AJB857

I was driving around Southhampton today and all I can say is that the 476825363894736872 yellow signs in everyone's yards and on everyone's fences are a helluva lot more ugly than the building is going to be.

Highrise condominiums are inconsistent with reality, so the ads made sense. ...no, seriously! Mosaic targeted hip young professionals with their ads and drew in doctors wanting an urban pad to stay at during the week, empty nesters, and international buyers. The youngsters were nowhere to be found.

Maybe that's why so many of them don't get built.

I am not a marketing expert but I am an empty-nester living in River Oaks so I guess I'm part of the market they were targeting

Yet the print advertisement I saw for the project showed a hot 40's ish blonde covered in jewelry and elegant clothes. In other words, a second trophy wife

I'm pretty sure my wife and most of the first marriage empty nest wives in River Oaks and Tanglewood don't want to live in a building full of young second wives with their gym

suits and their jewelry. So I found the marketing approach to be inconsistent with the conventional wisdom as to the project's theoretical target market.

Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!

Niche is right. Traffic circles and people are generally a bad mix. For sheer terror, some of the ones in Italy I've come across (especially Rome) don't even have lanes. Good times. Ciao.

They must have made sense when they were built, in old cities with odd angled intersections, streets not on a grid pattern, etc. However, a roundabout at Allen Pkwy and Dunlavy would be more suicidal than the Allen Parkway ramps to the Pierce Elevated, if that's even possible. People fly through there, there's little frontage, like Musicman said, a major cross street and bridge a few hundred feet away.

I guess the only thing would be a full stop and dedicated left turn lanes. You could leave it alone, but with the added congestion, it would back up past the Waugh exit too much, stacking people on Dunlavy waiting to turn east. Where Dunlavy meets AP, you can hard right to the Waugh exit lane, or you can swing out to catch Allen Parwkay. Of course you have all the people veering into the Waugh exit lane at 60 mph, after cresting a slight hill and turn. It's crazy already at that intersection.

The city needs to repave Allen Parkway with concrete. Once it starts raining, the asphalt patches combined with the curves creates the most dangerous driving conditions in the city. It's like an ice rink. I once threw my car into a violent spin of 360's, slamming into the curb then coming to a stop facing traffic the wrong way in front of the Bel Air. The construction guys who ran over to my car told me it happens all the time. In one spot closer to Dunlavy, the city cut grooves into the asphalt because it is so dangerous. All of the additional traffic this project (and West Ave) will bring onto Allen Parkway will just make it worse.

They definitely need a light to assist westbound traffic on Allen Parkway turning south onto Dunlavy It's a short turn lane and the traffic often backs up onto the left lane on Allen Parkway. Cars coming around the turn don't have a lot of notice that traffic may be completely stopped in front of them

If any of you have any influence with the city, repaving Allen Parkway and installing a light at Dunlavy should be a very high priority

according to the Houston Architectural Guide, the following were designed by Mott, and most were built in collaboration with Burns & James architects:

2421 Brentwood (1929) - First Mott house of ten in River Oaks - also won a Good Brick Award in 2003

3325 Inwood (1930) - her family's home

1419 Kirby Dr. (1930)

1659 South Blvd. (1928)

1660 South Blvd. (1929)

2555 N. MacGregor Way (1929)

2620 Riverside Dr. (~1929-1930)

1920 Woodbury (1929) - demolished, one of the largest Mott houses

2519 N. MacGregor Way (~1929-1930) - not sure this one is still around

2627 Riverside Dr. (~1929-1930) - not sure about this one either

2417 Riverside Dr. (~1929-1930) - possibly altered

2612 Riverside Dr. (~1929-1930) - now the part of the Ladet Motel?

maybe i should have started a new topic...!

Thanks for the info. I'd love for you to start a new topic on the subject, in case anyone else has any info about them -

the Brentwood house is still standing - i just posted that for information about the builders

i wonder how many Mott houses are still extant in Houston, though

I own an original Mott house and would love to know more about them. Mine was built in 1930. I believe the RDA did a tour of Mott houses back in 1998, before I purchased my house. Any info would be greatly appreciated

Didn't it have a roller skating rink?

Another place a friend mentioned the other day was The Filling Station, at Richmond and Greenridge. The building is still there, it's jutst not a hamburger place any longer

Wow I really enjoyed the aerial photo of the area. I lived on Cheena between Runnymeade and Balmforth from 1963 - 1966. I attended Kolter Elementary which apparently had not been built (or even started) when the photo was taken. Interesting that the school was that new when I started attending as my third grade class in 1965 was in a temporary building. I can see the water tower that was near the library and the goofy golf on Bellfort, What memories, thanks for posting the picture.

If you go to www.houstonfreeways.com you can download a chapter about the construction of the South Freeway (288). It has a few pictures showing an overlay of where the freeway was built through Riverside Terrace as well as a brief description of the history of the area.

Cool when my family moved to Houston in 1962, we stayed at the Las Vegas Inn.

Well I am also new here and this is my first post. I made it quickly through the first six pages and don't remember seeing any of these mentioned:

1. Rosnofski's - great hamburger place just east of Westcott, north of Memorial Drive

2. Ruby Red's - another hamburger place famous for allowing you to throw your peanut shells on the floor. If I remember correctly it was on Westheimer inside the loop, near where Sullivan's is now, but I could be wrong

3. River Oaks Burger Joint. Yet another hamburger place, this one in Highland Village near where P F Chang's is located. Note to any restauant developers, we could really use a casual hamburger place near River Oaks. Beck's is good but the interior is too much like a "fast food" place

4. Casa Dominguez - yes there is one on Bissonett (I think it's still open) but the one on the northwest corner of Kirby and Richmond was much better. I think it's now a carpet place

5. Shanghai Red's - fun place on the Houston Ship Channel. Went there for my second anniversary dinner a loooong time ago.

6. Maxim's downtown -I saw mention of the one in Greenway but the downtown location had much more charm

A few other comments, this has been a great thread to read. Hebert's was one of my Dad's favorite places. And my family ate at Jalapenos 2-3 nights a week for many years and were really saddened when it closed. What a pleasant surprise it would be for it to reopen in the new West Ave development, although I'm betting the rents are too high. It's off topic but i really hope that West Ave has good, classy places to eat, not national chains like the Cheescake Factory. Please

And someone mentioned the ice cream parlor in Westbury Square, wasn't that Rumpleheimer's? I have fond memories of that place from when I was very young.

And is there a separate place of bar's that have since closed? Places like U S Disco and Dark Horse come to mind