kdog08

Niceeee.

Buffalo Bayou Master Plan by marclongoria, on Flickr

What is this?

I think we need to get rid of golf courses inside the loop at Memorial and Hermann Park, and also turn Gus Wortham into an actual park. They just take up so much space and I would personally prefer to see more soccer and baseball fields with more basketball and tennis courts. I think Hermann Park would become very active if they converted the golf course into things I mentioned in the previous sentence. 

on hold.

Good news, seriously, way too much office space coming online in the next year(s). 

After that, they need to add a separated bike lane to Memorial Park alongside that mile long section of Memorial Dr. 

The shorter glass panes make it look much taller to me. 

That and the glass looks pretty sweet. 

Hopefully it will forward with it's next hotel phase (a renovation of an existing hotel), if it hasn't already started. Otherwise, there are quite a few apartments under construction here. Pretty amazing how big this development has gotten. 

From today:

We'll have a nice little hotel cluster in this part of Uptown. 

Great to see the removal of all those invasive vegetation species.

Not so oddly enough, Obama's executive order granting 5 million Hispanics a limited amnesty could be a boon to project managers looking to get their buildings completed in a timely fashion.

I'd imagine quite a few construction workers that were lured into the more lucrative oil patch will return to construction while oil prices are down. 

A kick in the nuts but a large parking garage would make mid town a more attractive place to eat and party for suburbanites. Still plenty of blocks available for redevelopment around this location. 

It should be encouraging affordable housing, not just high-end units that most people can't afford.

Affordable housing is directly north of downtown and there is still some on the east side, although you'll have to go further east. As far as affordable housing in the loop, I would prefer to see a greater interest in college housing along the rail. 

I like this initiative because it concentrates development, which is a big reason why Houston doesn't seem to have urban continuity but pockets. 

A very pleasant surprise.

I think a lot of people here are confusing the presence of rail with actual efficient rail. I personally think DART overbuilt rail, as what makes DART "successful" also harms it. Lots of rail to it's many member cities and using abandoned freight lines makes for low ridership per mile. Over investing in rail at the expense of the infrastructure to support rail and a total transit system will have it's consequences. DART is a case of building rail where the people aren't and METRO unable to build rail where the people are (that being a very general statement). Public transit use between metros isn't all that different. 

Yup. If you're defending or attacking light rail, it's a bad argument.

But further east along Richmond, the right of way looks very tight already. How are they going to actually fit in light rail and sidewalks with that?

There's a big world out there, a big public transit world out there..... That's a pretty lame excuse.

Bottomline, this line would connect to dense centers with hundreds of thousands of workers/visitors/residents/students etc to another "dense" center with hundreds of thousands of workers/visitors/residents/students etc while passing through a "dense" center tens of thousands of workers/visitors/residents/students etc. This thing needs to be built so we can continue to build an actual system. 

From GRB facebook page

These surface lots will soon be gone. 

I do enjoy this type of plan, convert it to some sort of park/flexible use with Texans and HLSR. I don't think it necessarily needs to be completely indoors as we can go a lot of different ways with the Astrodome as the centerpiece. 

according to the folks who document these things, houston will have constructed 18,000 new units this year.  if there are 10,000 more i'm sure the CRBE would like to know.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2014/08/22/demand-for-houston-apartments-is-at-an-all-time.html?page=2

i share your enthusiasm, however. whatever the number are, the building frenzy will not soon diminish.   i am curious as to how middle income people are supposed to live in the city.  not everyone can afford kirby or galleria highrises. all of this increased density is great, but if all of the low to middle income workers have to commute, density is for the well-off and traffic will continue to be an issue.  it will be an issue regardless, but middle income folks not having to commute helps, but that discussion is for another thread.

i hope the hanover river oaks makes pedestrian connectivity a priority.  if you simply drive in to your home and have little access to the street on foot, you reduce the possibility that developments like west avenue will succeed.  

i really like this tower.  i hope it CONNECTS well with its neighborhood.

There are still affordable places, they are just shifting. I think Westheimer, if nurtured properly, could become populated and offer an alternative to inside the loop. I have quite a few friends that live alongside or very close to Westheimer, there are lots of apartments especially at interesections like Fondren, HIllcroft, Gesnner, Wilcirest, Diary Ashford that were once lower income and now being refurbished for under 1000k per month for a 1 BR. 

I wouldn't mind this exact tower downtown, hopefully they follow the Skyhouse trend. 

Great news. I wish more of these non-profits and quasi-governmental groups would share the same building. 

Actual brick!

For that up and close touch, MMmmmmmmHmmmm. 

Great, this area needs to continue to add density. 

Looking good!

So wait, where is Mid Main office/garage going up relative to this? 

edit: Nevermind. However, Mid Main will take up two total blocks with office and residential?