infinite_jim

 

10/18/2013 Update

10/18/2013 Update

10/18/2013 Update: Fire escape stairwell has been removed and a new one installed further north. Glass block has been used to fill in the southern fenestration. From the street it looks like new commercial grade windows have been installed on the west and southern facades.

59. Cullen Plaza fountain (UH)

Finally! and by default the end of the auto-suicides at the Wedge garage.

yup we had dinner at coppa saturday night and it was slammed.  cloud 10 was also packed.  went to fellini and local foods on sunday to enjoy the weather and there were people all over the place.  granted we went at an off time - around 4:00 - so local foods wasn't overly crowded but the patio was full and there were probably 1/2 dozen tables inside.

 

if you want a true pedestrian feel the village is where it's at. hanover's newest project will be an awesome addition... very exciting.

I was there on Sunday as well. We walked from the Dryden station down Dryden/Shakespeare and then up Morningside to the Rice Village. It seems like a long walk by looking at the map but when the weather is as nice as it was on Sunday it was kinda fun and good way to walk off dinner.

Oh look, a pocket park, nobody could have predicted that.

People have called Montrose "The Montrose" since the 70's.

 

As for Eado? I always just call it Old Chinatown.

Exactly "The Montrose" is full of townhomes, noise complaints, and dog walkers for hire.

Montrose was full of gay bars, weekend gay bashers, and underage alcohol consumption.

edit:

Call it what you want but Old Chinatown doesn't get you very far past the Kim Son to me.

Thought about it. I realize it's status quo for Houston. Just doesn't make for good urbanism. Sky bridges and tunnels are detrimental to pedestrian life. Sky bridges are worse, because they add a mild stigma to whatever is underneath them. In a very subtle way, it robs the park of its sense of place.

 

It's not too much to walk another flight of stairs down and brave the weather for 50 feet. You could even put a covered walkway at ground level. If walking on the ground is a security concern, then we have not embraced the urban, walkable-city mentality.

Part of good urbanism is to protect people from the elements (ex. the Rice Hotel sidewalk overhang on Texas). How is providing shade robbing the park of a sense of place? Shade is a good thing! How about the fact taht this provides another perspective of the park that was only available to folks with apartments facing the park; now everyone who lives there has this view. Also it's a waste of energy to have wheelchair bound residents take the elevator down and then back up again, ADA compliance is a huge factor in determining egress and I'm sure if people wanted to go down the stairs and walk across at ground level that option will be available to them as well in addition. Imagine how people will be able to get out of the bldg in the case of a major fire, more options is always better than fewer options.

Eado is in the East End as a sub-neighborhood that was more or less created with the construction of the Ballpark Lofts and the re-purposed Meridian nightclub in the early to mid 2000's. It's a name folks who live/work/play there recited to claim the area as their own nab separate but within the East End (and since no one actually lived here before in actual homes for decades prior). Who cares who coined the term; it's not an original name or anything clever but neither is the name Montrose (an aside, when Montrose became The Montrose it lost it's vitality and cohesiveness the same way Marigny did when it became The Marigny).

It's boundaries (clockwise) are roughly defined as Chartres to the west, Commerce to the north, then a jog along the rail line to the southeast, south along Dowling as the eastern boundary, and then west along St. Joseph pkwy as the southern bound. The freeways and the train tracks do a good job of hemming the nab together. It could theoretically expand east past St. Charles if gentrification continues although once you get to around Velasco St. the area subtly changes into Eastwood with it's more conservative lifestyle of town-homes and biking paths with less abandoned industrial and more active use industrial.

Same rendering and video; this is from my personal questions.

I'm sure they'd be happy to. Do you happen to have an idea for a way to pay for it?

TIRZ monies, FEMA monies, etc.

No, it's not a "social contract," but it gives some idea of the direction the architect is headed, which seems to me like something boldly sculptural and non-conventional. A "collection piece," you might say.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by humanist based vs. aesthetic oriented.

You're mixing up the industry term "conventional" to mean an unexpected design, I'm talking about conventional bldg structures of steel frame and metal panel cladding; nothing really special about building this way these days. Calatrava does unconventional structures, your first clue is his project cost overruns, and the tortured geometry of his structures; lots of high tension cables along with massive customized, bent tubular steel. All of this needs sophisitcated fabrication work, whereas most of Holl's stuff is off-the-shelf or out of a Sweet's catalog.

The only wild stuff of Holl's I can think of off the top of my head is when he brought in Lebbeus Woods on a project in China (Woods' only build project btw).

