toxtethogrady

Well, you see, Al Jaffee's original design called for a giant fly to be squashed onto the side of the building...

Are you implying that Aggie engineers are involved somehow? 

 

Shh, if any of you Aggie engineers worked on this one, I won't tell.

Actually, the A&M bonfire is the only one I'm familiar with.

This is quickly becoming one of the coolest new construction tech. I have an uncle who works for Gowan Inc. and he told me that they use drones like this all the time now.

The FAA's a bit miffed, though. It's the Wild West for drone operations out there, and people are bouncing them off buildings, airplanes and other things. If another one hits the Seattle Space Needle, you might see a crackdown.

Two buildings a block from each other coming on market at exactly the same time and looking for tenants may not be the best marketing strategy. Hines may now go back and check its research: is there enough demand? At what price points?

My guess is demand should still be good. With very few homes on the market and lot shortages affecting even the exurbs, this town can't build residential fast enough to meet demand. Only labor shortages and soaring materials prices can stop the developers.

Besides, the City's paying them to build.  

I don't really think there is a need to over-engineer this building. The building burned down because of accident during construction from a project manager who should have been more responsible and called down his welders from the roof during very high winds. That's just irresponsible even if it's the welders fault I'm certain that whoever was running the show that day got the boot.

One can blame it on a welding accident, but the fire should have been contained and should not have burned down the entire complex. Fire walls would have confined the blaze to one section, preserving the rest so that it didn't become a gigantic A&M Homecoming Bonfire.

For anyone that hasn't seen this:

http://blogs.houstonpress.com/rocks/2014/08/rumors_swirl_about_possible_ne.php

Shout out to HAIF and Triton.

The guys at Pegstar reacted like they got outed. But it should have been expected.

Churches just seem to be magnets for those pesky poor people, and vice versa.

On the other hand, I hear the oil industry and the chemicals people are trying to fill almost 300,000 job vacancies in the next three years, and they're not sure they have people with the skills to take them. Why not teach these street people welding and stick them out on a rig for $80K a year?

Hmm, I sense an apprentice program would create the talent. But I guess the non-union projects won't ever have anything like that.

"iconic" seems to be the big buzzword of the year, but people who use it really don't understand its meaning.

It's punching above its weight.

I suppose JLB could rename them the Axum Apartments. The Ethiopian community might appreciate it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axum

Wish we could get one at HBU...oh but wait a football team is somehow more important since we're totally going to be winning a lot of games...

Talk to Bob McNair about this. He's been known to fund a theatre project when he's bored with the Texans.

Other than the ice house, I think this design sucks. The venue looks like the horrible sheet metal townhouse in parts of midtown. Hopefully it turns out better than these renderings.

I've seen many concert venues and most of them suck. Some are not more than four walls and a roof. It's more what goes into it than what the outside looks like.

On the planning commission agenda again.

 

SubdivisionPlatPDF_13-0053-PLAT.pdf

So we have a name, but no renderings. It's always hard to associate a name without a face.

It's like Randall forgets you can see all four sides of a midrise! Argh... The humanity!

Well, the entrance is at the front door...

Petitioner came by the in-laws house on Gross St (perpendicular to Alpha St in the diagram) trying to drum up support for blocking this development. He said Gross St and Alpha cannot handle the increased traffic/trucks from the delivery/service access at the back on Alpha.

 

Those roads are quite narrow and have adjacent drainage ditches.

I have no sympathy for these guys. If they want to control development, they should support zoning.

I too can vouch that the renderings Triton shared with me did say Fitzgerald's on the front. No question about it.

My later re-reading of the news article indicated Pegstar is only temporarily in the Fitzgerald's space and that this is an entirely separate venue for them. They will vacate Fitzgerald's for this new place.

That's odd. My experience with construction projects is it usually takes longer the more money you spend...

Can anyone confirm labor shortages? It's been suggested as the reason some other projects in town aren't getting started as fast as anticipated.

As I understand it, JLB's awaiting the structural report on the garage before they move. If they're smart, they're going to have redesigned this complex with concrete firewalls and maybe even metal framing so it won't completely burn to the ground just because someone is sloppy at sweating pipes.

Supposedly that terrace is designed to set the mood so that when the Partnership brings that executive from the latest prospective Fortune 1000 up there, they'll be ready to sign on the dotted line.

Parking lot is closed and construction fence is going up right now.  With port-o-potties.

You see - this is how we know it's a real project. 

Seems odd they'd buy a second plot rather than build taller.

HBJ is reporting that JLB, the developers behind the Axis, which burned to the ground leaving only a garage, plan to rebuild, though they still don't know if the garage is structurally sound enough to remain.

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/blog/2014/08/developer-plans-to-rebuild-after-montrose.html?page=2

Damn that's sexy. Good job Fitz

I can't quite tell how it fits into the neighborhood, but it looks good. I'd love to see what they do with the creek that runs through the property. It will also be interesting to see what kinds of development will follow (restaurants, apartment blocks, etc.). With the light rail nearby, it should be a good location for additional projects, but the locals may end up priced out of the neighborhood.

Okay, just for fun...

That's the W in downtown Austin

It looks exactly like the render for the Uptown Park highrise. Well, almost exactly. Things that make you go "hmmm..."