Seven Buildings (and Neighborhoods) That Would Never Fly in Any City But Houston
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In my region, highrises aren't allowed except in the Downtown Seattle area, a couple other historic downtowns, and a small number of urban nodes, only one of which was upzoned early enough to have any (Bellevue). We don't allow highrises next to some existing highrises.
And industrial/port land is jealously guarded, true industrial, not the low-intensity stuff found in more urban neighborhoods. That said, there's an enormous amount of infill in nodes. Six-story, 300 unit (and 50 unit) buildings are commonly built in dozens of nodes on both sides of the city limits. Parking is a big difference of course. The article talks about a highrise with as much space for parking as actually living in, which we wouldn't do. The high-growth areas generally don't do surface parking either. |
i dunnah.
Not many cities — okay, no city outside Houston — would let a developer build an entire business district from scratch miles from the urban core, but that’s exactly what Gerald D. Hines did nearly half a century ago. Anchored by the Galleria mall, the largest in Texas, Uptown has emerged as a “downtown” to Houston’s western suburbs, centered on Post Oak Boulevard, just west of the 610 Loop. you have the plaza in kansas city, one developer. downtown clayton in st. louis county, mo, also nearby by the galleria mall (pictured).... http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...l/clayton1.jpg kcphotos.com you see, this IS our uptown, except its a little further from downtown st. louis than uptown houston is from downtown houston. |
Strangely enough, even though Austin has zoning, you find a mix similar to what you have in Houston, although not as much. There are also a lot of zoning variances granted in Austin.
I wonder if at some point voters in Houston will change things regarding zoning. The catalyst, I assume, will be the high rise condos that are sprouting in affluent neighborhoods (causing the most rebellion at this point). I personally enjoy seeing the chaotic variety of land use and architecture, but I might feel differently if I suddenly can't plant a garden because so much of the sun is blocked out by a highrise in my neighborhood. |
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As for the poor getting displaced, I don't have much sympathy. It's happened to me twice in the last 5 years. I just moved to a cheaper place. If you own and are forced to sell because property taxes are too high, that's upsetting. It happened to my grandmother recently. If you rent and are forced to move, that is simply a risk you take. I chose to pay unbelievably below market rents for the neighborhood I was in. The risk was that the owner would sell because the rental income barely covered more than property taxes. When they notified me that the building was going to be demolished, they gave me 60 days to move, returned my security deposit, and gave me an extra month's rent on top of that to put towards moving costs and a new deposit. I, as a renter had no right to force the owner to let me stay as long as I wanted so I found a new home and moved. I wouldn't consider it "displacement" as that has a real negative implication. The volcano displaced the villagers. The tsunami displaced the people. I moved from an apartment to another apartment nearby. |
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http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/six-...ty-but-houston
Good grief, that one rendering plopped into that aerial photo is hilarious and epically bad at the same time. Nimbys crack me up. They did the same for the Spring Condominiums in Austin when someone made a bad Lego model of the area that was most definitely not to scale. They just plopped down some Lego bricks and made one skinny stack of bricks to show the tower. Do they not know that if their model isn't to scale that their argument is being severely damaged? It would be like a developer proposing a building with a bad presentation that doesn't accurately show their proposal and gives the wrong idea of what it'll actually look like. Imagine a developer knowing that and using a bad model to under estimate the height of their project to win support. But, accuracy and honesty are not something Nimbys are shooting for. They love making projects out to be a boogieman. They should just go ahead and use an image of the Stay Puft Marshmallow man to denote the building instead. https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/i...S349SH5vZzesPx Source |
Not much of this article seems to be "only in Houston". A CBD built miles away from downtown by one developer? Sounds like Century City to me. Multi-story wood framed buildings being built in SFH neighborhoods? Sounds like a lot of Los Angeles to me. Industrial space being turned into residential neighborhoods? Sounds like the Arts District to me. This article is just factually incorrect.
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In Oxnard, CA.the biggest "WTF" building I've ever seen:
http://www.tricountycounsel.com/wp-c...thorpv2_05.jpg http://www.tricountycounsel.com/wp-c...thorpv2_05.jpg http://www.venturaweekly.com/images/...n-stanley1.jpg http://www.venturaweekly.com/images/...n-stanley1.jpg |
Houston is just an experiment where we let the free market run the urban development. Although I would like to say that I think the road transportation planning is very good and mostly cohesive. With a large grid, two loop highways and freeways in every direction.
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I would also like to say that a lot of you should read the article, which lays out seven buildings and neighborhoods which wouldn't happen outside Houston and explain why that would be.
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No city outside of Houston but only in Houston? I can think of many cities in North America and beyond where buildings/developments of this sort took place.
Rob Ford in one of his "drunken stupors" |
Cheap land and the free market also conspire to make most of this Houston infill not terribly urban.
The townhouse trend is good, but marginally urban in density and form. Every time I dig into a new Houston highrise it has an "entry drive". Most infill seems to have parking garages above grade, with huge amounts of parking. Outside the core many have surface parking. Between form and density, it's better than what was there, but not terribly urban. Above-grade garages aren't the worst thing in the world but even if well done the result is less density than the same parking underground. To say nothing of mode splits. Long story short...it's good, but my local suburban downtowns are far more urban than most of what gets built in Houston. |
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mhays lives in bellevue, WA iirc
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