dbigtex56

Oh, that? I hauled it to the scrapyard, so's I could buy me some crack.

Good point. We've never started a thread specifically dealing with mansions (TTBOMK) In the "too little, too late" category, I submit 2950 Lazy Lane, a John Staub design which was stupidly demolished by some inconsequential arrogant ninny. "The Hogg brothers, their sister Ima, and Hugh Potter, their associate in the development of River Oaks, understood that architectural excellence was essential if they were to establish River Oaks as Houston’s finest neighborhood. They used design excellence as an instrument to promote the community’s reputation, not just locally but nationally. And it worked. The tragedy of the destruction of this legacy is that most often it is replaced with new buildings inferior to those that have been lost, irrespective of their size and cost. Houston is trading its irreplaceable historic patrimony for substitutes that are ostentatious, mediocre, and grotesque." -Stephen Fox

I believe it's because you drove them all crazy.

(the above was part of an attempt at dismissing the importance of mountain snowpacks as a supply of drinking water.) Per 60 Minutes, 1.5 billion people are dependent on glacial runoff for their drinking water, mostly in Africa, Asia and India. No big deal, right?

Please refresh my memory - what used to be there?

What immediately springs to mind is walking thorough downtown Houston on my lunch hour with my friend Linda, who's a bit of a glamor-puss. Here's how construction workers celebrate pedestrian movement: (wolf whistle) "Hey baby, shake that thang! Yeah, lookin' good! Come back darlin', you're breakin' my heart!" I think I shall be spending entire days walking around Weingarten's parking garage.

Maybe there's a correlation between reading "online news sources" and feeling unsafe. Just because it's on the internet (or on TV or in the newspaper) doesn't mean it's true. All media are prone to sensationalism; it attracts attention more reliably than dry statistics ever can. For some perspective, ask the old-timers about gang activity in Houston in the 1950s. It made today's youth look pretty tame by comparison. As FDR said, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. People are more willing to accept sloppy law enforcement and prosecutions, and are more willing to compromise their rights and liberty, if they're afraid - now, that scares me.

Aside from the Seagram Building (and most people credit Mies for that), Philip Johnson never really achieved the level of acceptance in NYC that he did in Houston. I agree. We're more his kind of town.

I forget which bank initially built it in the early 80s, but it was prominently featured in the 1984 movie "Paris, Texas".

Why not both? We have plenty of room.

It's the Swiss Re headquarters in London ( 30 St Mary Axe) aka "The Gherkin"."The building also won the 2003 Emporis Skyscraper Award for the best skyscraper in the world completed that year."

As an interior designer, I'm surprised that you would refer to any features of a house as "architecturally trivial and meaningless". Seems to me that good design regards all elements as significant and meaningful. As to your other remarks: if you don't want people to comment on your singing, you don't sign up for American Idol.

OK... I notice that you put your post in the "Holy Places" section of the Forum - do you have reason to believe that this building was a church or affiliated with some religion? So let's speculate about what we see in the picture. It appears to be situated at the convergence of two roads. It's symmetrical, except for that small door at the far end; could it have divided into two parts in the interior (perhaps to separate genders?) The archways puzzle me - they're rather large for doors, yet too narrow to accommodate a typical wagon. The chimneys resemble those found on 19th century buildings, and are constructed of brick rather than the huge blocks of stone which comprise the rest of the building. Could they have been added later? Do they extend to the ground floor? If so, and there are fireplaces directly below them, seems to me that they would crowd the areas close to the arched entrances. It's built of such massive blocks of stone, yet is without ornament...an armory, perhaps, or a jail? And where are stones of that color quarried? Also, it looks as if electricity had been brought in (the conduit towards the right side of the building), and someone has taken the trouble to board up the windows, so it may have been in use until relatively recently. The roof looks intact. Now you've got me wondering. Promise that you'll let us know what it is if you find out.

Let's not forget that this genius also yelled "Shut the **** up, you (homosexual slur)!" at a fan during the same game. Maybe he meant that the guy had, you know, an artistic flair and good taste in clothing.

The area now known as Midtown had been so thoroughly decimated by the 1980s that it had lost all identity, and renaming it caused little confusion. I agree it's contrived, but at least there's some justification. A more obnoxious example was the attempt to rename the various neighborhoods collectively referred to as the Montrose. In the late 70s and early 80s yuppies started pushing the name 'Neartown' as a replacement, presumably because they were ashamed of their neighborhood's reputation. In protest, some people started displaying bumper stickers saying "Neartown is Montrose". Now that the Montrose has become respectable the name Neartown seems to be fading away. Good riddance.

For many years a similar car (Dart? Valiant?) was regularly seen around the Montrose. Because its styling was so boxy and bland it made a great base for various styling experiments. The owner would regularly change the chrome on the sides to resemble the swoopy styles from the mid-50s, along with two-toned paint jobs in colors appropriate to that era. He'd also graft on different sorts of taillights and grills - it was as if the car was perpetually at a costume ball. For a while, the roof was cut off midway, giving a landau effect; eventually he removed it entirely, transforming it into a sort of poor man's convertible. I always admired his creativity.

Please give us some kind of a clue - what was the source of this photo? What is (or might be) interesting about this building? Any general idea where it might be located?

Isn't the Pierce Elevated south of the cathedral?

"We intend to offer the native savages $24 worth of beads and trinkets for their land. If they don't accept, we'll just have to kill them."

Chuck Norris...like T-bone Norris, but tougher.

Agreed. To me, 5 Houston Center looks like a giant pair of French doors.

Like this? I think the '59 was even more feline:

The only car I've owned in Houston (several years ago) was a midnight blue 1963 Dodge: (except it was a 4-door sedan, no scoops or mags and de-chromed) It had an endearing goofy yet ominous quality; looked like something an elderly, severely rural Baptist preacher might drive. Three-on-the-tree, slant six, woo-hoo!

Are you familiar with Bass Weejun penny loafers? The dark burgundy ones? THAT color. It would go great with your particular color of brick.