Sunstar

56 minutes ago, samagon said:

final 4?? More like final blade of grass.

I'd hate to watch a basketball game at NRG, but don't feel bad for the people who watched at NRG, feel bad for those that watched at the astrodome. Could you even imagine? I can, only because I went to wrestlemania there in 2001. Anyway, whether it's good place for fans or not, it's great for the NCAA, they had the highest attendance at a final game ever. that's lot's of ticket sales. We'll see the final 4 again, or at least other cities will offer their football stadiums for the event. Ha, I just had an image of this being played at jerry world. anyway, I'd not feel sorry for the attendees, location aside, they can tell everyone they know they were there for the best final basketball game in the history of the tournament and if it were in a smaller arena they'd probably have not been able to afford seats, or they'd be complaining about having to pay a scalper thousands of dollars for the tickets.

I think that because of the distance between the convention center and BBP that they will continue to use disco green. I'm not saying it couldn't be done, but then they'd have to shut down Dallas on that weekend designating it for pedestrians only (perfect since it's the main street in the shopping district anyway, so as people walk they can shop on all the storefronts along dallas). and then have a stream of continuous buses going back and forth on mckinney and walker.

The Astrodome was host to the so called Game of the Century, which basically made college basketball what it is today. It's pretty interesting stuff, if you're not familiar with it, look it up on Wikipedia. My understanding is that NCAA final four games can only be hosted in domed stadiums, so I'm not sure how much worse NRG is than any other option. If that's the case, I would blame it on the NCAA and not NRG, or Houston.

So is this facility meant to replace the Harris County Processing Center at 1201 Commerce? The reason I'm asking is in a recent article about the opening of the new TIGER trail for Buffalo Bayou, Anne Olsen said that BBP's plan going forward was to connect Allen's Landing to the east side to Lockwood. This would mean tearing down the existing buildings on Commerce and hopefully going forward with the Commerce Street Promenade.

8 hours ago, samagon said:

there will be a button she/he can push that will lower the entire apparatus from the ceiling so she/he can grab a glass. it will then ascend back up. They were going to go with a mechanism to raise the entire floor of the bar interior up, but felt this would be too disorienting for the barkeep and patrons as well.

That's not a thing.

3 hours ago, UtterlyUrban said:

My fear, and I hope it proves to be unfounded, is that finding anchor tenants is proving harder than envisioned.  

This Dallas street redo is the last chance at having downtown develop commercially as envisioned by this latest generation of urban planners and developers (comes right out of the Mayor's task force report from 3-4 years ago).  If it doesn't happen, after the significant commitment of tax dollars and political capital on infrastructure improvements, then downtown "anchor retail" will be dead for a while (until a new group creates, markets, politics, and percolates a new plan by citing the deficiencies of the old).

For this to work, I think there needs to be one or two anchor retail developments on the east side at Dallas and Austin. This would nicely tie in the retail district to discovery green, taking away one of the many parking lot deserts that break up the flow of downtown. 

I'm still excited for the building to finish, I just can't get a sense of what the surrounding plaza is going to look like. I'm amazed this is still all dirt. I'm curious to see how they tie this into Main street and Allen's landing and hopefully make it a more inviting recreational space. 

Two steps forward, one step back

16 hours ago, kylejack said:

The potholes are getting fixed very fast. If you're aware of some that haven't been filled, please report them on 311. Downtown Management District spends their money on Downtown.

I'd rather just complain about it 

10 minutes ago, tigereye said:

Looks like it's go time for Renner's Trumpet Flower. Pieces are on site. 

 

I've never understood that  " AS WE BUILD OUR CITY, LET US THINK THAT WE ARE BUILDING FOREVER" element of the Main Street square fountain. Is it supposed to do something? I've never seen it work. Actually, I haven't seen any of the fountains working in the recent times I've been by there. Maybe I'm just picking windy days, but something tells me it's not living up to its original vision. 

Looks like they are starting to make progress:

1 minute ago, urbanize713 said:

Although the other side is not as great this is another stunning example as to how parking garages should be covered up. I bet those balconies will see heavy usage during Astros games.

Are the upper balconies high enough to see in to the stadium?

4 hours ago, UtterlyUrban said:

The park is getting loved to death.  It can and should be open to all families and all visitors.  But the management team who manage it have far too many "events" in the park that put an unsustainable pressure on it (and deprives some little second grader a place to fligh a kite).  We have donated cash to the park a number of times, bought deck chairs/pavers, etc.. But we stopped.  Why?  I disagree with management's view of the park's mission.  It can and should be a park for families with a few events.  Unfortunately, the park is actually more of a concert/movie/beerfest location first and a place for an 8-year old to fly a kite second.

