East River: Mixed-Use Development By Midway

[shasta]

16 hours ago, Big E said:

Its more a general mentality you see among the urban planning set, yes on Youtube and Twitter, but also from commentators, in blogs, in interviews and articles quoting urban planners, etc. They look at these European cities and say "why can't America be more like that? Why can these European cities be so much better and more "people scaled" while our cities were made for the car?" These cities weren't made for anything. They grew and developed organically over the course of decades or centuries into what they are are. American cities will never look like European cities because America is not even three centuries old. America just celebrated its bicentennial in 1976. It won't celebrate its Semiquincentennial till 2026. Most cities in Europe have existed since long before America did. American cities like Houston came of age when the car was becoming the primary method of transportation. European cities existed before the car was ever even thought of. Most of the policies today accused of pushing car usage (zoning for instance) were the result of urban planning coming in to vogue and attempting to artificially mold and shape cities towards a specific goal, in contravention of the traditional haphazard development that preceded it. They think they can plan their way out of America's car centric mentality and force the issue, when planning got us here in the first place. 

Form follows Function!

[shasta]

The University of Houston is a great example of a reverting "district" in Houston.

 

The Campus was initially designed for the car to get people in and out, its now taken steps to be a more pedestrian campus and even bigger pedestrian friendly improvements are on the way!

 

I just receive a notification that they plan to release their new master plan in January 2024!

 

 

 

Join us for a virtual town hall meeting with University Architect Jim Taylor, AIA MBA LEED AP and Chip Trageser, FASLA, Partner of OJB Landscape Architecture to learn more about the exciting Centennial Project for the University of Houston campus. You will learn about the important transformation these enhancements will make to our beloved campus, and how the plan will unfold and aligns with UH's Top 50 Initiative.  Mark your calendars: Stay tuned for more details and registration information on this engaging event in 2024!

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, January 23, 2024 6:00 p.m. Central Time

 

This is just one example of how the hundreds of mini districts in Houston are starting to use the connective tissue to become more pedestrian friendly.

 

Bumper to bumper traffic on the freeways is not sustainable.

Edited December 20, 2023 by shasta

[samagon]

1 minute ago, shasta said:

The University of Houston is a great example of a reverting "district: in Houston.

 

Initially designed for the car to get people in and out, its now taken steps to be a more pedestrian campus and even bigger pedestrian friendly improvements are on the way!

 

I just receive a notification that they plan to release their new master plan in January 2024!

 

I cannot wait for the day that they turn MLK (formerly Calhoun) into 1 car lane in each direction, and make huge pedestrian sidewalks.

they can also do more on University Dr, reduce to 1 lane in each direction west of MLK, and 2 lanes east.

[JClark54]

@004n063 and @abe Thank you very much for the insight. 

[__nevii]

In summary:

@samagon is correct in that policies like minimum parking requirements and setbacks ultimately play a role regarding the development of the city — regardless of city age, time period of boom, etc. Those mandates (especially parking) definitely need to go in order for Houston to achieve more of the Japan-esque, fine-grained "as-of-right" urbanism.

@shasta and @Big E are also correct, in that a lot of the critiques for Houston are indeed misguided (or, at least, lacking in nuance and context). A lot of these critiques frame it as if it was Houston's "grand master plan" to be a "boring, utilitarian, sprawled out working city" — but they ignore/don't emphasize/misattribute/etc the significant roles by superior governments (see: Texas legislature and effects on TXDOT, MUDs, etc). This lack of context likely is what causes Houston's "lack of zoning" to be so heavily criticized — and the narratives spun from it (i.e. "Houstonians are uniquely car-dependent, and ONLY want their square footage and space") do play a role in disincentivizing/discouraging wills to change/seek solutions regarding the city's problems.

@Justin Welling is, lastly, correct in that modern urban planners do seek the best for cities regarding engagement (i.e. including in terms of pedestrian-friendliness) — for sure, the "Robert Moses(es)" of the world saw it fit to plow freeways through city center ... but times have definitely changed since then. Although, in fairness, I've seen anecdotes and commentaries from professionals that Houston was often used as "example of what NOT to do" in the courses against urban sprawl, etc — so, in those cases, the misunderstandings about the city's/region's development patterns can, sometimes, permeate into the professional space.

Although, for the most part, any "lack of progress" regarding these changes to the city would come more from the politicians (mayor, city council, etc), rather than the planners.

