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bobruss

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Everything posted by bobruss

  1. bobruss
    As a graduate of U. of H., I am very excited to see all of these improvements to our campus. I went to the Texas State game and was pleasantly surprised at the turnout for the game. It was close to full and you can see the change in spirit out there even for a lower level non conference opponent. It used to take a Texas Tech, or Ok. St., or nationally ranked team to get this kind of turnout so its nice to see more fans showing up to support the Coogs. Hope we can keep this win streak alive this weekend at Tulsa. Eat em up!!!
  2. bobruss
    Really like the library.
  3. bobruss
    I realize it's starting to show but it's the Market Square tower that's really standing out in front right now and just think it's got at least 10 or 11 more floors to go. Once 609 gets another ten floors it will take center stage but I'm excited about what these two new residential towers are going to do to spread DT north.
  4. bobruss
    That would be great. I'd love to see it go up. I hope Houston19514 will shed some light.
  5. bobruss
    They have to build the garage out so they can get the tunnel back in operation. I don't believe they are going to start a spec building in these economic conditions. Especially with mergers going on like Williams. They are just completing what they were obligated to do and that was finish the garage and reopen the tunnel. That way they'll have some revenue coming in while they wait out this downturn. These people are not into risk taking. They're northern Europeans and they make conservative plays. It will get built but unless there is a major player ready to take a huge chunk of space it's going on the back burner no matter how loud everyone screams. I'm disappointed also but it's not the end of the world. I was really liking the unobstructed view of the Pennzoil. That will be gone very soon.
  6. bobruss
    Enrique thats the Market Square tower jutting up on the north end of town and just wait until they add12 more floors. It will really push the perimeter forward.
  7. bobruss
    Unfortunately we still have bigotry in this country, but hopefully this will turn some heads and the security guards boss will be reprimanded. That is just blatant profiling and in a city as diverse as Houston, shouldn't be happening. You were right to take a stand and thankfully Oliver McMillan handled it properly.
  8. bobruss
    I think that once they take down the fences, and if you go by there at night it will be magnificent with the illuminations from inside glowing through the metal facade. It will look like one of those lanterns with slats that allow a lot of light to come thru.They'll have banners and landscaping and it will look much more exciting. However I do wish they had used some brick or stone, to break up all of the different metal sidings.
  9. bobruss
    I wasn't picking on you. You usually seem to defend Randall's work and I was just saying sorry because I thought it might rattle you that I hate what he's doing to Uptown with his cheesy finishes and poorly executed work. Just look how stunning the new Billiton is and then look at the kitschy details on Randall's work. The diamond is ridiculous. Now what is it styrofoam and cheap plaster that he's going to cover most of the building with. Reminds me of the other hotel in the Discovery Green, the Embassy Suites with its stucco walls. Cheap cheap cheap!
  10. bobruss
    Thanks for the tip on the construction cam. I pulled it up and happened to see a terrible view of Randall's new Astoria and the white looks terrible. What the is he doing. Its going to be uglier than I had hoped it wouldn't. He's determined to make Uptown look really cheesy. I'm sorry Cloud713, but this is going to be bad especially from the freeway side. If the white is the final skin.
  11. bobruss
    All kidding aside. This is a great plan for the future of the medical center. My wife works in the U.T. School of Nursing by Lake Flato and they are one block from the bayou at Bertner so I know that area well. I unfortunately had to spend some time with a close relative last month in the top of the new wing of M.D.Anderson, and from the roof observation deck you can really see the scope of the medical center to the south. It pretty much overwhelms the area past Old Spainish trail and almost to 610 in some area. This is from Main over to Almeda to the east. It will easily overtake the whole section of land within the 610 boundary to the south in the next 20 years, one way or the other. There are large tracts of vacant land that I would imagine the TMC is holding for future expansion.
  12. bobruss
    Okay so are you suggesting that it would be a retention pond/parking garage with its proximity to Braes Bayou?
