monarch

very nice pics h-townchris!

simply unbelievable!

wonderful illustrations as always nate99...

amazing!

this is one very well constructed, high quality edifice.

cannot wait to see completed development.

incredible!

much obliged rechlin...

oh my.. now at street level.

wonderful illustrations nate99!

and so it has.. beautiful illustration nate99!

wow!  surge is on the ball...

very nice!  the more the merrier...

wonderful concept!  seems like fun...

Here's an article in Houstonia about the various design elements of the hotel. The community table at Main Kitchen was done by New Living (the Heights pocket park people):

 

http://www.houstoniamag.com/fashion-and-shopping/shop-talk/articles/local-design-leads-at-downtowns-new-jw-marriott-november-2014

much obliged.  props for sharing!

Virgin Megastore is overhyped. In this day and age when MP3's can be purchased from a computer and Kindles are everywhere, a gigantic movie, record and book store is rapidly becoming obsolete. Better to have Virgin Atlantic or Virgin America touching down at Intercontinental.

toxtethogrady, god only knows that i love you my pal.  however, virgin megastore being overhyped is certainly your opinion.. but it's certainly not a fact!  virgin megastore, is one of the very first places that i look forward to visiting every time i arrive in dubai, uae.  the store at the dubai mall is indeed quite cool.. but the best store in dubai, is at the mall of the emirates.  everyone seems to be jammed packed in that store.  it's incredible, and an absolute blast. those stores, seem to harbor any and everything!  

as soon as i arrive back to dubai, uae... i shall definitely be headed there.

this is really going down quite fast.  this is a good thing!

ok look, as a citizen of our fair city of houston.. the future development as per downtown houston CBD is highly important to me.  heck, i even live downtown houston.  therefore, i and amongst other citizens of our great city.. only long for it to become the very best that it can become.  we want to impress our visitors, we want to accept / embrace the very highest standards of living possible within this growing CBD.  therefore, this is the ONLY reason that i openly entertain the insight being brought forth as per htown live.  i respect him as one our our HAIF stalwarts.  although, i am not certain as to what city wide position that he is hereby responsible for... i want him to know that i can easily respect him as a professional as well.

i am not here to lambast htown live.  i am not here to discredit his insight vs perspectives.  for as i have espoused beforehand... i am astute enough to know just how volatile and inconsistent this particular mode of work can be dealing with city government vs city wide planning... it can be utterly career ending to some.  therefore, htown live, please do not feel as though we are coming down hard upon you as person.  you are hereby a HAIF member (you are one of us) we do so respect you.  all that we are hereby asking in return.. is for you to deliver comprehensible insight, so that we may learn and move forward as per some sensible knowledge as to where we are headed upon the CBD / downtown vicinity.

maybe, you should have started off explaining to us, that there was a meeting that you were hereby involved in, that led to this strange inconsistent upheaval of prior planning.  this approach may have harbored a bit more sense as opposed to just throwing out discombobulated rhetoric regarding the old sakowitz building.  (it just did / does not make any sense)

we are all highly abreast to the simple fact that you are not at liberty to openly display all intimate details of your high level city government meetings.  this we do indeed understand.  however, what you can deliver to us... just make it comprehensible.. this is all that we are asking.  

beautiful concept!

I agree it's back-peddlIng, they should have gone with the plan (even if it was with newbies). Houston definitely could have used the downtown retail and the hotel rooms. But it's not, at least not at 1111 Main Street. The city and the property owner no longer want it, saying they have something better they're putting together. We'll see.

Houston already has the other big stores except Bloomingdale's, so it would take Harrods, Selfridges or Galeries Lafayette to top that. Does Houston have the leadership, talent and power to make that happen? We'll soon see.

htown live, pal i love you.. but this is all so very confusing to me.  if our illustrious city government cannot even come together to acquire a bloomingdales brand upon such a barron retail desert such as downtown houston.. then how on earth could you possibly think that downtown houston could entertain such retail powerhouses such as a HARRODS vs SELFRIDGES?  have you ever shopped at a GALERIES LAFAYETTE?  well, i have many times at the dubai mall in dubai, uae.  this particular french department store often reminds me of a more glamorous macy's.  i have eaten at the RED BOX.  this is the very nice little cafe / bistro located inside the larger GALERIES LAFAYETTE.  

we shall learn to become a bit more realistic here my god pal.  if houston cannot even seem to lure a VIRGIN MEGASTORE.. i would highly doubt that a HARROD'S , SELFRIDGES, or even a GALORIES LAFAYETTE, shall want to entertain downtown houston at this more wonderful time during our current construction boom.  those particular brands, are EXTREMELY international.  to date they seem to only cater to the very wealthy vs european consumer. 

what!!!!!

htown live, i have been one of your most loyal and consistent stalwarts upon this forum.  it's not like i believed any and everything that you have espoused upon during 

your discourse.  however, i like to believe that i am astute enough to know that without a doubt, that in a city a large as the city of houston.. circumstances are indeed likely to change upon a dime.

however, what you have just espoused within these last three aforementioned post regarding these impromptu and yet totally discombobulated "the city" development changes... has me starting to doubt your discourse.

