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  #6261  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 9:09 AM
N90 N90 is offline
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I think Houston's getting a lot of architecturally attractive nonhighrise infill inside the loop. Technically all in just one half of it. Here's some of the prettier ones that are slated for this year. All either under construction or preparing to start.

Chateau 10 http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3787/1...735dcb7c_o.jpg

Saint Honroe http://www.winfieldgate.com

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2852/1...22177279_o.jpg

Yorktown and Suzanne are also nice but look less attractive IMO

Yorktown http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7427/1...03d2424b_b.jpg

Suzanne http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5482/1...13902b6a_b.jpg

Willowick Park http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5479/1...1d127b77_b.jpg

Regent Square http://www.gid.com/development/regent-square.aspx

http://swamplot.com/the-new-regent-s...gs/2008-05-27/

River Oaks District http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3832/9...a1264fea_o.jpg

Street lights on Midlane http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5500/1...71d4d439_b.jpg

West Avenue http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/h...plex/?p=365582

Downtown Shopping District http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3708/1...87235bf8_o.jpg

Downtown outdoor entertainment area in the convention district http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5504/1...3d4117a2_o.jpg

Green space

Midtown's Superblock http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3684/1...6f57a000_o.png

Emancipation Park http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5544/1...ce1cf77a_b.jpg

Parkspace on the Buffalo Bayou http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3666/1...973e0572_o.jpg

Buffalo Bayou Walk http://www.buffalobayou.org/thumbimages/9-NORT%7E1.jpg

It's already coming together great. The high quality cultural institutions expanding and airports getting new carriers like Korean Airlines last week. The city just months away from submitting its Spaceport permit request. Colleges and schools expanding and becoming more urban and selective. High schools for performing arts students planned in downtown. Several family friendly entertainment theme or amusement parks renovating or going into the pipeline for construction. Exciting and diverse culinary scene and diversity. Crime reaching new historical lows each year. Pollution levels reaching some historical lows. The city's coming together great even without skyscrapers in place IMO.

Last edited by N90; Feb 10, 2014 at 10:45 AM.
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  #6262  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 6:23 PM
M. Incandenza M. Incandenza is offline
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^Nice compilation. Thanks! I'm actually more excited about all the low/mid-rise developments than the towers that are going up. Towers are fine, but it's the smaller pedestrian-oriented stuff that has the potential - maybe, hopefully, some day - to turn Houston into a genuinely lively and walkable place.
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  #6263  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 6:49 PM
AustinTay AustinTay is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ant131531 View Post
I think Houston most resembles LA. Let's be honest....Paris? Really lol. No city in America looks like Paris and especially not Houston.

And why are the sidewalks in Houston so small even on main drags? They're puny...mainly outside of downtown. Houston is such a weird city to me.
hmm...

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  #6264  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 7:12 PM
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Its funny I always thought Houston and Paris were so identical. Paris is just more dense atm. Already mentioned by someone but I think the street grids really are identical to Paris street grids.
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  #6265  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 8:11 PM
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262 unit multifamily in Westchase
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Just between the Millennium One office tower and Houston First Methodist Church, Worthing plans to break ground on its second Houston-area multifamily complex in a matter of weeks, Bisnow reports. The 262-unit property will look similar to the firm's first Houston development, The Heights at Park Row, which is underway.
http://m.bizjournals.com/houston/new...o-rise-in.html
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  #6266  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 9:33 PM
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Originally Posted by AustinTay View Post
hmm...



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  #6267  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 9:37 PM
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Amazing compilation N90, I was wondering if you or any of the other forumers could enlighten me on the status of the projects I quoted? What's the deal with Regent Square? Other than the Sovereign, it seems like we've seen minimal movement on it. And in that page on HAIF, it indicates a third phase of West Ave around Steel Street...is that still in development?

Also I've never seen that particular rendering of the Bayou Walk, it looks amazing! Almost looks like it could be the Right Bank of the Seine.
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  #6268  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 9:43 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ant131531 View Post
I think Houston most resembles LA. Let's be honest....Paris? Really lol. No city in America looks like Paris and especially not Houston.

And why are the sidewalks in Houston so small even on main drags? They're puny...mainly outside of downtown. Houston is such a weird city to me.
One of my biggest beefs with Houston. That needs to change. I also agree StatenIslander. Houston is now evolving into it's own identity and it's own city.
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  #6269  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 10:24 PM
N90 N90 is offline
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Originally Posted by StatenIslander237 View Post
Amazing compilation N90, I was wondering if you or any of the other forumers could enlighten me on the status of the projects I quoted? What's the deal with Regent Square? Other than the Sovereign, it seems like we've seen minimal movement on it. And in that page on HAIF, it indicates a third phase of West Ave around Steel Street...is that still in development?

Also I've never seen that particular rendering of the Bayou Walk, it looks amazing! Almost looks like it could be the Right Bank of the Seine.
The Buffalo Bayou master plan was incepted in 2005 and is a 25 year master plan that's in it's 9th year now. The Buffalo Bayou from Uptown to Downtown to East End is Houston's spinal cord and they're ongoing repurposing it to handle mixed use around it and make the greenbelt a quality recreational and pedestrian friendly commercial environment. Where people can enjoy the outdoors with water activities and parkish settings without technically being in an urban park. Parades, events, outings, etc. They want to make it a successful part of Houston's cityscape like the river walk is in San Antonio, with similar liveliness and commercial activity as the river walk has for San Antonio and it's urban core, when completed. Still a long way to go from that for the Buffalo Bayou but it's come a long way too. When it's all said and done. They've added some nice pedestrian bridges, tolerance sculptures, signs, lighting, made it a slope/range of elevation increasing as you walk away from the banks of the bayou, widened the greenbelt and pedestrian walkway. Places along the Bayou like the Sunset coffee building are renovating and coming together one by one.

