brijonmang

Wow, this thread brings back memories.  Not good ones, but memories nonetheless.  I remember the teeth gnashing when this got scrapped.  It was up there with the Shamrock Hotel downtown.  Luckily we got 609 Main a while later, hopefully we get the same upgrade here.

11 hours ago, ekdrm2d1 said:

We are all enjoying the fruits of your new downtown job  

Wow, what an upgrade!

29 minutes ago, Urbannizer said:

 

 

Inside source, you asked him this as well in the same thread lol

 

I trust his source, he leaked renderings of Hanover BLVD Place for us.

 

I'll check again to see if anything new has been talked of...

30 minutes ago, cspwal said:

Was that from a drone or a garage?

Flying camera  

On 5/26/2019 at 2:05 PM, hindesky said:

Glassias señor.

Personally I think it makes more sense to merge these topics into one consolidated thread since this whole thing is connected.  Similar to the BLVD Place thread that aggregated a few different buildings into one place for easy to follow updates.

A closer shot from an Instagram buddy

26 minutes ago, Nate99 said:

Turner is a failure on so many fronts, but I will give him and the city one qualified bit of credit in trying to eliminate the campsites via an ordinance some years back. Apparently a judge found a constitutional right to camp on public rights of ways, so the city stopped enforcement. It appears that they threw in the towel after the judgement though, so my credit stops there.  The idea was part of a larger effort to move these camps away from downtown to minimally restrictive sites with a few basic services to keep the spread of disease to a minimum and keep downtown's trajectory as a place that the rest of us, from dish washers to CEO's, actually want to be. 

 

"Affordable housing" and people living in underpass campsites do not belong in the same discussion.  It's hijacking one visible emotional problem to serve another, completely separate issue. People that can not manage the most basic parts of a social compact are not a subsidized apartment away from benign, but apparently we can't legally institutionalize them or clear out their filth until there is some definitive public health hazard.  There are dozens of private charities in Houston in addition government services that these people are not utilizing. As pointed out, cities with better climates and more generous public services have the problem far worse than Houston, we might want to use that as a marker for our next steps as a city.

 

Panhandling every day around busy pedestrian areas nets enough cash for their addiction/self-medicating on occasion until they are either arrested, taken to a hospital or tragically die on our streets.  This is not compassionate and it's not "grit", it's shameful. 

 

One case in point...

 

 

I watched that documentary about a month ago.  Really well done and shows what happens when lax laws and red tape hamstring the system meant to help keep this problem from getting so bad.

3 hours ago, hindesky said:

Cement pump tower is sitting on Travis ready to be installed.

Well, no need for me to post my phone pics of this or the Preston since we got the same exact ones...Great to meet you earlier!

13 minutes ago, CaptainJilliams said:

 

I could be wrong, but technically I believe it is designed to flood.

You are right.  Everything within BBP (outside maybe the park above the cistern) is going to flood whenever we get tons of rain.  Buffalo Bayou is the main drainage channel for much of the area's waterways and storm runoff.   

4 hours ago, gene said:

Omg i rode my bike there and think i saw y'all from afar!!!! haha! dangit, should have stopped!

 

If it was around 10 am then I'd say you definitely saw us!

20 hours ago, hindesky said:

More artwork going up, this was at the cistern and more at the Lost Lake.

Bit of a funny story, but I was taking photos for a friends engagement here yesterday morning (the actual down on the knee engagement). And to our surprise they were doing some heavy jackhammering.  Luckily one of the tour guides from the Cistern was able to get the crews to stop for a few minutes so he could get through the question.  Interestingly enough, the people at the cistern weren't even told what the construction was for.

Great shots guys! @ekdrm2d1 @hindesky

Unfortunately I had no time to take flight but looks like there's still some more time to go before it starts getting too interesting.

1 hour ago, Luminare said:

@ekdrm2d1 or @hindesky .....I think a photo update of the site is in order. All hands on deck to re-steer this vessel!

If the weather is nice tomorrow morning I'll try to get an aerial between photoshoots 

18 hours ago, gene said:

Oh crud! Hope you are feeling better!!! 

17 hours ago, bobruss said:

Sorry to hear that Bryan. Hope you recover soon!

8 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

The internet can get so toxic at times. I really love our little community. Hope you feel better man!

Thank you everyone! I'm almost back to 100%, been an interesting ride haha.  I really appreciate the HAIF community reaching out like this! Oh yeah, and thanks for always keeping me in the loop on all the cool new stuff going on around town  

1 hour ago, gene said:

 

THE most talented photographer I know...

your images always blow me away

 

Thanks Gene! I need to get back out there... eye infection followed by the flu over the past month has not been great for my picture taking!

15 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

While I don't like the term "value-engineering', its also become a very broadly applied term thats almost lost its intended meaning. For others not in the industry we call this process the "VE" process. It happens on every...single...project. What you don't want is for your architects to be enormous push overs, or contractors VE'ing stuff that shouldn't be VE'ed (you won't believe the corners contractors look to cut even for things that are legitimately important), or owners that are pinching pennies when they don't have too. Its an incredibly risky business and its amazing that people invest or want to build a building, period. To that point, people are going to want to make sure money is being used properly, and that has always been the intended use of "VE". The design that has been shown is completely doable. For me its always been the finishes. Will it look cheap or will they go all the way and not cut corners in places that don't make sense. So when anyone here hears the term "VE" that doesn't mean the design that was presented will be dumbed down or even changed (usually that is rare and actually costs more to dumb down or change a project completely). Usually its finishes and detailing that gets "VE". Its a balance, and I've seen multiple ways it plays out. Hopefully they have a competent GC.

I agree.  I am in the design industry like you are and I just find it easier to use VE as a broad term.  I'm very familiar with having my projects get their budgets slashed in the middle of doing the construction drawings 😡.  My brother also mentioned that the drawings he saw had a very robust HVAC system, he said it was somewhat over designed so it sounds like they aren't taking the cheap route there.

On 3/29/2019 at 10:44 AM, BlindTiger said:

I meant to post this sooner, but you know how things are.

 

I was in town and driving by the property in early March.  Guys were working inside so my SO and I thought we might try to take a peek and just have a chat.  We spoke to the lead construction guy, whose name is eluding me right now.  The sales gallery is basically a model unit so prospective buyers can see what condos in the tower will look like.  They will have a huge tv that is able to show the view out the windows of any given unit which I thought was pretty neat.  The metal design on the outside of the gallery I think is there to stay, it is going to be the actual design/finish for most of what is being built there.  The guy said it was his first time working with that material and he was really interested to see how it went because it was going to be incorporated everywhere.  It is all pre-fabbed and shipped in from Australia.  

 

He confirmed a start date on the pavillion of April.  (Speaking to him in early March, he said they would break ground "next month.").  I think he said construction on the pavilion would take about a year and then they would get the retail in, etc.  The details here are a bit fuzzy but I'm pretty sure he said they would break ground on the tower (the next building they would start) in about 9 months, so December, and that once they broke ground construction would take about 3 years.   After getting the tower underway, they would begin work on the other two buildings, but did not have a definite timeline.  Overall, he said timeline to complete would be about 5 years. 

Just to try and further bring validity to this post, I spoke with my brother this weekend who told me his company (contractor for high-rise MF) has this on their schedule for November/December.  Also, the drawings he's seen are very similar to the renderings shown so hopefully this isn't being value engineered like we fear.