jm1fd

Your first mistake is thinking that the wards are restricted only to areas with certain income levels and home sizes.

Why is that such a mistake? The intended original income strata for which something was platted and restricted determines numerous attributes about the area such as lot size, layout, and types and quality of construction, all of which are attributes which overwhelmingly define the character of the neighborhood.

Technically speaking, Riverside Terrace and Washington Terrace were not "Third Ward", since the ward system was disbanded (1906) before they were built (1920's).

However, geographically, the Terraces ABSOLUTELY are part of the Third Ward.

Well, if geography is the defining criteria, then I don't see the need for more than one category, since geography is defined as the physical features of an area, and the physical feature of Houston consists of...well....FLAT. I suppose you could have two geographical areas...one for the more southerly area of town, with costal plains, and then another area comprised of the coastal forests found on the north side of town.

Most of the Third Ward isn't ghetto. There are huge mansions in Riverside Terrace and brick bungalows and traditional two stories in Washington Terrace, Binz, and a few other hoods that would make West U jealous. There have always been solid middle to upper middle class families that OWN in the Third Ward.

On what grounds are you convincing yourself that Washington and Riverside Terraces are part of the third ward? They're totally separate subdivisions, with different layouts, built for different income groups. The Heights doesn't call itself the sixth ward, and Rice Miltary doesn't proclaim itself as the first ward.

Eventually it will be taken over future Garden Oaks yuppies. Its sad but true.

Not if they have another Save Our Ghetto campaign like the 3rd ward.

Garden Oaks probably organized a committee to get the wall put in and whined a lot. That's how things get done. If I lived in Independence Heights, I'd start making noise to the city...

I don't know if that's how the wall got put up, but I can say for certain that GO has many first class whiners....

Did Garden Oaks pay for that wall (i don't think so).

Of course they did. They pay a whole lot more in taxes than the poor people.

When was the last time you were in the life building. Back in 2002-2003 the building was completely re-modeled. The difference was night and day. Granted, the building has no charm from the outside and is a cubicle nightmare in the tenant space, but the atrium is kinda cool if you ask me. I thought Riviana and Woodson buildings were horrible all around. I know that AIG was looking to renovate those two buildings before I left, but those cheapies probably half assed it. They seriously spent all the capital dollars on the security of those buildings.

Wortham has a lot of charm, but the lobby is bit bland.

UGH! Cheap is right.

Last time I was in the Life building was 2005. I thought it still had a solid retro feel. I guess it was way way more retro before they redid it. Yes, the atrium is the best part of the building.

They were renovating some of the floors on the Woodson building when I left. In fact I have a conference room B sign from that building...a co-worker and I were rumaging around on the 7th floor, and we found it stuck to the inside of one of the exterior windows....clearly it wasn't the conference room and they were going to discard the sign, so I snagged it.

You are right that the security there is overdone. It's too bad people can't get into the complex; the rear lobby of the Wortham building is a great mid-century space. That "Life" building is awful, though.

I thought the Life building was another good example of period architecture/design....more period than the Wortham lobby....in fact I think the Wortham lobby has been stripped of some of its mid century-ness.

Very good !! Do you work in the complex. I used to work over there (2 years ago) and you nailed the buildings down.

I left AIG VALIC about a year ago.

I wish somone (not me) would make a mash up google earth site with this information mapped.

LOL They have....its called the ABC 13 Exclusive CRIME TRACKER. LOL Its so funny...it says © Google Maps 2006 down in the corner every time they display it.

Check hcad.org.....they may have some of the square footage itemized as residential.

I have read 2 or 3 messages about this Bldg. that goes on to state it is a group of Bldg's. As time permits would someone be able to say just how many Bldg's are in the group and if each have its own name or address?

There are 5 office buildings. The Riviana building (~18 stories), the Wortham Tower (25 stories), the Woodson building (~18 stories), the America Tower (~43 stories), and the Life building (~5 stories, behind Wortham Tower). There are also 2 (maybe 3) parking garages.

I'm glad to see that this house is being preserved. Although it is too bad it will have to be moved down the road....too bad they can't leave it where it is...they could do a period themed neighborhood with the mansion as the focal point.

