skwatra

50 minutes ago, NoMoHouTx said:

The proposed 20 story building is directly to my east.

Is your Japanese Blueberry in the Montrose median?

I used to own on the block just south and was a regular at Khun Kay through when she retired (food went downhill after that IMO though some items were still good).

It does seem like a small block to fit this size in but as far as the area, but this is the direction things are going. Every apartment going up or proposed in the area are in the 8 story range. I for one look forward to the density.

yes, berlin was heavily bombed. they did restore some buildings, and following the war there were variations of tear downs and restoration depending on if you are looking at east or west berlin. but last time i checked Houston was not bombed during WWII so how is this relevant?

They have already mostly built out 6 stories as apartments with two floors of parking underneath (partially under ground i believe). if they make one of these floors retail, could they meet their parking requirements? Also there doesn't seem to be a 'ground' street level floor the way the parking is built. should be interesting if they really are going to make this change...

On 8/13/2018 at 8:20 AM, ADCS said:

 

Eh, closer to 2 miles from Ile de la Cite, and 5 from La Defense, but your general point is sound. Train stations have almost always been built at the outskirts of whatever the city was at the time of construction.

European cities stations being outside of their core still have rail connectivity within their core, which we're missing (for now). I haven't been following this thread because this train won't be useful to me or many people I know. I do think this type of infrastructure is important, but for now when we go to Dallas we need a car and also have car seats and a dog to deal with, so we drive. If I go alone I take Megabus, which is much cheaper than this train is projected, and is easily accessible (for me) downtown.

so who will this train serve? a replacement for weekly business folks that take SW now? students? visitors? for any of these people, there needs to be a direct link to the urban core if the train ends at the NW transit center.

Good because I’ll be riding my bike there often. 

brick is coming along nicely

On 4/3/2018 at 1:31 PM, urbanize713 said:

1. Empty lot across Carnegie Vanguard, next to mid rise under construction.  

There are two empty lots across from CVHS, are you referring to the one across Gray or across Taft?

I live a few houses down from here. For the empty lot on the NW corner of Taft and Gray, the same owner has been sitting on it for some time, he had plans for retail but obviously nothing materialized. Last I heard from Juan (of the defunct Juan Mon's), was that he made a deal with the owner to set up a food truck park. That was in December, and I haven't seen any activity.

The other lot across Gray was a staging area for Dolce construction. Since that's going to be under construction indefinitely who knows how long that lot will sit idle!

Taft closed this Saturday at Gray. I assume the tower crane is coming down.

Trying this again. Mound of dirt, some trees, and a weird sign. 

 Skyline from BoA to Alta. Not bad. 

Swamplot article on the project:

http://swamplot.com/gibbs-boathouse-redo-will-welcome-restaurants-retail-deck-seating-aboard-the-corner-of-w-gray-and-montrose/2018-03-14/

no mention of retail which i believe was part of the original release on this project?

new building at 311 W Gray is mostly complete. Saw a permit on the west part with "Me'lange Restaurant" on it. Doesn't sound like an Asian Stir Fry as the site plan said. No signs on the east side for the pet hospital. Looks like they are just getting ready for build-out of the interior.

using some simple tools, it appears that thehaif.com is still registered. when you do a traceroute it goes to http://www.praguearchitecture.com/ but its not linked directly to that site. so something is broken in the linkage it seems. I know this isn't helping fix the issue, but at least the url is still registered and it should be an easy fix for whoever runs the site.

Dolce in the background. Alta topped off in the way background. Much more important (and already open!) development in the foreground. 

I thought both sites were owned by Biba at one point. I'm hoping this means he sold the land. Three restaurant groups have been run out 607.

According to HCAD, the owner at 607 went from 'NOONKY INC' to 'HOUSTON W GRAY STANFORD LLC' in 2017.

That goes for 603, 607, and 611. 615 is also HOUSTON W GRAY STANFORD LLC, but was not 'NOONKY INC' previously.

email the founder sent out:

Quote

After 23 years, much brewing, getting laws changed, moving to our downtown location, this dream is finally becoming a reality. This will be a restaurant and beer garden open seven days a week on the property next door to our brewery. We will showcase all of our beers including special barrels and beers under development. The beer garden will have an amazing view of the downtown skyline. It will be a place to be enjoyed year-round.

 

We have worked with Natalye Appel + Associates to create a dissolving metal building that is at once one with the neighborhood yet creates several different environments to discover. Landscape architects OJB have designed a beer garden that is comfortable and inviting - a place to enjoy with friends and family.

19 hours ago, MaxConcrete said:

Some comments on the points of discussion:

Houston vs. DFW: DFW's big advantage is a much larger information technology and software development job base, which is one of Amazon's top priorities. I work as a software developer, and every time I compare DFW to Houston, I find the DFW has about four times as many job postings in software development. I just checked again and came up with about the same results. I don't know what technology stack Amazon uses, but anyone who knows can do the same exercise of Houston vs. DFW.

Dice search for .Net Developer: Dallas 1403,  Houston 381 (3.7 ratio). Dice search for MVC (a type of programming skill): Dallas 212, Houston 61 (ratio 3.5). Dice search for Java developer: Dallas 1509, Houston 398 (ratio 3.8)

I can't argue that DFW has a larger SW/IT job base, but Dice searches won't tell the whole story regarding talent pool. I work with tons of SW developers in specialized roles (NASA) that can do each skill you searched for, but not one of their jobs have that in their title or description. All of our Flight SW for ISS is written in C, we have tons of FPGA developers, most ground tools involve Java all developed in-house by NASA/USA/Boeing/Lockheed/Jacobs/etc. I'm sure the same holds for many larger energy and healthcare services as well.

There is a construction sign up stating closure for 8/12 and 8/13 all day. Doesn't specify the streets but the sign is on Taft southbound just north of Gray so I assume it is for Alta.

Seems like a political statement more than anything. The auto market was already dictating this change. People want affordable EVs. Good that they made it official and included a date.

Can't really speak to any of your questions, I'm probably the farthest away from the oil industry as possibly can be living in Houston (no one in my family or any of my close friends are tied to the industry).

As far as how transportation will change - i don't think getting rid of gas/diesel cars will change things, at least not here. I hope we keep making strides towards better mass transit, but even when gas powered cars are banned people will want their own vehicles and there will be options at all price points - i can't see that going away any time soon.

Strip center appears complete. nothing opened yet I don't think.

Also found out recently that Barnaby's acquired a lot behind its current parking lot, at 319 W Pierce. This was a 1930's duplex, they tore it down and are extended their parking lot. really disappointing.

1. They bought a lot appraised at close to $500k to build a parking lot (couldn't they have built an open structure on their current parking lot for less?)

2. The 94 year-old lady who has lived at 420 W Pierce and sit on her porch most of the day now has the view of traffic

3. Removed perfectly good residential (was ok as-is, but would have normally been turned in to 2 townhomes on the block)

4. They added drainage pipes from the lot to W Pierce to add runoff to a street that floods pretty quick

I'll probably still go get their queso every once and a while but i'm a little annoyed...

they each get their own port-a-potty!

from friday. is this a pier and beam or will they lay concrete down and have below ground parking?

There is a sign/ad up at the old Fuzzy's location for 8000 sqft multi-tenant living coming soon. I didn't catch the realtor name nor am I sure on the exact location. If its Fuzzy's it will be interesting to see if they took up the old lot as well with structure and include a structure for parking.

should have realized that, i was thinking "he can't be serious" as i was replying. i was pretty surprised but didn't catch any hint of sarcasm/joking.

anyways they are moving along, and Dolce is not. I think I'll put my money on this project finishing first.