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Houston19514

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Everything posted by Houston19514

  1. Houston19514
    Does anyone know what is going on with Victory Tower, either the tower structure or the parking garage structure? It seems as if an information embargo has been imposed on the project ;-) Over at the DFW forum there seem to be constant updates on all of the downtown, uptown, and Victory projects, but it's virtual black hole regarding Victory Tower. They even seem to have deleted the entire Victory Tower thread. Is the parking garage structure still under construction? If so, how is it progressing? Have they started construction on the tower structure? Does anyone have any recent pics of the project?
  2. Houston19514
    Just a couple of problems: The train reached a high speed of 357.2 mph at a particular point on the test run. That is quite different than being able to make the entire run at that speed. Bigger problem: "Great things can happen if the will is there and a profit to be made is evident." There is no evident profit to be made. This cannot be done without large government assistance of one kind or another.
  3. Houston19514
    How many acres are there in downtown ?
  4. Houston19514
    That is my understanding as well. IIRC, the Pavilions entered into a long-term lease on the entire garage.
  5. Houston19514
    AFAIK, there are no plans to add retail to the ground floor. They will be adding a second-story skywalk connection to the Pavilions.
  6. Houston19514
    Houston area added 82,000 jobs in the past year. Most probably will add a similar number in the coming year. All those people have to live somewhere.
  7. Houston19514
    American National was #632, i.e., not in the Fortune 500. Houston metro had one fewer than DFW metro last year.
  8. Houston19514
    Anyone know ridership numbers at the MARTA station at ATL? Found them. MARTA claims an average weekday ridership at the airport station of 17,000. Not bad. But assuming that Houston has similar O&D traffic (and that should be a fair assumption), Houston would have to build rail to two airports (one of which is substantially further from the center of town than is ATL) to have access to similar numbers of passengers. Don't misunderstand. I would love to have rail to both airports. Loving the idea, however, does not necessarily make it financially feasible. Right now, I think the numbers who take the "express" buses to the airports are very very low. Of course, that's not really a good test because (a) they are not actually"express" by any stretch of the imagination, ( they seem to do everything they can to keep them a secret, and © the illogical, but well-known, rail bias. In any case, before spending a gajillion dollars getting rail to the airports, I would really like to see them make a serious effort to implement and market a true express bus servicew
  9. Houston19514
    Where can we see Lake Flato's design?
  10. Houston19514
    Keep working those numbers. As you surely know, at Hobby and even more so at Bush Intercontinental, a substantial portion of that 44.8 million is NOT origin and destination traffic, meaning they are just catching a connecting flight. Those people are not going to care about mass transit into downtown Houston, no matter how nice or convenient it is. I don't have the numbers at hand, but someone can probably find them.
  11. Houston19514
    Awesome pic! Thanks Jax.
  12. Houston19514
    Just for the record, THIS is what I was calling nonsense: "It was originally suppose to be 60, hence the observation deck." The "observation deck" is there because of the upper elevator lobby. Just like in Wells Fargo and Williams Tower.
  13. Houston19514
    I don't think there have been any changes in the plans for the office portion.
  14. Houston19514
    Niche, we all understand, and we understood your very first post. In fact, I think we all understood it quite well. Perhaps better than you meant for us to.
  15. Houston19514
    And more. Also on the link, it says that DART expected that the $50 million station "could see as many as 1,700 passengers daily." And this is the kind of transportation planning you and others think Houston should emulate? (For the record, none of Houston's stations cost anywhere near $50 million and the average ridership at those stations is over 3,000 daily.)
  16. Houston19514
  17. Houston19514
    LOL So true. So true
  18. Houston19514
    Interesting link. But according to the information in the link, the station is 109 feet below ground. NOT ten stories below US 75. (I realize the idiots who drew the thing have a little caption in there saying that the station is 10 stories below Central Expressway, but if you look it over more carefully, it gives more detail, to-wit: passengers descend 69 feet from the surface to the first level, then another 40 feet down to the station platform. Total depth 109 feet below the surface, less than that below Central Expressway) And there is also a clue in the link as to why such things are not being built in Houston; and I don't believe any additional such stations are being built in Dallas, or even the much-hallowed Atlanta: That station alone cost $50 Million (and that was, what, ten years ago).
  19. Houston19514
    If, as you say, the hotel was "able to survive on its own" then surely Denton or someone else will go ahead and grab one of the many other nearby surface lots and build it. No problem.
  20. Houston19514
    No kidding. The Chron never stops embarrassing us. Is that place run by junior high girls or what?
  21. Houston19514
    Shell's leases at both One Shell Plaza and Two Shell Plaza run through 2015. Of course those are both also Hines buildings, so anything could happen.
  22. Houston19514
    Bank of America is just a tenant. They have never owned the building.
  23. Houston19514
    There's a little information here on their website: http://www.cmhouston.org/ExportedSite/Abou...s/Expansion.htm
  24. Houston19514
    Of course, there will be a lot more to do than just go for a jog in the park. There will be 2 restaurants, dog park area, fountains, amphitheater, etc etc etc, and another key... programming; meaning there will be activities planned in the park routinely e.g. performers in the amphitheater, art fairs, farmers markets, etc etc. etc. And you're right, most people will not drive downtown on a weeknight for most of that. But of course, we don't need most people to do so. It only takes a few dozen people to create enough activity for it to feel safe. Secondly, that number of people can easily be accumulated from people staying downtown after work, people staying in nearby hotels, people coming downtown for a baseball game or basketball game or hockey game or home & garden show at the GRB, or any number of other events, or to go to one of the restaurants either in the park or nearby. The success of One Park Place will of course help, but I don't think the success of Discovery Green depends on the success of One Park Place.
  25. Houston19514
    630 feet
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