GovernorAggie

I've crossed in front of Metro, HPD, and Harris County cops many times and I've never been ticketed. I've even crossed against the lights. I saw one person warned once, but that was because she crossed right in front of an oncoming train. As far as going out of their way, what difference does it make if people use a short cut and risk being ticketed as a pedestrian. People do it all the time cutting through a parking lot to miss a light at an intersection while driving. Portland and San Diego have much less (and in some cases no) separation between their at-grade, in-street LRT trains and pedestrians and vehicles. And they seem to have fewer problems. I think it's a Houstonian issue, not an at-grade, in-street LRT issue.

It kinda makes me think "U.S.S.R"

Great question, Trae. Fernz, can you let us in on whether or not there's any sort of spire or ornamental top? Did you get a glimpse of a nighttime image? Thanks.

C'mon, Niche I think you're splitting hairs quite bit here. Did you check his spelling while you're at it? He was basically saying that he thought it could be the hot spot of the region. Nothing wrong with that. He could've been saying that Main could be Houston's version of Madison Av., Fifth Av., Michigan Av., or Wilshire Dr. Even more so--I bet you that I didn't even have to tell you what cities those streets are in. Chill with the nit-picking. I think you get his point.

I don't think it's impossible. The yuppie playground potential has also passed, IMO. I think it could just turn out to be Houston's first real transit-based (FWIW--we ARE talking about Houston) urban district. Kicking out the clubs is gonna turn out to be a great thing, and getting rid of that shady urine block will work wonders.

Good point, but does anyone know if it was built strong enough to possibly hold a building in the future?

I don't care what it's "supposed" to be, the thing is absolutely terrible. No way around it. I've seen textured concrete and this ain-t it. Architectural concrete would be, imo, more akin to TxDOT's freeway treatments with different design elements (which by the way has a true identity of being 100% car-centric). I hope you're right and it's the contractor that fumbled the ball on this one, because it's just bad. There are areas on the thing that look like smudges or grease spots on paper. They can easily fix this by painting it and adding screens to the open areas with different designs. After all, they blocked in the area under the lowest ramp with cinderblock and painted it white. Why can't they block in the rest?

Not to get off on a tangent, but I just had to say that the Pinnacle building that PC did in Buckhead (Atlanta) is ok. However, photo #5 of the uilding on their site just gave one of the best pictures of the Atlanta skyline that I've seen in a LONG time. OK, back on topic I'll take the Columbus Office Tower (Miami), 1180 Peachtree (Atlanta), AIM Headquarters, or the 200 North Riverside Plaza (Chicago) designs for the Main St. tower! Anyone else notice how many buildings this company has done for Hines?

It has one of the Dollar Stores as well as Rama's African Boutique and it had the Metro soul food restaurant (no, METRO did not own it). I saw the "New West Building" is ripped down already and Metro is closed down.

Actually, I'm quite please with the garage built for the new Camden City Center (name may be butchered). I really blends in with the development. CSOM, though it's not local, the first several levels of John Hancock in Chicago is also parking garage. Then there's Phoenix Tower in Greenway and I'm sure several others.

Oh that's right that's your hood isn't it, Niche? Thanks. Any word on Astroworld's redevelopment?

I wonder where Frank Liu's Duany-designed development is in relation to the Astroworld property, Reliant Park, and Fannin South. Any HCAD wiz's in the house?

I chilled out about the garage when I passed by it yesterday. There's no way this thing can be done. The concrete is still quite raw looking, and the windows for the retail is pretty dusty. They've started lighting it but optimism says that they are not done yet. At least they put awnings over the retail portion.

Wow, Deutsche Bank is big time. So much for our piddly opinions on the project's feasibility.

COOL!!! I guess it'll be a race to see who actually puts a shovel in the ground first--Hines, Crescent, or Brookfield (or maybe even someone else!)

Musicman, you're right generally about what you said. However, that point could transcend into non-deed restricted areas of the city as well. If Walgreens wants to build in a neighborhood that's not deed-protected and their parking lot lights adverse affect the homeowners, it's true that the homeowners' only recourse is to buy something to shield their windows from the lights. Such is life in Houston. But that doesn't mean that's the way is should be. fernz, maybe I wasn't clear. My point was that everything doesn't have to be solely about financial return. Sometimes it can be about being a good neighbor. There's a whole thread about this regarding the CVS in Midtown. City ordinance says basically "make sure your building stands and doesn't kill anyone, and is setback x amount of feet from the street". Based only on financial return, if I'm CVS, I take the cheapest materials that will stand, use the cheapest labor, and the cheapest off-the-shelf design in order to build my building. Why go through the added expense of brick or copper awnings when it does nothing but add to my construction costs and take away from my bottom line? Some of it, I think, has to do with fitting in with the area--translated to basically being a good neighbor.

