Sunstar

Took these photos out on Brays Bayou by Mason Park:

Here on the 1891 map you can see more residential density in that area. Plus you can see Block 334 has clearly broken ground 

Much of the area used to be Quality Hill which was a residential neighborhood. Think houses like the Cohn House and the Foley House which were going to be part of the Nau Center.

To the extent this map from 1873 is a accurate depiction of downtown at the time, you can see the Annunciation Church and the area that is currently Union Station and MMP (click to zoom). Quality Hill would have been slightly North of here. 

In the second image, we can see the modern boundaries of downtown. As you move South from Annunciation into the area that is highlighted in the 1970s photo, you can see it becomes quite a bit more rural, maybe even farmland. Although this is well before everything was paved over, it's unlikely that this became a dense residential neighborhood at any point. 

While I have no evidence to back it up, my assumption is that this area was never really densely populated prior to that infamous photo and probably contained some private residences and mostly undeveloped land. Had this photo shown a bunch of grassy fields it would have been less jolting. It was the decision to just pave it all that is the disturbing part. But I've never seen any evidence demolitions of priceless architecture on a massive scale to get it to this point. Feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken. 

In regards to the block in question, it does appear there were some previous older structures that were demolished. I would like to try to find a close up picture that shows a close up of the site with all the original buildings.

Based on the map in the biz journal article it looks like these town homes will straddle Nagle, and BBP will create a new Park at the site of the Silos. The silos could be a great element to build a park around and be a solid anchor point on the east side. 

The city will probably keep this site reserved for a future hotel development, but based on the location I think another cool idea would be something like the Sports Legends Museum next to Camden Yards in Baltimore. Not this architectural style per se, but the lot's proximity to MM Park and the Toyota Center make it a good candidate for a Houston sports museum. 

Streams change course over time.  That's just what they do.

 

Most of the rainwater runoff goes into the bayous eventually.  That runoff includes fertilizer from lawns plus all sorts of other organic materials like leaves and bird dookie and what have you.  All that stuff feeds algae and other suspended microbes that get together with some suspended dirt (and tire dust and whatever other nasty stuff washes off the roads) to cause turbidity.  Sure, the bayous were kinda clear 100 years ago upstream of the sewers.  But their clay bottoms have since been destroyed by the Corps of Engineers channelization projects that are now slowing getting undone, and we have about five or six million extra people in the watersheds.

 

tl;dr:  No, the water's not going to be even somewhat clear without some sort of miracle.

The original master planned included adjoining wetlands that would serve as natural filtration for runoff. These didn't make it into the final design for some reason. As the park extends to the east side, they envisioned transforming industrial sites into wetlands and nature preserves that would significantly lessen the impact of runoff. I don't know if that is still the plan. As far as I know, there are only two examples of this to date: Buffalo Bend Park way out by the turning basin, which includes 3 storm water retention ponds, and Japhet Creek, which is one of the last natural tributaries to the bayou. It is currently protected as part of the Federal Green Fingers initiative. All the others have presumably been paved over.  

I think the work they've done so far is great, but without the ecological aspects, the project will fall short of it's ultimate vision.

Any one want to wager what the next downtown residential project finished for move in will be? I had always assumed this one, but now I'm thinking either Crawford or the old Texaco building. I wouldn't totally count out the new Sky House at the rate they slap those things up. I don't have any visibility into the Hamilton apartments to know where they are on that project.

Great photos! I love how the path runs right under the old Magnolia Brewery foundation.

It's interesting that they never dug a foundation for this development, which explains why it's going up so quickly. Compare that to block 334 where they dug out a huge foundation for a 5 story building. 

They have a webcam for this project like they did for the first one?

They still have the old one up, but it stopped showing live images since 7-2-14.

http://oxblue.com/open/SkyHouseApartments

Seems like they just need to turn it back. As you can see, Block 334 has added a whole floor since then!!!

Frankly, I think this design fits in well with the already boxy Green Streets. Plus it will breathe some life into that development, which is still looking for a raison d'etre. 