  13. bobruss
    It won't be long once all of these units that are being built right now fill up with tenants who will create a need for all kinds of goods and services. Once that happens the fabric of the neighborhoods will develop and necessitate more types of stores and service related options that you readily find everywhere in the burbs. As I walked the three major neighborhoods developing in downtown, yesterday , (The ball park),(Market Square) and (the village along Main St.), around the Sky Houses and east towards Toyota Center, I could sense the way these neighborhoods are beginning to develop. You begin to notice the small one and two story buildings that are either vacant or house various businesses that seem to have past their prime and will give way to new hip retail and service oriented businesses that will give the neighborhood its street vibe with shops and service oriented businesses and restaurants popping up all around the new construction. The infill will happen fairly quick as the needs develop. This is going to be a really good time for service related businesses to step into this area and open cleaners, florists, salons, dentist and doctors offices, hardware and grocery stores. I'm sure young entrepreneurs are scouring the east side of Main for their location in the old buildings, next to one of these bustling rapidly developing neighborhoods.
  14. bobruss
    Thats why we have lazy river water attractions. So people who like to float or swim in blue water can pretend their floating down that mountain stream with limestone banks. None of the rivers that flow through the eastern half of Texas are blue. They all have muddy bottoms and no rocks to filter the sediments. You're just going to have to live with it the way it is. Its a bayou.
  15. bobruss
    From my count it looks like they're on the 28th floor, so they should have roughly 12 more to go. Which should put it about where the power line runs across the image above.
  16. bobruss
    Good points Gator. Also the area behind the ball park is rapidly filling up with the types of game day places you might want to hit before a ball game.
  17. bobruss
    Well with all of the discussion I decided to make Christian's my destination for lunch today. I spent the morning taking pictures around the city and did a lot of walking. I met one of the owners Zack and general manager Blake after lunch. it was almost 2:00 when I got in line to order. It was only about five people but still this was at 2:00. There were maybe twenty people eating and having a good time. I had the small cheese burger and fries and the burger was incredible. The fries were crisp and very good. Zack said that he has been involved with bars in downtown since the mid nineties, with Power Tools and several other ventures. Just to clarify this is on Congress and Fannin on the south side of Congress. I asked Zack how the start of business went and whether it met their expectations. First he made it clear that they wanted a soft opening without any fanfare so they could grow at a nice pace and be able to handle the business as it grew. Which is a very savvy approach. I know from experience that if you can't handle the crush from a lot of advertising you hurt yourself more with unhappy customers that might be hesitant to come back. Second he made it clear that they knew how to advertise and that would come. I know they sponsor Sports 610 at their four different locations for live broadcasts and I can promise you that there will be no grass growing in the sidewalks around this sports bar ever. Congratulations on an outstanding weekend. Oh did I tell you they had the busiest weekend they have ever had at any location. So like I said before if you have a name around town for good food, fun and good service you can open anywhere if people live or work in the area.
  18. bobruss
    That is an incredible presentation, and a very nice and expensive looking place to live. I love the courtyard and the massing is nice.
  19. bobruss
    I keep seeing Gotham city and I'm waiting for the skylights with the batman image in the clouds.
  20. bobruss
    WOW!!!!The lighting on the Billiton is stunning. Beautiful building. Thank you Urbannizer for posting Jay Lee's beautiful images. I also like to give credit to the person who actually takes these pictures which most seem to forget to give credit to.
  21. bobruss
    So from looking at this and counting floors with thirteen more to go this should top out at just about the top of the crane tower which will be quite a striking edifice to borrow one of Monarch's favorite expressions. So the buildings facade is going to be this finished concrete with what appears to be some stunning glazing. I was over at Kroger yesterday and they are starting to put in the windows on the North side facing the Kroger, and they look great. Hanovers projects are all well designed and executed. Along with Gerald Hines Southmore, on San Jacinto, and the other high rise going up behind Chelsea at 59 and the spur this cluster of new buildings just like the Market Square cluster are going to create a really strong southern midtown grouping and advance the march of the med center towards a downtown fusion. It won't be long if they build the 16 story where Van Loc was and the other proposed building in the Ensemble theater group and we will almost have a continuos skyline. Now if they actually ever build the Museo project on the Mann eye center property at Main that will pretty much make it continuous from the southern end of the med center at OST north to I-10.
  22. bobruss
    One last set of observations. 1. The shuttles were hard to catch we walked. 2 The Hobby's plaza was closed so that everyone was funneled out of one thin sidewalk which created a mess. 3.When we walked back to the garage elevators we stood in a line maybe 50 - 100 people long just to catch them out the door of the parking garage. 4.When you have to park above the 11th floor and everyone was supposed to park above the 9th it sure takes a long time getting down a parking garage full of people leaving all at the same time. I actually joked when I got on the elevator and people started calling out floors. I suggested that we shouldn't stop before we got to 9 since they had told us to park above 9 for free parking. That got a few laughs and some silly excuses, which i didn't care. I was just trying to make light. All in all I was certainly happy to have witnessed a collection of titans of twentieth century architects and well worth every inconvenience. Just wish I'd been invited to Jeff's house for dinner.
