wxman

I may have overlooked the answer so I apologize in advance, but how long does it take to clear the area and set the foundation? I'm trying to gauge how long it will be before we see tower cranes up and floors rising!

Haha, well, I wish beyond anything to move back to Houston. I'm about a year and a half away from getting back there. But back to the topic at hand, everybody around me has been ulta supportive. Nobody around me cares. My parents were floored and dad took it bad but is over it.

I eventually came to the realization that I was miserable not being able to date or express my feelings to somebody. The turning point is when my mom had asked me about a good friend of mine who's 26 and never has had a girlfriend. She asked me if he was gay. She went on to say that it didn't matter anyway because he's like family. Then she turned the tables on me and said, ''well, are you?" I lied and said no (in a very frustrated way). That night, I just walked into her room, sat on the bed, took a deep breath, looked at the clock and started crying (and shaking uncontrolably) and just blurted it out. Mom's reaction? "I know. I've known for 10 years.'' LOL. Moms, gotta love 'em.

What makes it hard to come out is the social stigma that comes with it. I want to be known as the jovial guy, the weather guy (which i really am), the funny guy or whatever. I just don't want to be known as the ''gay guy.'' In my head, that is insulting. I'm so much more and I carry myself in a way that fits more in with frat guys than somebody at a pride parade. I hate that people who are ''free spirited'' at parades like that are my spokesperson for my way of life; flamboyancy, guys wearing panties, shaved legs, ect.. but then again, it may be jealousy as they are truely free of themselves and I am not. Like anybody in rehab, my days of being totally comfortable are eons away, but I can start making steps to embrace a totally awesome human being and find a chance to really find unconditional love with somebody--me.

Ahhh, I actually live in Florida now but grew up in Houston (The Woodlands) for 22 years. I'll be back for Thanksgiving. May be fun to join.

So you may have noticed that there is a bright, flashy new profile pic of a rainbow flag by my screen name. I'm kinda slowly starting the process of coming to terms with who I am. It's tough for me. If you were to see me in person, there would be a moment of cognitive dissonance; as in a moment of "wait a minute, HE'S THE GAY GUY? Totally under the radar here. I keep my private life to myself and fit in well with the 'popular' crowd. Deep down though, having nobody know who I am really, kind of eats me up inside. The simple fact that I felt compelled to tell you I'm the jocky type is a sure sign that I'm most uncomfortable writing this.

Either way, I'm looking forward to coming to terms with who I am and looking forward to knowing me a little better. What's funny is my parents have strong conservative values but vote democrat and their gay son is the republican. LOL. Go figure.

Anybody else here in my boat? Anybody else here gay and feel like they have little in common with the mainstream gay community?

I'm having a blonde moment here but can somebody refresh the group, namely myself, as to what's going up here? Is this the big residential highrise component of the project?

As you were saying ...

LOL! So I should know this by now, but anybody have a time frame? I imagine it takes a month or so to dig and set the pillars/foundation. We should start seeing a floor a week by what, Mid December?

Where exactly is block 350? The amount of projects going up right now is INSANE! Does this rival the 80s anybody?

NM, I see the OP has put a link to block numbers. Thanks OP!

AWESOME NEWS!!! The 40 STORY Tower has now broken ground officially!!

http://blog.chron.com/primeproperty/2012/11/apartment-tower-to-soar-40-stories/

I am so confused. What building are you guys talking about? I thought this was about 5 Allen Center? Which building are you guys referring to? Maybe start a new thread?

I hate the placement of this building. It takes away from the other Allen building (the tall brown one, forgot the name, lol). I think if they wanna build they should do it near Discovery Green or in Greenway or Galleria. NOT here.

Was reading in the Chronicle today (while I was bored sitting in a seminar) and read that Marvey Finger is planning a new 380 unit complex near GRB. Anybody know anything about this?

...The only residential project of note has been One Park Place, a tower of 340 luxury units at the western edge of Discovery Green.

