livincinco

Disgusting.

Yes, please tear out those trees and replace them with apartments immediately.

Livincinco: No.

Thank you, zen master. I will ponder the wisdom of your words.

The Pierce Elevated isn't located too far off the ground, right? What if we built small one level retail and restaurant buildings underneath the freeway?

You mean like Bubba's burger shack? Maybe they'd be interested in opening another location.

Darn right. Someone needs to stand up for the poor and oppressed.

What am I missing here? Midtown?

 

Just a poster who can't understand why everything doesn't get built in his/her particular neighborhood.

I doubt it will be connected to the tunnels -- that part of downtown has poor access. Of course that is why this area of town actually has street level restaurants -- the tunnels have really killed downtown residential/retail (as has been pointed out in numerous other threads).

The street level restaurants in this area probably has more to do with the proximity to the park.

Generic box. Seems they missed an opportunity to build something nice in midtown.

Actually it seems like every company that is building new offices is missing on the opportunity to build something nice in Midtown. Too bad, they don't listen to you.

Or they could just bury the pierce elevated. It would be more economically feasible than trying to bury 59 and reconfiguring our entire freeway system within the CBD.

 

As I've mentioned before, I think that it's a nice idea, I'm just not sure that I would put it high enough to justify the required funding.  For example, I'd prefer to see funding provide to complete the Buffalo Bayou Master Plan and to complete the proposed network of hike/bike trails along the bayous instead.  I think that both of those projects would have a much bigger positive impact on the quality of life around the city than burying the Pierce elevated.

They were unwilling to give up slots at DCA. If it was approved they will eventually de hub PHL because JFK is will be preferred. What will happen to PHX because American Airlines is has a hub in LAX. They do not need PHX and they also have MIA and DFW. United is killing them in ORD. The anti trust lawyer has never lost. He killed AT&T and T Mobile merger. And sued Apple for price fixing. Now that Us Airways and American Airlines are making profits. I think it's dead. The DOJ has big pockets and proof. Even Doug Parker said from US Airways once the merger is done both airlines will cut capacity and raise fares. It was on CNN and that is all the proof they need. And what happened to PIT. US Airways had 500 flights a day. They down to 50 since they merged with America West.

 

I agree that they will de hub PHL, but I'm not so sure that they would eliminate PHX.  LAX is pretty capacity constrained and I don't think that they have the room to address the additional PHX volume there.

 

You might be right about DOJ, but it's a stretch to me to buy into an overall loss of competitiveness in the US airline market by dropping to four major airlines.  I totally agree that there are certain markets that will have a loss of competitiveness and that those have to be addressed.

 

It would be interesting to see what would happen if US Airways really did cut way back in PHL.  I think that SWA still has a lot of potential upside in the Northeast and PHL could be a portal for them to expand internationally if they really are interested in heading that way.

 

Besides, a US Airways/American partnership is a lot better for my personal mileage!

To your point, this is about certain concessions. I expect them to negotiate with DOJ and the suit to get withdrawn after concessions are reached. I'd be surprised if a deal isn't reached before the end of the year.

I'd be very happy to see the dome stay, but I also hope that they proceed with the overall plan for all of Reliant Park and I'm concerned that this plan might reduce the willingness to complete. Reliant Arena really needs to get replaced.

Yes, I'm back. I'll be stopping by from time to time due to popular demand. Thanks!

Wow! 15 words! That's like a whole novel from you. You're a changed man/woman/child!

Houston has 2 supertalls... Wells Fargo is 302 meters.

but to answer your question. i really hope so. we discussed it in the Hines thread when we were speculating the new height, and determined that if we do get a supertall it is likely to be due to a major corporate headquarters relocation or a foreign company statement tower.

 

I agree and I wouldn't be surprised if the next supertall gets built in Uptown for that very reason.  Assuming that the reason for building it would be to make a statement, you could argue that it would be a bigger statement by building it there.

I have to wonder if at some point Town & Country will be redeveloped to be something more like CityCentre. With that being the highway corner between Westchase and the Energy Corridor, we might see some denser and/or taller development pop up there.

Possibly, but I would think that there would be a lot of neighborhood resistance to that. Personally, I expect that kind of development will continue along the I-10 corridor heading toward Memorial Hermann.

Just the reality of private property and protecting their product I suppose. Wish it could be different but I understand. Public street parking and public transportation help mitigate that problem pretty quick. But hard to implement when this is essentially in the middle of a suburban tract of land.

I agree with your point, but I don't think that it's particularly a suburban thing. Look at West Ave, which is the closest thing to City Centre inside the loop. That's pretty much a protected product as well.

Considering that are separate developments built at different times and built and owned by different owners, I've always thought they were quite nicely integrated.

I'm specifically talking about the lack of sidewalk continuity between the two developments and the signs at Town & Country that say essentially - if you park here and go to CityCentre, you will get towed.

