capnmcbarnacle

Help me, Rhonda.

How does it relate to THIS property?

I think that the parking garage will go there. It looks to be connected by a sky bridge.

Just for reference, this is what went in at 1603 Marshall:

Do the architects who design these really like what they are doing, or do they just think "It's what the market demands, and I need a paycheck." Or is it an inside joke to see who can design the most aesthetically catastrophic house and sell it?

The windows up the stair to the turret are a nice touch. I guess anyone who needs to ascend the tower to save Rapunzel can look out the window on the way to see if any evil knights, dragons, or witches are approaching.

But maybe I'm being to harsh. Could this be a nod to the legendary Witch Hat house that used to be on Fannin?

Hoping someone can help out here. I've seen a million versions of where the line will go, but have yet to see a rendering of the actual street. I am assuming 2 tracks in the middle with stations in the middle like downtown, but I have no clue. Will Richomond be 1 or 2 lanes in each direction? Where are the turn lanes?

If anyone has a rendering I'd love to see it.

Thanks.

Haha...that's right, I had forgotten that was my first post.

Also forgot out one-time poster with the details on Phase II. Could get pretty crowded around there (especially at the park!), but at least they're in contact with the neighborhood.

This kind of density is inevitable. But I am still wondering about the ingress and egress of this place. Assume that exiting onto Richmond directly creates all kinds of problems with turning left over the tracks, or turning right into what may become a 1 lane road. That leaves entering and exiting onto Dunlavy and driving south toward Bissonet and the Tower of Traffic or north and turning onto Richmond that way or driving through the neighorhoods to Alabama, Westheimer or Allen Parkway. Either way, it is going to be intereting. Glad to see them trying to make it work though.

Neo Kinky -- that is great.

This is so nasty I don't even know where to start. And someone will buy it eventually and call it their home. It's sad to see the old neighborhood go. Townhomes or McMansions, take your pick. Ugh.

a fence now surrounds the perimeter and tiny red flags dot the property. something's going on.

I'll be interested to see if it is really going to be the mosque. I liked the old building, but I also have pictures of it after Allison where water came halfway up the side of the building along Montrose. From what I've heard about the mosques that these particular folks put up, we might get something great in its place. I'm a preservationist, but I also believe that sometimes good old things have to go to make way for the good old stuff of tomorrow. Just as long as they replace it with somethig as interesting as what was there, I'll be happy. Unfortunately that rarely happens around here.

This is a link to the Ismaili center in London. It's obviously on a much smaller piece of property, but it's definitely more intersting than another Alexan apartment.

http://archnet.org/library/images/one-imag...;image_id=38754

Anyone have any information sales on the building so far??

A little bird told me that sales are going well, with some big, big purchases.

I was at a wedding and met a woman who lived in Montrose when she was girl in the 1930s. She lived where the parking garage behind the Black Lab is today. She told me that she went to Montrose Elementary. She didn't remember exactly where it was and I know it doesn't exist today. Anybody know where it was and when it closed?

Thanks!

Yeah, I was happy to see this eyesore go away. An empty lot looks better and feels safer than a building where the homeless used for shelter.

It's a shame the owners let it come to that. It wasn't too long ago that that place was bustling. All the pho and vietnamese laser discs you could ask for.

As an aside to the days when "Midtown" was "Little Saigon," and I'm not talking about the part of "Midtown" that used to be the Fourth Ward or "Freedman's Town," does anyone recall the freakout about the street signs being in Vienamese? Proper names like Travis and Fannin wouldn't seem to be something that you could translate, so they gave them other names in Vietnamese. And it couldn't have been more than a couple years after that that the place began its decline. Looking at midtown now, it's almost unfathomable to think what it was like a dozen years ago. I miss the pho and Hoa Binh market. It was easier than driving out to Bellaire. Oh well. Hopefully they'll go forward with their plans.

The rendering of the restaurant is so accurate that it includes a stripper who apparently came over for a drink before walking to her shift at the Men's Club. Classic.

very interesting...

The links at the listed page were dead. Can you entlighten me?

"Without Metro's help, the land would probably have been used for new townhomes, banks or drug stores, Schultz said."

That line is a classic zinger. Aside from the nail salon/Cingular wireless monopoly on strip malls, the CVS/Wachovia/Perry Homes triumvirate may be the most prominent features in non-strip mall development. I'm glad they stopped them for at least 2 blocks.

