Sunstar

The only way I could see the jails being moved is for a new stadium proposal. They seem to be able to move heaven and earth for those. It could be like AT&T park in San Francisco, but instead of building it along San Francisco Bay, it would be built along Buffalo Bayou. They could incorporate some of the building in the design, maybe nickname it something like "the Big House." Kayakers could float around the bayou waiting for Carlos Correa to hit one our of the park. 

http://imgur.com/AO895pM

 

I hope that thing moves over my lawn.

He will be eligible, it's just a matter of people voting for him. Most of the eligibility rules deal with when someone is not a Rookie, namely they had over a certain number of at bats or pitched over a certain number of innings in a previous year.

As of today, Dallas Keuchel and Colin McHugh lead the AL in wins, Kazmir is #1 in ERA and Correa seems to be a lock for Rookie of the Year. And we're in first place and we just got a load of new talent. It's good to be an Astros fan!

Cool.  Now that the Donnellan crypt is going to be accessible, are there any plans to put up a plaque or something?  I think it's a pretty interesting relic.

I've posed that question to them before via email and  their response was "Yes, these historical elements are being incorporated into the design and we will have interpretive info." 

So that is fairly encouraging.

This is what I do to cars in bike lanes:

 

I like how he moves the car and just rides off like it was no big deal.

285 tickets! This thing will pay for itself in no time

http://blog.chron.com/thehighwayman/2015/07/local-cyclist-and-mayor-upset-by-bike-lane-parking/

I'm delighted to think this building will be restored. It does look pretty rough but one of the great things about modern technology is we have very effective ways to restore 100-year-old (and older) buildings back to their original appearance. This is especially true for concrete and masonry which, of course, this building is.

 

In the past, every time I drove past this building I felt both hope and dread. Hope that someone would restore it and dread that no one would. It appears that hope won. Yay! 

I keep thinking of the Sunset Coffee Building Restoration, which pretty much a new building. If they can keep the original brick work this will look great!

Wow, I thought for sure this thing was destined for the wrecking ball. It looks like it should be condemned. Fantastic news!

Isnt that obviously the plan..?

I don't know. I would assume so, but they would have to go under the 59 overpass and around the convention center. They may say "we go you this close, you figure out the rest." It's typically these small connections that are the tricky part. The MKT trail is only a stones throw away from the Buffalo Bayou trail north of downtown, but as of today they don't connect. You can make the cut over with some effort, but I assume they want to make a proper connection at some point. 

I wonder if they plan to connect it to Discovery Green? To do that they would have to go under 59 and around the convention center. But from there riders to can pick up the downtown bike lane all the way to Buffalo Bayou, assuming it isn't being used as a parking lane. 

So many parking lots, especially on the southeast side. More high rises needed.

I'm thinking 1711 and the Camden Conte projects, if they go though, will anchor development in this area. A lot of low- to mid-scale residential developments would be nice to see here. It would be nice to have a part of downtown that has a more relaxed feel to it.

As with most political debates, there are two extremes on this issue: one that sees climate change as a very real and existential threat to humanity and are willing to sacrifice whatever economic or social principles necessary to stop it, and the other that don't feel it's a significant threat and prefer to rely on the free market to determine how to address it, to the extent that it needs to be addressed at all.

Then there's the majority, the folks in the middle that haven't made up their mind and won't until either the scientific community stop talking about it, or they see Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse coming. In other words, it's either not a problem, or it is but we won't try to do anything about it until it's too late. 

I'm not trying to be dramatic on that last point, just depicting the narrative as I understand it. 

Have a great weekend everyone 

I think given time and R&D funding, alternatives will be competitive. But without subsidies it will never happen and that would be a real shame.

Brilliant businessmen ahead of the curve on that one.

 

 

We are talking the kind of subsidies without which an industry does not exist at all (read Solar City's IPO documents), not the "subsidies" of definitive deductible costs in the tax code. But everyone has a lobbyist.

True, the solar industry in this country would be virtually non-existent without these subsidies, but how much different would our public transportation infrastructure be if it it weren't for the tax-based subsidies that oil and gas companies have been getting for years to invest in domestic production? And how much further along would we be on alternative energy if it weren't for coal and natural gas subsidies. Before we dismiss alternative energy as being non-competitive, let's see what happens on a more level playing field. And of course there are much greater costs to the fossil fuel industry that never get taken into the equation, but I won't get into that.

To bring it back on topic, I agree with the sentiment that we should see much more of this kind of stuff in Houston, especially on parking decks. It would certainly make the business case for building them less attractive. 

It costs more than you will ever get out of it unless you get a hefty subsidy to do so.

 

Building and plaza look good though.

Are we talking the kind of subsidies that the O&G Industry gets, or just modest subsidies? 

It looks like they topped the parking deck off with solar panels.

I like the Snoop Dog avatar commentator schooling Nancy Sarnoff on the proper use of "catty corner."

The only way I see this happening is if they are able to relocate an established team that can be competitive in year 1, similar to how Dallas landed the Minnesota North Stars, who were already a really good team. So in other words, buy a Stanley Cup champion.

I don't see Houston having the patience to wait 5-6 years for an expansion team to become competitive. We're still waiting on the Texans to do something and they've been here for 12 years. 

Just goes to show you, putting in bike lanes doesn't necessarily make you a bike friendly city. 

I'm sorry but what is slick about this buildimg? That theres a curve to the building? Sorry not trying to be rude but we in Houston have set our standards so low.

This building looks like its from the 1970s

When I think of 70s Houston architecture I think of Pennzoil Place, which is not a bad thing. Most of the monumental high rise architecture in Houston was built in the 80s, just as the oil glut was happening.

Naturally I'd like it to be taller. I like the orientation of the tower.  If the east side was not flush with the podium, the tower would give more of the appearance of jutting out at an angle. It has a generous plaza area on the Travis side, which is not evident from the original rendering. Also, it appears that street level on Main will have generous retail spaces, but I can't quite tell yet from these photos. Also, as Tiger Eye's photo indicate, it looks like they are putting a rooftop garden on top of the garage, which probably helped with the LEED certification. 

Pic from Luby's above during lunch...

https://twitter.com/thachadwick/status/619213856297099264

A few more pics of the northside angle...

https://twitter.com/thachadwick/status/619218456525803522

I'm really starting to like this building, it's slicker than I thought it would be. Starting to get a glimpse of what the street view will be on Main.

Maybe it's just me but I'm failing to see what makes this as prime a site as others are hyping it up to be.. It's nice, yeah.. On the northern edge of the corporate zone of downtown.. But it's not on a light rail line, or fronting a park. There are a handful of downtown sites I can think of that are more prime than this one?

That begs the question, why did they snatch up this location so quickly after the Chronicle announcement, as opposed to grabbing some surface parking lot downtown for development? They could avoid all of the demo costs, and there are still plenty of them along existing existing rail lines. Maybe it's an infrastructure thing?

My personal preference (not based on any market realities) is that if they decide to clear this lot to develop something, that something should be notable, either 70+ stories or at least a compelling design. Because of the prime location and the fact they are demolishing historical structures, a 30 story glass box would be very disappointing. Again, not based on reality, Houston does that kind of stuff all the time.  

What's going on with the entrance to Herman park? It seems like the work came to a halt.