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

[Texasota]

We don't know what the Skanska development or the Kroger replacement are really going to look like (though no driveway from Montrose at the Kroger development is a good start.)

Even with this thing - what does the ground floor actually look like? WHat is in the space facing Montrose? Could go either way.

[H-Town Man]

44 minutes ago, Texasota said:

We don't know what the Skanska development or the Kroger replacement are really going to look like (though no driveway from Montrose at the Kroger development is a good start.)

Even with this thing - what does the ground floor actually look like? WHat is in the space facing Montrose? Could go either way.

I do have high hopes for those developments and for Westheimer in general. I don't have much hope for the ground floor of this. Maybe a 2,000 SF retail space would be par.

[TheSirDingle]

Gives me futuristic vibes, I like it. 

[J Money]

Oh man, imagine Skanska's block at Westheimer, then Hanover/LColombe D'or, this, and St Thomas' new building all spaced out by 2 blocks. Montrose will all of a sudden have a skyline!

[KinkaidAlum]

The height mystery seems solved. This looks like 26 residential floors over at least 10 floors of garage space. This is much closer to a 40 story tower than a 30.

 

[wilcal]

Oh HELL yeah! 

That looks great. Montrose Blvd is going crazy. 

Honestly I'm kind of glad that lot is still empty at Fairview. Who knows what we might get there now. 

[arche_757]

I realize this is an early rendering, looks like there is still quite some refinement to be done - which, you’d expect a project of this size and scope to wait and release a more final rendering.

A building such as this would look better surrounded by other tall structures in either Downtown or Uptown.

I am not a big fan of this or the X Houston high rise.

[Texasota]

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. 

[Amlaham]

Idk if I'm fantasizing, but is anyone else seeing a consistent skyline form between Uptown and Downtown? Uptown to Greenway started to fill up with new residential buildings near ROD to 2929 Weslayan. Greenway to Montrose has its fair share of high-rises, from the cluster of buildings near Allen parkway to the cluster off of Kirby. Montrose to midtown/ museum district/ downtown is filling up nicely as well. I know its not a back to back skyline but the gap has been looking smaller and smaller over the last few years!

Imagine if we can get a super tall observatory near Kirby & Westheimer (think space needle). We would have a 360 skyline view from that point! 

[houstontexasjack]

22 hours ago, Amlaham said:

Idk if I'm fantasizing, but is anyone else seeing a consistent skyline form between Uptown and Downtown? Uptown to Greenway started to fill up with new residential buildings near ROD to 2929 Weslayan. 

I snapped this on my flight today. Definitely gaps between prominent towers but the skyline is more like a mountain range in the Rockies with lower peaks between the taller ones.

Edited May 14, 2022 by houstontexasjack

[strickn]

“ arche_757 said: 

I realize this is an early rendering, looks like there is still quite some refinement to be done - which, you’d expect a project of this size and scope to wait and release a more final rendering.”

 

Spoiler

https://www.dreamvisuals.nl/urby-dallas

 

there are three towers like it being planned beside the Trinity River in Dallas, not by this developer, but with the first tower structurally topped out 6mos. ago

[arche_757]

4 hours ago, strickn said:

“ arche_757 said: 

I realize this is an early rendering, looks like there is still quite some refinement to be done - which, you’d expect a project of this size and scope to wait and release a more final rendering.”

 

  Hide contents

https://www.dreamvisuals.nl/urby-dallas

 

there are three towers like it being planned beside the Trinity River in Dallas, not by this developer, but with the first tower structurally topped out 6mos. ago

Those don’t have the harsh parking podium.

[Big E]

1 hour ago, arche_757 said:

Those don’t have the harsh parking podium.

Because they built the parking garages separate from the buildings.

[arche_757]

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

[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]