Houston19514

While I agree that it will never be walkable like DT, I do think that eventually it will move toward a more pedestrian friendly environment.

As far as the area being to large I would dissagree. The area from the Galleria to where the Uptown Pavillions will go is only a few blocks. Why couldn't we build (as was mentioned earlier) a sky walk across Wetheimer to connect the areas?

Uptown has been moving toward a more pedestrian friendly environment for some years now. The street arches and landscaped sidewalks and crosswalks were huge improvements. The next step is probably pedestrian-friendly development of the commercial properties. That, of course will take a lot of time, but the Uptown Pavilions (or whatever it's official name is) is hopefully the first of many steps to come.

Does anyone know the status of the Reparian or has that project been scrapped?

There are fifteen units at The Riparian currently listed on HAR, so it apparently has not been scrapped. (The prices range from $447,900 to $3,549,900.)

Man, I wish Houston would do something like that.

Don't be ridiculous. Houston is doing "something like that." Houston as a TIF district, it has tax incentives for condominiums, it has incentives for retail development. The article says that about 2,400 apartments have been created. Houston has over 3,000. Apparently, downtown Dallas now has a population of about 4,500. I believe downtown Houston's estimated population is very nearly identical to that. Dallas has a goal of 10,000 residents (I don't believe the time-frame is mentioned). Houston has a goal of 20,000 (by 2025). Elsewhere I've seen projections of 10,000 in downtown Houston in 2010.

Hillwood is the lead developer of the project, but other developers are developing the individual buildings. Victory is an extension of downtown. Already people walk from West End to the Hooters and Dick's Last Resort. Until the massive amounts of parking is built in future developments, people will have to continue parking in the CBD to get to all the new retail to avoid paying high parking rates in the development. Future development includes a new museum for Natural History (currently housed in Fair Park). This will be designed by Frank Gehry and located at Ross and I-35. People will have to park by the Dallas Aquarium or around the westend for the new Museum. The only reason this land was not deveoloped early was due to the brownfield it previously was. The land was the dumping ground for gas laterns, old horse drawn buggies, they found a locamotive turntable, Ford Model T, etc. etc. It wasn't until a massive clean up of almost 400 million dollars that this land could be developed. That is when you saw the AAC built. The connection between downtown (West End) is not only immediately adjacent, but is shorter and much more straight forward then any approach from Uptown. This coming from a resident of uptown for the past 3 yrs. This is an exciting project for Dallas and downtown, and you are correct that it is not in the CBD. The CBD will have its own "mini" Victory project by Forest City. This will be the rehab of the Mercantile project, Atmos complex and Forest City's vision to much much more in the area from Mercantile building to the Farmer's Market. Most of this development is encompasses rehab of existing buildings and reshaping this corner of downtown.

I don't know anything about Houston Pavilions. Would love to see some pics and projected dates.

Are Hooter's and Dick's in the Victory development?

Yeah, I think the "Museum District" is fairly recent, like from the 1990s. I'm not sure what was considered "midtown" back then, although it makes sense that it would have covered the area between downtown and Uptown (the area on South Main near the Shamrock).

Huh? Are you referring to the "area on South Main near the Shamrock" as "Uptown"? If so, why?

Or are you saying that the "area on South Main near the Shamrock" is between downtown and Uptown? Hardly.

I'm still hoping Federated will wake up and realize they need to have at least one Bloomingdale's in this market and will convert the Macy's building into a Bloomingdale's (or the Foley's building, I don't care...)

Here's confirmation on one of the rumors.

EPCO (Enterprise) is buying 1100 Louisiana and moving their offices downtown, filling the building, which is now 75% occupied. Doesn't sound like 600,000 square feet, but still sweet.

http://houston.bizjournals.com/houston/sto...tml?jst=b_ln_hl

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 539.6 km

I think I read once that it actually will be free.

It was in the paper a while back, when they broke ground. 290 at 43rd area.

The hotel is actually nice. It is fun, youthful, vibrant, energetic. Something the Warwick is not. Just because it is a Dallas brand, don't knock it. It it was a W, you would be praising it. I am a Houstonian as well. So no need for any snide Dallas remarks.

Besides which, it was developed by and is owned by some guys from Oklahoma City.

it's a real word/verb though

"to incentivize"

Well, I'll be... When did that happen? ;-)

Are you drunk? Huntsville is not part of the Houston metro. Please educate yourself on the topic. Huntsville is its own micropolitan statistical area. I have given the link to the official census data defining the Houston metro already above, and Redscare has provided data that matches that. I'll give yet a third link that also contains the micropolitan areas so you can see Huntsville is its own area:

http://www.census.gov/population/estimates...-city/List1.txt

On the topic of San Francisco and DC, I have given proof on those as well. If you have official data that shows otherwise I'd love to see it. Perhaps you're living in 2002 and haven't gotten the news yet.

Jason

Cool your jets, Jason. There is also something called the Combined Statistical Area. In Houston's case, it's called the Houston-Baytown-Huntsville combined statistical area. When speaking of metropolitan areas, it is just as legitimate to speak of the Houston-Baytown-Huntsville CSA as it is to speak of the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan statistical area. Personally, I think the Census Bureau is causing further confusion with these new definitions. And in the case of San Francisco and DC, there still exist the DC-Baltimore Combined Statistical Area as well as the San Francisco-San Jose Combined Statistical Area (hence the confusion I mentioned above), both of which remain in the 7 million range.

