The Great Hizzy!

Until you have an actual neighborhood where a larger percentage of people invest in residential properties, you're going to have a trendy, phase-in/phase-out type of place. DT IS changing--again--and it may take a year or two (or three) to see what it becomes. But if you want something a little more stable, more enduring, it'll require a surplus of people who actually LIVE there.

Zoning is often mentioned in these types of discussions but there are streetscapes in Los Angeles and Phoenix (cities with zoning) that are plagued by billboards and overbearing store marquees as well. What seems to make it more noticeable and, apparently, egregious in Houston is that the billboards are more prominent along feeder roads that parallel freeways (where visitors from airports are more likely to notice). But even that is a case-by-case situation, as there are quite a few segments of various freeways in Houston that are relatively billboard free. Miami-Dade and Broward counties also have some rather inundated streetscapes when it comes to billboards and store marquees, FTR. Again, zoning is in place in most municipalities in those counties. All that said, I agree that you're not likely to see the billboards go anywhere anytime soon unless you have a Katy Freeway style expansion that calls for the purchase of several properties fronting the freeway which may have these signs and billboards sticking obnoxiously into the air.

My only concern is that the would be developers become so "desperate" get something up that the project will turn out to be nothing more than a hodge-podge of loosely planned projects that don't really add up to a quality product. I realize that time is money and that the longer the Astrodome sits in its current state, the more the taxpayers have to fork over, but you also don't want to squander what could be a prime opportunity to not only change the Astrodomain's environment but the character of the entire area hugging the South Loop between Fannin and Main Streets.

Yeah, sorry, but they're not coming up for me either.

That's been my hope since MMP Park (then Enron Field) opened in 2000.

The Chronic strikes again. Good job.

Cool!

I can confirm as of yesterday that the skeleton of a three-story (or taller) building is present and there are at least a half dozen bulldozers and backhoes on site. Part of the problem is that the location of the core construction activity can be obscured by some of the existing structures surrounding it. The best views are from the overpasses that connect the Tollway to the Katy Freeway westbound. What's also cool is that you can envision the amount of activity this area will enjoy when both Memorial City and T&C are all full build. It's an impressive little piece of real estate when viewed from above.

That's very good news about tower II. Does this mean that the sells facility will be gutted soon (or has it been already?). I've not been in that area in a few weeks.

I amuse myself, because I keep thinking that the building's design sort of looks like a giant container of Speedstick or Right Guard. I think it's the concave shapes at the top and bottom.

No, this would be a seperate project. The project you're referencing would be a remodeling fo the former Sheraton Hotel on Louisiana @ Polk, right next to 1201 Louisiana and across from the Hyatt Regency. If you've walked that area recently, you'll know the city has been rehabbing the sidewalks due south of the building.

I like the exterior, especially if they go with the white or off-white color.

All this reminds me of the fear I've always had crossing the Trinity River east of Houston (near Wallisville) on that old, rickety, decrepit two-lane bridge on I-10. As I understand it, work on that bridge was scheduled to begin this year? Is this the case? I've not been that far east of Houston on I-10 since January of this year.

I would imagine so. For example (and yes, I realize it's a baseball team but it still holds, I think), the Cincinnati Reds have a club policy against facial hair (outside of eyebrows and lashes, of course). You're not allowed a moustache, goatee, sideburns, etc. I imagine if its contract employment, such stipulations might be written into your contract. If I'm wrong, our resident lawyers will certainly set me straight.

That overhead gives me the best impression of progress on the park that I've been able to enjoy for some time. The ground level shots are often obscured by construction equipment or trees for you to really gain an appreciation for how much work has been done (and yet still needs to be done).

I don't want to get to deep into this (and FTR, I'm of the camp that thinks this is more a subjective argument than anything else regarding the parking garage), but regulation in the case of development is at least restrictive in nature. By definiton, you are at least setting guidelines as to what's allowable, doable and feasible, thus for some, there's a restrictive nature, a potential limiter or constrictor of whatever it is that they might want to do. Restriction doesn't necessarily equate to elimination or repulsion, however. It just suggests that some may want to temper their ideals or their philosophy in order to get into a particular market or sub-market.

That 9.6% and 9.1% Class A vacancy rate reported by Colliers and Grubb & Ellis look damn good. I wonder if they factor in the old Sheraton Hotel as "overall" office space (I'm referring to the former hotel next door to 1201 Louisiana)? If so, that vacancy would come off the boards as well if the plans to convert the building into a massive custom suites hotel come to fruition.

This is a very good and interesting paragraph, Dal. I'll have to think about it some more.

