has been sold and the new ownership will implement a new concept in the hotel including the Restaurant. Since I moved to Houston 3 years ago I

I really don't think, just as the district also thought, that it would have passed if they had spelled out just what it was in plain language. Because they didn't.

I disagree completely. How many voters do you think actually read the text of the bond authorization they voted on, beyond one sentence or so? Too few to make a difference, I would bet.

I do think they went a little overboard on this, but generally I am in favor of spending a little extra on a public project to make it look appealing to the public that has to look at it every day (e.g. highway construction).

I've driven by this a few times over the past month or so. Is it just me or does it look like they have stopped construction?

I'm watching the crane swivel from my downtown office window right now (yeah, I'm really busy). Either they're still working, or they've left it to twist in the wind!

Gift for you.

That wasn't very nice. How about one for you?

I just noticed this article on the Collaborative Research Center in the Summer edition of the Sallyport (Rice Alumni magazine).

It has a much clearer rendering of the building (the print copy is even better than the online one). When I saw the first renderings posted above, I was completely unimpressed -- but this one actually makes me feel quite a bit better than the originals. Note the screen in front of the glass-walled side -- not being an architect, I have no idea what to call this, but I assume it has something to do with LEED certification. The screen is completely missing in the original renderings. Also, it's clear from this rendering that what appeared to be 2 more floors on top of the original building is actually just a facade of fake windows (I assume that's to dress up the air conditioners and/or other utilities on top?).

I still wish it would have been more in line with other architecture around Rice's campus, but I like it a little better than before.

And it's not summer is it? It's gotta be winter b/c Houstonians DO NOT go outside in the summer!!!

Looks like pre-A/C days to me. Just as hot inside as outside!! (Egads, did people really live here back then?)

I could have sworn these were the same projects? I asked about it last week and I thought Niche told me they were the same. However, I can't find the thread that I posted it in. But from what I can remember, the different website have the same location when you look at their aerial view, or so I thought.

Two different projects. They seem to confuse more people than the two City Centres!

A portion of the Westcreek apartments (the side formerly known as "Audobon Park" that fronts Westheimer across from Kettering) is planned to be replaced with the River Oaks District. This side of Westcreek is still occupied, though I think they're no longer doing new leases...? The other side of Westcreek is slated for Phase II, which is even further down the road, so they're still occupied & leasing.

Right next door, the site where the old Central Ford dealership was located is where the planned High Street development is supposed to go. The dealership was torn down several months ago.

All other signs in the area are no taller than a 4 or 5 ft., including two other Sonics close by (is the market saturated yet???), and it really stands out and looks terrible. I would have thought there was some type of restriction against this judging by all the other businesses but I guess not.

This is just a guess -- but there's really not much completed development on that side of Barker Cypress as you drive towards Coles Crossing, is there? (That's about to change, obviously -- the "big new HEB" is under construction). Weren't the shopping centers on the south side of Barker Cypress developed by the company that developed Coles Crossing? If so, I'd assume their signage might be restricted in some way by that entity. I thought I remembered the south side of of Barker Cypress zoned in the Coles Crossing literature as a retail section of the neighborhood when I was looking at Coles a couple of years ago. My (uneducated) guess is that the north side of Barker Cypress wasn't part of that development, and therefore doesn't have any such restrictions (nor should it, if the Coles Crossing developer didn't see fit to buy the land to preserve the look of the community on that side).

If so, isn't the best you can hope for just a litte good will on the part of the new Sonic franchisee, who wants to attract the locals to his/her restaurant? (Same goes for HEB) Lacking any restrictions, might the franchisee be subject to Sonic company standards for signage?

The Sonic doesn't look significantly different than any other Sonic in the Houston area to me.

Is Melissa Deaver (US 290 Program Public Involvement Manager) the woman pictured at the top of each of the pages on the website? Geez -- it takes some arrogance to plaster your mug shot all over a public web site like that. Or political aspirations (which is worse).

That aside, the single best thing that could happen to 290 in the meantime is to turn the median from 1960 to Barker Cypress into an HOV lane. (Or diamond lanes) But it sounds like that's not happening.

The entrance to the tunnels from the Continental Center I is at the end of a long hallway that juts out from the building, along the parking garage (but sticking out at the end by itself, way beyond the parking garage). It's kind of an odd arrangement, really, and I've always assumed it had something to do with the original plans to add a second tower to the property that never came to fruition (but if Brookshire goes ahead with its proposed new building...). As it is, it's like they built a hallway from the building to the tunnel entrance -- so while you could argue otherwise, I'd say this might qualify as a tunnel entrance that's not inside of a building.

Don't quote me on this, but I think that parcel of land is next to or right near the new 34 story medical tower that's under construction and owned by MetroNational. They may have scrapped this project and went the medical route. I mean, it would be awful living there with ambulances, Katy freeway traffic and the mall all in one condensed area. This is purely speculation though.

...Sorry, couldn't resist.

I agree that Cypress desperately needs to be self-sufficient. Becuase living that far out and being dependent upon Houston is a self-imposed hardship.

I love Houston and I like the idea of denser urban spaces in this city... But let's face it. The city of Houston is as dependent on its far-flung suburbs as vice versa. Take away the affordable housing for workers and Houston loses a good chunk of its appeal for the companies that locate themselves here.

I love Houston...don't get me wrong. It's WAY better than Dallas. But when you drive through other cities, you don't see the poor areas. Houston, which has the most expensive zip code in TX, are all hidden. I just wish they could do something that would clean our image up. Houston has great potential. Somebody told me that Houston is just simply reality. Maybe they are right. It was not my goal to offend anybody...it's just simply my opinion.

Two words explain why a lot of Houston doesn't look so pretty from the interstates: Feeder roads.

They're super-convenient, but nothing obscures blight like a tree-lined buffer along a freeway.

It is unfortunate that we should have to worry about these cameras at all. From reports that I have read online (google it and you will find many for and against) I get the impression that cities using cameras for traffic code enforcement have actually increased the number of intersection accidents. Normal law-abiding citizens are coming to sudden unsafe stops to avoid a ticket and causing more accidents than normal.

Sounds like the same kind of logic that says you shouldn't wear a seatbelt because you might get trapped in a car fire.

News flash: If you rear-end somebody who stops because a light is changing, it's your fault.

The red-light running that goes on in this city can sometimes be downright negligent. I'm all in favor of better enforcement, and by and large, that's what these cameras do.

Too bad more isn't done with Heritage Plaza. I'm thinking rooftop spotlights to highlight the temple-crown of the building. Same idea for Pennzoil. I don't know what I'd do with JPMC.

You might remember they tried a neon outline of the temple on top of the Heritage plaza facing wast a few years back, but it ended up just looking like some strange blob of a shape to me. Somebody must have agreed, because it didn't last long. Sure seems like they could do better than that. Putting some subtle neon where the red & white christmas lights have been in the past (parallel lines on either side of the temple, stepping up the side) might look nice.

I think you have to be careful with this stuff though. I always hated the Green neon on the Wedge International Tower. Knowing that building was owned by the same company that owns the larger and more interesting Green-neon building in Dallas always made the Wedge seem like a knock-off to me. I don't want Houston's skyline -- which is worlds better than Dallas' in the daytime (IMHO) -- looking like a Dallas wannabe at night. I'd rather Houston simply be known for its awesome daytime skyline than have it go Vegas at night just for the sake of lighting it up like other cities.

(By the way, I know that the term "subtle neon" may be an oxymoron -- I mean it in the relative sense, of course. )