[bobruss]

To add to the discussion concerning Urban Planners, I would like to suggest that all watch a spectacular series running on Apple TV called HOME. This is probably one of the most refreshing well produced narrated and beautifully filmed television shows/documentary series I have ever watched. Regardless if you are an architect, planner or just one who appreciates good architecture this show has it all. There is nothing commercial about the production and it features real people predominantly architects and their search for serenity, beauty , and a relationship to earth and fellow man. The episode that really hits on this urban planning theme is the Chicago episode featuring Theaster Gates, my new hero. Not only is he a world class artist, but what he has accomplished in South Chicago is astonishing. If you thought what Rick Lowe has done with the Row Houses, in the Third ward, was great, you will be blown away by Theaster , and this all while he has created some of the most important art of the 21st century. I saw him perform at the Menil a couple of years ago with a jazz group at his exhibition. The man is a genius. He lets his actions speak for themselves. 

I have watched many of the episodes, and they range from homes in France, Bali, Hong Kong, Malibu and Austin to name a few. I can guarantee that anyone who watches one will watch all the rest.

I only hope this piques the interest of a few architects and planners to watch, and to think about what they do and how remarkable things can be if you have your heart in it. 

This is my Christmas gift to all HAIFers!

Edited December 20, 2023 by bobruss

[Amlaham]

5 hours ago, samagon said:

one of my favorite stories specific to the Netherlands going car centric, then reverting:

another story of the Netherlands going car centric, then reverting is more famous, the Damrak in Amsterdam (the main street heading from the central station to the Dam (a very active central square), I don't think there's any videos of this transformation because it was more organic over time slowly removing car lanes to add more pedestrian and bicycle areas, but there's plenty of pictures of it in 1980, and then you can also find plenty of pictures from then to now of how it has transformed.

it went from 6 lanes of traffic with a parking lane, now its a 1 lane, 1 way street, 2 tram lines, sidewalks and bike lanes.

and I'm fully aware that these places started life before cars so after they reshaped them to be car centric, it's easier to revert back to what they had before, but the point is not that we can easily make the change, the point is, ordinances and rules are what force the shape to be what it is, ignoring that we've had 100 years forcing the shape to mold to cars and just saying it grew around cars, that's not accurate, or fair.

I wish we could do this to the Pierce Elevated. Imagine if we could extend a canal from buffalo bayou down through midtown and create more greenways/ trials. One can only wish. 

[Big E]

21 minutes ago, Amlaham said:

I wish we could do this to the Pierce Elevated. Imagine if we could extend a canal from buffalo bayou down through midtown and create more greenways/ trials. One can only wish. 

The most that's gonna happen to that land is that its going to become a series of parking lots for a few years till developers scoop them up and develop them. They were throwing around this idea for a "skypark" but that looked like an overly ambitious pipe dream and nobody's even mentioned that in any official capacity in months. Extending a canal from Buffalo Bayou to the location of the Pierce elevated isn't possible because the Downtown Connector will block the route, not even getting into the issue of existing utilities and such that would have to be dug up.

[Houston19514]

22 minutes ago, Big E said:

The most that's gonna happen to that land is that its going to become a series of parking lots for a few years till developers scoop them up and develop them. They were throwing around this idea for a "skypark" but that looked like an overly ambitious pipe dream and nobody's even mentioned that in any official capacity in months. Extending a canal from Buffalo Bayou to the location of the Pierce elevated isn't possible because the Downtown Connector will block the route, not even getting into the issue of existing utilities and such that would have to be dug up.

I think there's a better chance most of it will become parkland (without a canal).

Edited December 20, 2023 by Houston19514

[Big E]

2 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

I think there's a better chance most of it will become parkland (without a canal).

It should be remembered that those pictures were merely one idea that was presented. Nothing concrete has been said specifically about what they are going to do with the excess ROW created by removing the Pierce elevated, or what will actually be placed on the I-69/I-45 cap (the cap itself is being built so that buildings and development can happen on it).

