Houston19514

8 hours ago, shasta said:

MMP was built in the right spot, wit synergy developing all around it. NRG/Reliant, much like the Houston Texans franchise decided to be stubborn and bucked all of the current trends about urban stadiums and built it in a seas of parking and then denied all development opportunities.

 

Why...they wanted the parking $$

Is there a current trend of urban football stadiums?

I'm not confused about the project.  I'm confused about what you meant by your post:  "As if".

And I'm confused about your follow-up post.  Per Dallasmetropolis "they" (presuming "they" are the developers of the proposed Four Seasons) are not up to anything other than trying to line up financing.  

2 hours ago, JBTX said:

I wonder what McCaul's beef with Texas Central is? Probably that it doesn't go through his Houston-Austin district...

But it does go through his district...

2 hours ago, X.R. said:

I don't really understand how people who live on or near the affected streets think those streets in their current form are condusive to a neighborhood. As of now, they are car-centric thoroughfares. If Skanksa attended a meeting to make the street more human friendly, keeping in mind that developers in Houston are typically supportive of better car infrastructure, and said yes they like it these people need to understand how rare that is in Houston (ahem, Midtown Whole Foods). 

Feels very much like the stuff that went on in the Heights over the bike lanes, with a few hundred grasping for straws to prevent change...for the sake of preventing change. 

We could tell it was just complainers doing what they do. The tell was in the "headline" claims.  (1) Most of the trees being removed are spindly, unhealthy and have been butchered to keep them out of the electric lines (2) the dishonest "headline" that the trees are being removed to widen the sidewalks, when even the complainers surely know this is much more than just widening sidewalks (3) and of course no mention of the new boulevard that will have new trees or (4) the fact that there will be many more trees planted than are removed. One guesses that a lot of people signed that petition based on misinformation (to put it as nicely as I can).

This reminds me of a question:  does anyone know if they will be burying the electric lines as part of this project?

21 minutes ago, bobruss said:

Sure it sho

The rendering does show a bridge which would cross OST which is a very busy street. It's in the bottom of the rendering. It would also tie the dental school, MD Anderson cancer treatment centers along with the UT Health Science center to the Helix. You can see the bridge in the bottom of the screen crossing OST.

Yes, it does.  We were discussing the north end, but thank you.

Houston continues to hold on to (and in fact slightly widen relative to DFW) its lead in international air traffic among Texas cities.

2023 YTD through August:

•    Bush Intercontinental:  7,817,323
•    Hobby International:      703,467
• Houston Total:             8,520,790
• DFW:                            7,505,999
• San Antonio:                  401,088

12 minutes ago, editor said:

Word on the street is that it's already long closed.  They had a 70% off sale, and everything went in one day. 

I haven't been down there to confirm.

Not already "long closed".  And everything did not go in one day.  As others noted over the weekend.  It was 60% off Sunday afternoon and already pretty cleaned out. Per Houston Public Media, the sale started Saturday @ 50% off. Sunday was 60%. Monday was 70%.

"By Monday afternoon, employees put up “70 percent off” signs for what was left in the store: some vitamins and sparkling waters, glass vases and a handful of granola bars. The “60 percent off” wine aisle was still heavily stocked with Chardonnay and Rosé."

It sounds like it may have closed Monday afternoon.

15 hours ago, 004n063 said:

Saw it on one of the promotional materials. Why? Needs a better way to connect to the TMCTC red line stop. How? Above (my pay grade).

 

Here's an example of a promotional image that suggests such a bridge:the 

A pedestrian bridge across the bayou might be good (or it might be better to add better pedestrian accommodations on the existing Fannin, Braeswood and Berliner bridges), to get from Helix Park to the main campus of TMC. But if the goal is to get to the TMC TC, it would be better to just make sure we have good sidewalk infrastructure along S Braeswood and Fannin, the shortest, most direct rout to the TMC TC. (Sidewalks currently exist, but they could use improvement, especially on the Fannin St bridge.)

FWIW, that conceptual rendering does not show a pedestrian bridge to the UT School of Public Health. It appears to suggest a pedestrian bridge over the bayou and then between two large sets of cooling towers (is that even feasible? I would guess not - it looks like there's only maybe 15 feet between them), and then perhaps connecting to MD Anderson's skywalk, which does not connect to the UT School of Public Health and would be a round-about way to get to the TMC TC. 

The word from Airliners.net is that United is starting preliminary moves this week on their Terminal B project (such as closing Gates B25-30).

1 hour ago, 004n063 said:

I think the fairness will depend a lot on the final touches vis-a-vis pedestrian and bike access. Will they follow through with the Brays trail connection? The pedestrian bridge to the UT School of Public Health on Pressler St.? Will any effort be made to provide a southern connection to the bike path on Almeda?

The campus itself has nice pedestrian and bike accessibility, and it has proximity to transit and the bike network. But right now those connections are longer, more convoluted, more dangerous, and more unpleasant than they need to be.

A pedestrian bridge from Helix Park to the UT School of Public Health on Pressler St?   Why? How?

Did Buffalo Bayou ever run through a pine forest?

On 10/5/2023 at 11:04 AM, kennyc05 said:

Nice it took them awhile.

Per the article, they've apparently always had ribbon lighting; they are adding additional ribbons

On 10/5/2023 at 12:08 AM, Tumbleweed_Tx said:

clockwise.... Hardy Toll Road is the Hardy Toll road.
59, which technically the Lloyd Bentsen (remember him?) freeway, is Eastex out to Porter. I-10 East is The Beast to Baytown, then it's I-10
225 is 225. Does it have an official name?

