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ArchFan

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Everything posted by ArchFan

  1. ArchFan
    I admit to having some fondness for this building because I remember thinking how cool it looked when both it & I were young! However, I can't object to it going away if no cost-effective solution to saving it can be found. There are plenty of more beautiful and interesting buildings that we've either torn down or let burn over the last 100+ years. I will grieve more for some of those.
  2. ArchFan
    Some of the buildings on the opposite side (west) of Mid Lane have already been demolished and there appears to be some kind of construction work going on. I know that Crappitto's Restaurant has announced they will move into one of the new buildings there, and perhaps Capone's (not sure if I read that or not). I don't know who the developer is. I suspect its not the one developing the east side of Mid Lane. Does anyone know?
  3. ArchFan
    I don't think this building will be as tall as 5 Post Oak Park (Amegy), but it will be a nice addition. In the rendering posted above by cloud713, I recognize that building as being the one included at the upper right. Which raises the question, if Novare bought both Bldgs. B and D, and the rendering shows the building at the D location, what are the plans for the B location? It is depicted as if it were a field of green grass. Also, IIRC, this development is separated from the ROD by Bldg. F, which (I think) hasn't been sold yet. MikeR can correct me if I'm wrong, but the only other building I've heard of having been sold is E, which is across the street on the west side.
  4. ArchFan
    From that era, my most prominent memory of entering a supermarket -- being a kid -- was the aroma of barbecued rotisserie chicken and also sometimes of hot popcorn too. Seems like they were always placed near the entryways. They smelled great and really put people (well, me at least) in an enthusiastic consumer frame of mind! One time, the popcorn machine had caught fire and the smokey smell was pretty bad ... I think that was at the Lewis & Coker you mentioned at Holcombe & Greenbriar.
  5. ArchFan
    Are you guys referring to the oval-shaped building on the corner? From my long-distant childhood, I remember that building being (maybe in the 60s-70s) a ticketing office for Braniff Airways.
  6. ArchFan
    I enjoy the memories, too ... many of them from a time before gas pumps could be found at convenience stores. Or -- later -- fast-food outlets were co-located with gas stations. Interesting how things have evolved. As a little kid, UtoteM stores intrigued me because of their signs that were patterned after totem poles. IIRC, they were controlled by the Melcher family, which still has real estate interests in Houston. Also from my non-perfect memory, 7-11s disappeared sometime in the 70s, when locally based NCS went on an expansion spree with their Stop-n-Go stores. Eventually, NCS sold them to Circle-K (out of Arizona), but that brand didn't stay here very long. The disappearance of 7-11s here always seemed odd; I never heard of the fraud allegations, I just assumed that a Dallas-based company (7-11) decided not to try to compete with a Houston-based company (NCS) on their home turf. All I remember about Valero is that is was formed when Oscar Wyatt got into trouble and his Coastal States Gas Corporation, based in Houston, was split up. The HQ of the part that became Valero was put in San Antonio. The other part (I forget the name) was absorbed into another company. I wish Houston could have kept the Valero part, they have kept expanding and appear to be successful.
  7. ArchFan
    Yes, it's project by the Harris County Flood Control District that replaces an open ditch with buried box culverts. For more, look here: www.hcfcd.org/w129 My guess is that the buried culverts aren't designed to withstand a load as heavy as another rail line. But ... I'm intrigued by the idea of a hike & bike trail connecting Memorial Park with points south.
  8. ArchFan
    I toured The Mercer while it was still under construction, but already topped out. As I recall, the renderings I was given showed the now-cancelled 2nd tower being located to the south, but offset a bit in the E-W direction. If that had materialized, I think the pair of buildings would have been less painful to look at. I was told that the building was a project by a Hong Kong guy, operating out of Dallas. Also, that the construction involved some techniques used in HK, but not common in the US at that time.
  9. ArchFan
    That is good to know. I wonder if building that levee was a consequence of heightened safety awareness there because of previous disasters. I doubt many Houston residents of today know that Texas City was the site of the worst industrial disaster in US history. Wikipedia describes it as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions. So, while it was not flood-related, hundreds of people died when flammable cargo ignited on a ship docked there.
  10. ArchFan
    I read that article, too. For me, it's interesting that I also read the article in the Dallas Morning News and not in the Comical. I was a bit annoyed that the DMN article lead off with a photo of some old refineries along the ship channel here (because I think that encourages the ongoing Dallas-Houston rivalries and related prejudices). But ... the photo also reflects a truth that we should face up to: long ago, we as a community agreed to accept some dirty industry in return for jobs and economic growth. In the article, what was new for me was to hear our mayor talk about emulating some of The Netherlands' ways of mitigating flooding. We could flood-proof our petrochemical plants and even build subways if were will willing to pay for it ... as, apparently, the Dutch are. However, it doesn't appear that we have the will to do that.
  11. ArchFan
    My guess -- and I admit it's only a guess -- is that the 3 new lines will have very low ridership initially. I say that because I'm skeptical that there's much latent demand -- not many people both live and work close to the new light rail lines. Even for connecting living and shopping destinations, I don't think they help many people. Many of the people I've know who live in those areas work in trades which require them to go to far-flung areas all over the metro area, or else to restaurants or other businesses that are also distributed much more widely. However, that could change in 20-30 years. So, I have hope for the future, which requires patience. I think the University and Uptown lines would generate high ridership numbers much sooner. Unfortunately, we're in a situation in which political resistance has impeded investing tax dollars where they would have the most immediate and large impact. Instead, we have elected people into positions of power who have no concept of the problems we will have to deal with in the future; they are only focused on romantic notions of a (imaginary) past in which we were all independent homesteaders, who had no need to cooperate with the community around them.
