Texasota

Yeah that grove is amazing. It's a large site though, plenty of room to build the hotel and keep the trees. Not that I expect that, but it's certainly possible.

Ultimately, increasing the number of students housed on campus will help as well. Just having lots of people out walking throughout the day should help curb crimes of opportunity. That being said, this is a large campus, and it doesn't seems like we have any more crime than any other university I've attended. When I was at the University of Minnesota we had a couple of robberies at gunpoint in faculty members' own offices.

Yeah this thing is actually pretty good. I would prefer something a bit less architecturally banal, but at least its not faux Tuscan or something.

Huh. I can't quite figure out what angle this rendering is from. Is this from the south looking north? What's with the weird landscaped driveway ...thing? It just seems like a huge waste of space.

We're getting a weird spiral ziggurat!

OMG! I have to cross the street to go to the gym?!?!?!?

I like it, but i wish there werent a parking lot between the stadium and Cullen.

plus, TJ Maxx? really?

eh, 1300 Capitol makes perfect sense. It's 5 blocks from Jones Hall. That's less than a 10 minute walk. Students are carrying heavy equipment? Their campus would be directly on the light rail line.

Yes, parking could be an issue, assuming that this one block is all that HISD owns. There are two blocks caddy-corner to this site that are currently completely vacant- perfect locations for parking garages and close enough to connect with skyways.

Would a location actually *in* the theater district be more convenient? Maybe, except that there are also venues on the east side of downtown now. This site is within easy walking distance of the Theater District, HOB, Discovery Green, the Convention Center etc.

design? not too bad? A privately funded cultural center is the perfect opportunity to produce something architecturally significant, because the risk is much lower than it would be with most development. Look at Asia Society- at $50 million it was more expensive than this, but much of that is because of program, the initial cost of a huge geothermal system, high-end materials etc.

This is a very high profile site- the perfect opportunity to make an architectural statement. If this thing is trying to help "sell" the city and region, a piece of recognizable and distinct architecture would be a lot more useful than this historicist crap.

Regardless of whether this thing is a terribly useful expenditure of 32 million dollars, is nobody else bothered by the fact that it's architecturally hideous?

As an arch student, may i suggest that you stay open 24hrs? I'm pretty sure we can keep you in business...

A high rise? At that intersection? Why would you want that?

This will help tie together the stuff north of alabama with the galleries etc a couple blocks south, and provide them with some foot traffic.

Now If we could just get sears to restore their building on wheeler...

Yeah I think Phoenicia makes clear what a downtown grocer has to do to survive: they need to offer people who live in the surrounding neighborhoods a reason to drive into downtown. Phoenicia offers something different enough from Kroger, Fiesta, HEB, Central Market or Whole Foods that it's somewhat of a destination. Plus, yeah, their prices are actually very reasonable.

It doesn't always have to be tall. Honestly I'd take a strong relationship with the street over "tall" any day of the week

I second "Burj Ashby." Now let's never talk about it again. Or the historic ordinance for that matter.

Eh, I would rather the city and developers spend that money on almost anything else.

The power lines have to go somewhere, and we don't have a whole bunch of alleys in this city...

Hmmm, I don't dislike these, but the faux balconies just bother me so much...

At least give me something big enough for some potted plants.

well, that wouldn't be 20 more blocks of "this," now would it?

No. Mixed use neighborhoods yay! Forced consistency boooo!

When did the word "plaza" cease to have any meaning?

Eh, Torchy's is overrated and overpriced, but this is really not a terrible development.

Um, y'all's Giger meters are way off.

...Although there's a part of me that wishes this design were way more biomechanical and inexplicably phallic.

Well. That's boring. But inoffensive.