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zaphod

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Everything posted by zaphod

  1. zaphod
    I like both Best Buy and Micro Center. I'd hate to see Best Buy vanish, though I from what I have read they have actually been doing okay. Also they are opening new stores again for the first time in a decade. Maybe this and the Bingle location were just weak performers? The Meyerland store was close to other locations while inner NW Houston has only gotten sketchier over the last few years. I noticed the big one by the Galleria and the ones in The Woodlands, Sugar Land, etc have more stuff like kitchen appliances while the oldest and smallest stores don't or that part of the store is really narrow. Also the stores in the suburbs have been remodeled to a new design scheme, so maybe that's a sign too.
  2. zaphod
    I'm digging this new pop-up mud wrestling venue
  3. zaphod
    Back then it seems like sedans were almost like squat SUV's whereas now that segment doesn't try to do those things. This was all way before my time of course(I was born in the late 80s)
  4. zaphod
    This thing really looks best at night and the way the glow reflects on the trees....The glass tubes were a risk but it really is very beautiful.
  5. zaphod
    That's hot. Wish there was a less exposed version. Also the colors seem a bit cold and unnatural. But I hate critiquing someone's hard work, it looks good.
  6. zaphod
    I guess its still good to see underutilized buildings get replaced with something newer and larger in a part of town that hasn't seen much development in decades.
  7. zaphod
    Looks like the office component was axed.
  8. zaphod
    It could be interesting to see what goes here and how it could change that area. But this also down the road from that other huge empty lot east of the Beltway at Westheimer. Is that ever going to get developed?
  9. zaphod
    I like these, they look like normal houses but in an urban setting. A lot of townhouses these days are grotesquely huge and have like 4 flights of stairs which is weird.
  10. zaphod
    I don't disagree, but sometimes perfect the enemy of good. I'd rather have something that's pretty good go there than nothing go there. To be honest a major landmark skyscraper would at street level probably not be the kind of thing you want fronting a public square anyways. It's guaranteed to have featureless and austere parking podium with some glass atrium with a security checkpoint. It wouldn't contribute to the urban feel for the person on the sidewalk. What would be ideal in my opinion would be a hotel or residential that doesn't have an obvious parking podium, that has street fronting GFR facing the square, and has nice architectural features at the small scale like being warm colored brick, having some kind of interesting awning, you get the idea.
  11. zaphod
    This one's been vaporware far too long Honestly it doesn't even need to be a skyscraper and in a post-covid age maybe that's what would have a better chance of getting off the ground. There just needs to be something there to front against the park and create more energy in that area.
  12. zaphod
    ^^^^ Kind of weird, to be honest.
  13. zaphod
    Well, the purpose of brick or special paving would be decorative, aka "place making" or something. Like a district where people walk around visiting adjacent businesses or attractions and you want it to look good. I don't think that's so costly nor would it ever be needed or justified outside a few districts. Honestly I always thought Houston had pretty nice concrete roads with curbs and sidewalks and grass medians and stuff.
  14. zaphod
    I wonder if those trees on the balconies are gonna materialize. In this rendering they seem to be pretty big, like 2 stories in height. Is that even doable?
  15. zaphod
    IMO proximity to parks within walking distance is an awkward measure because it doesn't reflect differences in how citizens get around, what kind of parks programming and features they actually want/need, and differences in the quality of parks. Chicago is a traditionally urban city and so it stands to reason they should have more small neighborhood parks that give people access to ample areas of grass and trees for activities they would otherwise miss while living in a rowhouse or apartment. And Chicago is also the kind of city where many residents would and could walk to such a park. A lot of Houston is annexed suburban sprawl or suburban style apartment complexes. People who live in these areas thus have access to large private yards, cul-de-sacs, private HOA amenities, apartment complex amenities and green spaces, etc. So not only is the need for small neighborhood "grass and trees" parks greatly diminished, but because of the lower population density and limited walkability of these areas it would be harder to provide raw geographic coverage and also actually achieve the goal of these places being accessible on foot. Also the County runs a lot of parks and there are lots of MUD amenities that aren't being counted. And there's initiatives where school playgrounds and sports fields get double use for community programming and recreation leagues. And there's private sports parks. When you put it all together, the stats are skewed I think. I think if there was a analysis done on parks needs and accessibility, what you'd find is that older neighborhoods in the city proper aren't that different from Chicago. There's parks all over the place and recreation and sports facilities and community centers in most established areas inside the Beltway that are in the COH or one of the other traditional municipalities(Pasadena, Bellaire, etc) The deficiency I think would not even be in the City of Houston at all but rather in unincorporated Harris County. There are areas of poor infrastructure that are also mostly low income in the Northwest and Northeast. There's also similarly low income "rural urban" areas. Also many of the new-build sprawl housing developments(detached homes built for rental purposes by remote investors, that will quickly depreciate and become workforce housing) have zero built-in parks. I would like to see outlying areas have more parks facilities that fill the gaps that would exist in such places. For example, contiguous hike and bike trails to compensate for streets and roads being pretty terrible for that. In areas with lots of working families with children a multipurpose gym and rec center that the YMCA could operate would be appreciated by these citizens I am sure. Also there are relatively few public swimming pools that don't require a costly membership to access located on the northern side of the metro, a county pool would be a big attraction. People generally like dog parks as they are a place to get out and be outside. In all case these things would be more centralized and would be accessed mostly via driving or by public transit(bus routes) and would be most effective if they drew from a wide area rather than trying to be neighborhood focused just to boost a stat. Sorry for the wall of text, I was really bored at work today and kind of daydreamed about this question for longer than normal.
  16. zaphod
    So this is official inside the city of Shenandoah, which had a population of 2,137 in 2010 and was last estimated in 2019 to have 2,987 residents. This building has 429 units, so if it was at max occupancy and each unit only had one resident, it would contain between 12% to 16% of the entire town's population.
  17. zaphod
    Even the wood ones probably have more appeal though. I think a lot of houses with this kind of modern siding aren't going to age well aesthetically speaking. The color palettes are so austere, too.
  18. zaphod
    I'm sure Boston rowhouses have much nicer brick exteriors though.
  19. zaphod
    If you look closely at the rendering, it looks like the two older red/brown brick towers are in the background and this skyscraper is on the site currently occupied by a low rise structure with a shingle roof and parking, the side of the property fronting Garrettson Ln. Who knows if that is accurate, though.
  20. zaphod
    The people in the rendering look like The Sims or maybe GTA characters
  21. zaphod
    While not great for traditional urbanism, this is a medical center where mobility impaired and ill people need to be able to move around quickly. I think this will also increase metro rail ridership because you could get off at the TMC station and then have a lot more end destinations that you could reach entirely indoors.
  22. zaphod

    Smurf Hysteria

    zaphod replied to Ptarmigan's topic in Off Topic

    And here I thought Americans in 2020 were stupid... Some things never change
  23. zaphod
    I'm not sure what to think of those green pixels. I'm willing to bet in 10 years this is going to get a remodel and they are going to paint over that in whatever the new "it" color is, like how greige is now. Or who knows, maybe it will look good when the whole building is like that.
  24. zaphod
    Even if that monument isn't actually used for anything it's still quite a nice touch. It's things like that which will give the park a kind of timeless feel. It will still be there 100 years from now, assuming someone doesn't get in a wreck and a dump truck hits it next week.
  25. zaphod
    The pavers between the rails on the Red Line seem to have hung in there all these years, but then again those don't have road traffic on them. All the weight of the train is on the steel rails.
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