  23. bobruss
    I remembered another funny moment when one of the panelist and I'm sorry I can't remember who it was said that as the best developer he never had the urge to call them Hines Towers or Hines Hotel or Casino and Goldberger responded you mean like a certain person running for president? That brought a great laugh.
  24. bobruss
    Its all about the product. I was in the restaurant and bar business for 17 years in another lifetime and a perfect example is Barnaby's. They serve good food at reasonable prices and are very consistent and they are getting a good lunch crowd and are going to be expanding their hours. They're in a location that has had several failures. Niko NIko's kills em in the park. Theres always a lot of people at Trebeards. All of these I just mentioned have to compete with restaurants in the tunnels and yet they still draw good crowds even though their customers have to walk in the heat or rain or cold weather. If the food is good people will come. Remember that when these new residential projects get on line these people will be street pedestrians and won't be going down in tunnels to find a place. This is going to change the face of downtown when all of the new housing get filled. These people won't have access to the tunnels for the most part except during lunch. At some point down the road I predict that many of the restaurants and delis and shops will see that they need a presence on the streets to take advantage of all of the people walking around at night. Probably not in my lifetime but I promise you younger haifers won't believe how much of a change is going to happen. Its really an exciting time for Houston's downtown.
  25. bobruss
    Okay heres a few observations from today. Stern, Pelli and moderator Goldberger had great socks. Stern's were a bright yellow and something about his outfit and the way he leaned forward in his chair and his small stature made me think of a jockey. Cesar Pelli's were a bright orange and Goldbergers were a very natty pattern. The funniest line of the day was by Robert Stern in a followup to an answer by Art Gensler who said that he felt in response to a question by Goldberger about where architecture was doing the most revolutionary things and Art said it was in the interiors with all of the new technology focused on making the work place a better place for the people who spend 35% of their time in these offices. Stern said " If they don't like the suit, They won't like the underwear." Cesar Pelli kept getting passed over and when he finally got the floor he said that he was almost deaf and his hearing aids weren't really working that great and he only caught about half of what was said. So if he repeated someone else he was sorry. John Burgee said that when Hines first called, Johnson said he wouldn't work with money grubbing developers and Burgee said lets at least meet with him. He said they flew to Houston and they met for the first time at an International House of Pancakes which brought down the house. He said Hines walked in, in his jogging suit and Phillip ate lots of bacon which of course he later changed his diet and Goldberger said that he had a hard time picturing Phillip sitting in an IHOP eating bacon. Pelli also said that the first time he met with Gerald to do the Minneapolis tower was on a plane that he rode with Gerald from New York to Chicago and that Gerald was lugging around a very heavy bag, and when he asked Gerald what he was carrying Gerald told him potatoes. Pelli then caught a plane back to New York. Henry Cobb dean of Harvard school of Architecture looked like he was dosing off and took forever to make his answers. It was great to see them all on stage at once but it was a little like the Republican debates. Such a large panel and nothing really of deep substance was said. It really was a love fest for Gerald. Why would any of these fine architects want to do anything but heap high praise on a man who truly changed the role of developer, and made them all very successful busy architects. Oh Kohn said when asked if Gerald ever said no and he said only in competitions.Which got a good laugh.I thought Gerald looked a lot like Phillip Johnson with his bald head. Hope this fills you in a little. Very receptive crowd and I would compare it to a soft Roast. One last thing that Burgee said that I thought was great was that when he they worked for other developers after they had done the Pennzoil Building they would ask them what would Gerald do when they had problems, and he said if you don't know you just don't get it. The reason Frank Gehry wasn't there was because of a serious back issue, and his doctor said he could go if he could find a plane that would allow him to stand the whole way here. One thing that Goldberger brought up but not one of the panelist was about to address was the fact that there was not one woman on the floor. Everyone sort of looked around and then changed the subject to the other part of his question. Thats about all I can think of. If I think of any thing else I'll post it. Hope this wasn't too long.
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