There was an interesting article in the Chron about the cemetary next door to Regent Square and the developers contributions to getting it cleaned up.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/hei...ws/5806719.html

I agree with their points about the lack of awnings and what not to protect pedestrians from some of the elements.

One thing that those renderings show, that you didn't see along the city sidewalks of Texas one hundred years ago, is trees. I don't think you can build out over the sidewalk a la The Strand in Galveston and still have trees planted along the sidwalk.

I find it interesting that the Swamplot people are moaning about the pre-fab look of the place. I don't see it. In fact, I think dressing this thing up as a mock 1910 Texas town would be he worst thing they could do. It's natural for people to compare this to other places they've seen, but I can't really think of any other development that looks this way. It doesn't look master planned to me - it looks more natural. The developers have the luxury of taking large parcels that were made up of numerous blocks many years ago, and returning them to something resembling the original grid that was there. It fits in. As someone who lives on Dunlavy, am I psyched that my traffic-free trip to and from downton will end? No. But as a resident of the area I'm excited to see these guys do something this ambitious with that piece of property.

Had an eye opener today on Westheimer. We were making the rounds of the antique and junk dealers we visit a couple times a year. Went into the building on Westheimer across from Empire. Talking to the lady there (Julie King) and she's having to move in a month. Her rent was raised to $6,500. BJs found a new space down on the curve not long ago, but say goodbye to most of the old dealers on that stretch.

For anyone shopping, especially for cabinets and dining tables, get yourself down there in the next month or so. We saw people making some pretty crazy deals on large pieces the dealers don't want to move.

Yikes. Commericial rents have been on the upswing for awhile around here and I think the writing is on the wall for a bunch of the old businesses that lease their space. I hope that the owner plans on doing something with the building that is there. It's a great old building with some great potential.

Do you think it might just have to do with demographics? I've noticed on this thread that the people that seem the most hurt by this whole thing tend to be those that grew up with it. But Houston having grown so much, and so many people having moved and moved again, it would seem like the voter pool of those that care the most becomes pretty diluted.

I for one don't really care that we lost a strip center. I didn't grow up with it, either, never shopped there, and only really associated it with a Lewis Black joke on account of the two Starbucks across the street from one another. Actually, I am kind of disappointed that Weingarten wasn't more ambitious on such a well-situated site. I would have preferred to see the whole thing transformed into a string of highrises and midrises, the kind of landmarks that I would have cared to lose...not some crappy new two-story retail like I can find in abundance out on Bellaire Blvd.

I agree inasmuch as I can handle losing something cool if it is replaced by something that is just as interesting or better. The real shame here is tearing something down and putting up something that is totally blah. Had they put up something innovative and different -- something that would elicit reaction 30 years down the road -- I could handle it. If they tore down the theater to put up the coolest building in Texas, I could deal with that. Most great buildings went up where something previously stood and the great buildings improved upon what was there. The problem with this rendering is that it is worse than what used to be there.

Clicked a few of this as it is going up. I like the idea of this kind of commercial space in the area.

http://www.kaldis.com/theterraces.html

A couple photos of the site.

Here are some photos I took. I can't say I'm too pleased with this building. It looks really out of place to me. I'm glad that we are getting development that comes out to the sidewalk and adds to the pedestrian nature of the area, but this looks like it should be out on Woodway somewhere. I don't know, I just feel kind of ambivilent. Surely there is a happy median between a strip mall and this. Thoughts?

You have the right thread, and....Wow!!! A Barnes & Noble bookstore!! Who knew Houston was so cool and urban as to warrant one of those!!!

Interestingly, their rendering fails to show the ugly-as-sin 4 story concrete slab parking garage that runs behind the existing structures, uglying up the whole stretch. I actually droved someone from LA down Gray last week and they noted that they thought it looked like a cool stretch of road (which it is) and then said, "What's with that parking garage?" Not wanting to regale them with tales of the River Oaks Theatre I just summed by saying it was put up by the same people that are eventually going to tear down that old theater.

But a Barnes & Noble?!?! We should be so lucky! I thought we would never get so lucky as we did when they tore down the Ale House on Alabama to make parking for the Border's. All is forgiven Weingarten!!!

I'm guessing you posted a picture. My work comp wont let me see it.

Is this the site, where the parking lot is?

http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&...1&encType=1

That parking lot is for the Randall's. The apartments are where the complex with the two pools, just to the east, used to be.

Here you go...

For your consideration. I'll just say that it beats an entire block of parking fronting Westheimer.

It's the liquid building and presumably the old white residential structure at the rear...

A few shots from the car. This thing is quietly making its way upwards..