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Angostura

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Everything posted by Angostura

  1. Angostura
    People will and do walk if the built environment is conducive to it, even in Houston. Distance from origin to destination isn't the only factor. Places that are pleasant to walk in tend to have a few things in common: - Enclosure: the place is visually defined by vertical elements (trees, buildings, etc.) - Transparency: there's stuff to see beyond the enclosure (i.e. windows in street facing facades) - Scale: there are details that are visible/interesting to a person on foot moving at a walking pace - Isolation from (fast) vehicle traffic: either a landscape buffer or significant traffic calming By building wide roads with building set far back from the right of way, most streets in Houston lack pretty much all of these elements.
  2. Angostura
    So, no retail. The other Highline projects have all requested parking variances to come in a few spaces below CoH minimums and keep parking to one level. Assume this will do the same.
  3. Angostura
    Will probably depend on whether or not they can do so safely, which will depend on more protected lanes/bikeways. E-scooters and bikes are a non-option on our sidewalks, and would be scary on a lot of our streets. Saw it here:
  4. Angostura
    It looks... not terrible? At least the eastern half. Looks like the freeway frontage is just parking, not residential. A pseudo street grid with relatively narrow RoWs, structured parking. The surface parking dominating the western half isn't great, and it looks like there'll be zero integration with the MKT trail (in fact, it may be actively isolated from the trail), but it's better than the previous plans.
  5. Angostura
    VMT (vehicle miles traveled) in Houston has basically been flat over the last 10 years (falling on a per capita basis), and we have almost certainly seen the peak amount of lane-miles of surface streets inside the loop. Absent non-market constraints (e.g. parking minimums) It's natural to start shifting land use away from surface parking and toward more productive uses.
  6. Angostura
    Given what I assume is HRH's target demo, the site's main draw must be its proximity to the Men's Club.
  7. Angostura
    AFAIK, this site is still subject to parking minimums, since city council hasn't approved the expansion of the exempt area yet (unless I missed it). That said, within a 2-block radius of this site, there are about 9 full blocks that are either vacant or already dedicated to surface parking. If there's a demand for parking, I'm sure it will be provided (at some price greater than zero).
  8. Angostura
    No, it just gets replicated. Driving west on I-10 from the city is like watching a tape loop. Every 7-8 miles or so the same set of big box stores repeats.
  9. Angostura
    If the numbers are based on traffic counts, then it includes all the cars on the road. Some possible explanations for the continued existence of large surface parking lots in the CBD include: (a) land speculation (parking revenue exceeds carrying costs, so the owner waits until the windfall from selling increases) (b) corporate inertia (parking revenue exceeds carrying costs, so the owner focuses on other priorities) (c) surface parking is the highest and best use of the land Of these, (c) is almost certainly not true (since the current opportunity cost per space is about 2-3X the cost of structured parking), which leaves us with (a) and (b). So, while raising the carrying costs won't create demand for built space, the current highest-and-best use of those blocks is probably somewhere between 10 single-family houses and 70-story office building. By making surface parking a cash-negative situation for the corporate owner, they would have an incentive to do something more productive with the land.
  10. Angostura
    IIRC, the original version of the ordinance didn't have this restriction. So if a block enacted MLS to prevent subdividing lots for, say, townhouses, a developer could decide to just build multi-family instead. The process is a kind of back-door, opt-in zoning, and insofar as it keeps enough people for agitating for ACTUAL zoning, it's probably a useful escape valve.
  11. Angostura
    Here's the argument for taxing surface parking: structured parking only makes economic sense when the opportunity cost of the land used for surface parking is higher than construction cost of providing structured parking. Round numbers, let's say this happens at around $5M/acre (might be a little less). However, if you artificially limit density by REQUIRING a bunch of parking when land values are BELOW this number, then you create conditions where it's very difficult for land values to appreciate to a level where structured parking makes more economic sense than surface parking. By taxing surface parking, you increase its cost relative to denser alternatives. Eventually, the land value appreciates and the need for the tax to discourage surface parking dissipates. With respect to the other points, no one's saying suburbans have to move and granny has to ride an e-scooter to reduce VMT. First, there's evidence VMT per capita is already falling, and total VMT is about flat over the last 12 years despite a large increase in population. Most of these VMT reductions are a result of increased density (having a grocery store a mile away instead of 3 miles, for example). Second, measures like congestion charges are nudges designed to shift incentives away from single-occupancy vehicles and towards other means of travel. Want a 50% discount on congestion charge (and a 2X increase in fuel efficiency)? Put a second person in the car! And you don't have to give up your 1/4 acre for density, but as land prices go up, some of your neighbors might decide it's a good idea.
