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ArchFan

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  1. ArchFan
    I seem to recall Ric Campo as being loosely quoted as saying that he successfully does GFR in multi-family residential projects elsewhere, but not in Houston because it doesn't work here. I'm not sure how accurate that quote is, but -- if true -- it would be interesting to know why Houston would be so different. I remember visiting Dallas in the mid 70s and seeing GFR in an apartment building there for the first time ... and saw many more gradiose examples pop up in later years. Not long ago, I mentioned this to someone who does multifamily here and he said he had also noticed that GFR seemed to be more established there. My assumption has been that for a long time, the few attempts at it here were so poorly done -- and therefore unsuccessful -- that local developers have tended to shun it, implicitly assuming that there's little demand to support it. Now, it occurs to me that perhaps its a sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy: too many on both sides (developers and consumers) expect it to fail. Hopefully ROD will be a big success and demonstrate that, if well done, it can be successful here.
  2. ArchFan
    Its amazing how different this building looks, compared to when it was built as the "World Trade Center" by the Port of Houston. Of course, having the run-down old Greyhound Bus Station next door didn't add much to the ambience of the neighborhood, either.
  3. ArchFan
    I wonder if they'll put in some pavement with words etched into it, like they did in the plaza at City Centre. There, it says something like "For the greater glory of God". It's their project, they own it, so they certainly can do that. However, it does have the potential to make some of their customers feel less welcome. Some business owners are OK with doing that, some others are more into keeping their personal opinions to themselves. I only mention it because I found it out-of-the-ordinary compared to other major developments, both here and in other US cities.
  4. ArchFan
    Having lived here (as an adult) through the 80s bust, I don't feel sorry to see these buildings go. By "these buildings", I mean the ones built between (say) 1984 and 1990 ... when the people who had bought the land thinking it would be developed "a la The Galleria" gave up hope and sold it to people who built Micro Center, Target, Jack-in-the-Box and stuff like that instead. That period was kinda depressing. That said, the Target store on San Felipe does really good business, so it has seemed to serve a purpose. Going forward, we'll have to see whether it will be out-of-place with all the silk-stocking stores (e.g., Cartier) moving in next door.
  5. ArchFan
    In any case, I'm just glad to see they are improving the north facade ... it was really ugly. Now, I think it will look quite nice. At least until it gets blocked by the north tower :-)
  6. ArchFan
    Great pics. I also felt a pang of concern for the new sod that was putting up with a lot of wear from so many people. But -- on the bright side -- the large contingent of pooches surely provided a lot of nourishment for the grass that survived!
  7. ArchFan
    I walked by Skyhouse RO early on and I think I remember that they had excavated a bit of a hole, maybe about one story deep. The Belfiore had a similarly deep hole excavated, which is still visible (I'm guessing they will have one level of underground parking that will extend away from the tower). Skyhouse RO has that big parking garage, so in contrast to Belfiore, they wouldn't need to extend the pit so far away from the building.
  8. ArchFan
    Good to get some feedback! How do you think they were intended differently than we see them now? I don't really know the sequence of events, but my recollection is that the current Mies facade was a design that was not implemented until years later (after his death).
  9. ArchFan
    Slick, just a question: is that statistic for Amtrak traffic originating in Bakersfield and going on to either of the two other places? To me, Bakersfield doesn't seem big enough to generate such a high volume, so I'm wondering if the statistic includes a significant amount of traffic passing through B-field on the way to those places.
  10. ArchFan
    It would be interesting to hear what local architects think of the Mies Addition. Back in the 80s (I think) MFAH had a director with distinguished credentials, but who apparently hated it ... I remember that he compared it to an airport terminal. I didn't like hearing that, but perhaps he had a point. Despite that, I always liked the view of the facade from the street, very Miesian international style, good to have an example of that in Houston. I wonder how many people know that the current "Mies Addition" actually extended an earlier one. As I recall, the earlier one was similar but set back further from the street, with white-painted steel instead of black.
  11. ArchFan
    As recently as 11/17/2003 Chris Helman wrote in Forbes magazine: "Back in 2003 motorists were shocked when gasoline prices hit an all time high of $1.75 a gallon. We wondered how Americans could maintain their way of life with crude oil so “expensive” at $30 a barrel." I quote that to demonstrate how much we, collectively, have such short memories and are thereby (even more) subject to being controlled by emotions that to a large extent just mirror those of the people around us. Those around us may be blissfully ignorant about a given topic, which just makes the matter worse. Oil company decision makers are not exempt from those influences, which probably has had something to do with delaying construction of the new Chevron tower here. However, my guess is that the major reason is that the people making those decisions are being conservative in order to protect themselves from criticism if the building were to be completed and wind up being seen as unnecessary at the time. There is a CYA attitude amongst management in such large companies that are run by people who have clawed their way up through the ranks, rather than by visionary people who actually started the company in the first place.
