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arche_757

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Everything posted by arche_757

  1. arche_757
    Ah. I see. I looked at just a few on there and didn't see that there were some at Cabela's and at other commercial entities. How odd to list "The Fountains at Cabela's" as a source of pride on a civic minded website (for a city that size). Then count on my good man - count on... but you may want to leave the Woodlands fountains off (since that techically isn't Houston)?
  2. arche_757
    I agree. But City Center is nice to look at on the oft chance I am in that part of town. I would imagine if this is a project beyond just conceptual work that they do in fact have a landscape architect on board. What would be wonderful to incorporate into this is an expanded presence of UHD in and around it. Perhaps they can work with UHD on that?
  3. arche_757
    I don't think we can really count fountains at apartment complexes or corporate buildings as public. If that is the case then there are thousands more fountains all around in the myriad retention ponds, residential developments out in the "burbs" and elsewhere.
  4. arche_757
    I'm not clear on that rendering? It looks like a hodge-podge of different apartments with different styles. Far from some sort of unifying masterplanned center (think City Center or any of those Uptown projects of similar scope). And the firm with the rendering is a landscape architecture/urban planning firm it would seem. I don't see how this project has legs with just residential and parkscape (as is presented in that rendering), and not to mention the fact that there are plenty of brand new (or soon to be finished) apartments targetting the exact same demographic as depicted here all over the inner loop. A shame they didn't have the forward sort of vision needed to incorporate Dynamo Stadium into this overall development.
  5. arche_757
    I will bet they've changed plans from office building to something else? Perhaps they are going a different route and will build a mixed use residential tower with hotel component and quite a bit of retail? Since I believe the city is offering incentives for hotels, and perhaps now they are also offering for retail. Or, maybe they will do a smattering of all three+retail? I seriously doubt we will see a super tall constructed in this town. Perhaps a 50 or 60 floor building (or 70 if its residential) but nothing as big as Transco will get off the ground unless our current boom continues for a few more years and the new office spaces planned generate enough interest that a few more will be warranted.
  6. arche_757
    Certainly. It is different from most of the existing/proposed highrise towers. It does copy (to some extent) StudioGang's work in Chicago though.
  7. arche_757
    That building was designed when Marshall Strabala was design director there. He left to form his own firm in Shanghai some time ago. He came to them from SOM where he was one of their top designers. The center for dance is nice - and Gensler does nice work, but I don't think of international design firm when I think of them.
  8. arche_757
    Ah yes. Why select a prestigious architect when there are such wonderful design firms like HOK, Gensler, PSP and others available? The Houston way... it seems. Would have been better to hold an open competition than to just select Gensler. Though I know the reason Gensler was picked. The architect who designed the current HSPVA works there. He's a big shmoozer with the well-to-do-cocktail-crowd (very good at it I might add - which isn't an insult), and probably put the bug in someone's ear that they would be a more reasonable firm to select than Diller Scofidio+Renfro (or others).
  9. arche_757
    I am curious then what examples of residential high rises you might cite as notworthy architecturally, both in Houston and nationally? There are very few that are ever really ground breaking. And isn't it clear that Hines is no longer the daring Hines of the 1970s and 1980s? And if anything, Houston is much more conservative architecturally speaking than during the boom years of the 60s - 80s.
  10. arche_757
    Of course we are all entitled to our opinions. That is what drives design. It is a residential tower of 20-30 floors in a town with many buildings that are much taller and larger, so it doesn't need to be an architectural masterpiece. However, I do think for the location of the building it should have perhaps been a bit shorter. Residential towers are always too narrow on one axis and too broad on the other. Sadly, other than 2727 Kirby (and the new tower on Wesleyan) few of the newer buildings have what I think of as good proportions. The Southmore looks like it is a tad too broad, but I'll reserve judgment until it is constructed and I can view it from multiple angles.
  11. arche_757
    Really? Interesting. Thanks. I thought ZC was involved there as well.
  12. arche_757
    Architectural design trends do blur between commercial and residential - and BBVA is a Kirksey design. Ziegler Cooper is designing this project. Neither is in the same league as Perkins+Will (in my opinion). Though both ZC and Kirksey have been given a bit more leeway in their designs of late and I am appreciating more and more Kirksey's work on the larger scale commercial side of things. Good news about mixing in retail. That will only work if it is a MUST stop kind of place, or, more critical mass of retail starts to pop up nearby to create a walkable retail scene in the area. I would love to see this neighborhood become more dense without destroying too many of the shaded single family residential properties. There are quite a few empty lots available for development in and around the immediate area that won't necessitate tearing down older homes.
  13. arche_757
    I've never had seats over near left field behind 1st base. So my perspective of the park is always from the 3rd base side. It is obvious that the entire downtown skyline won't be blocked - a 7-8 floor mid-rise isn't going to block the entire view, but it will impact it. Which was my point. All in all the positives of this project outweight the negatives. I was just being nit-picky.
