cloud713 Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 (edited) Heh. An Omni downtown would be cool. I've been wondering myself what brand this will end up being. Surely with all the amenities in this building they will want to go with something high end.So now that we've determined the road is in fact closed off, connecting the southern half of GRB directly to Discovery Green, what does everyone think about the new connectivity? I love it.The only downside I see is I use ADLA to run along side 59 so I can merge into 288 leaving the east side of downtown. Now I'll have to go down a couple more blocks. Ah well, there will be more retail on the park now! Edited October 9, 2014 by cloud713 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UtterlyUrban Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 In addition to my comments above on traffic patterns, do notice that it appears that they are reconfiguring the Hilton garage to handle some amount of bus traffic/drop off. This is consistent to what I was told a couple of months ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigereye Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 ADLA will be half its current size. Basically, the east half of the street (from the current median to the GRB, will be converted to what you see in the renderings. The west half of the street (the current southbound side) will be converted to 2-way traffic.I thought I heard this too but it doesn't appear to be true. Look at slides 8 and 21. It seems that they are CLOSING the ADLA (both sides) from the underground garage entrance southward. Thereby fully connecting GRB to Disco. ADLA will be four lanes of traffic (two in and two out) from the Northside of the GRB to the underground entrance only. Am I missing something? Edit..... Now, if you look at the last picture in the post above, it makes sense. You can see that the "blue cube box" that is in disco now (stairs to garage), is in the rendering. The new space shown is permenant new "park" space that connects the GRB to disco. The road is completely gone in this section. A zoom in of the site plan on the PDF reveals that only rthe Southbound lanes of ADLA will go all the way through the site. The Northbound lanes will be cut off from the garage to Dallas St. The Southbound lanes are optional closure for events from the garage to Dallas St. This makes sense. Traffic leaving the garage can go north then left at Walker or right on Texas. Meanwhile traffic entering from Polk can left turn and proceed down Lamar. And with the optional closure of the southbound lanes at the garage, events can still go on without blocking access to the garage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fatesdisastr Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 I thought I heard this too but it doesn't appear to be true. Look at slides 8 and 21. It seems that they are CLOSING the ADLA (both sides) from the underground garage entrance southward. Thereby fully connecting GRB to Disco. ADLA will be four lanes of traffic (two in and two out) from the Northside of the GRB to the underground entrance only. Am I missing something? Edit..... Now, if you look at the last picture in the post above, it makes sense. You can see that the "blue cube box" that is in disco now (stairs to garage), is in the rendering. The new space shown is permenant new "park" space that connects the GRB to disco. The road is completely gone in this section. That's what I'm seeing as well...? @Cloud713 I disagree that we have in fact determined that the road is completely closed off. It looks like the two lanes one way south of the underground garage are to remain open but can be closed for events. If it is in fact closed permanently than these two slides must be wrong. There wouldn't be a car at the promenade or the two lanes To me, the red posts on the south side of Disco Green seem to make it easy to put up a temporary canopy for events and to shut down the two lanes. It looks like the posts are perfectly placed for a "gallery" canopy top. I might be wrong but thats just how I understand the renderings Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 Nah, you are right. I've been looking at these schematics from my cell phone and didn't notice the fine details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nate99 Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 With MMP on one end and TC on the other, ADLA is fairly usless as a through street and, for all its width, is almost always empty. Closing it and utilizing it seems like an easy trade off. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houston19514 Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 (edited) In addition to my comments above on traffic patterns, do notice that it appears that they are reconfiguring the Hilton garage to handle some amount of bus traffic/drop off. This is consistent to what I was told a couple of months ago. Yes, there will be bus terminal facilities in both parking garages (the new one on the north end and the Hilton Americas garage on the south end. There will be escalators in both to take people up to the second level skywalks connecting to the hotels and the GRB Currently, they are actually lowering the floor of the bottom level of the Hilton Americas garage to create sufficient clearance for buses. So, Cloud713, did you buy the naming rights to this feature they are calling The Cloud? ;-) Edited October 9, 2014 by Houston19514 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luminare Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 I think for as much grief we give our city government for their planning ineptitude else where in Houston, they have done a wonderful job with this part of town. I think Discovery Green, along with the blocks around it, are clear examples where focused planning really pays off and I hope they step back at some point and realize this fact. They continuously claim that sprawl, no zoning, zero intervention is what makes this city great and unique, but Discovery Green completely demolishes that kind of thinking. Discovery Green is completely opposite of what they claim works. While yes no zoning is going to be a part of this city (probably forever), it's steady planning, focused intervention, and controlled infrastructure (hallmarks of city planning (in houston *gasp*)) that can help create interesting places and spaces within a city. Just imagine what the city could be like if this focus, attention, and care was placed in other areas of town! Not in the hands of developers, not in on the whelms of any one, but city government. What I don't want people to take from my statement here is that 'oh see he is showing this as why big government is good' or 'he hates private corporations'. Thats not what this is about. It's a city's duty to put the right restrictions, incentives, foundations, and infrastructure in place so successful meaningful growth can take place. It's the right balance of getting out of the way so private companies can build what they would like and government stewardship guiding the path. Hopefully it only grows from here. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