[004n063]

11 hours ago, samagon said:

Houston has ordinances in place specifically to make Houston car scaled, cities with zoning have similar rules in residential areas and commercial areas.

parking requirements, setbacks, minimum lot sizes for single family homes. 

these rules were put in place with what I can only assume were best intentions, but they end up creating exactly what we have, car scaled cities. credit where it's due, steps are being taken to try and make it less car centric, see transit oriented development.

as far as European cities always being this way, sure, there is a lot of organic that happened before cars that led them to being walkable, but it wasn't always that way. WWII did a number on many towns in Europe proper, after the war, cities were rebuilt for cars. if you go find pictures of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Maastricht, The Hague, any town you want in the Netherlands from the 60s and 70s they had very much been rebuilt for cars. wide boulevards, parking lots, even urban freeways. two things happened at the same time for the Netherlands, the oil embargo, and kids being run over on the way to school in the mornings.

the people of the Netherlands, rather than saying, oh, we need more street lights, or parents just need to drive their kids to school, or we need more efficient cars, they actually decided car centric society wasn't great. not that cars were bad, and no one should have them, just that continuing to redevelop towns for cars, instead of people, it was dumb. it has taken the better part of 50 years to fix what was done in the 2 decades following WWII.

if you travel to the Netherlands today, you would be forgiven for thinking it has always been a bike friendly, pedestrian friendly place it is now, they have done a great job with legislations and city planning to make it exactly what it is.

Like most old European cities, Amsterdam is beautiful and has lots of charming walkable neighborhoods. 

But from a planning and urban design (and especially street/road design) perspective, it's the modern (<30yo) suburbs and other new neighborhoods that are truly mind-blowing, and they're also what really set the Netherlands apart from other European countries. 

Paris may have the most magnificent mass transit system the world has ever seen, but nobody redesigns streets better than the Dutch, and that's almost entirely due to the national systemization of the ever-evolving CROW manual. 

Applied here, people would feel like it was excessively prescriptive, but it's really the same thing as Houston's car-oriented regulations, but with a teleological bent toward pedestrian and bicyclist safety and comfort, rather than automotive throughput and storage.

[Naviguessor]

 

Edited December 24, 2023 by Naviguessor
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[HoustonIsHome]

On 12/20/2023 at 4:32 PM, Big E said:

It should be remembered that those pictures were merely one idea that was presented. Nothing concrete has been said specifically about what they are going to do with the excess ROW created by removing the Pierce elevated, or what will actually be placed on the I-69/I-45 cap (the cap itself is being built so that buildings and development can happen on it).

Is there really that much excess ROW to being with? 

The Pierce Elevated isn't all that wide. Comparatively. 

Imagining the area without Pierce, what is left is just regular city blocks, and it looks like the majority of these blocks have structures on them.

Which leads to the better questionz who owns the rest of the blocks that are occupied by these buildings? 

I don't see the linear park. I agree with the poster who said parking. My money is these lots will quickly be repaved for parking and the lots will slowly be redeveloped.

If we are getting more park, I would bet on them going over the highway caps before I would bet on the Pierce ROW. Without Pierce it just multiple half blocks spliced with very busy streets. 

 

[texan]

4 hours ago, HoustonIsHome said:

Is there really that much excess ROW to being with? 

The Pierce Elevated isn't all that wide. Comparatively. 

Imagining the area without Pierce, what is left is just regular city blocks, and it looks like the majority of these blocks have structures on them.

Which leads to the better questionz who owns the rest of the blocks that are occupied by these buildings? 

I don't see the linear park. I agree with the poster who said parking. My money is these lots will quickly be repaved for parking and the lots will slowly be redeveloped.

If we are getting more park, I would bet on them going over the highway caps before I would bet on the Pierce ROW. Without Pierce it just multiple half blocks spliced with very busy streets. 

 

 

Half a city block x11 (plus some more oddly shaped portions of blocks) is quite a sizable amount of land. Especially for walking/running trails. As long as the city has any say, I don’t see parking as a serious suggestion.

[Big E]

11 hours ago, HoustonIsHome said:

Is there really that much excess ROW to being with? 

The Pierce Elevated isn't all that wide. Comparatively. 

Basically what @texan said. Taken altogether, its a lot of land, especially for being at the center of the city. You could build a sizable skyscraper on any one of those blocks.

 

11 hours ago, HoustonIsHome said:

Imagining the area without Pierce, what is left is just regular city blocks, and it looks like the majority of these blocks have structures on them.

