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mollusk

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Everything posted by mollusk

  1. mollusk
    In my experience, renovations and remodels invariably have all sorts of surprises, most of which end up costing money. Lots and lots of money. There are two ways of dealing with it: Handle the problems on the fly and hope that the contingency reserve that you thought was huge when you set it up is adequate (this is what usually happens in a commercial context, since time = money), or do a thorough gut and survey before preparing the plans for going forward (example: the 1910 courthouse). (edit: spelling fixed)
  2. mollusk
    ^^ Like anything else, IMHO it depends on who's driving the bus. Randall's actually did pretty OK under KKR; though Cerberus seems to follow the Bain method a bit more.
  3. mollusk
    BTW, the preferred term is "interpretive dance."
  4. mollusk
    According to a poster over at Swamplot (who is not among the more notorious trolls or water carriers), most of the BHI pooh bahs already live in The Woodlands and some even maintain secondary offices there. I have no way to confirm or refute that, but it does seem like a reasonable factor in the mix.
  5. mollusk
    The Pink Pussycat is long, long gone. From http://houstoricproject.com/:
  6. mollusk
    Well, at least Subdude's Gang of Four now has 1000 Main where they used to be. IIRC, the ceilings in that building were almost freakishly low, as in once you have MEP in place they were barely 8'. Yes, Texaco was out of service much longer; however, it's also a larger project by a multiple and thus the infrastructure cost can be spread out further. I'd also be willing to bet that the building that was continuously occupied by Texaco from the grand opening until it moved out had a better set of "as built" plans than an older, decaying Class C multi tenant building. And of course, there may have been other structural issues we don't know about, but that anyone surveying the building to see what to do with it would have picked up. Asbestos abatement is pretty much a given on anything involving a building more than 20 - 25 years old - even in demolition, it has to be encapsulated and removed separately.
  7. mollusk
    ^^ What happened with Chase Tower was that the membrane got picked up off the Chase Center roof across Travis and slapped up against it. On many of the lower floors the offices on that face were destroyed all the way back to the elevator core. My office at the time was higher up, facing Travis but out of the damage zone. The clock on the break room microwave still had the correct time on it when we were finally allowed in a couple days later. High rise building windows can take a significantly higher wind load than we would see in even the worst hurricane, so long as it is a wind load. Get some projectiles in there and that's all she wrote.
  8. mollusk
    (**cough**) not to mention The Parking District (oh how I love that name)... I kinda thought that it was a cool old building, too, and certainly spent my time at Cody's. However, its size, the low ceiling heights, and the length of time it was out of service (which does the plumbing, etc. no favors at all) almost certainly made any sort rehab a marginally profitable venture, at best.
  9. mollusk
    Probably 2/3 of the times I go to Phonecia it's either at lunch or on my way home from work. However, that does leave the other 1/3 for when I make special trip just to get some groceries. For those of us in the Heights, it's less of a trek than Central Market and just a smidge further than Whole Paycheck, with better prices thrown into the mix.
  10. mollusk
    Ya don't say. Reminds me of the old joke about Baptist sex.
  11. mollusk
    At the risk of demonstrating a startling grasp of the obvious, if people can afford private cars they will use them, almost without regard to how many others are out there. Then again, it certainly is helpful to have options. By my own example, I drive to work by myself. I could take a bus, but it would take twice as much time, even without factoring in the wait for it to show up. OTOH, once I'm at work if I've got somewhere to go that's within a moderate distance of a rail station, that's what I'll use and keep my car in the garage.
  12. mollusk
    Perhaps you don't remember the early 80s - when it seemed like one saw as many cars with blue Michigan plates around here as local ones. Shoot, even though I grew up here, I'd moved away and came back with no job prospects in sight around then.
  13. mollusk
    My understanding was that the Onsteads (sp?) (the family that started Randall's) are practicing Baptists - another group known for not exactly being publicly fond of hooch.
  14. mollusk
    Much of what is now The Parking District, outside of the Houston Center assemblage, also has buildings on it that were gone less than ten years later. I wonder what generated that demo derby?
  15. mollusk
    ^^ IIRC, the car center was across the street in the parking garage, and Foley's Academy was on the same level as the hookup to the rest of the tunnel system. Over the years the dining option(s) moved all over the place.
  16. mollusk
    I think it may even be a couple years before that. While One and Two Houston are there, it doesn't look like South Texas College of Law had yet done its expansion to the full north half of the block that it now completely covers.
  17. mollusk
    ^^ I don't remember it offhand, but between the name and the location, I doubt it would be anything other than a C & W club.
  18. mollusk
    Because they rely upon truthiness, as opposed to being members of the reality based community? From 2006: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Proposed-rail-routes-bypass-Afton-Oaks-1548433.php
  19. mollusk
    The proposed METRO route was shifted out of Afton Oaks years ago, turning south and across the freeway at Cummins, yet Afton Oaks and Culberson continue to stamp their little feetsies and scream (IIRC, the Culberson quote is something along the lines of "not anywhere in [his] district"). I can understand NIMBY at some level, but NIYBYE (not in your back yard either) completely eludes me.
  20. mollusk
    Beautiful - a '67 if I'm not mistaken. I'd forgotten that the key hole for opening the trunk was over by the gas flap. IIRC, Wixom was built specifically for the T-Bird/Lincoln program.
  21. mollusk
    With the currently proposed routing west down Richmond until Greenway Plaza, then over the freeway to Westpark, access to Afton Oaks is not affected one tittle or jot. For crying out loud, Afton Oaks is west of Greenway, west of Weslayan, and west of the UP railroad tracks. John Culberson just has a visceral hatred of anything that's not a freeway.
  22. mollusk
    The early '60s T-Birds were built in the same plant as Lincolns of the era, and shared a lot of parts - including the insanely complex array of limit switches, relays, motors, hydraulic pumping, and miles of wiring that comprised the convertible top system.
  23. mollusk
    ^^ That shuttle ride to DART from Love is barely further than the shuttle ride to the rental cars.
  24. mollusk
    I remember that TR. It's good to know she went to a good home, as happened with my '76 2002 (by no means my first car, but definitely one of my faves).
  25. mollusk
    It is connected to the tunnels, both to BG across Main, and via 801 Travis to the Niels Esperson food court (blink and you will miss the corridor heading east from the Niels).
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