nothing is making any sense!  trust me my good pal, we HAIFER'S appreciate the very fact that we harbor a stalwart within city government that may allow us a peep into city planning / discussions to some degree.

however, please bare in mind that  you are not the only stalwart that is capable of offering intimate discerning information as per houston city government.

therefore, should you extend a bit of generosity and present to us a bit of key insight.. then it shall need to be comprehensible... at least to some comforting degree.

everyone knows about the long standing historical and yet empty sakowitz building.  we all would give most anything to see this gem of a building get redeveloped into a shining star.

however, we are all indeed smart enough to know that whatever comes forth.. is going to be a somewhat costly / time consuming / often irritating patience grabbing puzzle, that shall require optimum planning / discourse.

therefore, when you espouse upon the old sakowitz building being discussed as a bloomingdales / ritz carlton, sounds like huge joke!  what!!!  are you hereby serious!!!

buddy, you shall now want to carefully explain yourself here... your credibility moving forward.. is now at stake.

But they are Houston-based. Just like Conn's.

conn's is beaumont based.

i can only pray that god delivers me the strength to carry myself decently

once the magnificent place opens.

i harbor this strange sense that i shall end up losing my over shopping mind!

really beautiful!  simply love the bay windows...

whole heart...

i cannot wait to get to the seafood department for some fresh red snapper fillets.

wonderful illustrations triton!

They put the sign up for the Mattress Firm.  It really makes the renovated building look like excrement.

they tend to remind me of chicken hawks!

I am at a total loss why so many are finding the Carter gorgeous, beautiful, etc. No one using such words states why

they think it is so. So tell me... To me just another tall souless building, with lots of balcones, some extending out, and others

tucked in. No external details on bottom two floors and none at the top. Nothing that speaks to this area of the U.S.

and/or Texas.

 

Take a look at apartment houses, north of midtown, along the lake front in Chicago. Look at the apartment houses that were

built along the Grand Concourse in NYC's Bronx. Both utilize Art Deco to create corner windows, incredible mosaics, and

friezes in stone with a fine use of metal. Take a way the grand entrance, and the white at bottom and top... and you have a

tall public low income project of the type built in NYC, Chicago (where many have been imploded), St Louis (where the two

largest were imploded decades ago). This type building destroys communities and neigborhoods. If those who move into

this building or the others built in Montrose, are being built, and will be, walk in the area I will eat my car. The Montrose

was once and still is somewhat of a neighborhood, but throwing up these building in a radom way will, as Texasota said

on 01.03.2014, will wipe out perfect good 2 story buildings. So much talk about skylines. People live in buildings in (hopefully),

neigborhoods, not in/on skylines. And...what is there to see from the 20th floor of residence in Houston? Hills, valleys,

mountains, fields of green filled with wildflowers? Hell no...just flat ground and the tops of roofs...and for the lucky few...

Interstate overpasses. Brings to mind Jane Jocob's battle with Robert Moses which stopped him from building the expressway across

lower Manhattan, which would have destoryed a good part of Greenwich Village and other parts of Manhattan which had

buildings over 200 years old. They now are historic landmarks, which bring many tourists and $$$, to NYC. Rare that anything

is not torn down in Houston after 20 years.

 

Been in Houston 20 years, and always hear, "We are not some other large city like NYC, we are Houston, and damn proud of

its NO ZONING. Yet in many above comments individuals are awaiting the Manhattaning of Houston. At this point more individuals

live in non-Houston Harris County, than within Houston city limits, and the number is growing rapidly, as the middle class family

is being forced out of areas where they have lived for over a 100 years. Houston is already in financial trouble, and will have to

cut back on vital services: health, education, police and fire assistance, or grab more land to get the taxes it needs/will need.

Yes, density is important, but so is the ability to get somewhere like school, work, church, and this indiscriminate plopping of

buildings will make driving in Houston only worst. The Carter and others such projects is just greed on the part of developers.

They all scream it is so expensive to buildin Mid-Town or Downtown, and are getting Houstonian's tax money as rebates to build.

Sick greed. Cannot afford to build in these areas, well then build where you can afford to. No one is giving me money for projects

I would like to do, but cannot afford to.

 

Yea... beautifu, gorgeous!  Cannot wait to see it. LOL.

did you ever ask ebenezer scrooge.. just why on earth did he ever become ebenezer scrooge?

good question huh...

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

ummmmm... you stopped me dead in my tracks when you mentioned your wet panties.  i don't know what else to think...

omg HAIF!  HOTEL VALENCIA RIVERWALK in san antonio,

is also owned / operated as per houston's valencia group.. HOTEL SORRELLA, is also upon their brilliant repertoire.

this boutique hotel is indeed a gem of central texas.  a conde naste award winner.

this can only mean that this new GREENSTREET hotel.. shall indeed become a masterpiece.

I'm not saying the visibility is great, but that picture of OPP doesn't really tell the story.  You showed the side where there isn't an entrance to the gfr.  Should have a picture of the other side of OPP to get the true identity.

i a concurring with you completely!  another one of our stalwarts submitted the illustration.  from what i have personally witnessed, OPP does not harbor any difficulties as per retail traffic.  i am always shopping at phoenicia market... i love it there.  once they finally open the alternate retail establishment... i am most certain that it shall become successful as well.