Houston19514

Are you just now noticing the general incompetence of Houston's media and their disinterest in reporting positive news? ;-)

Interesting... The entire block where the Chase motor bank was located is owned by Woodbranch Block 18, LLC. Woodbranch is the company that built and owns Market Square Tower (in that particular case, the entity is named Woodbranch Tower LLC). Could we have another high rise apartment tower starting next year? Never mind. Probably in the planning, but perhaps not next year... (See hindesky's post below clarifying matters)

Hmmmm... Who coulda guessed something like this could ever happen to this project . . . in Austin? 😉 FWIW, at 45 stories, that still would be a very good-looking building (much nicer, IMHO, than their under-construction supertall), but I still wouldn't bet the grocery money on it happening.

Yes, apparently you have horrible timing. 😉The high arching streams weee indeed not working for a while (although I think it was well less than 12 years), but they have been working recently. Here’s a YouTube video from 2 months ago. On Avenida, just the fountain. The kinetic sculpture is no longer kinetic.

BCycle's "proven track record" apparently includes running out of money and having to close down much of the system, so . . .

Just did another walk around parts of downtown and need to do an update. Again, both Main Street Square fountains are indeed working. To be clear the "screen" fountain does not run nonstop and was never intended to. It's apparently on some sort of timer. I waited for may two minutes and, sure enough, it came on. Also, to update, it looks like the former Allen Center courtyard fountain did not come back when the redid the open space, so one less working fountain. But there is a lovely new fountain in the Barbara Bush Literacy Plaza that is working. So the count stands at 35 working. 7 not working. Everyone can judge for themselves whether "it is a fact that the vast majority of downtown's fountains are dead". 😉 WORKING: Market Square 1 (as you mentioned) Market Square (Cotswold #12) Market Square (Cotswold #3) Smith (as you mentioned) Sam Houston Park Scanlan fountain Sam Houston Park Neuhaus fountain (I presume one of these is what you were referencing by "Heritage Park") Houston Center Discovery Green Misttree Discovery Green splash pad Hermann Square Main Street Square 1 Main Street Square 2 Downtown Aquarium water table Downtown Aquarium waterwall Downtown Aquarium marlin fountain Barbara Bush Literacy Plaza 1100 Louisiana Humble Oil Building hotels Root Memorial Square Christ Church Cathedral Jones Hall Hess Tower Courthouse Square - Family Law Center Green Street 1 Green Street 2 Green Street 3 Avenida Houston Catalyst Harmonica Man Park - Brazos and Pease George Bush Monument POST roof park Cotswold #11 - Congress @ Main Cotswold #8 - Preston @ Crawford Cotswold #6 - Preston between Fannin & San Jacinto Cotswold #9 - Prairie @ Travis NOT WORKING: Sesquicentennial Park Tranquility Park Cotswold #2 Cotswold # 4 Cotswold #5 Cotswold #7 Cotswold #10

Bissonnet, in addition to not being "really narrow," is categorized as a "Major Collector" street. Across the street from the site are: a massage studio, a law firm, a special events/catering business, Houston Hillel, and other commercial properties. No single-family residential on the entire block. The whole stretch of Bissonnet from Kirby to the Museum District is a mix of residential and commercial. It's quite an understatement to claim there are only a few small businesses here and there. And another reminder: this property has been multifamily residential for decades.

At this point the "Tower" in the thread title really should have scare quotes. 12 stories.

December or January? That's insane. The took delivery of the first of these in February, so we're talking 10-11 months between taking delivery and putting it in to service? How can it possibly require that long?

Per their strategic plan, it doesn't look like they have any intention to expand exhibit space into the back-of-house footprint. I suspect they use every bit of that space pretty intensively as it is. Veterinary clinic food storage commissary administrative offices as mentioned above, the new parking garage/office building will have space for staff to stay in during emergencies to take care of the animals etc, etc. https://s28164.pcdn.co/files/Strat_Plan_Book_MF_3.20.20_Web.pdf

. Riiigghhtt ;-) And Discovery Green turns their water features on when I look at their webcams...

Where did you see that Beacon dropped out of TMC BioPort?

They were both operating the last two times I was down there (twice in the past week). I was pleasantly surprised to see the "screen" operating, because I, too, had not seen it working in years.