In the first of the last two links of sketches that Mister X provided, I can actually see the on on the bottom right being built--of course, with some changes here and there. In fact, the wide fascia versus thin profiles are similar to the W Hotel in Dallas, for example, or the Endeavor in Clear Lake.

Food, museums, recreational opportunities, quirky little doo-dads that people like to stumble into off the beaten path like The Orange Show or the Heights antique corridor. Promote Herman Park and the Museum District as serious places to recreate. Promote the fact that you can hang out in cute little coast communities like Kemah or Galveston and still come back to the city in time to catch a Broadway show. Going back to the Museum District/ Herman Park, among the hundreds of media types who came to Houston for the Super Bowl, there were a couple of writers who commented that the Museum District was truly the most attractive area of the city, one that reminded of Boston along the James River, one that spoke of culture and maturity that one doesn't easily associate with Houston. I think where the city and its boosters mess up is that the try to refer to these types of places in passing fashion with a mundane slogan or mindless factoid that doesn't really tell you anything about what the place has to offer, something beyond the standby 2nd largest number of seats outside of New York and that type of jazz--factually true but nothing that really tells you about the area and how it's laid out. If you're going to try to sell people something, show it off!!

I'm so tired of looking at the crappy status of this building. It's a prominent eyesore looking at the skyline from the southwest (and particularly heading into downtown on Spur 527). And since it's a pretty plain-Jane design to begin with, I wouldn't be upset if they just torn it down.

If I'm not mistaken, Hines 47 could potentially be about 750 feet or so, which is taller than what the AIM Tower would've been or what the tower in Atlanta is. A building's height can also affect how the building is designed and whether a certain shape, crown, facade, etc works. That said, I agree that a 750-foot version of the AIM Tower would still look nice, although maybe not as visually impressive perched among the other towers downtown as it would be standing more freely in Greenway Plaza.

Can't say I disagree. Although, it would more impact public perception in terms of the city's "coolness factor (I concept that I hate in general but recognize as having a potential impact on how a city is able to evolve socially, culturally and economically). Tourist-dependent economies generally don't pay the average person that well but I also think that with Houston's economy diversifying slowly but surely over the years, the added impact of a more intensive tourist profile wouldn't hurt the average wage at all. In fact, tourism professions might pay more in a market like Houston because there are other employment entities/industries competing for workers. Of course, I could be wrong. So why isn't Houston seen as a tourist hot spot? Well, primarily, I just don't think the city and its surrounding "tourism bureaus" have done the best job of marketing what the city has to offer in a way that is a recognizable or intriguing to the casual traveler, and while the thought by some is that Houston's lack of traditional urbanity makes that a much more difficult sell, I more believe it has to do with broad-based recognition (Orlando, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Antonio, etc aren't traditional urban play pens either but they don't struggle for casual tourists either). Simply put, the average American is as dumb as rocks when it comes to the country outside of your traditional hot spots (New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Miami, Las Vegas, Disney World/Orlando, etc) so they have to be exposed to new and unfamiliar things (such as what's in a city like Houston other than oil wells, glass skyscrapers, strip malls, billboards and large, eloquent homes) in a manner that clicks. This is the biggest obstacle facing Houston as a casual tourist destination.

There's a list of small "victories" over the decades for Mr. Zindler on behalf of your common man/woman/everyday citizen that they may not have been able to realize if not for his intervention (regardless of his motivation). Nevertheless, there are some instances of Mr. Zindler making some erroneous claims over the years, which is wont to happen if you do enough of the type of "shame on you" reporting that he's done. Like, Dal, I tend to think that Marvin had more of a positive impact in this role than a negative one. Or course, an icon is an icon, and with former 49ers coach Bill Walsh also dying today, you're only reminded that much more of how television and the people we've seen displayed on it over the years have impacted our social development.

I'm actually impressed by your committment "to know the truth", Mister X. LOL! It's great to speculate, and yet without a real feel for what Pickard-Chilton (I believe I spelled that correctly) discussed with Hines--including what elements it wanted to emphasize, what features would be most prominent in terms of the building's functional points--it's difficult to really put your finger on it--the building's design, that is. My gut, however, leads me to believe that it will share some design elements as the canceled building that would've gone up for AIM in Greenway Plaza (a lovely building, IMO, which looked similar to the tower that went up in Midtown Atlanta a couple of years ago). Then again, it's just speculation, because Hines may have different interests that would affect how certain facial treatments are handled or how the building is crowned or the type of materials that are used (that alone can dictate how a building is shaped or what have you). Regardless, 0I'd like to think that there will be a preliminary design "released' in the next couple of months. Maybe mid-Fall at the latest. If not, then by god this had better be one kick-butt design to have been shrouded in such secrecy for so long leading up to groundbreaking.