That's definitely the biggest disappointment with CityCentre. They could have done a better job integrating it with Town & Country.

That's going to be fun to watch. I'm especially curious to see if the towers expand down the Beltway south of Richmond and join up with the lone tower in chinatown at the Beltway and Bellaire. There's a lot of commercial real estate, quite a bit undeveloped, down that way. Similarly there's been considerable expansion westward down I10 towards the Grand Pkwy. We might end up with a westside loop consisting of I10, Beltway 8, Westpark and the Grand Parkway.

I was actually just looking at some numbers on this and 25 years may have been conservative. As of Q1 2013, the CBD had 38.5 million sq ft of office space with nothing under construction (but a lot planned).

The combined Katy Freeway and Westchase submarkets have 33.0 million sq ft of office space with 3.1 million under construction. Granted that covers a lot bigger space, but those areas are close to having the same amount of office space as the CBD already.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/51808118/ColliersAttachments/Research/Q1_2013_Office_Market_Research_Report.pdf

darn you, realists!

kidding aside, i do wonder if the area will become a "downtown" unto itself, not memorial city specifically. the retail in the area is very fragmented though.....my mind must be wondering in the sky pie.

I would say that the odds are pretty good that Memorial City becomes a companion city to Houston (similar to Uptown) within the next 25 years. If you look at the way the corridor between Memorial City and the Energy Corridor is densifying along with all the growth in the Westchase area, it makes it a pretty logical town center. There's already talk about another large mixed use going in next to City Centre.

It's a decorative crown put on by someone who wanted this building to 'stand out'. I guess they achieved their objective. This tower has received plenty of attention. Not the kind anyone wanted. Given a choice between ugly and boring, I'll take boring. Boring does less damage.

You keep talking about the damage that this building has caused, but other than offending your own personal taste, exactly what "damage" are you talking about? That area is thriving, so it hasn't exactly driven away new construction. I agree that politicians shouldn't make design decisions, but I'm not aware of any political input on the design of the MH building either.

So, other than making sure that everyone knows that you don't like the MH building, I'm not sure what your point is.

From Real Estate Biznow -

" A new redevelopment listing, 6.4 acres fronting I-10 in Town and Country (adjacent to City Centre). Currently, the site holds three office towers totaling 202k SF, which are 98% occupied. But the site could turn into 1.3M SF of mixed-use...Muñoz Albin (world-renowned designer of CityCentre) is on board to come up with several schemes for mixed-use possibilities ranging up to 1.3M SF of development. Once those are complete in the next week, the site will come to market. (The anticipation is almost too much.) Kevin tells us they're already talking to developers all over the country, and are getting lots of interest from groups that have never developed in Houston."

cinco, that's a good point. But for the City to not make the same mistake twice, it has to realize it made a mistake. For example, if I don't realize that posting on HAIF is a total waste of time (which I could spend affecting government on all levels instead), then I'll never stop.

Or, if these 380 are really good, they should figure that out too. I think Austin has to put all their 380 payment info on a website (I think because they got in trouble).

Houston should do the same. It should be easy for us to look and see who our City is handing out tax dollars to and how much.

And if these are dirty deals, it's irrelevant what portion of the budget is involved - I only stole 0.6% of the City's total budget isn't a good defense.

Interestingly enough, if you look at the current deal that is being discussed - the new Costco in Katy - you could argue that the city has learned its lesson because that is a mixed use development of the kind that is generally craved in this forum (although it compensates for car usage not just walkability) and is at a lower price tag than the Walmart deal.

Would just like to point out to the poster who thinks Chevron would have gotten more buzz by building a large campus like Exxon... This thread already has more responses than the Exxon Campus Thread despite the Exxon thread having existed since 2010.

Oh, and the Exxon Campus is currently under construction but that thread has fallen off the front page. Nobody cares. I am willing to bet that when a 50 story tower starts going up in downtown, that thread will never fall off the front page.

Chevron is making a WISE choice. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.

Understand your point, but I don't think that the number of posts in an architecture forum is what OP was talking about in terms of buzz.

If the chi in my name taught me anything - they will wish (apache) that they bought DT

Everything cycles and DT is already strong but I imagine will become hot office spot again

Chicago firms are pouring back downtown after years of suburban sprawl

In not trying to start a huge argument bc can't do anything ab it and these decisions in global campuses and new towers are made by a very small group I people CEOs ect. - whatever they want they get - not hating on energy cooridor - Sug town - or w land - it's all good man! But mark this mans words eventually DT will be the it spot for companies - and i love DT now BTW

ciao-/:/-

Apache is building in Uptown. I wouldn't exactly consider that suburban sprawl.

A mega store with everything! Now there's an idea that might kill Walmart.

I've got a better idea, though. Why don't we order all stores closed and just use the internet. We'll demolish all retail structures and then there will be plenty of room to build mixed-use, just without any retail.

 

Ground floor internet kiosks?