  12. ArchFan
    I'm aware that many retention tanks ("ponds") have been installed in outlying areas that are higher up the watershed. However, we have yet to see whether they will be enough to significantly mitigate flooding in the 3 places I mentioned (downtown, Rice U, TMC). My guess is that they will mostly help diminish or at least delay flooding their own local areas. Perhaps, in the aggregate, they will help slow the pile-up of water downstream ... but I'm skeptical that we'll be immune to another Allison.
  13. ArchFan
    Sounds like a name the Valencia group would choose (who have the Hotel Valencia in SA and Hotel Sorella in City Centre). Hope so, that would be very auspicious for Greenstreet and downtown in general.
  14. ArchFan
    Actually, it seems to me like it might be a sensible idea to have sunken roadways serve as emergency detention ponds. At least, if we aren't willing to think ahead and pony up for better flood-mitigation measures. But ... I still wish we would take intelligent measures to keep our business districts, medical facilities, libraries, etc., from taking irrevocable damage every time we have a major flooding event. Having people drown in underground parking garages downtown, Texas Medical Center facilities in the dark, and rare books at Rice U being destroyed is not good for our image nor for our future prosperity.
  15. ArchFan
    Regarding the confusion about the rendering at the top of this page: there is 1 large pic above 3 smaller ones. The upper left of the smaller 3 appears to be The Austonian condos in Austin, also designed by Ziegler Cooper, which was completed a few years ago. So, don't get in a tizzy how they can all be in the "Gables Post Oak" development.
  16. ArchFan
    Thanks, that makes sense. After my last post, I walked by there again and checked out the west lot. It looks a bit smaller than the south lot, but still large enough for a major building + garage.
  17. ArchFan
    Not sure ... what is the exact location of this facility? The rendering makes it look several blocks north of the criminal courts bldg., across the street from the red-brick jail facility on the north side of Buffalo Bayou.
  18. ArchFan
    The Hardy extension slices through the 5th Ward, no? I don't know how many residents there will be displaced by this project, but I'm certainty sympathetic with any older low-income folks who may be displaced from their homes. Aside from this project, my guess is that this area will ultimately "gentrify" in a similar way as the other wards. (I.e., the local low-income residents will fight it, but ultimately the landowners will cash out and the land will be developed in the slipshod way it has been done elsewhere in Houston. E.g., Fourth Ward, Washington Av. corridor.) For now, I'll just say that SV's reference to Piney Point Village jogged my memory of the struggle the CoH (and Harris Co, if memory serves) had to extend San Felipe through Piney Point and Bunker Hill Villages. For many years, San Felipe -- going west from Voss Road -- dead-ended at Buffalo Bayou. There was no major E-W thoroughfare between Westheimer and I-10. Despite being silk-stocking communities (and probably well-connected politically), they lost the battle. Personally, I was sad to see some of the few remaining areas of quiet forest turned into a major commuter zone ... but it was for the good of the greater community.
  19. ArchFan
    I haven't seen the footprint for this new development, but perhaps it will leave enough undeveloped land between it and Dominion for a tower of some sort. A month or so ago, I walked around the site and recall there being a new N-S access road from Guilford Ct. to the garage for the 1st Redstone Building. Presumably the land on the west side is not part of the 2nd Redstone tower ... but I can't remember if it's large enough for a major tower like the one in the rendering. If so, it would block the view of the Dominion high-rise. (Which I would appreciate, actually!)
  20. ArchFan
    The rendering above appears to be looking west-northwest, more or less from where the Sports Authority store is on Post Oak. Going to that location in Google Maps street view, I see The Dominion high-rise apartments (on McCue) between the two Redstone buildings. That's where the curved building in the rendering's background appears. So -- this is just a guess -- perhaps the developers of this project omitted Dominion so as to avoid including a competing property in their marketing images. Despite that, it's fun to speculate on why they would include a non-exisiting building rather than just blue sky in that direction. There is an older 2-story apartment complex on McCue, across from Dominion, that seems to be getting ripe for demo. There's another one farther west, on Sage, but that one seems a little too far south to appear in this POV.
  21. ArchFan
    I like this thread, particularly because it reminds me that "online communities" can actually be real, not just be figments of trendoid writers' imaginations. It occurs to me that we all share some some common interests, despite having different opinions on this or that topic. Communities need to be able to do that in order to prosper. I've been a member since 2008, but probably lurked earlier than that.
  22. ArchFan
    Yeah, I wonder what those 2 extruding slabs were for. Really bizarre, since they extend out from the masonry wall, not from an openable window or door. So ... resting site for birds? Tempting spot for suicide-prone people?
  23. ArchFan
    hey, i live near there and walk across the RR tracks often. I'm not too proud ... but I do think it would be good for the neighborhood to engineer things so as to be kindler and gentler to pedestrians (i.e., other low-class scumbags like me). I don't mind it so much, I can deal with it ... but, I guess I would like to improve things for our international visitors who have to hike through our obstacle course. Even if its only to help the economy by having them want to return. I know many here don't give a hoot about that, but personally, I would like visitors to have a good experience here.
  24. ArchFan
    Or we could call it "Edo", the old name for Tokyo. That way, we could be super-cool, at least for awhile! :-)
  25. ArchFan
    It's interesting how these monikers for gentrifying neighborhoods generate so much emotion. (I'm not immune, either, I just enjoy speculating on why it is.) I think Denver adopted "LoDo" early enough not to sound too copycattish. I think Houston arrived late in the game, so, EaDo sounds corny. But anyway ... it's not really such a big deal. Personally, if I had to copy that old trend, I'd tweak it toward something slightly different, like "EaDoHo", which sounds kinda like Japanese. But then, that would conflict with the tenuous "Old Chinatown" connection.
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