The Great Hizzy!

The biggest thing about the park is that it offers amenities that will make the eastern side of downtown more palatable not only to developers but potential residents as well. It also offers a more pleasing connection to the convention center and the convention center hotel from the core of downtown. One of the complaints that I've heard from some visitors (especially conventioneers) is that walking from the Hilton Americas to Main Street (for example) made them feel isolated. Hopefully, DG will be one of a handful of steps that will erradicate that notion over time.

I don't particularly care for their new tallest. Doesn't really seem to fit with the rest of the skyline.

The only thing I can think of is that with the variety of leases available to tenants, they didn't want to risk being held up because some leases would end up running a couple of months past the desired start date. Other than that, I tend to agree with you. Seems as if they could've gotten another 9 months or so out of the last tenants.

Yeah, having 200 units of residential right on tap and essentially right on the project's grounds would have been nice. Hopefully, momentum from Discovery Green will produce a couple of new residential projects in its place.

I don't blame the politicians, I blame the people. It's not like politicians are from some alien planet. They're a subset of the whole. People are crazy, so why shouldn't the politicians be?

Root Memorial is quite attractive. They've done a pretty good job of maintaining it so far. I wonder if it's the city itself or the Toyota Center staff who maintains it. I also like that a lot of local youth groups make it a point to play ball there at different times during the week. Keeps the park relevant during non-Rockets games.

The sitelines for Ford Field were absolutely abysmal. If you buy tickets for seats located that far away from the court, then you have to be going just for the event itself. It's a good thing the NCAA only tries this for the tournament games because doing this for a full season (like it used to be with the NBA's Spurs, Sonics and Pistons before they settled into new arenas) would be a nightmare for the fan. FYI, I think only Syracuse plays a full season inside a "football" stadium, although the Carrier Dome is relatively small by football standards, and the bleacers are arranged in such a way as to maximize the viewing quality for the fans.

But I digress.

I could see the NCAA eventually making these regional final and Final Four games more premium draws by going back to the traditional type basketball arenas (like Toyota Center or AT&T Center, for example) and charging higher prices for those seats rather than opening up the Superdome and sitting people as far back as the dome holds.

And the raised basketball court along with the black backdrops behind the basketball goals were points of contention by not only the fans but the teams as well. The NCAA decided to try this new setup (for whatever reason) this year, and it may continue on into next year's Final Four in Detroit and the ones proceeding them, including here in Houston in 2011.

We'll see how it turns out.

So there will be a W Hotel?

I never noticed it before since I've only really seen the building in person from the ground level as I'm looking upwards at the top half, but now that it's been pointed out, the garage's design really detracts from the building. I mean REALLY detracts from it.

Are you kidding? Nothing ever gets built downtown. Those pics depict a mirage!!

The building design is similar to what's going up in the Energy Corridor.

I like the fact that we can actually count cranes by district here in Houston:

Downtown

Uptown

TMC

Upper Kirby

Rice Military

Memorial City/Town & Country

The Energy Corridor

Etc.

"SIT ON IT, GARY!"

(j/k)

Yeah, there's ongoing confusion between the Highland Tower and the High Street development. The two are not linked as one development.

Why don't they build a retail center in the open space around the corner from this project from the HCC building, right there by the McGowen rail station?

$$$$

Apparently, a good number of developers are trying to wait the landowners out, since property values along the rail line are extremely expensive relative to other nearby areas.

Interesting indeed.

I wonder if the idea with the second hotel would be to sell that one off as well over time, especially if it does at least as well as the Americas has done and is projected to do.

Now that you've changed it, I don't remember what the old thread title was.

The building is very safe in terms of the architecure. The color scheme is appealing to me, especially juxtaposed against the park.

Looks like the love child of 5 Houston Center and Symphony Tower in Atlanta.

Ding, ding! We have a winner!

This whole story reeks. Unless there's more to it than what's being reported, the city looks flimsy in this deal.

Well, it seemed an inevitability (given the work that had already taken place at the site0 but now this reconfirms everything.

Peanuts...

Yeah, they're already giving away free ice coffee at certain locations inside the Loop.

I see that they also have a project that's part of the Town & Country center redevelopment. Their Domain @ Kirby seems like a tight fit but it's coming along gradually.

Figure 14 feet per floor of office space, so that's 434 feet. Add some amount for the crown, and we're pushing 450 feet.

Residential floors are typically not quite as tall as office floors, since shell office space needs a crawl-space above the ceiling to accomodate dramatic reconfiguration of lots and lots of wiring and ductwork.

That was about the same as my estimate. I was thinking about 430-440 feet. By the way, the most recent images offered here are the best that I've seen so far. I hope the color scheme is correct as well. I think the blue skin makes more of an impat.