ArchFan

I certainly agree, although when I was downtown lunchtime on a recent Friday, I was surprised at seeing quite a few parents taking their kids to DG. My guess is that they lived within the loop, but not downtown. Whatever the reason, it was nice to see human beings going there for other reasons than being compelled to compete in the rat race. My opinion is that (at least in terms of collective effort) we need to focus on the downtown residential initiative, at least for a few more years. My expectation is that amenities that cater to a larger resident base will arise naturally, as entrepreneurs and chains recognize opportunities to expand. I think that will include entertainment venues, in addition to restaurants and stores for groceries and other stuff.

The design strikes me as a bit "blah", which is disappointing for a building that one would expect should represent a high standard that the students within should strive for. That said, I don't hate it, either. A lesser point: I am conflicted about whether I like the continued play on the school's name (or the acronym for it) in public relations for it. I mean, the bumper stickers that say "HighSchoolforthePerformingandVisualArts" have long lost their freshness. Having "HSPVA" as the most prominent element of the facade strikes me as trying to hang on to an old advertising slogan. I may be wrong and I reserve the right to change my opinion, but right now it strikes me as wearing out a theme that was fun for awhile, but which became hackneyed after the passing of time.

I also had a feeling of deja vu. perhaps we are not always as anomalous as we might have assumed :-)

It appears to me that Parcels E and E were both cleared at the same time. However, the excavation for the Skyhouse seems to be occurring just in E, which already has chain-link fencing around it. So, I found the coincident demolition a bit puzzling. Not sure what is planned for "D". Aside from the projects attributed earlier to Pelican (C: mid-rise apts. and F: "town homes") and the office building (Parcel "B"), I have also heard whispers about a hotel. That would leave Parcels A, D, or G for that, assuming the current rumors are true. The other mystery regards the parcel (not colored in the pic above) on which Sullivans, Le Peep, and the convenience store reside. I think that some earlier renderings (pre-recession) of ROD included them.

I would rather we invested in being the best Houston we can be, rather than in crowing to outsiders about how wonderful we are. (I think we would get more satisfaction in the end if we focused on "going to the gym" rather than constantly looking in the mirror.) Does anyone else remember the contest/advertising campaign the convention and visitors bureau conducted in national print media, offering free all-expense-paid trips to Houston? We wound up being ridiculed in the national press because (as i recall) only one person was interested enough to enter the contest.

I seem to recall that Houston did have nonstop flights to Taiwan in the past. I don't recall if it was EVA, but I kinda doubt it. Later, I had occasion to visit there and took the nonstop from LA to Taipei. I ponied up the extra to fly in their business class, but it was a disappointment. There was an 8-hour (or so) gap during which the flight attendants all disappeared. Being someone who can't sleep on planes, I spent several hours feeling hungry until they served a small meal just before landing. I've never experienced that on any other airline while flying biz class.

Oh, and I'm guessing my memories are from about 1960 or perhaps a year or 2 earlier. Looking on Google Maps, I see that both Briar Branch and Spring Branch Creeks run through the area you mentioned, but the former seems more likely to be the one that the park centered on. If you travel eastbound on the south frontage road of I-10 (or just use Google Maps Street View), you can start to reconstruct how things were laid out. The former Las Alamedas Restaurant (I-10 and Old Voss Road) is situated on the north bank of Briar Branch Creek. Before it was built, there was a miniature golf place right there, which exploited the steep ravine to make playing there interesting. Going east along the frontage road to "new" Voss Road, there is now a concrete "sound barrier" wall that I think separates Briar Branch -- and what is left of the roadside park -- from the freeway. There's still a fair amount of land -- from Voss to the Shell station -- that is undeveloped and looks like it would still make a nice park!

I visited that park a few times as a child and loved it, especially the topography. I remember being fascinated by how the park road abruptly plunged down to a low-water crossing, with clear water, no less! Also by the huge acorns from the live oaks. As I recall, it was a roadside park provided by the state highway department along old Hwy 90 ... and was ultimately gobbled up by the construction and successive expansions of I-10. There still seems to be a bit of it that provides a bit of a buffer between the south frontage road and the nice neighborhood across the remains of the creek. The tributaries of Buffalo Bayou (and the others) provided many such charming spots before we "culvertized" and filled in most of them.

