midtown 4.2

I took midtownguy's advise, and called the station. Spoke to someone at the news desk, he recalled the story, put me on hold for a moment to dig up the article, and seemed like he was scanning through the report and read out loud the highlights for me.

The only new info I got, was that "they" (whoever "they" are) were commisioning a $400K feasability study to see how they can combine bus, light rail, and commuter rail into one facility. I had more questions, but felt like I was pushing my luck.

Got in my car after lunch, turned on the radio, and caught this snippet of news . . . " . . . will replace the Greyhound station at Main and Grey."

What's up!? I'm going crazy with the anticipation of hearing that this bus station will finally move out of Midtown. Anybody have the scoop on this?

crossing my fingers!

Caretaker is correct. What I've heard is that the place is hunted by the spirit of the caretaker and his dog. The man lived on site, and would roam the building with his dog afterhours . . . playing his violin. It's been said that some people have reported hearing violin music, or the click click sound of a dog's nails on the terrazzo floor.

Could also be a river otter. Lots of them around the Armand Bayou Nature Reserve.

Also available at Brazos Bookstore on Bisonnet, Texas Art Supply, and directly from the source . . . the Rice design Alliance.

Below is an article that might be relevant.

http://www.core77.com/corehome/2005/04/mmm...chitecture.html

Mmmm, architecture

Thursday, April 07, 2005

Frank Gehry made an appearance on The Simpsons last weekend. I've looked for days to find an image from the show to blog here (not set up to do my own screencaps) and voila, an article about pop culture and architecture appears. But mostly, gaze upon the image. The episode featured a nice shot at the design process, where Gehry receives a letter from Marge urging him to design a Cultural Center for Springfield. Gehry crumples the letter, disgusted, and throws it to the ground, then sees the resulting form and has an architectural epiphany. The resultant design is the balled-paper-as-building. Not as bitter, yet, as the Python Architect Sketch or the Kids in the Hall Architect and the Atrium (no transcript online that I could find; suffice to say the architect tells the clients "Screw you and screw you!" several times).

posted by steve.portigal

Man! what a waste of my tax dollars! I went to take out the trash last Saturday, only to find my City of Houston supplied trash bin missing. I didn't take it, and I KNOW it did not simply walk away . . . therefore it leads me to conclude that it was stolen! Not a problem . . . I pay way too much in taxes, I'm probably entitled to another "free" trash container. I went to call the solid waste department, told them my problem, and the lady said:

"hold on, I'll have to transfer you to the non-emergency HPD number. You need to get an incident number from them. Then call us back."

Me: "OK"

HPD, said that they need to send a patrol officer out to my house to take a statement.

Me: "How soon will the officer be here?" . . . I had stuff to do.

HPD: "I don't know, I'll just send out a dispatch, and the next available officer will come."

1 1/2 hours later, an officer pulls up, we joke around a bit, (after all, I feel stupid about being a "victim" of a stolen trash can). He then pulls out a pre-filled out piece of paper with the incident number on it. Now, all I have to do is call back to the Solid Waste Dept.

I don't know about you guys, but don't you think involving HPD into this whole "sordid" affair is kind of ridiculous, AND a big waste of manpower and tax dollars? You'd think I can just call Solid Waste directly, and skip the whole song and dance routine. What is so magical about this "incident" number anyway? Needless to say, that was really weird. Just had to get that off my chest. Thanks for listening.

Can't tell if this is a joke or not, but here is my answer.

U of H has an awsome Architecture program. They are mainly focused on creating designers, so no, you do not need to have an extensive mathematics background. I would say that U of H and Rice are similar . . . spitting out good (i.e. trendy) designers, but little knowledge in creating construction documents. Whereas A & M and UT teach their kids how to prepare documents, but their designs are lacking.

Be prepared for grueling hours at school (I once did 38 hours without sleep). . . and that doesn't change much once you're out of school. 1st year architecture school has an extremely high atrition rate. You'll find out quickly if you're cut out for this kind of stuff.

I don't normally listen to 104 anymore, but happened to tune in Tuesday morning, and caught Maria Todd rant about about how a man had left her . . . I thought it was another failed relationship, but then put 2 and 2 together, and ralized that Sam Mallone might have left the show. Did something happen? What's the scoop? I searched the net, but came up with nothing.

Not sure if you're exposing any military secrets or not . . . but as long as the pics are already in the public domain, what are those black cube things? Interesting pics indeed.

I can't let the KKK comments go unchallenged. I'm Asian, and I grew up in CLC. I have never felt unwelcomed there. In fact I have never even noticed any sign of racism. Granted, 25 years ago, Seabrook and Kemah used to be composed of blue-collar fishing and petrochemical families. To negatively paint the entire region with a broad stroke is doing injustice to the majority of families there.

Some fantastic communities to check out:

Bay Oaks (consistantly listed as one of the top communities nationwide).

Northfork

Nassau Bay

Taylor Lake Village

South Shore Harbor

New exclusive communities in Seabrook.

