Perimeter285

I put this quote from columnist Maria Sapova in another post, but again, it's applicable in relation to the high-mast lighting discussion:

"Communities sensitive to urban design will seek solutions that enhance their skylines and property values. Communities that just focus on the lowest-cost solutions with no regard to aesthetics will pay a price in their long-term economic development potential."

An ugly Houston today will lead to a poor Houston tomorrow.

I was reading a column by a woman named Maria Sapova and she wrote something that is very applicable to this topic:

"Communities sensitive to urban design will seek solutions that enhance their skylines and property values. Communities that just focus on the lowest-cost solutions with no regard to aesthetics will pay a price in their long-term economic development potential."

Today's eye on the almighty dollar means less almighty dollars for Houston tomorrow.

That seems to be the main problem with doing things the right way around here: it costs a little more. TXDOT doesn't seem to have a problem spending a little more money in other cities around Texas in order to do things the right way.

Even so, look at the Katy Freeway. Billions upon billions of dollars for the same old concrete jungle, rollercoaster hump, high-mast lighted nightmare that we've seen time and time again around here. You can dress it up with some trees and embossed overpasses but it's still clumsy. I personally feel like I'm not getting my money's worth on that project.

The freeway portions of the Grand Parkway (through Cinco Ranch) that are already built are very nicely designed and landscaped. Definitely breaks the concrete and more concrete mold of other Houston freeways. I can only hope any future work to the Grand Parkway and Westpark Tollway will keep that pattern.

Not that I'm for the Grand Parkway (very much against it, actually), but since it's going to happen anyway, might as well hope it's designed well.

There have been several freeways in Dallas that have undergone reconstruction in the intervening period since TXDOT first installed high masts in Houston (early 80s I believe). I'm not even counting the Central Expressway; that is a special case. Fact is, I don't know of a single instance where high masts are used outside of interchanges in DFW. Examples welcome.

Back to Houston, I just don't know how I can be the only one who thinks these things make the city look like it's blanketed with cell towers. Certainly nobody would literally want that. Just look at the opposition cell tower construction usually encounters. And cell towers aren't out in the open for everyone to see like high mast lights.

I have to admit, the newer high masts are designed and arranged a lot better than the older ones, but still, it's lipstick on a pig as far as I'm concerned.

No, just spent a lot of time there growing up (born and raised in Florida) but I'm proud to call Houston home now.

Speaking of Atlanta, now THERE are some beautiful highways.

Never been to Norfolk, but I agree that New Orleans highways are awful. I-10 through downtown N.O. took out one of the most beautiful oak-lined streets in the city, ironically.

Moving on to another problem I have with Houston freeways is that overwhelmingly the mainlanes pass over the surface streets instead of vice versa. Even if the freeway is not depressed into a trench, this would help a lot. The whole rollercoaster hump thing is, again, clumsy design.

If high mast lighting is so desirable, how come image-conscious DFW doesn't use it? Stop viewing this from an engineering standpoint for a moment and consider the damage these things do to the aesthetics/image/psyche of the city. The fact is, high mast lighting is ugly.

Like it or not, Houston was stuck with these monstrosities because it doesn't know how to say no to TXDOT. Now even the freeways that don't have HOV lanes (like the Loop) are illogically lined with high masts.

I'd love to see the City Council pass an ordinance prohibiting light standards taller than a certain height (say 30 feet?) except at major interchanges. Then if TXDOT balked we could accuse them of bullying a municipality.

It's amazing how much more informed people in other cities are compared to Houstonians regarding what is done in our city.

kjb434, do you think if enough Houstonians made it known they were unhappy with the "unfinished rusted/rust pooring down the white girder" look, on most of our freeways, something would be done in terms of painting them or replacing them with concrete? Is TXdot responsible for that? Are Houstonians responsible for this look because we didn't speak up in the design process? I'm really being serious.

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No question in my mind. We don't demand enough. I don't think we've been aware over time how these "small" design decisions have added up to make Houston look twice as ghastly as it should. If we don't start standing up for quality, then we'll never get it.

By the way, does anyone know where to find renderings of the completed West Loop?

I found a pretty good recreation of this type of mod restaurant interior:

Rockfish Grill at Royal Oaks (Westheimer near Kirkwood)

I'd could represent Sharpstown if need be.

They're horrible! Another example of Houston's overengineered, underdesigned infrastructure (along with freeways passing over surface streets, overbuilt feeder roads, exposed rusty steel girders, and those tinkertoy Jersey barriers that are bolted together instead of poured in place). How can these things be more efficient when they cost more to install? High mast lighting along mainlanes is a mistake no matter how you approach it. UGLY UGLY UGLY!!!

A nice string of "low" lights along a median looks much more urban and classy. We should be ashamed to be the high mast capital of the world.

