skyphen

I went there today for the first time. Looks like a mall without a roof. Not impressed.

Spring break + good weather (for Houston) = lots of kids, families, and other people out and about at Hermann Park and the museums!

The newest addition to the Children's Museum is AWESOME, by the way. Can't wait to see what's in store for the HMNS.

I heard that the wine bar slot is now going to be a Starbucks. Also, the Landmark River Oaks Theater is going to be ousted and replaced with, you guessed it, a Starbucks.

Is this true? Where did you hear it?

What about the Bookstop on Alabama? Anyone know its fate?

Chronicle links are SO lame.

sigh.

OH, they are! What is the deal with the Chronicle??? NONE of the other Texas papers have this problem. Why can't they name a link instead of number it? I'm guessing they re-use the numbers for some weird reason? I really don't get it. Don't they realize it hurts readership not being able to read a link after it expires? And it expires pretty quickly, so they direct you to find it ih the archives, but their search NEVER works, so you have to go to the cached page. It's crazy!!! I think I'm going to write a strongly worded letter!

took the words right out of my mouth. i don't know what's worse, honestly: being right next to the railroad tracks or having your bedroom window face the center street recycling deal...

If those are the same townhouses I'm thinking of, roughly right across the boulevard from Hickory Hollow, they are closer to two feet than ten feet from the tracks. And around $300K if I recall correctly. Insanity!

Mack Tripper wins the thread.

Agreed!! OMG I almost fell out of my chair laughing!

Thanks! They have a blog about the construction of the cross on their website. They call it the Living Proof Project. http://sagemontblog.startlogic.com/living-proof/

different cross, different church

Ah. So Grace Community is the church with two campuses, north and south, and the 150 ft cross with globe combo. Does anyone know the name of the ginormous plain white cross church?

A bit confused, as usual. Is the cross posted in the picture (plain white cross near the Beltway) the same as the one talked about in the original post? What happened to the globe and arches under it?

I really would have liked Houston Metropolitan University or City College of Houston. There's a City College of San Francisco. I always thought that had a cute ring to it. It's short, sweet, and to the point, if nothing else. Suggests the open admissions policy, mission, and location of the college in few words, and there would have been absolutely no mistaking it for any other college.

These are all pretty terrible choices. Are these the finalists? I guess one with Southeast in the name if we have to go directional. Definitely not South Texas. There's a South Texas College of Law downtown... they'll be right back here in a few years if they change it to that. UST... TSU... both of which we already got. Terrible choices.

It will be interesting to see if this name change affects their enrollment numbers any. Some alumni I've known liked the association/confusion with UH main campus.

Not to mention we are in Southeast Texas, not South Texas. Culturally and geographically different worlds. Ugh. Again, terrible choices.

I have to agree about some Houstonians not having a sense of place and people getting the two campuses confused. I met someone the other day who thought (UH) Third Ward was located (UHD) downtown... they didn't get that there was a difference between TW and DT at all. I've also known a person who referred to Midtown as downtown. They were both transplants who figure anything near downtown IS downtown. I think the lack of a sense of place and not knowing the city is a downside to the growth Houston has seen. These people may work downtown or may not, but spend most of the time bypassing these neighborhoods on the freeways. On the contrary, the natives I know here have a great sense of place and history and know the city neighborhoods very well.

Whatever they choose, I hope it keeps Houston or some reference to it rather than Texas in the title. How many colleges are there with Texas in the title already? Among recent unnecessary borderline stupid name changes was Southwest Texas State U to Texas State U. I hope they don't go with anything remotely similar to that.

houston already has this. go to woodridge and 45south. there's an elderly man who takes the bus down from eastwood with his violin and over-the-shoulder amp and plays in the intersection.

Is there more than just a man?

I wrote in and suggested other names, but I think HMU works. Other cities like NYC, SF, and Denver have a Metropolitan College or City University. I think these names accurately reflect the institutions' mission statements and their respective student bodies.

Oh wait, I thought I read here they changed it to Houston Metropolitan U, but then reading again it doesn't seem like it?

