Purdueenginerd

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/sarnoff/article/Buildings-new-skin-aims-for-sleek-look-4487900.php That was fast! 30 to 60 days?!

ha. Lawyered.

bah, what a waste of a city block!

Oh shut up you two. Keep the airport named after Bush Sr. The world isn't going to end and he was a respectible 1 term president who's done lots of good charity for the US after he left. /democrat voter

I think capitol one owns 3/4ths of that block. (of which a big chuck of it is surface parking lot: ugh)... That doesn't leave a lot of room for any dense or tall developments. Hopefully something nice...

Aliens and Bill Paxton reference.... That in itself warrants a "like" from me

Here is the cost of gasoline: Inflation Adjusted Despite the high prices of gasoline, Suburb construction is still extremely high and showing no signs of really slowing down. The only circumstance that has changed is the type of vehicle people of driven, which is, in part, the aforementioned innovation of motor vehicles. So if gas prices rise to $10/gal, Then all of a sudden, perhaps the electric car market becomes viable... Then the price of gas will fall as demand falls with it. Commodity Goods.

Who said anything about denying global warming? I actually believe in global warming. Hell, heaven forbid, I voted democrat in the last election! Youre making the case that high gasoline prices, peak oil, will crush the suburbs. That is intrinsically false. Even if gasoline rises to $10 a gallon and monthly fees for fuel are $1000/month, its still less than the average middle class mortgage for a home in the city. You know what cities will do then? Build trains out to the suburbs, so that suburbanites will walk/drive to the train station and then into the city. Are the suburbs dead in that scenario?

Just to add that even modern US cities, the only time Manhattanization (yes that is a real word) occurs is when real estate and demand warrant it. Miami didnt become the 3rd most populous downtown (in the US) in less than 1 decade because of Mass Transit, Street Cars, or Gasoline prices. It became that because of demand and what people wanted. Btw, their suburbs didnt retract at all during that growth period.

Despite those prices, and heavy encouragement of mass transit, The amount of space consumed per person has more than doubled over the past 50 years in Europe. Sprawl has hit all the major cities of Europe as well.

I'll just leave this link here for you to read in regards to GM buying up streetcar lines... GM is not the sole reason for the deterioration of mass transit in the US. Even in cities with Strong Mass transit systems there exists vast and abundant suburbs. NYC, Chicago, and DC all have very large urban footprints. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_conspiracy School funding bias towards suburbs appears to be a byproduct relic of racism and segregation. Cheaper housing in the suburbs is a product of land availability, population density and desireablity. Theres a reason a new home in Midtown costs $300,000 and a new home in Spring costs $150,000. Coincidentally you can probably buy an old home in the 3rd ward, for $80,000. The only federal subsidy that really comes into play for those three homes involves property tax deductible. Can local government do more to promote growth in the urban core? Sure! You won't hear any qualms from me about that. Regardless, youve changed your argument again. First you were indicating that the global oil market will lead to the downfall of suburbia. I think we all here refuted that. Now your argument is, that some "evil conspiracy" to build more suburbs is at play. In my opinion, suburbs exist because of economic conditions and racial discrimination for the last century. Nearly every city in North America is experiencing a rebirth of their city core in the last decade. Perhaps the racial discrimination, or the economic advantages associated with the suburbs are reduced. I dont know...

I'm no fan of Urban Sprawl, or the suburbs but a better argument against urban sprawl, would be to use quality of life, financial strain on local governments, segregation, and overall urban community. In my opinion, these are better arguments against sprawl than the global oil market. Sprawl showed up, with the advent of the Automobile, so sure, you can say that there was collusion that GM wanted to make money on their product---- roads a pretty good way of doing that. Guess what, people wanted that, which is why the market flourished. The federal government never marched into real estate offices and forced people to move. The federal government never propogated white flight. The federal government didnt create the baby boomer generation. Sure it may have encouraged it, but that was the will of the people.

Youre getting off topic a bit. Socioeconomic arguments are probably not best suited for this board. Though income disparities are a problem, that doesn't refute what august948 has said. And as for the US using 22 percent of the worlds materials... I say... So what? Its their problem to build the demand and build the infrastructure. In fact, they are: Have you missed the globilization movement for the last 2 decades?

Predictions of the demise of oil have been predicted for over 100 years. Oil will never run out.. it is a commodity chemical. Only when the energy needed to extract petroleum, surpasses the energy output of petroleum will you see a change in automobile use. This is called Energy Return on Investment In addition, the end of urban sprawl doesnt mean the end of Houston at all. Oil, may not be used as the fuel of the future, but it is still used in thousands of other chemicals that are not constrained by the energy market. Even if gasoline isnt used in the future, the innovation brought out about will likely result in infrastructure implementation for the electric car, or hydrogen car.

The green street project on Bagby... should also be done on Westheimer from Louisiana to Montrose. The area already has significant pedestrian traffic.

Never seen C... Giant Contact Lense

Im confused... it refers to it as 37 story then it refers to it as greater than 50...?

Hit and Run Assholes. I walk and bike through there all the time---stuff like this pisses me off.

Nice plan and elevation views...

Bike lanes!!

Talked to a laborer on site. He said they were putting up a solar panel array on top. Cool!

/Edit: Double post by mistake. deleted it.

Yeah, This is an interesting project. I'm not sure if theyre adding parking to it or just putting roofing for the top of the lot. I was under the impression this structure was abandoned...Guess I was wrong.

Not necessarily my friend. From an engineering perspective... this whole transit corridor looks like it could be upgraded to light rail in a jiffy. One stroke of the pen from a financier or law and boom... its in. /opinion

Interesting. I guess abrasive sand blasting isn't an option due to the historical preservation?