"I took a big risk," said Marvy Finger, president and CEO of the Finger Companies. "Every banker and every mortgage lender said, 'He must be out of his mind to do a downtown development.'" He received no city incentives to build there, but he could see Discovery Green as a great front lawn. "It really was the park that kicked off everything that's going on in east downtown."

He recently purchased land in front of Minute Maid Park for a project that will have 380 luxury units. Finger is receiving the equivalent of about $2 million from the city of Houston, which has abandoned and granted a portion of Prairie Street in front of the ballpark for his development.

When a sign says ''coming,'' does that mean it will be finished by Summer 2014 or does it mean construction starts Summer 2014?

The study was done by Texas Tech: http://www.atmo.ttu.edu/TTUHRT/HwindSwath.png

What are the typical gusts so far inland from a hurricane strike? I'm not saying that they couldn't possibly be damaging, but I would think that they would be lower and that structural engineers could ensure that physical tolerances are adequate.

During Hurricane Ike, the winds in The Woodlands were sustained, at least according to a Texas Tech study, of 80 mph. Usually you can get gusts 20 to 30% higher. In the absolute worst case scenerio (a category 5 hitting just south of Galveston), The Woodlands would see *sustained* winds in excess of Cat 3 (111 mph to 129 mph) with gusts beyond that.

The orange bubble near Spring is 84 mph sustained. The dotted dashed line is 74 mph (minimum threshhold for a hurricane).

http://www.srh.noaa....nd_contours.pdf

Also keep in mind that wind increases exponentally as you increase you altitude---usually a full category for every 1,000 feet.

The roof of that building is going to be ripped off in the next hurricane. It'll be like a giant sail to catch the wind. Anybody remember what happened to the Pavilion?

http://houston.cultu...me-celeb-chefs/

Skanska, which is part of a large Swedish multi-national corporation, also is planning a major office tower in downtown Houston. Skanska will demolish the old Houston Club building at 811 Rusk and start a new office tower shortly. Mondshine said the Skanska downtown tower is in the design stage.

Uhhhhhhhhh.......what's this about? Shouldn't it be its own thread? The link doesn't work.

This is a top priority for Downtown Houston and the whole city. Even if the hotel doesn't look exactly like the rendering, there's no way they would "skimp" on a project this substantial. We didn't skimp on One Park Place or BG Group Place either.

I agree. The fact of the matter is, this is going to be a substantial building. A 1,000 room hotel will not be skimpy or small by any stretch of the imagination. Even a dinky 250-ish room Embassy Suites turned out to be 20 stories.

I caution everybody to take a look at the fabulous renderings of High Street, BLVD Place and most famously the Embassy Suites downtown that turned out to be one ugly ass building despite what the renderings showed. I LOVE this building but I was always cautioned growing up to believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see.

Is the scaling off? That doesn't look like a 600k foot building to me---especially when compared to the SMALLER Anadarko towers. Anybody?

I personally can't stand channel 13. I'd watch Spanish before I watched them. I prefer Channel 2 first and then probably Fox. Channel 11 if the other two are running late.

I don't think that's the location of the 600k building. I think that might be a new rendering for the condo tower. The location looks about right for the condo tower. Not sure tho.

traveling south on 45 this morning I could see the top of a building. we'll see if it's the only one or there's more.

Any pics?

Gotchya. I just reread the article again and caught the 'rack' part. I also noticed (after my nap) that they plan on building a 'brand new store' ' on the site' of Sears. So are they tearing that building down? If so, wow!

According to the article, The Woodlands will be the fourth location. I was under the impression Houston only had one store.

I flew into IAH yesterday and saw the A380 sitting at Terminal E. To be honest---I wasn't THAT impressed. The KLM 747 sitting next to it looked bigger and more impressive in my opinion. Maybe it was just the angle I was looking at them. Anybody else get kind of a 'let down' feeling when looking at it?