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infinite_jim

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Everything posted by infinite_jim

  1. infinite_jim
    I think the western-most site is actually pretty good for residential. Right by the parks, right by downtown, right by the nightlife in midtown, and convenient freeway/parkway access. The only obvious problem is it's proximity to the highway but for the most part it's submerged under W. Dallas St. This leads me to think that it could be a good site for a mixed use tower with office on the first 40 storeys and a hotel/residential portion above for about 10 to 20 storeys. Pipe dreams... I am curious exactly why they are planning on development this site versus the tower atop the parking garage/metro racketball complex. I guess it's just a matter of structural costs and project complexity.
  2. infinite_jim
    That's a park and a historic black church (and the last element of Freedmen's Town in downtown, aside from the street grid shift).
  3. infinite_jim
    Definitely a lack of public places to view this and it will still be dark at 6:10 am. I'll be honest I could get a close up view but am declining for general health reasons. I do have a view of the Travis St. urban canyon so I'll probably snap a few pics of the dust up through the dawn light.
  4. infinite_jim
    They've been taking out glass at the Savoy too but it's glass is in better condition comparatively.
  5. infinite_jim
    Is that view from the Lamar tower?
  6. infinite_jim
    u[ Somebody get some vines from the top of the Greenstreet parking garage
  7. infinite_jim
    Did it look like this?
  8. infinite_jim
    Treebeards is not open on saturday; there's Taco Fusion & Barnaby's off Market Sq. Pad Thai in the Ima Hogg bldg. Market Sq. Grill if you want pub grub.
  9. infinite_jim
    They started in early May, as per post #155.
  10. infinite_jim
    ^I would keep the Pierce Elevated structure as an elevated park like the High Line in NYC. If you destroy it then you have to do something will all those half blocks.
  11. infinite_jim
    When has Marvy Finger ever developed a modernist bldg? I'd like a larger version of Mirabeau B. condo complex too but I'm not sure what y'all were expecting. He at least did the prairie style overhangs on the roof line (which will look better when seen in proportional context to the HEB's shorter height and more cantilevered overhangs). Everything else looks subtly budget conscious, a more common trait among the millennial cohort than most would give them credit for, but still varied enough for casual acceptance. This complex has to compete with quite a bit of comparable housing stock (mostly on Richmond which is good enough to be compared to them :cough: Richmond Landing :cough:) so I see your point about it falling below the Montrose expectations bar but I think it's real value to renters will be it's location. I also noticed in the site plan that the complex's roundabout motor court will reflect the main entrance to the HEB, so there will be an architectural massing relationship between the two bldgs plans and elevations. That's more than I expected.
  12. infinite_jim
    We must have different ideas about what "complement" means in a language of architecture. First off compare the two bldgs different programmed uses; one's a commercial store designed to intake goods and display them to the public for purchase. The other (the Susanne) is for storing residents vehicles securely (which HEB doesn't do) and to provide each resident with a private unit and communal amenities (HEB does some communal amenities but in this case one is public and the other private). Should they have just copied the Menil (world class architecture) or the HEB and tried to force an apartment complex into the form/footprint or should they have designed an apartment complex and added a few scaled features to reflect the neighborhood writ large? Sometimes architectural "respect" is in not being noticed as much as the world class architecture down the street or the nice commercial architecture next door. See also my comment in swamplot about residential curb appeal. If your looking for something special in the area, look no further than the HEB parking lot (best parking lot in Houston? maybe..).
  13. infinite_jim
    vs. So do the deep overhangs complement the HEB/Menil style or not?
  14. infinite_jim
    . 08/07/2013
  15. infinite_jim
    Most of the exterior work has been focused on the atrium lobby and the underground portion, otherwise not much going on.
  16. infinite_jim
    Before pic & from @CentralSquareTX elevator shaft renovation
  17. infinite_jim
    Before pic
  18. infinite_jim
    A bigger problem for bike riders, walkers, and drivers are the unintended consequences of the N/S light signal priority sequencing in downtown and midtown. It creates an incentive for E/W drivers to gun it at their green lights in order to, maybe, catch the next light within 5 seconds. I've seen a lot of T-bone accidents of people running the E/W lights or even people running stale reds (yes, I got clipped once this way as a pedestrian). Just take a random look at all the bent up lamp posts all over downtown but especially around the "parking lot district". This sort of reckless driving is the worst on Friday evening rush hours and around the Main St. crossing, don't know why..
  19. infinite_jim
    As a weekend recreational auto-driver, I have to admit, crusin' down Main St. is pretty fun. Better than crusin' Westheimer and I don't even mind being behind a couple of cyclists either. If I wanted to get somewhere in an efficient manner I'd take Travis or Fannin.
  20. infinite_jim
    If this is a political fight than Hulk Hogan is an accomplished athlete! I live off the red line and am a constituent of Rep. Poe; color me skeptical but it looks like he's implying a political cover for Culberson if he decides he doesn't want to block funds in the future (like 2015ish, depending on how things work out for the new lines next year). This looks like a classic pay-it-forward hedge for his buddy. If Culberson happens to find himself with some angry suburban constituents who have been used to getting their way with him and don't want the uni line but simultaneously having his inner ear chewed out by billion dollar deal RE playazz from ATL (b/c light rail like any other infrastructure project is really about RE ammenitzing). Culberson is the one who's probably facing more of a future political headwind than the kid gloves, gerrymandered TX2 district for Rep. Poe (who,as we see in his pivot is a more talented politician than Culberson).
  21. infinite_jim
    Noticed the sidewalk was closed with a green construction fence the other day for a renovation of the ground floor space. The upstairs is an Avis at 812 St. Joseph Pkwy. Sorry for the blurry pic. Is this going to be an office or retail?
  22. infinite_jim
    http://downtownhouston.org/news/blogpost/greenlink-goes-purple/ False Alarm.
  23. infinite_jim
    Based on the tweet from the DMD; it's supposed to cover the court house, historic, and performing arts districts while intersecting with the northern leg of the GreenLink at Main (& Walker).
  24. infinite_jim
    There's a new route debuting soon, the PurpleLink.
  25. infinite_jim
    I'm gonna guess this one will never gonna get out of the ground or take a very long time (5 years/new buyer) if they haven't gone public by now in 2013. It might be too early to tell that 2014 will see belt tightening and higher rates, but it seems that the development pipeline will ebb for conservative absorption concerns as per what's being channeled through the media now.
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