The comment about the showerheads for Jones Plaza was right on point! That's exactly what it reminds me of.

sigh, I suspect you're right. But when it comes to urban 'vibrancy' don't we really mean 'more people' ? 100 people in a square eating sausage on a stick and watching clowns make animal balloon looks busier, and therefore better (especially in brochure photographs) than 10 people buying locally grown micro greens and cutely packaged cheese.

I cannot give up on my downscale, downtown food cart dream.

I like this vision, and the beggar musicians, Jackson Square, all of it. That's exactly what we need. Houston has so many great artists and talented people. The city is really squandering an opportunity, missing the boat on not exposing them to a wider audience, although it has gotten better at doing so over the past few years. Disco Green has been a big step in the right direction as far as that goes.

Is there a plan to make downtown upscale? I hope not. Downtown should be for the people, all people. "Downtown" should not be "Uptown."

Yeah, I think they own the house Inprint is in, right across the street.

From last Friday; people ice skating and playing in the water, only in Houston.

Very nice pics!

I think its a smart idea they didnt place too much access on the street. This way they can better manage the seedy types and what not.

Actually, if anything, having it enclosed and hidden like it is would have the opposite effect. If the stores were open and facing the street, they would be more visible to cars and pedestrians passing by, and to cops, if anything shady were going on. I would hate to be a young girl working late in one of those stores the way they have it now. Having it enclosed does very little to add to the street-level vibrancy of the area, which I'm more concerned about than "seedy types."

Does anything scream "I LIVE IN THE SUBURBS" more than the use of "seedy types?"

What Denver did right was build the retail at street level on a pedestrian only street (with the exception of a free bus that drives up and down the corridor). The stores in the Houston Pavilions seem kind of tucked away like in a typical mall, so you're not encouraged to go there unless you actually intend to shop. While on one hand I'm glad to see any retail in DT, I do think they really made a mistake in not opening it up a bit and providing a place for more than just shopping. I still think Houston needs more pedestrian-friendly places that feel public and urban rather than more private commercial places you feel trapped inside of.

I couldn't quite put my finger on what was bothering me about this development, but that's it exactly. The lack of street level access. I will patronize and support it anyway, but that was certainly a missed opportunity. It sort of reminds me of the MarqE on I-10 and Silber.

Oh yeah some people get them confused. And even more people think the school is part of UH system, you know...with UH Clear Lake, UH Sugar Land, UH Victoria...

I say change the name. How about Houston City University?

It is a part of the UH system.

They could call it University of Houston at Allen's Landing, or University of Houston at Buffalo Bayou.

Great news! Plus weekday tours, live bands, and the possibility of residential space? NICE! Now a new (old) place close in to take friends when they visit from out of town.

Finally! Some eye candy along the Bayou.

I know, right? And within walking distance for me. It's about damn time.

If you're refering to the burgers at the lakehouse, then perhaps. I thought it was a damned good burger. The best? I'm not sure, about that. But it IS good.

Agreed! I'm thinking about making a trip down there for a burger and beer right now...

Wow! The website looks FAR better than it used to! It's nice to see HPL finally tuning into the 21st century.

My father said that he doesn't care about the rest of the center - he just cares about the theater; if this feeling is common then it has likely already been there. I could live with having the theater itself saved with the rest of the center gone, but if it will have a large garage it needs to be painted in an aesthetic manner.

But what about continuity? The theater would look out of place if it were the only part saved from demolition and everything that went up around it looked like the piece of crap in that rendering. One of the great things about the River Oaks Shopping Center is its continuous uniformity, which is found so rarely in Houston as it is.

That's been my hope all along. Even Chicago had to lose some HH Richardson & Louis Sullivan buildings before people realized what was going on.

Unfortunately, boycotts and petitions won't work in Houston. There are too many people in this city that are ignorant about the architectural significance of the River Oaks Shopping Center, and/or they just don't care about local history because they moved here from somewhere else. People will shop at the new stores, and eventually the old buildings will just fade from the collective memory.

Yep, that's what has already happened. My mother's Houston was quite a different one from the one I know.