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Houston19514

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Everything posted by Houston19514

  1. Houston19514
    ^ I don't know the answer to the question. But I'm pretty sure no one really cares. As already mentioned, Amtrak is an irrelevancy -- about 62 passengers 6 times a week. Plus the Texas Eagle and TCR customer bases are probably almost mutually exclusive, especially when looking at the same journey. Rather than go to the expense of moving either Amtrak service or TCR service so they can be at the same station, it would be probably be more cost-effective to provide the occasional connecting passenger with private helicopter service.
  2. Houston19514
    http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/haif/topic/36767-708-712-main-renovation-the-jones-on-main/
  3. Houston19514
    Through the parking garage?
  4. Houston19514
    Apparently, we can thank Gerald Hines. From Cite magazine: "It was Gerald Hines who, in the early 1970s, had helped persuade Shell Oil to forego a sign on its building and, with other developers such as Kenneth Schnitzer, promoted the idea that downtown's architecture should be allowed to speak for itself, and not be marred by names or logos."
  5. Houston19514
    According to today's article regarding the renewal of Porter Hedge's lease in 1000 Main, yes. (But keep in mind, this is from the Chronicle, so it's anyone's guess).
  6. Houston19514
    Good thoughts. Very interesting idea about qualifying for the Continental Airlines exception. FWIW, below is the exception language from the ordinance. To summarize, NRG would have to occupy at least 45% of the gross usable floor space of the building. They would presumably have to make Houston their sole headquarters. IF they qualified (and it appears they would not meet the 45% requirement, they could display their registered trademark (logo) by light projection or similar technology, only visible between sunset and sunrise. The height limit of 421⁄2 feet for signs in the central business district shall not apply to a headquarters logo sign that meets each of the following criteria: The sign may display only the registered trademark or a portion of the registered trademark of the principal occupant of a headquarters building. For purposes of this requirement, a headquarters building is a structure that has 750,000, or more, square feet of gross usable floor space, provided that at least 45 percent of the gross usable floor space is occupied by the holder of the registered trademark as the headquarters for its operations in the world, within the United States, or within a region of the world that includes all of the United States. The sign shall be displayed upon the surface structure of the headquarters building. The display may be created by light projection, video projection, laser technology, or other technology that causes the image to appear upon the surface structure of the building and shall appear upon the roof structure, a parapet wall, or other building surface that is situated above the highest occupiable story of the building. The sign shall be visible only between sunset and sunrise. The sign may utilize projection equipment or other light sources that are not readily visible from ground level but shall not utilize any conventional sign cabinet or structure. Evidence must be provided with the sign permit application that (i) the entity to be represented on the sign is the principal occupant of the headquarters building, meaning that it occupies more space within the building than any other occupant, (ii) that the criteria set forth in Item (1) above are applicable, and (iii) that the building owner accepts and agrees to the removal requirement specified below. The building owner’s agreement to remove the sign shall be accompanied by evidence of title demonstrating ownership of the building, shall be in the form of a covenant running with the title to the property that is approved by the city attorney, and shall be recorded at the applicant’s expense in the real property records of Harris County. The sign illumination must be a continuous image that is not blinking or animated in any manner. No more than two signs, each not exceeding 1500 square feet in area, may be placed on any building under this exception. A sign authorized under this exception is authorized for only so long as each of the criteria specified above remains in effect. Upon request of the Sign Administrator, the permit holder shall provide evidence of compliance with the requirements of this section. Upon failure to timely provide evidence of compliance or upon any change of circumstances that causes a sign to no longer be authorized, the Sign Administrator shall revoke the permit, and the building owner shall upon request of the Sign Administrator cause the sign to be removed.
  7. Houston19514
    It would be great to have a consolidated multi-modal transportation hub. But honestly, Amtrak is pretty much irrelevant. They run all of one train three days a week in each direction. On those days when a train arrives in Houston, we average about 62 passengers.
  8. Houston19514
    You can count on there being mixed use development. Real estate development at the stations is an integral part of the plan.
