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Texasota

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Everything posted by Texasota

  1. This looks like a massing study. Not representative of final materials. The balconies don't even have floors. Unless that was sarcasm.
  2. I like brass in an industrial setting, but brass on white just screams "I WILL NEVER LOOK CLEAN!"
  3. Except that a lot of people like the current amount of planned activities. How do you propose finding a balance between those people and your perspective?
  4. As mentioned upthread, this development is owned by the same developer that owns the existing neighboring retail, and he has made it clear that he wants to support local businesses, particularly of the sort that's already there. Also, my understanding is that these apartments will be relatively inexpensive and small. Not a guarantee by any means, but good signs.
  5. 70' right of way for Westheimer needs to be fought.
  6. Hopefully that's a sign that the renovation of Great Southwest is moving along...
  7. It looks like the newer rendering effectively lost one "floor" from the crown.
  8. I agree that the site plan we've seen looks fine, but it's an old site plan and could very easily change. And that's the thing. The moment it becomes private, the developer can do whatever they want with it. They can gate it. They can fill it in. They can covert it into a pit full of spikes. Making it private makes anything possible.
  9. I would think that a temporary (12-18 month) closure could be worked out that would be preferable to abandonment. It looks like they're also narrowing the street. One issue is actually that the street has a vast array of arcane rules regulating street width, lane width, number of lanes etc that could pose a problem. I wonder if they could reclassify it as an alley? Or
  10. I also think that the argument for abandoning a street that dead ends into a major street really only makes sense in the context of cars and buses. If you're on a bike or walking, having a cut-through to a major street like Main can be really valuable.
  11. It would be great if they've standardized the design enough that, like Skyhouse, they can plop multiple copies of it down quickly and (relatively) inexpensively. Of course, Skyhouse gets away with that partially by separating the parking garage and letting that change shape depending on the site, but blocks in and near downtown are similar enough in size, and there are plenty of entirely vacant blocks, that I could imagine this developer making it work if they were thoughtful with the original design.
  12. And now it will dead end at Fannin, so we can abandon that block. And then it will dead end at San Jacinto, so we can abandon that block. And so on.
  13. But Jesse Jones had a hand in an enormous amount of real estate. Soon every block downtown will be the Jones something-or-other...
  14. This was originally multiple lots that they are converting into a single lot (which apparently includes abandoning the street and incorporating its ROW into the lot.) You know...I like this project. I do. But the city needs to start being a lot more careful about abandoning ROW. Yes, these individual blocks of side streets are not that big of a deal (individually), but the city really needs to get something from the developer out of it. Like money. Or maintaining a pedestrian cut-through. Or low-income housing. SOMETHING. This land is not worth nothing. Edit: OK, looking at the site plan I see they're basically just converting it into a private street, but then, why is that ok? Why is the city just abandoning their authority over the street, if it's not even meaningfully necessary for the development's design?
  15. I don't understand "my street will be full of cars" as a complaint. It's a public street; that's where cars belong. I do understand if drunken people are obnoxious in front of your house, but they really shouldn't be driving anyway... Not sure what the solution is other than continuing to increase density and improve transit. Maybe some kind of program to encourage people to use Uber?
  16. And it would really tie the whole neighborhood together with the Rice and the new towers right nearby.
  17. Wait, are they naming it after the smaller building next door? The Great Jones Building? That's... weird. https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7589348,-95.3634507,3a,75y,274.54h,96.73t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s7KflKh-NxXnH6uWjTmbfNA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!6m1!1e1
  18. It looks like they're reintroducing retail at the corner of Rusk and Main: http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/Commissions/docs_pdfs/hahc/Application_Materials/April_MATERIALS/712_Main_Gulf_Building_App_Materials.pdf
  19. Actually it looks like they're not touching the Texas Direct Auto sign; they are just putting a (underwhelming-looking) bar in at the ground floor.
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