Valencia Group has a very good product and I'm especially gratified to be able to say that about a home team (i.e., a Houston company). I think the addition of this hotel will really help Midway in their redevelopment of Green Street, in particular because it will draw a lot more people into its core.

Very cool. A Turkish geophysicist I know told me about discovering a similar cistern under the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul (which started out as an Eastern Orthodox Church before it became a mosque). Our cistern isn't in that class, but it would be nice to preserve it in whatever way we can. We've already lost so much physical evidence of the community Houston was in its early years. Even we locals tend to assume nothing ever happened here, but from time to time I read about unexpected events and things that are worth remembering.

I have heard that someone is proposing to put a hotel on one of those tracts. Anyone have more on that?

Moments in time are gone forever. Fashions change, politics changes, epidemics come and go. By that token, Montrose as we remember it (whether from the 60s, 70s, 80, 90s, or whatever) will never be the same again, regardless of whether we miss it or how much. I respect the comments given here, but sometimes I also feel that they are rather innocent -- perhaps because people didn't live through those times. I guess I would never have been considered a "Montrosian", but please forgive me when I say that some of the laments I've heard here seem to not reflect experience of some key threads that struck me in the late 60s to early 70s. For instance, I think there was a very strong, open element of sexuality (most explicitly male-to-male) that blossomed then and vanished after the epidemic took its toll. Although I wasn't into that scene, I was struck by seeing male hustlers all up and down Westheimer, even out between Hillcroft and Fondren. I'm sure many people here could tell tales of restaurants that "young hipsters" frequent today that used to be bars where all kinds of stuff went on (e.g., Empire Cafe, but also others). Wow, I realize now that I've wandered off topic. In any case, OK, back to the present: I will not return to a restaurant that has bad food. More so, I won't go back if the restrooms are gross (and I've seen so-called fancy places that are like that). The Montrose area is gradually getting places that have good food w/o the gross restrooms. I am hopeful that it will eventually escape from being a place that would (according to my granddad's dictionary) be described as "monostrous" bad. :-)

It would be nice to be able to walk along Westheimer or San Felipe and cross 610 w/o it being a death-defying feat. Perhaps one day it will be possible, but probably not in my lifetime <sigh> ...

And ... for that matter, are there any other significant such places that exist in Austin, other than the Four Seasons and the W? I know others may be in the pipeline, but I just wanna not be misled by the hype.

So, does "Texas' metro markets" really boil down to Austin, plus to a lesser extent, Dallas? Or just Austin. That statement seems a bit overblown to me. I agree that the concept hasn't really been tried in Houston, aside from the apartments atop the Four Seasons Hotel here.

OMG, you are right! OwOwOw ... them earworms & earwigs, they are a-partying tonight for sure!!!

My own embarrassing memory that I still remember -- to this day -- the words to the catchy jingle they used after renaming themselves "Texas International Airlines". It went something like this: From the Colorado Rockies to plains of Mexico. From the sunny LA beaches to the hallowed Alamo. All across the Lone Star State we're flyin', goin' strong! Texas International Airlines, we're on our way!

It seems strange -- and perhaps I missed it -- but I don't recall every seeing any real evidence regarding how the majority of Afton-Oaks-area people feel on this subject. For some time, the idea has been propagated that they are all against rail in any form. Consequently, they & Culberson have often been vilified. I generally don't feel its productive to paint others with such a broad brush. However, I also live in the area and feel frustrated with our lack of progress in providing more transit options. Frankly, I think a lot more people in the same area (more than is recognized) are in favor of some kind of mass transit alternatives nearby, at least if they were wisely planned and implemented. I'm certainly one of those people (actually, I live 2 blocks north of Afton Oaks) ... not only do I think it would improve my personal QOL, but I think it would enhance my property values. If it were along Westpark, perhaps the benefit would be not so much, at least in my lifetime. I'm guessing it would take a lot longer (maybe 20-30 years) for redevelopment to yield similar benefits along that corridor. As originally planned (as I understood it), the Westpark corridor was intended as a heavy-rail line that would bring commuters from the far western burbs into the inner city. That's a quite different goal from what Metro proposed for the University Line, which was more of an inner-city circulator line. The most credible narrative I've heard from Metro is about building the latter type of service before the former.

