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Nate99

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Everything posted by Nate99

  1. Nate99
    I'm thinking that all it means definitively is that someone cares about what's down there enough to spend some money to have it analyzed. That could be: (a) pessimistic - it is for sale and a potential buyer wants to confirm that their is no soil contamination that they would be liable to clean up or (b) optimistic - someone is finalizing the design of their project and needs to verify soil characteristics for the foundation specs Or somewhere in between. FWIW, I recall seeing this lot being sampled before a few years back, closer to the garage in the middle. These guys looked to be working close to the street.
  2. Nate99
    It’s not necessarily something, but it’s not nothing.
  3. Nate99
    I saw a documentary on the Burj Khalifa where they showed the construction crew dumping massive amounts of ice into the concrete mix as it made its way to the pumps. Interesting stuff.
  4. Nate99
    Baking foundation...
  5. Nate99
    Starting in on the diagonal, perhaps.
  6. Nate99
    Pity the fool who has to chip that foundation out.
  7. Nate99
    I retract my bit about no one knowing or caring about the history, that is interesting info. Not that it makes it an interesting building as it sits now to me personally, but to each his own.
  8. Nate99
    It's the only structure on the block, but the rest of the block looks further divided. It would be interesting to know if there are still separate parcels/owners, or if the divisions are just remnants of old foundations hastily paved over. The cost of the demolition would take a long time to recoup through parking revenue, I would think, unless there is some other compelling reason to get rid of the structure and parking lot-itize it like Hines briefly did with the Chronicle building block prior to the tower construction. Apart from 81 five hour chunks of time per year, that area isn't short of parking options, which makes me hopeful that someone has a plan here, but I know nothing. To my untrained eye, the building looks to have been designed explicitly to be immemorable; I thought it was someone's storage warehouse for years, turns out it stored officially unsavory people for the State of Texas. Restoring it to anything interesting would not be faithful history unless it were heavily modified from something else to get to its current state, not that anyone seems to remember or care [edit - see below]. The covered sidewalk on the Preston side is nice for function (and I wish more of downtown had them), but form is pretty basic. This block has 4 adjacent blocks that are surface lots, 2 are part of the MMP grounds and one the back end of 500 Crawford apartments. Other nearby neighbors include the DeGeorge hotel (a homeless veteran outreach type facility if I remember correctly) The Salvation Army, and a bail bonds place.
  9. Nate99
    It's great to have options, and as you point out, this has particular value that other approaches do not. The market can generally work out the kinks, and it is very interesting that it is being considered here.
  10. Nate99
    That's pretty slick in operation. It's probably already covered in the FAQ's, but my first worry is for reliability. As pointed out, losing a bag of Funyuns is one thing, not being able to get your vehicle while simultaneously blocking everyone else from their ability to go home is quite another. That's a lot of moving parts to service too.
  11. Nate99
    Still wondering how the automated part works.
  12. Nate99
    Unless they are handing shovels out to the residents of the soon-to-be island to have them dig it out by hand, that did seem a bit light on the funding.
  13. Nate99
    This block feels like everything around it has it's "back turned" to it, with corridors formed/forming along McKinney, Capitol, Main, and Discovery Green. It's a bit of DT's "back of house". If something new and fun were to pop up, I'm hoping for the International Tower/Market Square Garage half block, then the block across main from Local Foods. With Skanska jumping in over by DG/Toyota Center with something large scale, more car storage might be a good thing.
  14. Nate99
    It's Houston, so you never know. The better part of this is that it is/was going to be a brewery.
  15. Nate99
    Three welders welding.
  16. Nate99
    Looks like we're going to have a mat pour next weekend or over Thanksgiving week sometime. I think I spy the tower crane base lying on it's side up there on the MST side, and perhaps its foundation just outside the tub at the Prairie corner. ETA: Which two of you were up on the top level of the garage with a camera smoking a doobie?
  17. Nate99
    FWIW, it looks like they are replacing the common order system that all of the stalls shared. Yong was running off of an iPad and a Square dongle for credit cards today. That might have put the place out of commission when the old system was shut down.
  18. Nate99
  19. Nate99
    Maybe this will help. From back on ~ p.16 of the thread - the stakes will be there to shelter you as you wait to be seated to enjoy your steaks.
  20. Nate99
    FWIW, they set up the complicated looking soil test rig just south of where they stopped drilling pilings. Possible that there is a significant soil change across the footprint.
  21. Nate99
    I think this is what I originally had in mind, but the banks of the Bayou downtown right there are really fairly steep, I don't know if there would be enough room unless... ...you did something like that. It would have a certain "charm" that couldn't be replicated elsewhere. Watching the engineering for something like that come together would be really cool in this spot.
  22. Nate99
    It would be interested to see how the parcel is platted and what kind of easement is there for the bayou. I would guess that it would be significantly more expensive to build something substantial there. I momentarily thought maybe someone could incorporate a patio or something down by the bank, but he bayou isn't particularly well suited for alfresco/waterside ambiance, to say nothing of hardening your structure/décor for flood resistance.
  23. Nate99
    That northwest corner isn't going anywhere...
  24. Nate99
    Looks like they may have reached the top of the ramps/garage section of the podium. The forms look to be set up to be parallel to the ground rather than on an incline.
  25. Nate99
    In 100 years when they demolish this thing, the people in the Hogg Lofts are going to be listening to jackhammers for a year.
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