The Pragmatist

Ignoring the reality is more harmful to the homeless people than trying to be nice about it. The truth being that there are a lot of people who are uncomfortable around homeless people. Even more, they are uncomfortable around homeless people when they are confronted by them. Be it for a bit of pocket change, or whatever.

Telling people they shouldn't be afraid of some homeless people (I mean, really, what are the chances that a homeless guy is going to genuinely threaten someone, as opposed to a non-homeless person?) won't change their pre-conceived notions, they just have to experience it a time or two to get the picture.

Believe it or not, there are also people out there who are going to be negative towards homeless people as well. They don't want to be around them, they don't want to see them. Rather than us being all coy about it, we should talk about how we can change these peoples perceptions. I think that will do the most good considering Houston has excellent support networks in place already to take care of these people. The key to swaying them I would imagine should also be through love and not judging them. Right?

This discussion reminded me of this scene from The Simpsons.

https://youtu.be/M9CnqoUB5xM

Well, I work for GE Capital so I'm not 100% sure but I believe it is actually located on Beltway 8 close to IAH. Next time you drive on Beltway 8, count the number of buildings that have GE's logo on them....

Yep, right at Beltway 8 and JFK.

I found a UH tuition/fee statement for my uncle from the late 1970s. A full load of courses plus fees was around $250, if I remember correctly. Just two classes over the summer at UH now cost around $2,500 in tuition and fees.

This is the first house just across the bayou if Sage were to cut through to Silber, which would be wonderful for traffic flow in the area:

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/life/home/trends/article/At-43-million-mansion-listing-breaks-Houston-5783587.php

Needless to say, there's is no chance of that happening.

I can imagine the HAIF plan for this site now:

A 1,777-foot tall (take that One WTC) ultimate mixed-use multi-tower development spreading onto the nearby blocks designed by the hot architect of the day. All of this comes with a miniscale Central Park at the towers' bases. A suspended skydeck at 1,400 ft between the towers provides an excellent opportunity for the first "Drive to the Sky," a new sky-bound golf driving range concept with a full restaurant and bar. Seven full-sized grocery stores adorn the development at levels 1, 25, 39, 52, 75, 88, and 103. At the top of the westernmost building, a high-speed zip line descends into a now open air Astrodome wunder park. A short escalator ride down provides easy access to the newly-built subway station that lies beneath. A hub of sorts, the development sits at a junction between the IAH/Downtown/Med Center/Reliant/Hobby subterranean replacement for the Metrorail Red Line and the east-west line between the East End, UH/TSU, Montrose, and Uptown. In a high-minded effort to shift away from the outdated car culture of the 20th century, no parking garages will be built on site. Rather, seven floors of bike racks will be provided for all those residents or tenants that wish to commute into or out of the property. All of this will be completed in a remarkable time frame in order to be ready for 2017's Super Bowl LI. 

Shoot, if I would've seen this earlier, there is free on-street parking on Sabine, just across the bayou. You walk through Sam Houston Park and you're at the library. 

Where did the 832' height number come from?  Wasn't that just an estimate based on how it looks surpassing 1600 Smith?

Just as a note, since someone posted the FAA filings for another building, I went and looked this one up on the website.

The initial HOK rendering was proposed at 859 feet in height.

https://oeaaa.faa.gov/oeaaa/external/searchAction.jsp?action=displayOECase&oeCaseID=202116051&row=0

Whether that's true anymore with potential changes as it's on hold, who knows?

So, no hotel... 

 

The swingin' 60's are back!

Yeah, baby! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOk2T6Uweao

That's cool looking. Like a spaceship above the woods.

This is such an awesome race between Block 334 and these light rail lines. I'm still going to bet the rail lines open first.

I'm starting to think the high-speed line may beat all of them to the finish line...

I figured this would already be posted here. The comments, as always, are entertaining.

http://www.chron.com/houston/article/New-Urban-Land-Institute-plan-for-Astrodome-calls-6153207.php#photo-7291846

In reference to the FAA junk, the story from the 600 Travis website is interesting:

 

 

JPMorgan Chase Tower was designed by I.M. Pei and associate architect 3D International. The building was completed in 1981 as Texas Commerce Tower. JPMorgan Chase Tower is 75 stories (1,049 feet) tall; just shy of three and a half football fields. The tower has 1.98 million square feet of gross office building space.

JPMorgan Chase Tower was originally planned to be 80 stories tall, but the Federal Aviation Administration limited this and future buildings to 75 stories; anything higher would be labeled by the federal agency as hazardous to air navigation. JPMorgan Chase Tower has an emergency helipad on the rooftop, but has never been utilized and the rooftop is now an antenna site. The office tower is clad in pale gray polished granite, stainless steel, and gray glass. The western corner of the tower has been sheared off to form a five-sided structure. The western facet of the tower is formed by an 85 foot wide free span of glass that ascends the full height of the building. The lobby of JPMorgan Chase Tower was designed to harmonize not only with the height of the structure, but also with the portico of Jones Hall. For that reason, a story glass wall supported by a stainless steel space frame spans the entire 85-foot width of the front entrance, making the lobby area light and airy and opening up the space to the plaza outside.

Source: http://www.chasetower.com/building.php?sect=1

Apologies for contributing to the off-topic part of this thread.

I live right down the street, not surprising, there is a raw criminal element in that neighborhood, lots of thugs and crackheads.

Of course, that's why I always roll with my friend, Desert Eagle, point five-o.....

It's good to know that Bullet-Tooth Tony is driving around in a Porsche scrubbing the seedy underbelly of Houston.

It looks like a large number of buildings on the A&M campus with that brick.

Shot of the foundation taken this morning:

 

Amegy HQ site 1-28-2015.jpg

Are you sure that's 610 in the shot? You must have Photoshopped out the other 100 cars that were originally in the image. 

It looks like it went from Midtown Manhattan to downtown Austin.

Maybe not the best photo of the actual project, but the photo looked cool this morning when I took it. I figured I'd share it here.

Remember, friends: Don't drive while intoxicated.

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Witnesses-Driver-plunged-20-feet-into-downtown-5924452.php

Using United's website:

IAH-->SFO-->IAH |12/15/14 - 12/18/14 | $600 non-stop / $432 with stops

SFO-->IAH-->SFO | 12/15/14 - 12/18/14 | $570 non-stop / $402 with stops

Though I wasn't alive, my cousin tells me how big of an event that show was. 

Here's an update on the new engineering building. This is welcomed as the current engineering complex is dated and dreary at best.

Whats the massive hill in the background on the left side? Or am I hallucinating?

Here you go:

http://offcite.org/2014/03/25/the-alps-of-pasadena

Still, it could be worse... 

Here's a link to the ongoing thread on this...

http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/30882-new-apartment-building-for-fairview-and-montrose-hollywood-vietnamese-closing/#entry472022

...and here's one to a Swamplot article.

http://swamplot.com/apartment-block-planned-for-montrose-and-fairview-replacing-hollywood-vietnamese-and-parking-lots/2014-08-14/