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zaphod

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Everything posted by zaphod

  1. zaphod
    That quad heliport on the roof looks really cool in aerial pictures...
  2. zaphod
    Is there any news about Town Centre II or whatever they are calling it(second big tower on southern edge of this development?)
  3. zaphod
    I think the problem with existing freight corridors is that the major railroads do not want to sell them because they do a brisk business hauling freight for the time being. And they tend to have narrow, constrained ROW's and sharp curves and grades. Not really HSR friendly, anything using them would be a slow heavy rail line like what Amtrak already operates. Texas Central seeing the potential in high voltage power line corridors is a really interesting idea that I hope catches on. There's potential there to build super straight routes between major cities.
  4. zaphod
    I understand why the current emphasis is on areas which are in the central part of the city. Suburban bus routes have a hard time attracting ridership. Still, I've been playing around in google maps and discovered there are some underrated transit friendly corridors that are ignored. North of I-10 in the Energy Corridor is a Park Row, which is really the western extension of Dairy Ashford. It's solid apartment complexes and office buildings all the way out to Katy. Goes past Addicks P&R. Another area like that is Northborough and Ella in Spring.
  5. zaphod
    To be fair, they really only just started. What's visible in the aerial images is the internal streets. So whatever happens there, even if its not like renderings, it will at least be kind of like some new town center area based on the way its laid out.
  6. zaphod
    It's always exciting when they start to go vertical after spending so much type on the foundations. Thanks for the photos,
  7. zaphod
    Seeing this makes me ponder the future of the I-10 ROW after they reroute it. There's going to be an overpass over it, and its already excavated to be below grade, so its going to be hard to develop, I think. It could be a park, but we have a lot of parks. I wonder what this area will look like in 25 years.
  8. zaphod
    Is HPE creating new jobs in the Houston area or are they relocating whatever's left of the old Compaq headquarters?
  9. zaphod
    Is this going to be a two story HEB with structured parking? If so I guess that would make 4 in the Houston area - Heights, Washington Ave, Meyerland, and now the UK.
  10. zaphod
    Google Maps/Earth has updated their imagery for this area to December 1st, 2019 and so the new streets and the first phase of apartments being built is now visible.
  11. zaphod
    Seeing this thread gave me a slight panic since I love Micro Center(I'm grateful they ended up moving). I didn't know there used to be one where the Amegy tower is. What used to be in the Micro Center on Rice? Or did they build it new?
  12. zaphod
    To do that across the entire length would be extraordinarily expensive though, compared to every other single corridor proposed thus far. And this corridor isn't being shown as having many stations. And the alignment in the highway makes having transfer stations to other routes tough to say the least. Not saying it's undoable, but I can't imagine Metro deciding on such a radical upgrade on short notice with no fanfare. Especially when its part of a much larger project with a finite budget. I get the feeling, personally, that maybe they are going back to the drawing board and showing a mere representation of a corridor and not a true plan?
  13. zaphod
    Does anyone have any insight into what Metro actually wants to do with the Metro Rapid "West Houston Corridor" BRT? It went from being a BRT on Gessner to something that uses Beltway 8 with limited stops. Are they proposing some kind of HOV lane on the Beltway? Is there funding to tear up the highway and rebuild it? Or is just going to be a bus on the Beltway? Kind of a kooky idea, IMO.
  14. zaphod
    Those elevated bus lanes are on the scale of a heavy rail metro system. Crazy.
  15. zaphod
    What I see the in the rendering is a big stairway that will probably be value engineered out of existence, and a big interior courtyard with all the current trendy stuff like wood siding that will look goofy in 10 years. People ain't going up there with their dogs, not to visit the one super expensive creperie or designer purse store that goes out of business 6 months later. I've visited developments like this in person and they are usually really disappointing. Like Seaholm in Austin. There's nothing interesting there and it seemed like current tenants were struggling, and the whole time I was walking around people were staring at me like I was trespassing. Uptown Dallas has a lot of overbearing weird glassy towers hulking over dead streets with too much car traffic too. Compare the vibrancy of more traditionally urban streetscapes and there is no comparison.
  16. zaphod
    The design of this has grown on me. Is the beige and brown siding brick? I'm hoping it is.