Also, I'm not sure it's correct to say that Fort Worth meets the "government criteria for a suburb." Some metropolitan areas are apparently not quite as cohesive and interrelated as others, and so are divided by the Census Bureau into "Divisions." Dallas Fort Worth is one of such areas. The D-FW Metropolitan Area is comprised of the Dallas-Plano-Irving Metropolitcan Division and the Fort Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Division. I rather doubt that Ft. Worth would be in a separate division from Dallas if it met the government criteria for a suburb of Dallas.

BTW, Jason, what are your "other sources" for the 2004 Metropolitan Area populations, if I may ask?

I love this post

But, Shouldn't Enron (The entire Allen Center) have good parking because of the super garage they have along 45?

Has anyone ever parked below a building Downtown? Its like the Paris Catacombes... Scary! (Louisiana Place)

The old Enron Building is not owned by the same people as Allen Center, so that parking building is not avaliable to Enron Building tenants.

And Subdude, I don't think it's quite correct to say they (Hines) are merely "incenting" (to use your made-up verb) people to just move from one garage to another. What they are "incenting" people to do is to lease office space in the Pennzoil Towers. Having dedicated parking available will make that easier.

Thus, this can help downtown by helping Hines to fill more office space, bringing more workers downtown, who will eat at the downtown restaurants and shop in the downtown retail (including the retail included in this building.) While I too would love to see someone (like Hines) announce a new 40-story residential tower, the construction of this building is NOT a bad thing. And as has been mentioned ad nauseum on this thread, there are PLENTY more surface lots available on which those much-desired high-residential structures can be placed. It's not like the construction of another parking garage makes impossible or even slightly-less likely the construction of a residential tower.

I'm thinking your first clue should have been this statement:

"be sandwiched canal side between the INFOMART and the WORLD TRADE CENTER."

Or is there actually a canal somewhere near the infomart?

Burlington is taking over a big chunk of the Calpine building. I think Calpine may even be selling the building.

Calpine does not own the building. They are just a tenant.

Now that I've stopped laughing....

You offer up an interesting and, shall we say, unique history of the Gothic style.

Oh, and, by the way...

I am the King of Siam. ;-)

For an understanding of the Gothic style, one must return to its origin, which was the abbey at Citeaux, home of the Cistercian movement. This movement, in response to the Cluniac school, emphasized clean, simple lines in structure which would emphasize the liturgy. Granted, the Victorian neo-Gothic thrust could be very ornate, but we are not talking about Victorian design in this case.

Unlike St. Martin's, these examples feature collegiate seating -- the Choir may be in front of the congregation, but they do not face the congregation. Additionally, the historic example of a "quire" in gothic design places the choir stalls in between the nave and the sanctuary, where the high altar is (focal point). This tradition of design is not evident at St. Martin's, as it is in the architectural design of the National Cathedral (early Edwardian).

The screen at St. Martin's is neither a rood screen (as it does not have a rood), nor is it a quire screen (as it does not separate the nave from the chancel.

And by the way,

I have a degree in theology from Oxford University.

I thought Houston had more than 2 china towns.

Little Sigon

Old China town

New China Town

Or are little Sigon and Old China town the same place?

Little Saigon is Vietnamese, not Chinese (note the connection between the Vietnamese city of Saigon and the name Little Saigon).

Oh, I guess you mean the D&G store. Not exactly the same as a Dolce & Gabbana store.

Dallas has more stores that chain across the big cities of America. like they have a Dolce and Gabana, and we don't but we both have Neiman Marcus, Chanel, etc.

Where in Dallas is the Dolce & Gabbana store?

Source?

The plan includes underground parking, underneath the park. and of course the new Toyota Center parking building adds additional parking available to convention center attendees.

I don't know how many of you know, but this building was originally, the HATCU building, or Houston Area Teachers Credit Union building, until about 1978, when they sold it to HISD and moved out on 290 where they had built a much larger 12 story building, at the corner of 290 & w.43rd. i used to go into the HISD building fairly often as a chilc in the 70's, my mother worked there for HATCU. I remember as a child it being very caverness. With lots of earthtones inside. It was the 70's, and the inside of that building's decor screamed it.

I'm pretty sure you have your history confused. Perhaps the credit union at one time had an office in the HISD Building, but the building was built by the school district and has always been the HISD Administration headquarters.

Good news,

Is that the old 50s or 60s still apartments on McCue?

That's some prime real estate that can be made better use of.

No. As the article said, "the apartments are located just south of Sage Road and Hidalgo Road, near the Nordstrom wing of The Galleria"

This will be a nice consolidation, but since the majority of there workforce is already here in Houston, we won't see much of an influx.

The good out of this is that this is another large company with Houston as it's headquarters versus New York.

I'm guess the bussiness climate was more enticing not to mention they have the majority of operations here.

Is this company a Fortune 500? It'll be another headquarters to add to our list.

I think it will not count as a Fortune 500 headquarters because this is just the US headquarters. They overall HQ is still in Europe. Just like Shell is not listed among Houston Fortune 500 companies.