  12. Angostura
    I like the narrowness of the internal streets, and the fact that they're not dead straight, so the sightlines are more interesting.
  13. Angostura
    Hello, architect? Our bar doesn't look nearly enough like a medium-security prison. Can you help us fix that?
  14. Angostura
    I think I'm kinda w/ s3mh on this one. I'm pretty much OK with the massing. The 20th St frontage is essentially 6 stories (a reasonable height fronting a street that width). The 12-story facade on Nicholson would seem overly high fronting a street as narrow as Nicholson, except the RoW on Nicholson is actually 50% wider than 20th (90 vs 60 ft). And the afternoon shade on that stretch of the bike trail would be welcome. But the architecture is... not great? With the exception of the balconies on the north façade, it looks more like an office building or hotel than residential. And with the exception of the (3-story) lobby on the corner, the rest of the street-facing parts of the building look to be essentially blank walls covering a parking structure. Could be better.
  15. Angostura
    The rendering is Nicholson and 20th, looking SW. That's the bike trail across the street from the building, and Waterworks would be to the left of the image. I'm curious about the building to the right of this one in the rendering.
  16. Angostura
    I think that's right, but I think it's because these buildings serve a very specific niche of the market, for which the added price per s.f. and maintenance fees are justified by convenience/security/service/etc. Currently the buyer who wants 3 BRs for ~$300/sf is well served by the TH/SFH market (depending on the neighborhood), but there may soon come a time in certain neighborhoods where it's impossible to hit that price point if each unit comes with 2000 s.f. of dirt. At that point, someone with a 10,000 sf lot to develop may choose to build 12 x 2500-sf condos instead of 5 or 6 2500-sf THs.
  17. Angostura
    I'm sure there's a very specific market for this kind of building at this price point, but it seems... expensive? There's only about $100k in dirt per unit, so if you subtract that out, it's something like $660/s.f. This is something like 2-2.5x the density of a typical townhouse 6-pack (in both square footage and dwelling units per acre). If the market-clearing density for high-demand neighborhoods reaches the level where this kind of project becomes common, I think the pricing to would need to come down to the $300-400/sf level (a little above current wood-frame townhouse prices).
  18. Angostura
    Can't really speak to the tacos, but if I worked in the area, the Mondays where I picked up a $10 backdoor chicken on the way home would probably outnumber the Mondays when I didn't.
  19. Angostura
    It's actually worse. From AMZN's perspective, it's better for the company to choose a high-tax location with lots of incentives than a low-tax location with lower incentives. By choosing to locate in states with relatively high state income taxes, (originally VA and NY) they are essentially diverting a portion of their employees' salaries back to the company, just laundered through the state tax system on the way.
  20. Angostura
    Almost certainly true. But APV is sufficiently low density (as compared to most of what is being built nearby), that a clever developer should be able to find a way to make money with the same number of BMR units in a mixed-use, mixed-income development on that piece of land.
  21. Angostura
    +1 Density and walkability are not synonyms. This is the problem with algorithmic measures like Walk Score, which rate relative proximity of various amenities, but don't take into consideration how crappy the pedestrian experience can be.
  22. Angostura
    Apparently they meant: Easy Park is planning a retail development on [ano]the[r] property called Railway Heights. Maybe they got confused because this particular Easy Park project is actually IN the Heights (though not particularly near a railway)
  23. Angostura
    Ate at DOM earlier this year. Given his approach, I would be very surprised if (a) he decided to open an outpost outside of Brazil, and (b) if Houston was the place he opened it.
  24. Angostura
    Better than "The Gray"?
  25. Angostura
    I'm in the opposite camp: much more interested in the bottom 5 floors than the next 40; more interested in how this looks from the sidewalk than from a helicopter (seeing as I spend more time on sidewalks than in helicopters). We have lots of towers in Houston, but not many great (or even good) streetscapes.
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