BrentO

I'm sitting at a desk in Caroline as we speak:

I'm leasing a desk in the coworking room. I've followed other coworking setups like Citizen Space in other cities, and I was really excited that Matthew & Ned started one in Houston. I've telecommuted for years, and the cafe thing gets old after a while. It's nice to have a space that feels cafe-ish (regular crowd, laid-back atmosphere) with the bonus of having a real desk where I can leave my gear.

I'm using my cellular data card because the WiFi's not ready yet, and I can't wait until that goes live. That'll be the turning point that brings people in here on a regular basis.

How puzzling that people used to feed large households three meals a day from these kitchens; yet now two people living off microwavable food find them 'cramped'.

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That has less to do with the kitchen functionality and more to do with the changing role of the kitchen. When I grew up, and my parents were having get-togethers, nobody spent time hanging out in the kitchen. People split up between the formal and casual living rooms or dining rooms, sitting around and talking.

These days, the kitchen is a gathering place. I've had plenty of parties that never left the kitchen. Preparing food is more of a central event now in the days of TV cooking shows - people want to hang out with the host as he/she cooks the food, and it becomes a central part of the event.

Heck, two years after we bought our house, we still haven't bought a dining room table. Everybody hangs out around the kitchen island.

What option does a better job in the long run of maintaining and preserving the architectural integrity of the neighborhood?

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That's a loaded question. You have to look at what you're replacing. I bought a new Perry townhome (I know, I know) that replaced a trailer park on Airline. Literally, a trailer park. Nobody can make an architectural integrity argument that the neighborhood was better served by a trailer park than by townhomes, no matter how much you disagree with Perry's (lack of) architectural styling. I'll take a new home, no matter how cookie-cutter it is, over a trailer park any day.

People complain because new construction raises the cost of surrounding houses, but by that argument, you could say we'd be better off erecting cardboard shacks. It'd do a great job of keeping property values low and taxes cheap! Woohoo! Let's go cardboard shacks!

Houston Heights online website

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That has got to be one of the ugliest web sites I've seen in a very long time.

From a web design point of view, you want the site to visually represent your client. This site's bold primary colors do an incredibly bad job of visually representing a quiet, classy, historic neighborhood like the Heights.

I thought their existing site at HoustonHeights.orgexisting site was pretty bad, but wow. This one definitely takes the cake.

Hi all. I've followed this thread with interest. I bought 2 lots directly across Sawyer from this development 3 months before it was announced. I'm currently building my photo studio/multimedia production facility on that property as we speak.

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That's funny! I drove past the Target site a while ago, saw your building going up, and thought, "Wow, whoever had the foresight to pick up this property was a genius." Now I know the genius! The property is looking great.

Which brings me to another point - you prefer not to walk from shop to shop - yet you dont mind walking from shop to car, car to shop?  Can you explain????

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Sure. I drive to wherever I'm going (like the Target with food on San Felipe), park and go in. Once inside, I go to the Starbucks for coffee, then shop for everything I need, and then I go back out to the car. I'm only outside twice. Did it this weekend, in fact. Their grocery selection has gotten good enough to where I only need to shop at two places - Central Market and Target.

If you're talking about small boutique shopping for clothes or home accessories, it's usually much more convenient to do the car thing during summer because you can usually pull right up to the door, or within 30-40', of most small shops. However, if you want to walk from shop to shop, odds are you're not stopping in every single shop. I don't have much use for Cisco, Abercrombie & Fitch, half a dozen Chinese and Thai restaurants in a row, etc. It makes more sense to drive past those in AC and get to the stores you really want to get to.

Plus you don't have to carry bags around while you shop, which is a pain in the rear. When I go into a bookstore, I want to be able to browse around for an hour or more, and you don't want to be rustling a bunch of bags shifting from hand to hand in a place like that.

Clearly their idea of a pedestrian shopping center is one that allows people to walk from car to shop, then to car again, then move car, then go from car to another shop. 

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If I read this right, you're asking for an outdoors mall like Rice Village. I love Rice Village, and I go all the time - during the winter. But when the temperature breaks 85 and the humidity is giving the temp a run for its money, outdoors shopping and walking around is out of the question. Plus, the way The Village is organized, it's almost impossible to find a parking space on the weekends.

Target doesn't have an interest in building the kind of shopping area where other shops are in close proximity, close enough to walk to. They want you to go into the Target and get EVERYTHING you need - food, drugs, CDs, clothes, you name it. They even partner with Starbucks to put restaurants inside the stores. Why would they want to have other retail stores close enough to be an impulse purchase?

Going after Target is barking up the wrong tree. If you want to change this (not like you could), you would want to target the developer.

They could do a mixed-use project- perhaps a loft above the "electronics department", a law office above the "planted pots", or a penthouse suite above the entry canopy.

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Well, this is Houston - think more along the lines of a strip club above the lingerie department.

Here's the Google Maps satellite photo of the site, and it corresponds to the site plans. Helpful for those of us who aren't so familiar with the specific warehouses:

Google Satellite Map