I wonder what the original house looked like....says it was built in 1938. The exterior isn't bad, but the interior is awful....looks like somebody just $h|t columns out all over the place....and the kitchen looks SO cheap.

Pix aren't loading....when I try to load the URL of the pix I get can't find server.

She said River Oaks had a lot of racial undertones because they had Deed restrictions until 1986 saying minorities an jewish ppl live there. Is this true? (its hard for me to believe this

Lots of old subdivisions had deed restrictions prohibiting black people from living there. Don't know about Jews, but I do know that the Jews had their own version of River Oaks called Riverside Terrace.

I thought all the Rita blogs were indispensable while I was out of town. Also, I usually read the other blogs and pick up some useful info and links....except for MeMo....that one should be entitled "Diary of a Crack Smoker"

My grandma always saved those...I remember going to the green stamp store with her back in the day.

If we are talking stores and gas stations, then we might as well get a bonus

A positive lining?  Downtown will get more workers.  Also, office space in Greenway which I assume is cheaper than downtown is now on the market for some smaller businesses to rent out.

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ElPaso moved out a while back.

Our company just subleased one of the top floors in Greenway #9....it is a much better deal than the terrible little dump we left behind.

Here's what I could pull together for South Main.

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Great series. Where'd you find it all??

I can't vouch for its accuracy, but I've used www.efloodmap.com to investigate an area's flooding potential.

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Nifty site...I'm adding that to my arsenal along with tsarp.org

Thanks!

not to mention the ugly orange/brownish brick of the Four Seasons hotel across from the Houston Center. It frustrates me that none of these buildings feel they need to update themselves into the look of the 21st century.

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I think that one is kinda cool. Why does everything have to look like cutting edge 21st century? The world would be quite boring if everything was new, fresh and up to date.

I think his co-worker was pulling his leg.

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Wouldn't surprise me if he exaggerated some.

I think he's saying that the pole extended two stories into the top of the building for support.  Or at least that's how I read it.

I guess you could have a larger flag if you made it out of mesh so the wind wouldn't get so much force on any side.  But maybe that would keep it from fluttering since the larger the flag, the more wind you need to move it.

Amazingly, the FAA doesn't list this flagpole as an aviation hazard even though 63TS, the America Tower heliport, is right there.

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No no....he read it correctly....he said it draped over 2 stores down. The pole went down 3 stories into the building. (Allegedly)

So we have a heliport? Its on top of the tower??

i'm no structural engineer but if a flag blowing around on the roof weakens teh structure of a skyscraper...isn't that in the least bit disturbing?

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First off, I forgot, in my original post to mention that I have no other substantiating evidence of the story....that's just what my coworker said...I don't doubt it, however.

As to the disturbing nature of it, the building wasn't designed for it, so I'm sure they had to make some compromises in the strength, and number of the mounts, and also think about how much force you'd be exerting at the bottom of the pole with 5-6 stories worth of leverage. You'd also probably design a weak point into the system, so if, say the flag was left out in a hurricane, it wouldn't severely damage the building.....you'd just severely damage, or break the weak point.

So, I was talking to some coworkers today, and we got off on the topic of the flag on top of our building. One of the guys that had been there for many many years informed us that the US flag on the top of the building was once MUCH MUCH larger than it is today....he said that, in fact it used to drape over the building and cover up the windows of the 43rd and 42nd floors when the wind wasn't blowing.

As to why we have a smaller flag now...well apparently when the wind was blowing at a good clip and 'ol glory was pulled out taut, it created so much force that it damaged the top 3 stories of the building that the pole mounts down through. The American General CEO flew the huge flag that he wanted, even though the engineers had told him it was a no no.

Personally, I think the flag should be double or triple its current size....the mass of the building makes it look kinda puny.

If I ever amass this much junk, somebody come shoot me!!

That is exciting news!  Now talk about before pictures...

What you had to see past just to see some possibility. 

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This wouldn't be such a good idea...you're creating a big greenhouse that would bake whatever is in it, or at the very least run up a huge light bill from the 2 billion tons of refrigeration to keep it cool....

Since Houston is so hot, I wish the Galleria would build something like this.  It looks like an outdoor shopping district, because it looks like each store is a seperate building with its own storefront.  This mall is located somewhere in Birmingham England.

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