If you are willing to use tax payer money to pay for $8-$10 per cubic yard of dirt they'll have to haul off, then you can handle the public relations nightmare.

The dirt removal will reach into the millions of cubic yards.  Depressed freeways are rare these days.  The extension of US 59 being depressed with the construction of Spur 527 came at an additional cost of over $30 million.  TxDOT didn't want to spend money on this, but the community pushed forward and got the changes made.

The central expressway in Dallas is beautiful through its depressed portions, but it  was already depressed, they just had to widen it a bit.  The cost wasn't enormous enough to stop them.

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I find it hard to imagine that digging a trench costs significantly more that these overwroght, overengineered concrete nightmares that pass for freeways in Houston. You could be right, though.

And you hit on another point of mine: they do it all the time in DFW and lots of other Texas cities. Why is freeway design in Houston so clumsy in comparison? All I can think is that maybe they know something we don't as far as political influence in Austin.

I find it amazing how quickly neighborhoods in Houston turn "rough." Granted, this is the largest city I've ever lived in, but everywhere else I've lived (Pensacola/Gainesville/Tallahassee, Florida - all cities of a couple hundred thousand) neighborhoods like Briarmeadow, Sharpstown, Riverside Terrace, and countless other Houston neighborhoods that "should" be nice really would still be nice. Wow, sorry for that run-on sentence. Either way, it blows my mind. I guess we can blame the rapid turnover of these neighborhoods on the abundance of flat, cheap land in the metro area; there's always a newer house to be had for not much more money. Or maybe it's the lack of zoning. Still, I think it is ridiculous the level to which people treat houses and neighborhoods in Houston as disposable. Some neighborhoods that people around here would never even consider would be running $500,000 in L.A. or D.C. these days.

Count on us to be behind the curve though, right?

Hands down, US 59 Southwest Freeway between Kirby and Spur 527. How could anyone not agree? It's the one freeway with the most attention to aesthetics, and even though it's under construction, the part that is finished is awesome.

Honorable mentions to the West Belt through Memorial Bend and I-10 through the Heights. As you can tell, I like depressed freeways. So they flood a little every once in a while...get over it and build more of them in Houston!

This is the biggest disappointment with the West Loop reconstruction. There is no question that this should have been built as a depressed freeway.

I think a McMansion is pretty much a house that is more focused on quantity than quality. They're always big (2500 sf plus) but hardly ever tasteful or detailed. They are extremely comfortable but also extremely sterile. And location has nothing to do with it. A McMansion is a McMansion whether it's in West U. or Sugar Land.

With all of this discussion about inner Southwest Houston, and particularly Sharpstown Center mall, I find it surprising that nobody has mentioned the actual Sharpstown neighborhood. I just happen to live in Sharpstown, Section One, the original subdivision from 1955 and the very first component of the overall Sharpstown master plan to be constructed. This neighborhood served as a model for most of the future growth of the Houston area.

Few today may realize this, but Sharpstown was the first master planned community in Houston, if not the nation. The amount of media attention the development received when ground first broke is almost astounding. National media and dignitaries from Washington all converged on the pasture that would become Sharpstown. Dedication ceremonies were covered in newspapers across the country, including several write-ups in the New York Times. Houston's fledgling TV stations all devoted their day's programming to the opening of the development. Developers had built large-scale suburban subdivisions before, most famously at the many Levittowns in the northeast, but nobody had ever attempted a master-planned community like Sharpstown, which included schools, churches, shopping, parks, country clubs, etc.

This neighborhood is obviously much richer in history than anyone wants to admit. Beyond being the first (or one of the first, at least) master plan community, there are other details that add to its history. The land was originally owned by a famous wildcatter (whose name fails me) whom the movie "Giant" was based upon. Construction of the infrastructure was overseen by the firm that would eventually become Kellogg, Brown and Root, which has been in the news regarding Iraq recently. The original Mercury 7 astronauts were offered homes in Sharpstown, which led to a scandal. Speaking of scandals, one of the most famous scandals in Texas government was centered around Sharpstown State Bank.

The list of significant events in the history of Sharpstown goes on and on. Ironically, Houston has largely turned its back on this incredible neighborhood. Staring down one of its streets takes you right back to the 1950s. The style, uniqueness and character of the homes is something you never see in production housing today. Beyond that, the construction standards by which these homes were built is also hard to come by today: wood floors throughout, fully tiled bathrooms and kitchens, solid framing. They're great houses, and I should know.

It's too bad that the developers allowed this neighborhood to cannibalize itself by building enormous apartment complexes on the periphery that quickly became slums. The fact remains, though, that this is a wonderful, cute, unique neighborhood that I could go on and on for hours about, but this post has to end sometime, right?