htownproud Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 I don't think they can close off ALDA completely b/c the entrance to the underground parking garage for DG is off of ALDA. is there another entrance to that parking lot? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 I don't think they can close off ALDA completely b/c the entrance to the underground parking garage for DG is off of ALDA. is there another entrance to that parking lot?They might not be. But see in the schematics how the road comes from the north, down to the underground garage entrance? But it may continue through in a narrower version down to the Hilton Americas 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hindesky Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 They have one lane closed on the southbound lane of Avenida de las America doing the dirt work 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asubrt Posted October 12, 2014 Share Posted October 12, 2014 Thanks for all the pics Hindesky! Good to see so many projects moving forward. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H-TownChris Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 i'm pretty sure they are almost done with what they're doing because it started out on the other side of the site...I hope they almost are 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Urbannizer Posted November 5, 2014 Popular Post Share Posted November 5, 2014 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lockmat Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 Those renderings of DG aren't really accurate. They either need to show the great lawn full of tents or with dead grass. Other than that, looks great! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monarch Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 that latest rendition of the george r. brown is gorgeous! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dakota79 Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 that latest rendition of the george r. brown is gorgeous!If only they would remove the stupid smokestacks. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoustonIsHome Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 That last pic made my panties wet.And give the smokestacks talk a rest.I love them. They make GRB different in a quirky way. Looks like a weird space ship crash landed in Houston some decades ago and we just said hey, we might as well make some creative use of it.Without the stacks all those white walls would make the building even more warehouse like 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monarch Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 That last pic made my panties wet.And give the smokestacks talk a rest.I love them. They make GRB different in a quirky way. Looks like a weird space ship crash landed in Houston some decades ago and we just said hey, we might as well make some creative use of it.Without the stacks all those white walls would make the building even more warehouse likeummmmm... you stopped me dead in my tracks when you mentioned your wet panties. i don't know what else to think... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montrose1100 Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 The Haif ; a love story 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SMF Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 They need to erect a statue to whoever had the idea of building Discovery Green. It may the be single coolest game changer in Houston in the last decade. What a great place to have future New Year's Eve events. I'd love to see the GRB, the Hilton and the Marriott Marquis dripping in some serious lighting like Time Square. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cloud713 Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 They need to erect a statue to whoever had the idea of building Discovery Green. It may the be single coolest game changer in Houston in the last decade. What a great place to have future New Year's Eve events. I'd love to see the GRB, the Hilton and the Marriott Marquis dripping in some serious lighting like Time Square.Like a bunch of LED advertisement billboards pasted all over the sides of those buildings? That would look terrible around discovery green imo. That could be cool somewhere around greenstreet/the new planned retail district though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobruss Posted November 5, 2014 Share Posted November 5, 2014 That would be Mayor Bill White. It was his hope to create a large downtown park and made it happen. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UtterlyUrban Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 This is an utterly horrible rendering. The image has perspective distortion issues. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxtethogrady Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 that latest rendition of the george r. brown is gorgeous! Nicely framed. An it doesn't even show the Catalyst. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobruss Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 You're right the hilton and the podium for the Marquis are about twice as long as they really are. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryDierker Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Wait. When did the Marquis go from looking really nice to looking like perpendicular Old Days Inns? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky-guy Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 ^I'm really loving those fountains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
towerjunkie Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Will they start this already! I'm getting unimaginably impatient! Will they start this already! I'm getting unimaginably impatient! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dakota79 Posted November 6, 2014 Share Posted November 6, 2014 Will they start this already! I'm getting unimaginably impatient! Will they start this already! I'm getting unimaginably impatient! My emotions exactly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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