45 South is The Gulf Freeway up until it's end at 61st St
288 is 288. Is The Nolan Ryan Expressway the official name? 

59 South is the SWF until Rosenberg, then it's 59.
I-10 West is The Katy Freeway from downtown to The Brazos River, then it's I-10 to the Santa Monica Pier.

fun note.... Texas mile marker 333 is 1/3 of the way from Houston to Los Angeles. Arizona mile marker 333 is 2/3 of the way to LA. I checked the last time I made that drive.

290 is the NWF from The Loop to the Beltway, then it's 290 to Austin.

249 is 249 no matter where it is.

45 North is the North Freeway from I-10 to The Woodlands, then it's 45. 
It's already 3 lanes to Walker County, it's going to be 3 lanes all the way to that large city on the wrong end of I-45.

The Lloyd Bentsen Highway moniker only applies to the Southwest Freeway portion of I69/US59 (starting at the intersection with I-45, and actually extending all the way to the intersection of US59 with IH35 at Laredo.) As you said, no one calls it that.  It's Southwest Freeway in the Houston metro.

225 is the LaPorte Freeway.

288 is the South Freeway; not sure where that name drops off.  It is the Nolan Ryan Expressway only from the Brazoria County Line to Freeport.

290 is also the Ronald Reagan Memorial Highway. I think from Beltway 8 to the Waller County Line.

Various sections of 249 are also known as Tomball Parkway, Tomball Tollway and Aggie Expressway.

Also, US90 is the Crosby Freeway.

"Parking Lot with worship wall/storage building."  😱

The Commons at Hermann Park is looking great!

8 hours ago, editor said:

Designed by AS+GG.

When I lived in Chicago, I was friendly with a lot of the big-name global architecture firms, and spent a bit of time in AS+GG's offices, so I dug up some pictures I took.

And because creative people thrive in a creative environment, there's a piano in the lobby for lubricating the brain cells:

 

The lobby also opens onto a private rooftop garden about 25 stories above the street.

 

Fun pictures.  I'm guess they must have relocated since you visited them.

CREguy is usually spot-on, but I think he miscalled this one.  I don’t see any of the towers demolished. These are already high quality buildings and’ with some tweaking can be top-level office buildings very attractive in the market.  OR one or more could be repurposed as residential and/hotel.

Mods, can we change the title of this thread?  I'm pretty certain this is no longer the "O'Quinn Medical Tower."

On 9/26/2023 at 9:05 AM, editor said:

The same boogieman was raised when cities tried to mandate smoke detectors in apartment buildings.  They're only normal now because the insurance industry started raising rates on buildings that didn't have them.

It's the whole "internalize the profit, externalize the cost/risk" play all over again.  

If it costs a real estate developer an extra $10 to do something, is that cost passed on to the home buyer?  Absolutely.  If a real estate developer saves $10 doing something, is that savings passed on to the home buyer?  Absolutely not.  Let's not pretend that the real estate developers fighting this improvement are doing it out of the charity of their hearts.

The people who benefit from curb cuts every six feet isn't the people who live in the neighborhood.  It's the people building and selling the homes, who don't have to live with the consequences.  

As I said, every additional regulation adds to the cost of housing.  Thanks for your support.

Golconda Venture.  Per HCAD, I find 13 parcels they still own totaling about 7 1/2 blocks, all in the southeast part of Downtown, plus one (1/2 block) in the north end of Midtown.

29 minutes ago, editor said:

The problem is that the "adds to housing costs" boogieman is brought up every time any new regulation is proposed, no matter how minor the cost.

How much would this add to the cost of a house?  50¢?  A dollar?  Ten dollars?  Nobody ever says.

Is the cost added to a single house more or less than the benefit delivered to the general public?

That balance of course is what needs to be carefully considered.  It's easy to say, well, it won't add much to the cost, so it will be fine.  It's not a boogieman. It's a very real consequence of regulations and must be taken into account. As I said, every time another regulation is imposed, it adds a little bit more to the cost until one day, seemingly all of the sudden, few people can afford housing. 

16 minutes ago, wilcal said:

The last time I asked METRO, the parking is going to be free. I just don't understand how METRO can justify spending tens of millions to provide free parking. 

As discussed up-thread, I'm not sure any decision has been made about whether to charge for parking at this garage.

1 hour ago, steve1363 said:

Jones Hall is still upgrading even though this weird article calls it a “theater” and says it’s home to Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet - which it hasn’t been for many years.

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2023/09/21/jones-hall-renovations.html

 

OMG. Every time I think Houston journalism has hit rock bottom, they find a way to be even worse.  That is truly pathetic.  (To be exact, the opera and ballet moved out of Jones Hall more than 36 years ago!)

 I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing this year’s improvements to Jones Hall.

4 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

https://abc13.com/city-of-houston-lights-over-freeway-bridge-montrose-who-pays-for-the-on-59/13806175/

Kind of annoying since the design team was already selected :/ 

Hopefully, that's an under-promise, over-deliver.   FWIW, the design team having been selected does not necessarily mean they are under contract.  The first period of time may be spent getting contracts. Only then could the design work start...

9 hours ago, Triton said:

Wow, Houston First said they won't begin construction until at least a year from now. 

Where did you see that?

8 hours ago, bookey23 said:

So many things in this city are being built on a timeline with the 2026 World Cup in mind

such as...??