  17. zaphod
    But would have that proposed aloft/element combo shaked down taxpayers for tax breaks? That's the real question.
  18. zaphod
    Does anyone think this thing embodies bad urban planning principals? It's riddled with various private courtyards and plazas which cannot realistically be activated with retail at Houston densities during the 2020's brick and mortar extinction event. In the most optimistic scenario it will create a private, hidden interior mall that dilutes street activity similar to the tunnels and skywalks downtown. In the most likely scenario, those spaces never get filled, and they have to pay some security guard to keep the bums out. Plus it is UGLY. It's dissonant, top heavy, jumbled. It's the urban condo equivalent to those weird looking McMansions that have random dormers and cornices and are just silly.
  19. zaphod
    So are they going to get rid of the sports fields and pool too? This project is kind of lame for destroying active recreation opportunities for very expensive yet functionless features.The neighborhood was right to feel sold out.
  20. zaphod
    If this project succeeds, would it signify that this particular form of multifamily(urban block with structured parking) is now viable on the lower end? New garden apartments get built occasionally in forgotten areas but the urban style ones tend to be reserved for expensive desirable areas. But if it was possible to build urban apartments in cheaper areas it would be revolutionary. More multifamily could crop up in closer in locations like this.
  21. zaphod
    Tear down the bleachers and rebuild shorter ones, and turn it in a multi-sport venue that can also hold conventions, concerts, the rodeo, etc. Imagine having amateur or club sport events like cricket, lacrosse, soccer, etc, there. I wonder if it would be possible to remove the upper half of the walls with slatted operable windows that let in natural air. Then hang large ducted fans similar to those used in highway tunnels to facilitate constant if slow moving airflow. Similar to how you can cool a gaming PC case with only two very small fans and vents that are relatively obstructed, only on a humongous scale. The window shutters could close in the event of rain or high winds, and the direction the fans blow could be adjusted by a computerized system that takes into consideration outside wind. This would essentially lower operational costs of the building by getting rid of the need for air conditioning and help shift things in favor of keeping it. As long as it had moving air to avoid a greenhouse effect, being in the shade should keep it at acceptable temperatures even in the summer. If the inside was going to be gutted and redone, the future seats could have automatic sliding doors to the mezzanine so it could have AC.
  22. zaphod
    Rule 2 seems too specific to be anything other than a reaction to a certain incident
  23. zaphod
    My stance has always been that the Embassy Suites is the sort of forgettable urban building that will get imploded before its 40th birthday for something bigger. Like the Crown Plaza in the Med Center. It's just filler and welcome investment at a time when downtown really needed it.
  24. zaphod
    I hate this project. 6 million city subsidy is seen as a small amount, but it could pay for so much more, especially when the city's finances are suffering from the property tax revenue cap and ongoing pension debts, etc. 6 million is 10 cops making 60,000 a year for 10 years. 6 million is a community center or a library, or two swimming pools or four city parks. Or a thousand summer jobs for troubled teens. Plus its ugly. What do the developers think this is, Youngstown? There ain't no red brick industrial lofts off I-10. The actual industrial heritage of that area(when there was an MKT spur track going up towards Hammerly Rd) was quonset huts and metal buildings, most of which are still there(Bison materials, Elliot Forklifts, etc). You want industrial reuse? Rent some of those old business suite centers and give them a power washing and there's your startup space right there. It was good enough for companies that pioneered the mapping of the sea floor or calculated the location of oil using seismic data and powerful computers back in the 1970s, so its certainly good enough for tech companies of tomorrow. There is zero need to build this kind of thing in an area that's full of half empty high rises that are brand new. It's no mans land, I was just thinking the other day of how strange the neighborhood off Brittmore is, wedged between the beltway and the levee. Its full of unrestricted townhouse development and light industry. Just leave it alone. Why do startups need some corny fake restored warehouses anyways? What they probably need is cash money and business support. It's a cargo cult IMO. Someone looked at the success of startup culture housed in adaptive reuse locations and completely missed the context and cause and effect(rust belt city with strong eds and meds legacy uses run down structures because they are cheap). Yes it must be the looks of old brick that makes people creative, its what they want! Cringey AF.
  25. zaphod
    Realistically, what are the chances of this happening? Anyways, I also really like the design. It is more classic, sort of like the current crop of new towers going up in Chicago.
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