When you look at the rest of each block, you realize that, outside of the two highrises, the majority of the blocks are parking lots, one is a parking garage, and two are are occupied by low rise commercial buildings (one of which is a car dealership) whose owners would probably be happy to sell out to a new developer. A Methodist church and low rise, unassuming apartment complex make up the remaining two blocks.

 

11 hours ago, HoustonIsHome said:

My money is these lots will quickly be repaved for parking and the lots will slowly be redeveloped.

There are already parking lots under the Pierce Elevated. If they are just tearing down the structure, the parking lots would just be left intact and continue to be used to make money.

Edited December 27, 2023 by Big E

[samagon]

On 12/27/2023 at 4:03 AM, Big E said:

There are already parking lots under the Pierce Elevated. If they are just tearing down the structure, the parking lots would just be left intact and continue to be used to make money.

 

On 12/26/2023 at 8:53 PM, texan said:

Half a city block x11 (plus some more oddly shaped portions of blocks) is quite a sizable amount of land. Especially for walking/running trails. As long as the city has any say, I don’t see parking as a serious suggestion.

if as Big E says, the land is already in use as parking, that means someone already owns the land, convincing all of them to sell to make a park is going to be tricky. 

maybe TXDoT leases the land to someone so they can use it for parking?

[004n063]

1 hour ago, samagon said:

 

if as Big E says, the land is already in use as parking, that means someone already owns the land, convincing all of them to sell to make a park is going to be tricky. 

maybe TXDoT leases the land to someone so they can use it for parking?

So TxDoT can eminent domain like ten blocks of EaDo to build a highway, but not ten blocks of highway underway to build a park. Love that.

[texan]

6 hours ago, samagon said:

 

if as Big E says, the land is already in use as parking, that means someone already owns the land, convincing all of them to sell to make a park is going to be tricky. 

maybe TXDoT leases the land to someone so they can use it for parking?

 

4 hours ago, 004n063 said:

So TxDoT can eminent domain like ten blocks of EaDo to build a highway, but not ten blocks of highway underway to build a park. Love that.

The schematics published by TxDOT have always referred to the land the Pierce sits on as "Surplus ROW" (right of way). In addition, HCAD shows there to be no parcel on those locations. It's safe to assume the someone that owns the land is the State of Texas. TxDOT could always sell the land without consulting the city and county to developers (or the types of people who own parking lots and never do anything more useful with them) but I doubt (maybe hopefully) that would occur.

[Montrose1100]

Let's keep this thread on topic.

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

All these businesses will be on the first floor of the south facing side of the parking garage.

 

https://www.instagram.com/brohamgrocers/?hl=en

 

[hindesky]

PHA building location, east of all these.

 

This is the building next to Buffalo Bayou.

 

This is in the middle building that has Impact and Method Architecture.

 

This is in the western office building.

Tomi Jewelry.

https://www.eastriverhtx.com/directory/tomi

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

 

The western mixed use building in the foreground and the Laura in the background.

 

Looking east toward to the future PHA building.

 

Suite in the south side of the northern mixed use building and these are the people from Parkway to talk to about it.

 

The Studio building that OJB Landscape architects has moved in to.

https://www.ojb.com

 

A diorama of the downtown area. Lots of newish buildings are missing.

 

The Laura apartments.

 

The 3 mixed use buildings and the parking garage.

 

From "The Pointe at Bayou Bend" apartments at 800 Middle St.

 

For wishing they start on the next phase, ain't gonna happen. They aren't finished with this phase and won't start any more of this phase I till they get more tenants and fill out the Laura. Phase I is only about 60% built.

 

 

 

 

 

[004n063]

43 minutes ago, hindesky said:

Phase I is only about 60% built

What is left on the Phase I docket?

Edited January 7 by 004n063

[hindesky]

A similar replica of the Laura, more studio office buildings, an entertainment building in the middle half circle, add another half to the existing parking garage, the PHA office building, their own parking garage. Look at previous pages all the lay out maps are there.

 

Edited January 7 by hindesky

[hindesky]

East River 9 had a nice size crowd for the excellent weather.

[hbg.50]

@hindesky love the foliage.   Any idea what type trees these are? 

[hindesky]

57 minutes ago, steve1363 said:

@hindesky love the foliage.   Any idea what type trees these are? 

 

I think it's a LaNana Cypress.

[samagon]

they grow pretty quick, in about 10 years these will be pretty big.

cypress knees suck though.

Edited January 9 by samagon