@Subdude You can see the northwest corner of the new museum's footprint in the lower right corner of the Glassel site plan so we can see that the existing church's parking lot will shrink to their PL with a ~5' grassy perimeter surrounding the new museum.

I went to presentation yesterday and can pretty much say that the price tag is accurate but the scope shown in the renderings is not 100%. There is an ongoing push for contingency monies however the forensic engineers reported that the rigid framed steel is still in good shape. This is more so a stripped down preservation project than a full blown renovation project, hence the price.

There was also mention of potential future private investment within the Reliant masterplan but that would not be considered till after the preservation job is done in 2017.

^umm, I see two plumbing stub ups in that pic

skybridge of death? maybe if it was an exploded axo 

From the "cheese" illustration, it seemed like Holl's ideas were less conventional and more of the Calatrava variety.

 

What do you mean by "collection piece" regarding the Beck bldg.?  I admit I don't know much about the internal MFAH discussions about all this stuff.

That's just a parti sketch, like a rendering it's not a social contract. Rather it's a way for an architect to crystallize their thoughts on paper which does not reflect structural realities; that's what I meant by saying that Calatrava is "an engineer 1st." 

 

Shorter: Holl is more humanist based, Calatrava is more aesthetic oriented (like comparing Stephen King books to Stanley Kubrick films respectively).

 

"Collection" pieces is a way of describing cities as living museums with signature bldgs by starchitects. Collect them all!

the second photo has two projects. the nearer one is whichever apartment building is going up between Louisiana and Smith around Anita or Rosalie area. In the distance is one of the apartment buildings going up on Richmond in the montorse-ish area, I believe.

That's the other residential component of the Mix in Midtown (Elgin @ Louisiana)

 

Also cool you got a pic of the Pearl (across from the Walgreens, off Brazos just south of McGowen)

 

Respectfully disagree about the north view from 2016 Main. 

Easy answer: Calatrava is an engineer 1st, who uses expense high performance coatings on all his work along with the obvious structural gymnastics. Holl builds conventional bldgs with an emphasis on spatial design (especially moody lighting effects) versus Calatrava's raw "bird in flight" designs.

I'm sure after the Beck bldg experience, the MFAH board of directors were probably not concerned about getting another "collection" piece; rather than it is seeking a pragmatic yet elegant solution to unite and feature the ad-hoc, period-esque additions over the years.

Edit: Expect a 100 year bldg.

Ok, so I will take whatever you all dish my way. But as we ALL look at developments across the globe, why is it that Houston, although exciting in it's production, is lacking in it's form? What I mean is that, yes, we are bustling, and I applaud that, but the high rises are a bit redundant and boring. Why? Slopes? Angles? Cylinders? Multiple towers connected by some sort of futuristic looking tubes. Ok, so now I am being silly, but really, come on, why not more variety? I had to move back from LA...sigh, BORING, architecturally, now I am back to my roots, and dammit, where is the WOW in Houston Architecture like back in the day? Ok. You're thoughts?

Cheap dirt. When the cost goes up it becomes more efficient in terms of appeal/programming/sustainability/etc to hire an architect even if they get 7%. When the cost is lower it's cheaper and easier to value engineer the project. I worked on quite a few tilt up strip malls and fast food restaurants and we usually only got hired b/c of corporate franchise requirements for modifications to the prototypes. I spent more time doing HVAC and civil site engineering work then actual design work.

Ft Bend county compared to the inner loop? lol... wut?

Why not compare the know universe to to our solar system or a putting green to a blade of grass.

I was wondering that too.

 

This project has been very quiet for a long time.  The Houston First/Convention Center District should really be pushing for this.  Having a walkable area with Bars and Restaurants right behind the convention center is really what they need to compete. 

 

Any news anyone?

It's not really easily accessible from the convention center nor right behind the convention center. It's more like 5-6 harrowing blocks away if your gonna walk.

 

Edit: ALWAYS be very careful crossing Chartres St. (except during the end of Astro's games), it's basically a highway feeder (like most downtown streets 30 mph is just a suggestion apparently) and you can/will get run over without the driver batting a lash if your not careful.

Won't the project be isolated behind grb after they build the grb expansion? Or is it on the edge along the street the east end streetcar is supposed to go down into downtown?

 

St. Emanuel St. is the main drag in EaDo. It's a good enough location, I have a friend who used to live in the Ballpark Lofts and it's just like living in Midtown except a little quieter and the rent's sightly cheaper (or was). Nice infill, I'm sure we'll see plenty of freeway shots of it's construction.