Did a spin around downtown and have to do some more edits (Reminder: this is in response to Editor's claim that "It is a fact that the vast majority of downtown's fountains are dead.") WORKING: Market Square 1 (as you mentioned) Market Square (Cotswold #12) Market Square (Cotswold #3) Smith (as you mentioned) Sam Houston Park Scanlan fountain Sam Houston Park Neuhaus fountain (I presume one of these is what you were referencing by "Heritage Park") Houston Center Discovery Green Misttree Discovery Green splash pad Hermann Square Main Street Square 1 Main Street Square 2 Downtown Aquarium water table Downtown Aquarium waterwall Downtown Aquarium marlin fountain Allen Center courtyard 1100 Louisiana Humble Oil Building hotels Root Memorial Square Christ Church Cathedral Jones Hall Hess Tower Courthouse Square - Family Law Center Green Street 1 Green Street 2 Green Street 3 Avenida Houston Catalyst Harmonica Man Park - Brazos and Pease George Bush Monument POST roof park Cotswold #11 - Congress @ Main Cotswold #8 - Preston @ Crawford Cotswold #6 - Preston between Fannin & San Jacinto Cotswold #9 - Prairie @ Travis NOT WORKING: Sesquicentennial Park Tranquility Park Cotswold #2 Cotswold # 4 Cotswold #5 Cotswold #7 Cotswold #10

One suspects 1 am Sunday was the plan all along. Mat pours are pretty carefully planned, typically involving permitted street closings etc. etc. They probably would not have been able to get a permit for necessary street closings on the day of the Art Car Parade. (And that's in addition to the logistical nightmare of trying to orchestrate the time-sensitive deliveries around all that traffic and other street closures; Very unlikely ANY contractor would make that mistake.)

On the day of the Art Car Parade? That seems like it would be monumentally bad planning. Hopefully he meant next Saturday, not today.

Construction of the North Canal is still two years off. Seems unlikely this has anything to do with the Canal.

Since we now have a time limit on editing, I'm reposting my list of downtown fountains with some edits: WORKING: Market Square 1 (as you mentioned) Market Square (Cotswold #12) Market Square (Cotswold #3) Smith (as you mentioned) Sam Houston Park Scanlan fountain Sam Houston Park Neuhaus fountain (I presume one of these is what you were referencing by "Heritage Park") Houston Center Discovery Green Misttree Discovery Green splash pad Hermann Square Main Street Square 1 Main Street Square 2 Downtown Aquarium water table Downtown Aquarium waterwall Downtown Aquarium marlin fountain Allen Center courtyard 1100 Louisiana Humble Oil Building hotels Root Memorial Square Christ Church Cathedral Jones Hall Hess Tower Courthouse Square - Family Law Center Green Street 1 Green Street 2 Green Street 3 Avenida Houston Catalyst Harmonica Man Park - Brazos and Pease George Bush Monument POST roof park Cotswold #11 - Congress @ Main NOT WORKING: Sesquicentennial Park Tranquility Park - 8. Cotswold #2, and 4-10 (as has been mentioned, these are being addressed)

Yeah, from the clip on Berman's twitter feed, it seems pretty clear it is not a "designated event". I wasn't caught up on this new PGA lingo. Being nondesignated only means it is not one of the "designated" events at which all the best players are required to play. It looks like there will be 16 "designated" events next year, out of about 47 PGA tour events. To be clear, the Houston Open will be a PGA Tour golf tournament.

Well, SJL is not going to be President. I think even she does not imagine that happening. Only once in our history has a member of the House of Representatives made the jump to the Presidency and that was in the election of 1862 (James Garfield). Completely disagree that Mayor of Houston is a step down from the House of Representatives, especially for someone who wants to get things done. Plus, Houston has something like 9 Representatives; only 1 Mayor.

I guess your mileage may vary. ;-) My experience at Discovery Green is, shall we say, not consistent with yours. Interestingly, I just checked their live webcam and both the splashpad and misttree water features are indeed running. Likewise Houston Center. Their new fountain seems to be on every time I go by there. In any event, there are a LOT to choose from. I'll take a bike ride around soon to confirm which of these are still operating, but I'm pretty sure the vast majority are: Market Square 1 (as you mentioned) Market Square (Cotswold #12) Market Square (Cotswold #3) Smith (as you mentioned) Sam Houston Park Scanlan fountain Sam Houston Park Neuhaus fountain (I presume one of these is what you were referencing by "Heritage Park") Houston Center Discovery Green Misttree Discovery Green splash pad Hermann Square Main Street Square Downtown Aquarium water table Downtown Aquarium waterwall Downtown Aquarium marlin fountain Allen Center courtyard 1100 Louisiana Wells Fargo Plaza water wall Humble Oil Building hotels Root Memorial Square Sisters of Charity Park Christ Church Cathedral Jones Hall Hess Tower KBR Tower - Cullen Center Courthouse Square - Family Law Center Green Street 1 Green Street 2 Green Street 3 Avenida Houston Catalyst Harmonica Man Park - Brazos and Pease George Bush Monument POST roof park Cotswold #11 - Congress @ Main NOT WORKING: Sesquicentennial Park Tranquility Park Cotswold #2, and 4-10 (as has been mentioned, these are being addressed)

Resuming construction is probably dependent on getting some leasing.

How 'bout three blocks?

Yes, per their website, "late 2023"