swtsig

I really don't like the design of this proposed building.

agreed... it looks outdated and it hasn't even broken ground yet! here's hoping the real thing comes out a lot nicer.

very reliable source told me groundbreaking should be any day now.

Per the chron.com site, Hines has purchsed the Cafe Adobe site on Westheimer. I am assuming this also includes the surface lot across the street. To me, this site is too small for the typical 4-5 story apartment complex wrapped around structured parking. Could Hines be going vertical with an apartment high rise?

http://blog.chron.co...eimer-property/

i would imagine they would'nt have much of a choice if they wanted to achieve economies of scale, unless they do less units that are just very high end (think belle meade or chateau 10). i don't know the size of the adobe property but as a comparison i recently heard that marvy may be planning a 20+ story highrise on the art institute site on yorktown and that parcel is 1.3 ac.

Has anyone been to Times Square?

yeah many times and it's cheesy and lame... nothing but neon signs and chain restaurants crowded with droves of tourists. If you're gonna compare it to NYC a much more apt comparison would be Park or 5th Avenue, which is exactly what they're going for. Rodeo Drive would also be a good comparison.

the site is on the corner of BW8 and Briar Forest - not I-10... you know, right next to One Briar Lake (where Samsung is currently located).

Bisnow had a bit on the groundbreaking ceremony that took place a while back.

http://www.bisnow.co...-breaks-ground/

Didn't realize it would be connected to the Embassy Suites next door, but it also says that there will be a tower IV, when tower III fills up. That's a new development, since I always thought the plan was to have the three office buildings and hotel.

they've always planned on 4 buildings or at least have been planning on 4 buildings for awhile now. a lot of activity at that i-10/bw8 intersection - this bldg, city centre III, IV and V, great indoors retail to office retrofit, and the two new bldgs on wickchester.

If there is one thing I have learned at HAIF, it is that renderings ARE a binding, legal contract that are enforceable in a court of law. In fact, once anything is posted on the internet, this includes both renderings and casual comments by totally anonymous, uncredited, non-professionals, it is obligated to be built exactly as the rendering, drawing, sketch or doodle implies or the offending poster can be sentenced to die by lethal injection or firing squad. These internet rendering laws are so strict that if even so much as one hair on one of those people's heads in that rendering above is not styled EXACTLY like what is seen in the rendering, the entire city of Houston can legally be nuked off the face of planet earth.

This is a proven fact and so there is no need to debate this issue any further.

predictable post is predictable.

while i really do like the rendering, anyone who doesn't look at it (or any rendering) w heaping spoonful of skepticism is naive at best.

http://www.thewoodla...sq_brochure.pdf found superblock east. it appears there are two towers with distinct features outlined. i'm not sure where the estimate for a floor count is coming from.

well obviously not from that

Super block east abutting I-45... it looked nearly twice the height of anadarko's new tower. like i said, it could very well be a pie-in-the-sky "proposal" on HHC's part, but that's what they have depicted on the material i've seen. i have zero knowledge of it beyond that.

you're kidding? right?

the amount of floors is a very rough estimation compared to the surrounding buildings... how likely is it? i have no clue... but that's what howard hughes corp has proposed in that location.

Blantant pro-developer right-wing talk radio sheep. I bet you post this when ever anyone makes a critique about a development that you cannot respond to intelligently.

you must be confusing your ability to spew the same biased nonsense ad naseum as "intelligent" responses... no surprise there. love the "pro-developer right-wing talk show radio sheep" bit, though - you really nailed it... you know, save for the whole "right-wing talk radio sheep" part since i've never considered NPR and pacifica radio to be your typical right-wing talk radio.

that's just it fortune........there were three shorter buildings planned for the "super block" on the south side of waterway square...that opened up to and complimented waterway square on the north and now this monstrosity. it wouldn't bother me so much if it was offset from the waterway, like 24 waterway in front of the fountain. 24 waterway is 14 stories and set back. the hotel will be similar to 24 waterway in height (at least it was, who knows now).

i can't tell from the rendering, but retail on the first floor and around the second fountain would soften it at the pedestrian level. at least that may still happen.

it just rubs me wrong....like "hughes landing" at lake woodlands. they are abandoning even the "woodlands way" of naming things. hughes landing is a pr name for the howard hughes corporation. just stupid.