Is that a fair assessment? Downtown is her neighborhood. Whether or not we see it that way is kinda immaterial in a sense because we don't have the same at stake. Why should the voice of Hines (aka downtown property owner) matter more than violet (aka downtown property owner). Downtown residents have a goal for it to be a living, functioning neighborhood where people can LIVE as well as work and enjoy themselves. Is that a misplaced goal on their part? I don't think so. And as more people move downtown, there's gonna be more complaints about noise, urine, etc. Residents that live in neighborhoods along freight rail tracks that predate their neighborhood complain about noise and traffic tie-ups. The nerve of those people--didn't they know they were living near an active freight rail track? If they can complain and expect action, downtown residents can too, IMO. Heck, we get complaints from Heights residents when people want to build a different kind of residential structure in a residential area. Go figure.

I understand and see the difference and I thnk you make my point for me...this "bad" PR would be minor in the grand scheme of things. That leads me to believe that it shouldn't adversely affect Hines too much, and I think can only help the Commerce residents. As far as Hines' investors goes, I don't think that adding a curtain/skin to the garage would send bad vibes to them. Worse vibes would be if they can't get that retail leased, IMO. Regardless, I would think that with holdings as large and diverse as Hines (2 bldgs. at least 900' in Houston alone!) this parking garage is a "pocket-lint" level project and shouldn't be that big of a deal. If it's an investment without any financial return, is that really that big of a deal? Does EVERYTHING have to have a financial return. If so, we should be seeing some nice quality places filling those retail spots on the garage's opening day. If they take forever to lease the spaces, then maybe the financial return on each an every minor thing that they do with the garage is not as important--thus making the case even more so that something should be done aesthetically to the garage.

Here's the Chron article I referred to earlier: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/travel...ck/4578966.html Ship Channel traffic was also a reason for the selection of Galveston by Carnival. There's no reason to think that other companies aren't the same.

I've seen this garbage in person and I can also vouch for the ugliness that it is. I was hoping for something more "architecturally significant" but alas, the real Houston showed up--just enough to work and no more. At the very least be like the McKinney garage on Main. Oh well, I guess the economics of it work, which reminds me... RedScare, not to pile on Niche, but I think you have it right on his perspective here (government vs. business). Look at the suggestions to the private homeowner: "Negotiate" "Use nice words" "Don't cause PR problems" And so on. My response to that is, "who cares". Bad PR is why companies pay PR people. Bad PR hasn't stopped Jack-in-the-Box after the e.coli problems in the 1990s, bad PR hasn't stopped Taco Bell, bad transfat PR hasn't stopped McDonald's, bad PR hasn't stopped Firestone, bad PR doesn't stop the airlines, and on and on and on. But one can just glance at the first page of a posting about Metro or TxDOT or the City and can find the very same Niche using strong, if not demeaning, language in referring to those agencies. But then again, they're government, so they must be ok to lambast. Play nice with the companies who have no real responsibility to us the public. Throw rotten eggs at those who at least would be somewhat responsive (albeit slow or maybe ineffectively) to us the public. One more thing, zoning could've fixed this, and other ordinances could have too. Permits to operate the garage could've been delayed in order to get Hines to keep its "word". Gee, this sounds a lot like, "we're government, trust us...we're here to help". Shouldn't the same leery eye be cast towards Hines and any other developer that makes grand, un-Houston promises like "architecturally-siignificant" or "pedesrian-friendly" or "transit-oriented"? Ironically, these same companies go through the hoops in every other American city they operate or develop in, but for some reason, Houston has to play by the developers' rules so that a little "guidance" (regulation) doesn't make the development jump all the was from $25 a sf to lease to $25.01 a sf to lease. Whew! Sorry for the rant. Nothing personal Niche, just noticing what seems a little like a double standard.

It may be closer to the airports in Houston, but I remember a recent Chron article about the cruise ships and terminals and according to the cruise ship companies, Houston's problem is the amount of time it takes to get out of Galveston Bay and into the open sea. It takes several hours to get out of the bay and into the open sea. With that in mind, Galveston will likely always be a better location until the development of faster ships makes Bayport a more suitable location.

Yeah, I saw the "The New West Bldg" sign ripped off today and the Metro soul food restaurant has been closed and its sign removed. Something is a-brewin'!

This is the attitude of every city in the U.S. outside of maybe New York and *possibly* Chicago. Houston is just like everybody else when it come to this (I know it strikes at the heart of natives to hear that Houston is actually not unique at something )

I hope you'd use that same logic to question the expenditures on the I-10 and future 290 widening. A total of $6-7 BILLION on two corridors for TEMPORARY relief of maybe 7-10 minutes on one's travel time? You chastise removing ROW from private vehicles that are passing through, but what about removing private ROW from private INDIVIDUALS who live, work, and own businesses in the "way" of the widening of these two corridors?

But nothing is stopping the management district from providing tax relief or kicking in some funding. After all, Houston Pavilions is partially subsidized too by the Downtown Management District, the City, and amazingly enough the County(!).