htownproud

i don't understand the southbound traffic lane from Lamar to Dallas on Main.  Because you can't  take lefts over the rail tracks (which you would have to do if you were coming down Lamar), i don't see how anyone could ever use it.  so shutting it down makes perfect sense.  

As someone that takes the light rail to work (and they're aren't many if us), I absolutely understand why they would not face this towards Main. As a practical matter, dropping people off or picking them up would be a nightmare. The road is one lane there. It wouldn't work.

Also the bums down there are awful. I wear headphones so I don't have to deal with them. But they are still an eye sore. If I was spending a hundred million dollars, I would try to lessen the impact of homeless as mush as possible.

Also, this doesn't really look like a parking garage.

Finally, why is rail suppose to be something you build towards? In Chicago, folks don't build buildings so they face the L.

To clarify your clarification ;-)   

 

The upstream portion of the former ConocoPhillips is actually still named "ConocoPhillips", not "Conoco."

 

So we now have:

 

ConocoPhillips (an independent e&p company)

Phillips 66 (a refining, marketing & pipeline company)

Chevron (an integerated super major)

Chevron Phillips (a chemical company)

Correct (and your space between Chevron Phillips is correct as well).  Now we can get back to name dropping about how some executive at Chevron allegedly told X that this was a for sure deal in downtown.  

ChevronPhillips is a chemical company, not to be confused with the former ConocoPhillips.  ChevronPhillips is headquartered in the Woodlands.  

This is a silly conversation.  Chevron tower is being built.  Notably Chevron sent an email to all Houston employees stating that the Bellaire location would not be consolidated downtown.  I suppose it could move that location and Westpark up North, but it would seem odd and against what it is telling/suggesting to its employees.  

Yes, the huge empty fenced off lots.   While it prepared folks going into downtown for the many surface parking lots, I would have preferred to see Allen House there.  

Nearly 7 years after announcing the project. We've had an eye sore along Allen Parkway for many years as a result of these developers, but I suppose it's better late than never.  

The neighbors here don't seem nearly as obnoxious as the Stop Ashby crowd.  They won't get nearly as far though.  

I second adequate.  now if only something could be done with that superblock eyesore.  

very similar question to if a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?  if an apartment building is built in the line of sight from minute maid to downtown but no one is sitting in the seats, is the view blocked?

You know nothing about Walmart.  Corporate execs get a single pen and a pad of paper.  They cannot get another from the supply room until the pen runs out of ink and the pad of paper is out of paper.  There isn't another company in the world that is more revenue and cost conscious than Walmart.  They even go so far as to cut labor costs so much that they couldn't get new product on the shelves.  They knew that if they shut down the EBT system until it was fixed, they would lose sales.   So, the just let it ride on the government. 

 

Walmart could care less about image.  Just look at the image that got out with this story.  It makes it look to every crook out there that Walmart is the place to be whenever there is a problem with the EBT system.  With this news coverage, you can bet that twice the amount of goods will get ripped off if this happens again.  Had they just blamed the government for the problem with the EBT system (which would have been the truth), no one would have faulted them for shutting it down for two hours.  Everyone would have just gone across the street to another store and got what they needed or just waited for two hours.  No news story there.  Probably happens all the time.  And who would care if some poor people had to wait two hours to get groceries.  Poor people have to wait for stuff all the time.

If the Walmart CEO gets a pen before it is out of ink or only uses one side of a piece of a paper, he is flogged and put in the stocks for one week up in Arkansas.  Bill Clinton has been known to spit on the CEO for this wasteful behavior.  You don't want to know what happens if the CEO takes more than one sheet of toilet paper.  

And in other news, the police just caught the second JFK shooter and found Elvis living in Cuba . . . .

Parking is at a premium in that area.  1100 Smith, which is on the other side of the Hyatt from this project, is booked and anything but cheap.  

It appears I'm in the minority, but this is one fugly apartment building.   It's nice to see someone try something different, but the different should be better.  Hopefully the finished product is nicer than these renderings.  

Looks great, although the latest renderings completely distort the surrounding area.  Can't wait for it to start going up.  

a lot of very white people in the rendering for that part of town 

But they haven't lost.  The case was not dismissed and goes to jury trial in November.  Figure in appeals etc, and the site could remain vacant for a long time yet. 

 

 

 

Squeaky wheels, grease..

But what do the signs add to the lawsuit?  the signs on the fences along Greenbriar are a great example.  they are all faded and almost completely covered by the vines on the fences.  if your plastic sign has disintegrated and the vegetation has covered it up, then it's been up too long.  

swtsig -- please read the post.  i said other than this tower.  I'm talking about the four story apartments they are now planning for next door.  im talking about a great project that was announced more than six years ago and that has netted nothing compared to what was hyped.  is it better than allen house.  it may ultimately be, although it sure as "jesus" isn't today (or for the past five years) with the empty parking lots.  is it extremely disappointing?  To me, yes.  It appears you are satisfied with empty fenced in lots.  

I believe MFAH has a large fall out shelter, although I doubt anywhere near that size.

This is by far the most disappointing project in recent memory to me. The original drawings for regents were so great, but now we have vacant lots for over 5 years. We finally have a high rise going up, but at a snails pace. and one high rise with suburban style development around it seems like a waste of this land. I guess we can blame the recession (or crappy owners) . . .

If not the Star of Hope, then something with lots of neon and 2 am last call.

i agree that living in a downtown environment means giving up easy access to a wide variety of things.  Usually you are only in easy walking distance of one grocery store, and in general those stores are much smaller than the huge grocery stores most Houstonians are used to.  You can walk to perhaps two convenience stores, but again they are much smaller.  And it's a super pain to try to go to a place like Target or Home Depot.  

Of course in return, you can walk to most everything you need to get by and there is a vibrant interaction with the City and your neighbors.  That said,I think that most people (not all) like the wider selection of goods and easy access to them, which is why cities like Houston and similar cities are growing much faster than the dense urban centers (and in particular, why the suburbs and near suburbs in these cities are growing).  

Nice rendering. Do we know why they are waiting? 

Marvy went to an Astros game and realized people really don't want to live near the ballpark.  

The signs alone aren't arrogant. But i see them as representing arrogance because i associate them with the entire movement's attitude towards the development and the reasons it should be stopped. I'm not going to rehash the arguements on the previous 29 pages, but needless to say I don't support the stop Ashby highrise movement.

And regardless of how I view the signs, I stll can't imagine that people are in favor of yard signs up for three years and beyond. What purpose are they serving at this late date? Would you feel different if someone in the area put a rusty car on cinder blocks in the front yard and painted stop ashby highrise on the sides and left it there for three years?

Poe is a good school, and I agree that the reason it doesn't do better is the multi-family on the north side of 59.

But having ugly, arrogant signs in your yard for three years is a problem. It's like a house leaving up christmas decorations for three years, but it's an entire neighborhood. If you don't see that, wow. Just wow.

what will really make the property go up is requiring the locals to remove the yellow monster signs from their yards.  I looked to buy in the area this past spring, and bought elsewhere in part because of the signs and the arrogance they represent (more b/c of Poe though).