  14. arche_757
    That lake is also man made... Houston offers more highrise diversity than Austin...so far. And as such we have fewer concentrations of high rise living than what we now see in Austin's downtown area. The difference is we have 5-7 different areas where residential towers have proliferated over the years. And this project, while not enough to drastically change Downtown forever, it is enough to help move Downtown in a more residential friendly direction. Given Hines' desire to build exclusively commercial buildings I can say that this project is non-the-less very promising.
  15. arche_757
    Thanks. I had been meaning to get back into this board... Oh heavens! I had forgotten about The Shamrock - aka - Camelot! Wow. That brings back memories... In regards to Finger Companies Ballpark mid-rise: Doing a little informal research I found that the likely building line is about 270' away from MMP's glass curtain wall. It will obstruct some of the views, but obviously will not completely hinder the casual ballgame goer from skyline views. And like H-Town Man said above - the added population downtown is a definite plus.
  16. arche_757
    The "mis-mash" of differing architectural elements in "box-like" form to create the apperance of multiple buildings mashed together (apparent in the elevations - as there are 3 design components - the "soft glass sides" and the "harder" stone/solid middle piece). That is a very non-technical explanation and the best I can do, sorry if it isn't sufficient? And I'm not being critical of the design, just saying it is remeniscent of what came out of Perkins+Will in the early 2000s in Chicago. Numerous other firms have adopted the same design "style" (for better or worse) and it is now in most cities in America that have current/modern highrise residential towers. I think in this particular building the horizontal elements seem to "outweigh" the vertical pieces as "offenders" of the non-conforming architectural style that I described above (again, in very non-scientific terminology). Does that make sense?
  17. arche_757
    In a perfect world I would have renovated the existing hotel (Ben Milam?) into residential or hotel and turned the block directly in front of the curtain wall at MMP into a park for the locals. Oh well. I do think that it will be bigger than most realize - much smaller than the baseball stadium but big enough to block views of the cooler old buildings in Downtown. We'll all still get to see the tops of the Houston Center towers and JP/Chase will obviously still be there for all to see. I suppose I should have chosen my words more carefully -- obstruct not obscure.
  18. arche_757
    Thanks for the photos. This has been an exciting project to follow. I'm a tad dismayed the Apache building will eat such a large chunk of the previous design - but that just allows the next developer room to add more dense retail+office across the street.
  19. arche_757
    True. It also depends on what orientation the apartments will be - whether it is a closed "0" or a "U" or "L" shaped plan. I know Union Station is also double height in the 1st floor, but we can assume the apartments will be around 84-98' tall (assuming ~12'-0" or 14'-0" floor to floor). So that's still a pretty large box that will obscure a good deal of the skyline - my point of argument. Also, the ground floor of the proposed apartments is also taller than the upper floors. I'm being very nitpicky. I should rather see something go up on those lots near the ball park than nothing. But I am asking if anyone has any clue of just how much of an obstruction this building will be? And more particularly whomever it was I was argueing with years ago (I believe Subdude) if they think this is a better construction than a 34 floor highrise? I'm just playing devils advocate.
  20. arche_757
    Why of course you are right. NO. I mean - in looking at that picture right there you can clearly see the 4 story buildin in the lower left corner doesn't obscure anything. Imagine 3 more floors and a 2 block long structure. Clearly.
  21. arche_757
    I'm just curious why people are so pleased with this project, while many posters on this board fought the Ballpark Place tower years ago. Seems odd. And there was a time when the Juice Box was full (or fuller - as they say in East Texas).
  22. arche_757
    Then the architects are saving the thousands of their fees that would go towards getting that other rendering. I'm sure if it starts to manifest itself from more than just a rendering and construction is near then we will see some additional details here and there. Personally, of all the buildings proposed for downtown this is the one I like the most and think that it will have the greatest impact on the city as a whole. If modern highrise living in downtown both from Hines and whats their name further south on Main Street work, then we can start to expect more and more development of this typology.
  23. arche_757
    Ah. Well, hopefully they decide to move forwad with this. And since they own the property I can't imagine they would do anything with it if they don't move forward with the 50+ floor tower.
  24. arche_757
    Yes I know. But it was only 1 block wide (not even with setbacks). They may have done studies on this to determine that views wouldn't be totally obscured? Who knows?
  25. arche_757
    Since no one else has commented: This is a world class exhibit! And the new Egyptian Hall is also world class - though one hopes that the Boston Museum of Fine Arts doesn't come calling for the pieces on loan to the museum any time soon. To have such a phenomenal display of prehistoric fossils is wonderful, and the sheer amount of them is mind boggling. Props to HMNS and the Duncan family. Architecturally it isn't a world renowned design. It works, though the entry through and around the existing exhibit hall is clunky and a tad confusing. I hope that the HMNS works hard to establish a more coherant plan through their old exhibits and eventually renovate the main exhibit hall (where the dinosaur's were housed before).
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