I agree. The park is way over programmed. Probably because it's the first major park downtown. Now you've got a great alternative in the Water works at Buffalo Bayou, which is perfect for concerts and performing arts and has a great view of the skyline. Hopefully that can take some of the street off Disco Green. 

According to the Memorial Park Conservancy Website, work has already begun on the Eastern Glades project:

http://www.memorialparkconservancy.org/master-plan/eastern-glades.html

Also, work has either begun or is about to begin on the Houston Arboretum:

http://houstonarboretum.org/support/master-plan/

The projects should go a long way in helping to undo damage caused to the park by Hurricane Ike, drought and daily wear and tear. 

I for one don't hate it. I love being reminded of my trapper keeper from fourth grade

 

And of the recurring amoebas from my favorite cartoonist

Bring back the Far Side, and Sniglets!!!

Sam Houston High School

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Houston_Math,_Science,_and_Technology_Center

The original building that burned down is picture on that Wikipedia page. I found this picture of the one torn down in the 70s:

I'm a big fan of BBP, but this one got away from them a bit. I chalk it up to unforeseen complications that resulted in a lot of rework and departure from their original vision. 

ok, all together now - "Why is this taking so long?"

They could have just torn down the original building and built a similar insipid looking building in it's place in like 3 months. Just be done with it already. 

Where did you get I went to A&M-Galveston from? Clearly said I went to A&M but anywho... I'm speaking about an educational and research stand point.

If we were talking about how good UH sports used to be then I can give countless examples of college sports teams that were once relevant (not dissing UH football they're legit).

People don't recognize UH in education and research facilities outside of the state of Texas, even then I remember meeting people who didn't know a UH existed like I didn't know a University of Dallas existed.

There's a University of  Dallas?

This is a classic "debottlenecking" project / issue.

 

We've beautified the Bayou west of downtown.... now we've exposed the downtown section (next bottleneck) for what it is.... piss poor. [pun intended]

 

What's left to do? Beautify the downtown section. Easy.

 

In actuality though, this will be incredibly difficult. The street level bridges over the bayou are god awful. It would take a major city effort ($$$$) to right this wrong.

 

Certain streets that span the bayou need to be eliminated altogether and others altered significantly. The main culprit is the monstrosity around the Smith / Congress Ave / Franklin / Louisiana cluster f*&$*.

 

Congress Ave. needs to stop at Smith... actually it would be better to stop at Louisiana.

 

Franklin street on the north of the bayou needs to be realigned / pull back from the bayou. I say make it a one way (headed east) rd that then ties into commerce. Eliminate the section of Washington that is only there for the parking lot.

 

Have Smith and Louisiana span over Franklin / Commerce and then tie into the 45 or 10 connectors. I can[t remember what connects what.

.

Seemed like the ideal time to get rid of that Franklin-Smith/Congress Connector bridge would have been before they started working on this segment of the trail. It certainly would have made it easier, and exposed this section of the bayou to the open air. 

Access to the patios at Magnolia and Kryptonite/Ministry/Eagle would help, as mentioned earlier. That new-meets-old staircase pic I took is from the latter place. It's still blocked off and probably needs to be rebuilt on their side to be used as anything other than a fire escape. And just like the rest of the project, keeping the lights working and the trails mud-free after flooding will be absolutely critical. They are trying to keep the very low trails that lead to the new section from the west clear, but the sediment is so deep it ends up looking like brown snow plowing. And the link to Allen's Landing needs to be restored ASAP.

 

Personally I love the urban grunge/ruin porn look of this new segment. You can walk right up to the Donnellan crypt now. And for the time being it's refreshingly pee-smell free. Just a hint of bat guano in the air. 

I agree, I love this aspect of the bayou. It feels like they've uncovered the ruins of an earlier era of Houston. I was hoping they would add some signage that talks about the crypt and the old Magnolia brewery. Anyone not familiar with the area would walk by these without noticing and just focus on the graffiti and rubbish. 

Fixed it for you.

Damn autocorrect

I grew up in the area and live downtown currently.  I wish the place was gone.

I would defer to anyone that lives downtown on this, since this is their neighborhood. It's easy for me to say I like it, but it's not outside my front door. 

What accident idea? I don't know what you're talkin' about....

God forbid something should happen. That's all I'm saying...

I'm probably alone on all this, but I enjoy some of the grittier aspects of downtown in certain pockets. Time Square used to be an interesting place to visit until they turned into Disney World. Ultimately I agree they will get priced out of the market, but I don't relish the idea of forcing these business out just so white people can feel safer. 

Jury duty aerial view

 

image1.PNG

The only good thing about jury duty is the view

Downtown Houston by Marc longoria, on Flickr

Whoa!

According to their Web page, they cannot take possession of the site until they meet their 2017 fundraising goal, which they don't mention. Based on the prestigious design firm, my guess is it won't be cheap.