  12. ArchFan
    Ya know, when I read this, I immediately thought of the wormhole-generating device in the movie "Contact" with Jodie Foster. Do we really want random TMC pedestrians sucked into a wormhole and transported light-years away? (I thought not, we need to keep the process non-random ;-)
  13. ArchFan
    Casa del Caballo had some issues, but I will miss it, particularly since it added a bit more diversity to the restaurant scene here. The owner had (has?) a successful restaurant in Saltillo, Mexico (a town west of Monterey that has some charming parts). From talking to him, I got the impression that he just assumed he would be as successful here without having to try very hard to adapt his product to local tastes. He didn't seem very receptive to helpful suggestions in that regard, either. I gave up on the El Tiempo product years ago, but I might go back if only to enjoy the ambience of the building.
  14. ArchFan
    I'm not aware that the Tenneco Building had an observation deck open to the public. However, when I was a kid, the place to go was the observation deck near the top of the Humble Bldg. (now the ExxonMobil Bldg.). The Petroleum club occupied the top 2 floors, so the deck must have occupied all of Floor 42. Besides the view, an additional fun feature there was a coin-operated machine that would make a rubber replica of the building while you watched. I wonder if the deck will be reinstated once XOM moves out and Shorenstein redevelops the building. I imagine the views now would be pretty cool -- since this building is offset from the main cluster of towers, rather than being right in their midst.
  15. ArchFan
    Similarly, on the east side of Skyhouse River Oaks, the units on the bottom ~6 floors will have close-up views of their parking garage and nothing else. The units above will have views of downtown, Greenway Plaza, TMC, etc.
  16. ArchFan
    Sadly, if the proposed Galleria condo tower is built, many of the units will have views of The Mercer. I know this is a bit off-topic, but it strikes me that an advantage of living at The Mercer is that one can have views of the Galleria/Uptown area w/o having to look at The Mercer! Especially now, as the reptile slowly sluffs off its old skin.
  17. ArchFan
    Lookin' good, but will it attract the "hippie bohemian lawyers" that Randall D. was targeting? :-)
  18. ArchFan
    Another interesting thing from the pic is to see the houses to the right side of the Pierce Elevated Freeway, under construction. I don't remember those. We lived on the west side of Houston at the time. To get to Gulfgate Mall or Galveston, we used Highway 90 (now I-10) to go as far east as Westcott, then travelled on Washington Avenue to downtown. From there, I think we used Pierce Street to get to the Gulf Freeway. The part of the trip through downtown was interesting. It would have been about the time the Humble Building (Exxon Mobil) was being built. Humble had a gas station and auto mechanic operation on an adjacent block that was in an interesting structure with a design that was -- at the time I though it was Spanish Colonial but now I'm not sure what to call it -- similar to the structures still remaining from the expo in the Presidio area of San Francisco.
  19. ArchFan
    In the 1964 pic, its nice to see the St. Joseph's Professional Building before they applied the ugly grey/white/red paint job and the 10-story-high neon crosses on the facade. When I see the latter at night, I feel like I'm in some 3rd-world country.
  20. ArchFan
    One thing that concerns me about the Westcreek redevelopment is that it is winding up being done piecemeal by different developers. I hope it will turn out well in the end, but I think if one good developer (McMillan) had done more of it, it might have been done in a more cohesive manner. I'm holding out hope that Regent Square will still be developed as part of a wider-scale vision by a single entity. While I do like a lot of the quirky, hodgepodge development in much of Houston, its nice to also have some places that exhibit good design and a bit of comprehensive vision.
  21. ArchFan
    Good idea and actually rather appropriate. When it was under construction, I was told it was built by a foreign-born developer operating out of Dallas.
  22. ArchFan
    Wow, and to think that I was impressed that a Mormon-owned chain would offer in-room coffee!
  23. ArchFan
    I sat in the bar area this afternoon. it was crowded and lively; prices were quite reasonable also. talked to some nice people, it was fun, I think it's a very nice addition to the neighborhood.
  24. ArchFan
    I hafta confess I have been really bothered by this building for many years. At this point, it reminds me of "Leviathan", the ruler of Hell in the Hellraiser movies, which I recall being depicted as a lighthouse-like obelisk, but with a beam of darkness emanating from it, rather than of light. I'm exaggerating for the sake of effect ... but, really, this building does seem to have had an unnatural longevity, albeit in a seemingly undead state. In googling about the "Heaven on Earth Inn", I found this in an old article from Rolling Stone (Issue 156, March 14, 1974): "Jesus Freaks are proclaiming Guru Maharaj Ji the antichrist, while the Baptist churches of Houston have alluded more temperately to false prophets in a full-page newspaper ad that includes a quote from Timothy 4:34: "For there is going to come a time when people won't listen to the truth, but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear."" I wonder if there were any Halloween events on the darker side there last night! :-)
  25. ArchFan
    I agree. My reaction to the above photo was to think that bathing in that room would be an exhibitionists dream ...
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