That TI facility in Stafford had a huge impact on Houston, at least for awhile. Not so much in and of itself, but by being the place that incubated the guys who eventually founded Compaq Computer, which I believe was at one time the largest corporation based in Houston. Especially interesting that it wasn't an energy company! It once had 20,000 employees in Houston, more than today at Chevron and somewhat less than Exxon Mobil (which I think is now at 27,000).

That's interesting to hear. My recollection is that construction of Terminal D was delayed long enough that once work was finally initiated, the 80s recession was already hitting Houston hard. Consequently, its scale was greatly reduced. Once Houston bounced back, long ago, it's been obvious that it is grossly inadequate.

I seem to recall Culberson being quoted as making a qualified statement that he would support rail in certain places. Can anyone dig the exact quote up or get him to clarify? I feel a bit puzzled because I thought that Metro had given in to what he was asking for -- i.e. rerouting it along Westpark before it would pass through Afton Oaks. More recently, all I've heard attributed to Metro is that they have the University Line on the back burner because of a lack of funding in the foreseeable future.

I thought a bit more and remembered some stuff that's really going to date me. Before Woodlake Square was built, I remember riding horses at Westheimer Stables, which at the time was located there. As I recall, that seemed to be where Houston ended and countryside began, going west. Later, as Houston developed, Westheimer Stables seemed to keep moving west, at least one or 2 more times. (My big sister was the horse person in the family, so this is something i just noticed as a bystander.) Later, there was a driving range, a miniature golf place, and (I think) an 8-hole golf course on that land. Eventually Trammell Crow's company (out of Dallas) developed the shopping center that has evolved into what we see today.

My recollection is that the grocery store was called Handy Andy and it was identical to the store they had on Voss between San Felipe and Woodway (both later became Randalls flagship stores). I think, tho' I may be mistaken, that Handy Andy was an early attempt by HEB to enter the upscale market in Houston. Also, I recall that a restaurant there called the "Flying Tigers", or something like that, which I had seen earlier in California. I don't remember the early bars very well ... maybe I was too young. In the 80s, I remember going to one and seeing a guy dancing on top of the bar counter (people did this back then :-) who I recognized as someone who worked in the mailroom in my company. A very handsome black guy who had many good-looking blond girls admiring him ... he was a nice guy and I smile when I remember that. I ate at Rudy Lechners' from early on, including the sandwich shop next door that his wife ran. Both places were very good. They and their family members were very nice to people I knew at work and outside of work.

If memory serves, Metro purchased the MKT freight rail ROW along I-10 before the last I-10 expansion was planned. I didn't follow that planning closely, other than reading in the Chron about it from time to time. But ... I always got the impression that Metro expected to be listened to during the planning process, in return for giving up their ROW for the freeway expansion. In the end of that process, the media reports seemed to suggest that TxDOT and Culberson reneged in some way on Metro's expectations. Whether those expectations were well-founded or not, I can't say. While it's nice to have a wider I-10 that is less congested (for awhile, at least), I wish it had been planned so as to provide us with more options in the (inevitable) next phase of redevelopment of that corridor.

I was reading this thread earlier and it occurred to me to wonder how much peoples' reaction to the original topic would be influenced by what I could call the hipster-trendophilia syndrome. Awhile back, it occurred to me that there was an axis that existed, one that tended to shuttle young acolytes between places like Austin, Portland, SF, Santa Fe, Boulder, et al., in their quest for jobs that would pay just enough to enable them to exist in some place that satisfied their need to feel fulfilled in some way. Insofar as those people received satisfaction in their quests, the places they perceived as vital instruments tended to wind up being shining icons in the minds of many other young (and not-so-young) idealistic people. I'm not saying that those feelings are necessarily bad ... but, there does to be some sort of starry-eyed innocence in the worship that those places seem to receive.