wernicke

Hopefully she will be a competent manager like Bill White, who was a dramatic improvement over Lee Brown.

That beige/peach color is pretty blah... I think MD Anderson feels obligated to make all their buildings look homogenous for some reason (except for the Mays Clinic).

I would prefer to keep downtown developing with taller towers. Although both MP and DT have their critics, I think that we can all agree that they are an encouraging trend for downtown which will hopefully continue when the economy recovers.

Leave these shorter buildings in TMC and hope the trend will continue to spread into the other business districts around the city.

Discovery Tower is 29 stories. This MD Anderson building is 25 stories. "These buildings" aren't much shorter than DT, not to mention that HP is 2-3 stories tall with an 11 story tall office tower. Also, evidently, this building had the second largest mat pour in US History (maybe someone can explain to me why that would be).

I mean, in the last 20 years (1990), how many buildings have been built in downtown that are significantly taller than Hermann Professional building (30), the new Methodist tower (25), MDACC's addition to Alkek (21), this building (25)? Just Enron? Now MP? Let's face it, downtown isn't exactly sprouting supertalls... 25 story infill would be great downtown, but there's no demand.

The Weasel Chris Wallace basically brought Rush Limbaugh onto his show to trash Obama for 30 minutes today without questioning any of the crap that came out of his mouth... Fox is a joke.

Pretty spot-on critique of the project

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a018f4d6-bf63-11de-a696-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

The Arts District is the cultural version of that city. Here star projects sit in self-satisfied isolation, unrelated to each other, unconcerned. Valet parking attendants ensure that patrons arrive and depart without being contaminated by any sense of urban life. The two new buildings try, and broadly fail, to address the problems. Yet they are far from failures in themselves.

...

Both the new Dallas buildings function well; they do what was asked of them and provide genuinely world-class facilities by star architects. The problem lies more with the conception of the Arts District. Within minutes of the end of each inaugural performance, the only public animation of the surrounding spaces was a mass of shivering patrons waiting for their cars to be returned. And then nothing. It was all over.

If these buildings are supposed to be part of an effort to “regenerate” or “reconnect” the city centre, they have failed. Dallas is indeed special because it is so generic. Both buildings reflect on this. Koolhaas’s is critical and consequently compelling, Foster’s is didactic in its attempts to Europeanise the cultural quarter through an architectural style that is itself massively influenced by US corporate modernism.

I know... it IS Houston. Let them build their tower wherever they want. The denials are all political. We should be hoping something like this gets built in the current climate. Its just a few blocks from the Museum Tower.

How can you directly correlate pedestrian activity and land use proximity to a world class arts center? It is a destination, and your barometer for architectural beauty and urban vitality seems to be rooted in an 19th century romanticism. Beaux-Arts is not exactly a design paradigm for Dallas IMO.

I smell envy.

Huh? I said I live in the Metroplex, so the Arts Center technically belongs to me as a citizen of Dallas... not sure how I could be envious. And if you've ever been to Chicago or NYC you would surely agree that Dallas does not compare to either city in terms of scale, architecture, or urbanity.

I understand Dallas is a suburban city, so why are they comparing themselves to urban cities? Just be happy being a sprawling, car-centric metroplex with a nice arts center...

MainPlace because it is 50% taller than Hess and is more architecturally interesting (esp. the cut-out w a sky patio) than a rectangular box on end with wind turbines on top.

I moved up to the metroplex a few months ago... honestly, I think these Dallasites are patting themselves on the back about this "AT&T PAC" a little more than what is warranted.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/chall/stories/102009dnbushall.3ce5470.html

A few notable architectural pieces in the arts district (the Winspear and the Wyly are quite cool) and all the sudden they are comparing Dallas to NYC and Chicago? Huh? I mean good for Dallas, but they do realize no one really lives downtown and the arts center isn't walkable from any residential/retail zone? Comparisons the NYC and Chi-town almost diminish the developments, b/c Dallas is never going to match those cities' urban vitality or architectural beauty.

Fox News is a joke, and I don't see anything wrong with White House communications director Dunn pointing that out.

I just noticed the website says 46 stories... wasn't it 48 stories when they started?

Dallas has a lot of cool stuff going on.

Jax's shot puts into perspective the relatively minimal impact DT has on Houston's skyline.

For some reason when I look at DT, I want something bigger and more modern. Maybe the structure holding the wind turbines will add something, but it's still pretty boring.

It's a very nice facility... it will be interesting to see who will buy it from the dysfunctional BCM.

I'm doubtful the studio idea would be a financial success.

Trying to stereotype Midtown residents as a bunch of frat boys is pretty lame and has no basis in reality.

McGrady will never be anything for the Rockets... he's a 29-year-old with a 36-year-old's body. He'll wear a Rockets jersey maybe 20 more times, tops.

An under 30-story glass box...

I actually just moved up to Ft. Worth for a year internship, then I'll be in Dallas for 4 years for residency... not many architecture/development resources that I've found for DFW.

It's outrageously hot up here.

I'm with Dan... I don't like it either, particularly the brown/tan tile exterior.

And they are probably going to carry on with a similar design as they destroy the rest of River Oaks Shopping Center.

I'm guessing that part of the unpaved part below is where they are going to extend Bertner through to OST.

You are correct, ihop... it will feed directly into UT/MD Anderson's South Campus.

Drove by tonight... the building had this crazy neon purple design on the body of the building facing west. Couldn't tell what it was supposed to be. Kind of cool looking though... especially with the Hermann building's lighting nearby.

I'm digging it... seems significantly faster, and I have already become accustomed to using the Top Sites functionality.

The new loading bar thing is kind of strange though.

It doesn't seem like two floors of underground parking will be enough for ES, but then again, they may dig out that entire block for parking and then the building would only occupy a portion.

The rendering appears to show a multi-level attached garage, with pool on top next to the building.