This will be a nice dry run for the Super Bowl. Unfortunately a lot of the downtown projects will still be in progress when this rolls around, including the Marriott Marquis, which I believe isn't projected to open until that fall. 

I've been wanting to make a thread for the new season for a while but really haven't been sure what kind of team we have so far this season. It is apparent with many roster changes, some new faces and old, that this team is very much different than last years.

 

So far the young season for the Rockets has been dominated by injuries. With Pat Bev currently moving in and out of the disabled list, on which Terrance Jones is becoming a main stay with his injuries and D Howard joining him as of recently.

 

I know many people around the league and probably here, who follow basketball are scratching their heads as to how such a team can be 16-4 out of the gate.

 

This team has a lot of scrappiness to them and their three point game has been outstanding thus far.

 

Can they be a team that can go far in the post season? Are they a better team than last seasons? Have we just gotten lucky so far this young season?

 

Curious as to what Haifers think about this 2014-15 Rockets team.

I think these early season injuries have been a blessing in disguise. Once Jones and Howard come back, the Rockets will have true depth with a bench that has played major minutes and won a lot of games. Harden is twice the player he was last year but I'm concerned about the minutes he's having to play. He may fade out in the long run. So far, I like what I see. 

The network came online just in time to see the Rockets get throttled by the Grizzlies. 

The thing that's been interesting about this project lately is all the history they are "rediscovering", like the cistern and the Donnellann Crypt. I wonder if there are any other surprises out there waiting to be found. 

For the uninitiated, what are they doing, pouring the foundation on top of the foundation? What is the purpose of that space between the two slabs?

Yeah those jail administration(?) facilities on this side of the bayou would have to be torn down to build the Commerce Promenade

In that case, they would have to go through the land acquisition process, so I wouldn't expect this to happen anytime soon. 

 It's actually been somewhat slow:

 

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/1299-sunset-coffee-building-allens-landing/?p=468388

 

I haven't provided an update to that thread because there hasn't been any major visible changes as of yet. Maybe a few dirt mounds moved around in the front.

Your photo's perspective makes me wonder how they would develop the Commerce Promenade. The buildings on the other side of Fannin and San Jacinto come right out to the waters edge. If they were to continue with that part of the project, would it require those buildings to be leveled, or would they build out the bulkhead to go around them?

With the Florida Panthers reporting record low attendance, I wonder if there is interest in Houston in case the team decides to relocate. Quebec would be the most likely destination, but perhaps Houston can mount a bid for the team. I'm already imagining the first Houston Aeros vs. Dallas Starts NHL match up   

He does work for lots of cities, but he doesn't promote any of them as much as he does Houston.  He truly believes other cities can learn from the Houston model of affordability, upward social mobility, good paying blue collar/middle skill/industrial jobs, and all around friendliness to middle class families.

Tory, 

I do agree with Joel's characterization of Houston as an Opportunity City, and believe it is apt. I think a lot of cities, whether they admit it or not, probably look at Houston and try to replicate some of its success.

At this point though, after reading so many of his articles, it starts to feel like getting a nice compliment from your Aunt. 

I should have known this was a Joel Kotkin article. I appreciate his promotion of Houston as a model city, but he's starting to sound like a broken record. He says he works here as a consultant. I wonder if there is some financial motivation for him to keep pushing a Houston agenda. 

I hope we get more, one good skyscraper every 30 years isn't enough.

What are 1500 Louisiana and BG Group Place chopped liver?

Signature Station? Sure.

That ugly thing? No.

I am glad that it wasn't built. Fugly.

Others will legitimately disagree with me. All good.

I agree. With the basic design, there is at least some hope that it could be swapped out later for a larger, more impressive design. If they built that "signature station" we'll be stuck with it forever. 

I found this interesting. At $1.2 Billion, the Texans rank as the #13 most valuable sports team in the world. #1 is Manchester United, followed by Real Madrid, the Yankees and the Cowboys.

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/mli45ikdf/13-houston-texans-2/