  9. Houston19514
    Yes, 20 floors of 1 Shell would be a lot more than they had at GreenStreet (probably at least double). According to the Houston Business Journal, "NRG did say that “its downtown Houston offices plan to come together in a single location” at 910 Louisiana, in the statement." Hopefully, they are also moving the New Jersey offices. I bet they'll get naming rights. Surely the Shell name will be taken off the building.
  10. Houston19514
    On that point, you are correct and the Dallas Morning News was wrong.
  11. Houston19514
    According to the DMN: -- this will be the 11th Costco in DFW, not 12th (and Costco's website confirms this store count). -- Costco just bought the property and has no scheduled opening date. They don't even have building permits yet. It will not open October 1.
  12. Houston19514
    Bummer. Love going to that every year. FWIW, the Chron exhibits its utter cluelessness again. The article says the Uptown holiday lighting "takes place . . . the night before Thanksgiving". (For anyone who does not know, the Uptown holiday lighting has always been on Thanksgiving night. NOT the night before.) There's a reasonable chance the Chron got it all wrong and the Holiday lighting will continue...
  13. Houston19514
    I doubt it has much at all to do with keeping the students dry. It's about having a place for buses and cars to load and unload students without blocking the streets, and meanwhile maximizing the square footage of the building.
  14. Houston19514
    The good news is... I think It already goes to McGowen
  15. Houston19514
    I just happened to have driven by that stretch a couple days ago and noticed that the businesses on West Alabama appear to be pretty much gone. Just found some interesting information on the Giorgetti website. The Giorgetti will be north of Steel Street and it shows a 4 story mixed use apartment development on the parcel bounded by Virginia, Steel, Kirby and Alabama. I think that's the answer to your break-down question. FWIW, I think that parcel is larger than their Heights Blvd/Washington parcel.
  16. Houston19514
    I haven't studied it much, but have looked at some examples primarily in Dallas. $15,000 doesn't even come close.
  17. Houston19514
    Of course the facility can sue, but such a suit would almost certainly be unsuccessful. As was mentioned above, there is no property right in a view.
  18. Houston19514
    It almost certainly would have taken a lot larger subsidies to get affordable housing in the deal. I doubt you'll find many (if any) downtown residential developments (in a downtown anything like Houston's) across the U.S. that provided affordable housing with a subsidy rate of only $15,000 per unit.
  19. Houston19514
    Not sure what is the current, operative rendering, but FWIW, the first rendering posted here at HAIF, back in late 2013, appeared to be non-brick. Then in early 2014, a new, brick, design was posted. In March 2015 a new Ziegler Cooper glass aluminum and stone design was posted. Then in July 2017, the brick rendering is posted again, but it was just from an updated Downtown Development Map listing. Those Downtown Development Maps have not been particularly reliable as to renderings. So, following the chronology of renderings posted here at HAIF, the best guess seems to be that the glass aluminum and stone design is the extant design.
  20. Houston19514
    It's apparently something less than an absolute requirement, but the GFR is covered by the design guidelines.
  21. Houston19514
    I think the brick rendering is the newer, extant, rendering. No?
  22. Houston19514
    What did we do to deserve such uniformly bad journalism? They state that " Any building between the freeway and St. Emmanuel Street will be kaput . . . " as if it's a known fact. It is not. In fact, it seems pretty clear that the Cheek-Neal Building will survive and from the maps it appears that SEARCH's new headquarters (or at least the vast majority of it) should be able to survive as well. There is at least some uncertainty. From the sounds of the Houston Press story, you'd almost think SEARCH had already received their eviction notice. Would it kill Meagan Flynn to take a careful look at the project map? Oh, and by the way, relevant to this story (but unmentioned): SEARCH constructed their building and moved in all after the general scope of the new freeway alignment was known.
  23. Houston19514
    Agreed. Yelp is not only bad for the restaurant industry; the reviews and ratings are pretty much worthless. My understanding is they don't even attempt to police to make sure the reviews are legitimate.
  24. Houston19514
    Wait... What???? That can't be right... I read Steve Brown's article in April. Work started in April! ;-)
  25. Houston19514
    IHG has at least a dozen different flags. They currently have a Holiday Inn and a Holiday Inn Express downtown. That leaves them with 10 flags to choose from, without duplicating.
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