don't get me wrong...i love a new tall structure just for the childlike satisfaction it brings; but why mess with a good thing? 10 waterway is TOO TALL for that location.

well then you won't like the 45+ story tower they've "proposed" on super block east...

really doesn't belong in this subforum... park 10 is well beyond the memorial area.

tenants for Wulfe's buildings? I guess the site plan could change once again, from resi to office?

i'm referring to the office portion above the retail. that said, i would be surprised if 3 residential towers were built but there's no doubt that apartments are quite popular, especially luxury apartments in Houston.

i would expcet the combined apache buildings to be in the 1.3M sf range (800k + 500K). there are a few prominent office tenants lined up in wulfe's buildings as well.

ps - dear ritz... please come back

This does suck. Nine stories is completely out of scale. That is more than double the height of the neighboring apartment complex. When Studewood did six stories, I knew that we were on the slippery slope. We are now at 9 stories and the next one will probably be even taller until we get our own Ashby highrise right in the middle of the Heights (anyone living near the telephone museum should watch out). It will cast a shadow over some of the neighborhood, espeically from Fall to Spring when the sun is lower on the horizon to the south.

This may cause a big drainage issue. The woods act like a sponge and stores lots of water when it rains. They are replacing that sponge with a big building that will not store any water and will also divert the natural sheet flow. Anyone nearby who may be impacted may have a claim under the Texas Water Code. If they are building on more than an acre, they will have to do detention onsite.

The loss of wildlife habitat is significant. There are very few wooded spots that size inside the city. Houston is on the international flyway for migratory birds. In the spring and fall, migratory birds stop along the Gulf Coast to rest and refuel on their way to their summer/winter homes. When there is no appropriate habitat for a bird to land and eat, they will continue to fly until they are too depleted to fly any further. At that point, they may be too weak to find food and avoid predators. Every acre of habitat that is lost is significant, especially in an area where so much of the habitat has already been lost. Also, it was just a really nice spot on the trail that had some wildlife. It will stink to lose that.

Traffic will be an issue. Most of the traffic will be in the morning and evening. Add to the growing traffic from people looking for off street parking in the evening for the bars and restuarants, and you will see a decline in the quality of life in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, the traffic impact analysis process with the City is a complete joke after the City caved in to the Ashby developers. What should be a process with hard and fast standards and bright lines has basically turned into makework for traffic engineers. Anything they come up with will be approved.

This building will negatively impact the quality of life for nearby residents. If people in the Heights think that it cannot happen to them, just look and see whether there is an old garden style apartment complex or metal shop/warehouse near them. The Ashby highrise has a very small footprint for a building that is 20+ stories. As this and other projects make clear, developers are not interested in the quality of life for the neighborhood. The City is not going to do anything to stand up to developers until people really get organized and fight for their neighborhoods.

Blatant nimby propaganda post is blatant. I assume you just post this in every heights development thread and change the specific information as necessary.

Having cbd opened up for food trucks could actually be pretty huge... I think food trucks are one of the things that could change the perception that people won't go outside downtown due to the tunnels.

san felipe/kirby area

probably Shell's expansion of their woodcreek campus.

Hey now, my posts have been on topic; the responses to them have been tangential. Low-attendance baseball games adversely impact the development potentials for retail opposite a baseball stadium. That was my point.

Just ribbing you, brotha.

Looks to be a nice addition... It's definitely a step in the right direction. with the rail, dynamo stadium and the future convention hotel/development I think we're going to continue to see these types of developments in this area. The city is obviously pushing hard to encourage this so it only makes sense.

But what does the 1919 White Sox team have to do with anything?

we should rename TheNiche to TheTangent

there's already a dedicated thread here: http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/25442-the-horizon-21-floors/

the name of the building changed so perhaps it would just be easier to rename that thread. glad to see this finally getting off the ground, though.

now why couldn't they have added some sort of retail component to this? how perfect would it have been to have a restaurant or cafe directly overlooking the park??? to me it just seems like a no-brainer in this type of setting. this area is already very dense, only getting denser, and the pedestrian traffic would be phenomenal. c'mon, houston!

You think Chevron will occupy this building when it is completed?

reading comprehension not a strong suit, i take it?

torchy's queso is damn good... perhaps my favorite to date. i'll also agree that escalante's queso is great, as is their tableside prepared guacamole. and cant forget the queso flameado at teotihuacan!