Texasota

I genuinely wish they had built new, though I'm sure keeping that one attic window grandfathered them in as a "renovation".

This is just ugly. 

Balconies are good. I do like them recessed like this, but I think *every* apartment and condo should have some sort of private outdoor space.

health-forward restaurant ... based in the Midwest...

Nope. It doesn't add up.

I kind of want the TMobile store to be completely different. This whole thing is shaped like an exclamation point - make the TMobile store bright pink and covered with neon as the "point".

But why? I've never liked this setup on streets that have it, and there's plenty of space to have bike lanes protected by a door buffer and parking. 

*Maybe* if forces drivers to slow down because you have other drivers (the only kind of pedestrian most drivers even pretend to respect) walking from the middle of the street to the sidewalk? 

Eh, I'm not a fan. I don't like it in South Philly, and I don't think it's the best approach in midtown.

This has absolutely been talked about and I remain staunchly against that idea. Moving at-risk people away from a neighborhood where they have easy access to services and public transportation is, at best, unproductive and unhelpful to those people.

I think there's an argument that they should have built bigger, maybe selling part of their land and building denser on a smaller parcel, but Montrose is absolutely where this kind of organization should be.

I can't take this name seriously.

well I suppose it counts as a skill...

no

Eh, it never went away in Philadelphia (especially South Philly).

I've seen in the suburbs of Berlin as well.

I have ...mixed feelings about it, but in Midtown I don't think its solving a real problem. The Austin and Gray bike lanes work great - using the parking as part of the protection *for* the bike lanes (as long as there's also a buffer to prevent dooring) works great when it's well implemented.

4 hours ago, TXK said:

They've planted several trees along the trail at the end closest to the bridge, but the end closer to Frasier was still dirt when I went by last weekend. If there wasn't a parking lot on Studemont, I would've thought it'd be a good place for neighborhood trailhead parking.

More trees before parking please.

Even now that you've narrowed the comparison significantly (I notice no mention of Lower Heights or the Hardy Yards developments at a similar scale for example, much less smaller projects), I don't totally agree.

ROD does nothing to engage Westheimer, and, if anything, reinforces a drive-to urbanism in the area. I don't think higher quality materials and overpriced nonsense "luxury" retailers remotely make up for that. City Centre has similar issues, though Midway has made a lot of progress in that regard.

I never said they haven't cheaped out on a lot of things; I said this is *still* an above average development for the city. 

At the end of the day, I think this represents a huge improvement for the neighborhood. 

I will also admit I was never that enamored of the original renderings. I love old buildings. I *despise* new buildings designed to (sort of) look old. It's rarely done well, and the older renderings never convinced me it would be done well here. To me the actual loss is in the site plan; this is still *fine* (depending partially on how the next phases turn out), but it is a downgrade from what was originally proposed.

I just think Lower Heights deserves this kind of vitriol far more than this project. Or a brand new gas station under construction in midtown. Or the CVS that went in recently across from the Alabama theater. Or the tower in River Oaks Shopping Center that went in *behind a surface parking lot*. Or any number of other smaller projects that could have been far more than what was delivered.

My standards are irrelevant - what's relevant is the standards of the developers that build in this city.

If you think this, a mixed-use project with no surface parking, a garage completely hidden from Dallas, Dunlavy, *and* Clay, and a pleasant streetscape with street-facing ground floor windows, outdoor dining, and a retail plaza is "below average" for a local project (even just in central Houston) then you must be, consciously or not, ignoring most projects. 

honestly, given how much people are complaining about a perfectly fine (at least above average!) project just because its worse than what was originally proposed, I kind of hope this just ends up a stripmall or a drive through carwash

but... the Caroline bike lane *doesn't* have a buffer except at some intersections.

"Floors" apparently equals "garages"...

I welcome any and all who want to come to Texas. Hopefully their children at least will grow up knowing what good fries are.

boo

Their burgers are good, but their fries are absolute trash. I don't understand the obsession people have with the place.

Hmmm, maybe more interested in the proposed changes to the Palm Court building - making the ground floor real storefronts.

just the one supertall? how unambitious. 

...it was a joke.

Oh it seems like it might actually be Dominican. That makes sense and could be a great addition to downtown.

Nuevo Latino from the East Coast sounded potentially like an awful idea, but a northeastern restaurant not understanding that you need to be more specific that just "Latin" definitely tracks.

6-7 stories ends up being pretty common as well because you get 5 stories of stick on top of 1-2 stories of concrete podium

Can't say I like the term "medical arts". I want a higher grade of predictability and consistency from my medicine, and fewer opportunities for the "medical artist" to express their feelings.