I've moved to Midtown, but my parents and extended family still live in CLC. IN CLC, I see all races . . . lots of Indians (South Asian), Vietnamese, Philippinos, Middle Easterns, and of course Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics. . . and NO I have not seen any burning crosses.

I live in the innerloop, and prefer that kind of lifestyle. If I had to pick a 'burb, CLC would be my choice.

My major complaint regarding streets, is the shoddy workmanship on the brand new construction!

Some examples:

Fannin (near the Ventana Apartments) - why is there such a huge and sharp crown in the middle of the road. . .I know crowns help rainwater flow off to the sides, but the slop on this street is crazy! Compare the same street north of Pierce and you see what I'm talking about.

Elgin, McGowan, Gray, etc. when driving down these streets, you feel like your're on a rollercoaster . . .constantly going up and down. The freshly paved asphalt sections are sometimes 30 inches higher than the concrete intersections of the north-south transit streets. It would have added to the cost, but I wished they would just pave all the streets on an even plane.

North and south bound feeder roads on Sam Houston tollway (between 59 and Belaire blvd.) this is possibly the roughest "new" street I've been on.

Ditto for the new exit ramp from the new terminal E at Bush Intercontinental airport.

I keep on wanting to find out who has oversight, and gives the final O.K. when the work is done, and why these contractors get away with such poor work. Might be an Emmy in this for some industrious investigative reporter.

Update: Item (1), the lot behind the storage place, looks like it's going to be townhomes. Looks like they are laying the formwork for 4 or 5 foundations. No construction sign stating who is developing / building this project yet.

I'd line the bottom of Buffalo Bayou, ship channel, & Galveston Bay with sand & crushed coral . . . to trap sediment and turn the water into a crystaline turquoise color. I'd also build lushly coverd foot-hills that lead down to the water's edge. Women will wear flowers in their hair and pareos wrapped around their bodies, men will wear sarongs and flipflops . . . wait a minute, this is beginning to sound like Bora Bora! . . . oh well . . .

I noticed some goings on recently:

1) Excavation work started, and survey stakes in place, on the empty block behind the large (4-5 storey, stucco, post-modern, Roman, storage warehouse, cube, thingie). . . Caroline @ Rosalie.

2) Structure on the block immediately to the south of Specs being demolised.

3) Construction fencing up, and work started on Elizabeth Baldwin park.

4) Midtown Management construction sign up at the SW corner of Fannin and Elgin. Promoting some sort of project, I drive by too quickly to be able to read the fine print.

5) Camden has a large sign w/ rendering of their "proposed" mix-use project for the Midtown superblock.

Any inside info? Ahem (clears throat) Hint, hint, "Houston Retail".

Ray, I think you got the wrong intersection. You're probably at Crawford and Tuam (two warehouses there), you need to go 1 block east (towards 288) to Chenevert and Tuam.

Clear Lake used to be crystal clear. Sea grass used to cover the bottom at one time, and helped keep the sediment down. When small trawlers started working in there, and draging their nets on the bottom, the grass was damaged and have not had a chance to reestablish itself.

I live in Midtown, and can hear the late night trains too! Sometimes it seems like the train engineers just lay on the horn just for fun. You'd think a few blasts would suffice.

YOU GO! ED! . . . nice design!

Dear God please, please, please make this happen. I promise I'll be a good boy.

(in a hushed tone) psst! Adam, Jeff, & Ed. My gut instinct says that your clothing store won't work. I don't think people will go out of their way to shop at only one location. It needs to be a shopping destination with several retail choices. My 2 cents.

Alexian Lofts used to be the old Mercado Del Sol (long and storied history). If you thought it is cool now, you would have loved it before they came in and carpeted over the fantastic wood flooring, and sheetrocked over the old brick.

My friends that live there, say that the trains don't bother them.

Another real (not pseudo) loft is Dakota Lofts in the warehouse district. Hurry up and visit that area befor they tear down the 100 year old buildings, and replace it with uglyness.

Pic 1: West End, 2: Memorial Park (near St. Teresa's Church), 3: Waugh near Fairview, 4: ?, 5: Montrose, 6: West End, 7: Westheimer near Smith

sorry that i can't be mo specific.

Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur

Defense Building, Paris

I'm actually disappointed about the Sterrett project. The design is good, but they tore down a fantastic old warehouse to make way for the project. The brick warehouse was probably 5 stories tall,and filled up the entire site. It had a awsome loading dock that surrounded the building, and really helped define the character of the area. If this continues, the "warehouse district" will become the "over-priced townhome district."

Metal vs. stucco vs. brick . . . to each their own. I like them, that's why i live in one (in fact, we were the first metal home to be built in Midtown . . . circa 1999). The following link has some background on metal homes in Houston (including some really nice pics).

http://www.cameronarmstrong.com/ideas_rdatxt94.htm

Tropioca also has a location in Midtown . . . in the MetroBank mini mall (next to Pho Saigon). It's pretty good, not bad for a mom & pop operation.