36-Story Multifamily High-Rise At 3615 Montrose Blvd.

[Big E]

On 5/15/2022 at 8:56 AM, arche_757 said:

Right.  They still don’t have a harsh parking podium.

This building is on relatively condensed plot of land, no room to build a separate parking garage.

[arche_757]

Ok.  I don’t like it.  Is that not clear?

You are welcome to your opinion as well.

[Texasota]

I'm no fan of parking podiums, but I think it will be interesting to see this from a better angle, even at the current rendering's quality.

The current rendering shows a shot of the whole tower, which is great for tower fetishists but doesn't tell us much about the experience of walking past or through it. 

I think a useful comp is the BIG office tower under construction downtown - that has a potentially obnoxious podium as well, but additional renderings (and hopefully the built reality) show that they actually put a lot of thought into the experience from the sidewalk.

[tangledwoods]

IMO parking podiums are 1000% better than a detached freestanding garage.  When you have a podium you have to resolve parking into the overall building facade (some people do this FAR better than others).  When you have a freestanding garage it seems much more likely for the developer to just treat it as a pure parking barn and give the thing zero to little ornamentation. 

[H-Town Man]

17 hours ago, Big E said:

This building is on relatively condensed plot of land, no room to build a separate parking garage.

The point is, what is the effect on Montrose Blvd? If you care about Montrose Blvd being a great boulevard, then the end result facing the street is all you care about. If you can put a detached garage away from the street, that is always better than a parking podium on the street. Would the Rice Hotel look better if it had ten levels of parking between floors 1 and 2? No, it looks better with the parking in a separate garage facing Travis and Prairie.

Most people on this forum just want to see Houston have as many tall shiny buildings as possible. Some of us have come to the realization that Houston has a ton of tall shiny buildings (fourth most in the U.S.) and yet we're not a city that many people want to visit, or that has many neighborhoods where lots of people are outside walking around. So something besides tall shiny buildings is needed. We've got the tall building ingredient. We need some other ingredients.

Montrose is one of the most aesthetically pleasing streets in the city, and yet it's dead to pedestrian life. What is the problem? How do we fix it? Do we fix it by building highrises with stacks of parking looming over the street and cars zipping in and out of curb cuts all day?

Edited May 17, 2022 by H-Town Man

[toxtethogrady]

On 5/13/2022 at 8:42 AM, Texasota said:

Towers in Uptown aren't really "surrounded" by each other - setbacks are enormous and there are, of course, the many strip malls. It's getting somewhat denser but I'd say each tower still largely stands alone.

And Montrose Boulevard, just between Westheimer and 59, already has, what, 4 towers? 

I would love to see stuff like this downtown, but Montrose Boulevard is in a weird in-between state right now and would really benefit from density. I don't think I actually want it to become a corridor of towers, but this is Houston. Nothing ever becomes all one thing anyway. A mix of eclectic retail and midrise apartments regularly pierced by a tower? Sounds perfect to me. 

Weird but not weird. Downtown Dallas jumped the Woodall Rogers to merge with Uptown. But Montrose was always supposed to be a funky bohemian enclave, so that's been lost.

[hindesky]

[houstontexasjack]

Looks like this developer closed on the land:

 

[hindesky]

UsLiving/Vero Sade needs to hurry up and demo the 3 remaining houses and 2 garage apartments. Vagrants have moved in to the garage apartment behind Bacco's Wine bar. They were redecorating as I walked by. Last week I saw an online report of a break in at the old hair salon next to it. Bacco's closed several weeks ago. There are at least 3 COH yellow warning signs of discrepancies for trash removal, graffiti, weeds and to remove the old bus.

Edited July 13, 2022 by hindesky

[kennyc05]

So is Baccos going away?

[hindesky]

On 6/20/2022 at 8:49 PM, kennyc05 said:

So is Baccos going away?

This one is. Someone on Nextdoor asked why they closed. Seems like another vagrant has been added to the tenant list when I went by yesterday.

[kennyc05]

11 hours ago, hindesky said:

This one is. Someone on Nextdoor asked why they closed. Seems like another vagrant has been added to the tenant list when I went by yesterday.

Dammit! 🤦🏽‍♂️

[hindesky]

Work has started on installing a fence around the property. 3 of the sides so far.

[hindesky]

I live 2 blocks from here. Walked over to get some street tacos at the Chevron. I noticed 4 people hanging out at the building behind Bacco's. This is the fence going up along Kipling St. but no one is working on finishing it.

[hindesky]

I talked with the 2 guys installing the fence, they added posts to the alley today. They told me the site superintendent wanted a gate near the alley on Marshall St. for the equipment entrance but they talked him out of it because vagrants would just get in with a gate. So they will come back when the demo guys are ready. They also said the cops have been here two times to kick vagrants out. They are also adding chainlink fencing with netting. These guys are headed to the W. Alabama 13 story US Living site when they finish here. I asked if they built the fencing at the Heights site but they said no.

[hindesky]

[hindesky]

Fence builders aren't working today but they have about 60% of it covered in chainlink fencing.

[hindesky]

From yesterday. Chainlink is up all around, cops were called out once again to clear out the vagrants before they closed it up. There will be two gates one on Marshall St. next to  the alley and one on Kipling St. into the old London Hair Salon parking area.

[hindesky]

Saw a HPD officer here once again. I stoped and talked with him, he said he has been here 12 times and arrested some of the vagrants. As we were talking one of the vagrants he has already kicked out walked up but didn't go in this time. I saw the guy when I walked by a couple days ago. They haven't installed the gates yet. Officer said these buildings will have to have asbestos abatement before they demo them which will require permits. I showed him the render of what they are building. Yesterday I saw a truck that was here to pick up the one trash dumpster but he couldn't get in since the only access to it has crepe myrtles growing in front of the gate opening.

[hindesky]

Bumped up to 36 stories.

[houstontexasjack]

7 hours ago, hindesky said:

Bumped up to 36 stories.

Bless them if they can get going with the impending rate increases.

[hindesky]

As I walked around the block I saw 4 of these signs and a trespasser inside. Until they install the gates it's going to be impossible to keep them out. Vacant properties are like lights to moths.

Edited July 17, 2022 by hindesky

[hindesky]

Crew is on site shutting off the water and sewer connections.

[j_cuevas713]

Yeah we're def in the golden era of Houston. Soak it all in guys

[hindesky]

Demo crew is gutting the interior of the old London Underground Salon. Worker claims it has asbestos.

[toxtethogrady]

Shared to SkyscraperCity. Now they have to build it:
SSC

[hindesky]

Emporis bumped it up to 36 floors.

[hindesky]

Talked with a crew member who said they will be remediating the asbestos in all the buildings after they finish this one.

[hindesky]

Gates have been installed but no lock. 3 of them, 1 on Kipling St. and 2 on Marshall St.

[hindesky]

Interior demolition work and asbestos abatement has started on the second house.