It's by far and away Houston's most ambitious and perhaps highest quality urban renewal project. It has many components to it that are being built in phases. When completed it will stitch Houston's urban neighborhoods together.

Here was the last construction update on it
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...postcount=6073

After expanding the pedestrian sidewalk and stairs they'll landscape and make greener, plant trees, bushes, flowers, put up more lighting, and signs. Development around it will take it from there (when) it happens.

Regent Square's next phase should be happening any day now. They've been slowly chugging along and building in phases. First phase, the Sovereign is still nearing completion. http://m.bizjournals.com/houston/blo...wo.html?r=full

Regent Square is going to be built long term in several phases. Which makes sense, it's a massive project. We'll hear more updates on timeline for more future phases at some point in a few months.

West Avenue is either done with or almost done with its Phase II. Phase III will be the largest of the three phases, will happen next as phase II's occupancy reaches it's ceiling.

Last edited by N90; Feb 10, 2014 at 10:50 PM.
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  #6270  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 10:46 PM
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Originally Posted by AustinTay View Post
hmm...

You know as well as I do that La Defense is a very small part of Paris and isn't located anywhere near the heart of the city along the Seine... I'll admit the two photos do look similar, but Downtown Houston is MUCH more like the rest of Houston than La Defense is like the rest of Paris.

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  #6271  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 10:50 PM
M. Incandenza M. Incandenza is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by N90 View Post

West Avenue is either done with or almost done with its Phase II. Phase III will be the largest of the three phases, will happen next as phase II's occupancy reaches it's ceiling.
I really like West Ave., but didn't even realize there was a phase III, let alone that it would be the biggest one. Any details on that plan?
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  #6272  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 10:51 PM
N90 N90 is offline
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Houston is like Houston. We should be happy with it finding it's own style instead of wanting it to be a copy from somewhere else IMO. Although having some traits shared is kind of cool.

Last edited by N90; Feb 10, 2014 at 11:46 PM.
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  #6273  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 11:04 PM
N90 N90 is offline
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Originally Posted by M. Incandenza View Post
I really like West Ave., but didn't even realize there was a phase III, let alone that it would be the biggest one. Any details on that plan?
Not a lot of info on it yet just know that they're planning to move forward soon with a phase III.

Like Phase I, they will probably hold on the formal construction date for Phase III until Phase II is completely done and occupied to its limit. Which doesn't take long for West Ave. We should hear something this year about the largest phases' construction timeline.

http://www.firstresourcerealty.com/c...ource59313.pdf

Last edited by N90; Feb 10, 2014 at 11:20 PM.
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  #6274  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 11:12 PM
dgpatel dgpatel is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AustinTay View Post
hmm...

Interesting. At first glance I thought that this might be a skewed comparison, so I checked Wikipedia and found that Houston's buildings are much taller. I then plotted the building heights for comparison. I did a similar comparison to Dallas and LA on HAIF a while back, but it looks like Houston has alot more buildings in the 425ft+ range, while most of Paris' buildings are in the 325-425ft range. Plus their tallest compares to our 7th tallest, their 2nd to our 12th tallest, and their 3rd tallest to our 16th tallest.

I got my info from Wikipedia and unfortunately they don't have buildings under 400ft listed for Houston.

Paris's skyline is alot more densely packed, making it look alot bigger.

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  #6275  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 11:15 PM
AustinTay AustinTay is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by StatenIslander237 View Post


You win the internet.
lol I stole the pic from this thread.


Quote:
Originally Posted by glowrock View Post
You know as well as I do that La Defense is a very small part of Paris and isn't located anywhere near the heart of the city along the Seine... I'll admit the two photos do look similar, but Downtown Houston is MUCH more like the rest of Houston than La Defense is like the rest of Paris.

Aaron (Glowrock)
The original quote said, "Maybe that's the uniqueness of Houston; it looks in spots like other cities"

I was not talking about the city in its entirety and neither was toxteth o'grady.
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  #6276  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 11:18 PM
AustinTay AustinTay is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dgpatel View Post
Interesting. At first glance I thought that this might be a skewed comparison, so I checked Wikipedia and found that Houston's buildings are much taller. I then plotted the building heights for comparison. I did a similar comparison to Dallas and LA on HAIF a while back, but it looks like Houston has alot more buildings in the 425ft+ range, while most of Paris' buildings are in the 325-425ft range. Plus their tallest compares to our 7th tallest, their 2nd to our 12th tallest, and their 3rd tallest to our 16th tallest.

I got my info from Wikipedia and unfortunately they don't have buildings under 400ft listed for Houston.

Paris's skyline is alot more densely packed, making it look alot bigger.
You don't need to research anything to know that Paris' skyline is smaller. That is pretty much common sense. The point was to show that there is some similarities and the comparison was not too far-fetched.
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  #6277  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 11:27 PM
N90 N90 is offline
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Phase IV of La Centerra
Quote:
The fourth and final phase of LaCenterra, a 34-acre mixed-use town center development in Katy, will break ground in the spring, with a tentative completion date set for the summer of 2015.

The project, being developed by Houston-based Vista Equities Group, will include 35,000 square feet of retail space and a five-story, 125,000-square-foot, Class A office building. A contractor has yet to be named for the project.


Vista Equities broke ground in November on Phase III on the mixed-use property, which consists of 37,000 square feet of retail space, anchored by Trader Joe’s, as well as 36,000 square feet of Class A office space and a parking garage. Birmingham, Ala.-based Hoar Construction is overseeing the construction of Phase III, which is expected to be completed next fall.

http://bizjournals.com/houston/blog/...-phase-of.html
1,000 acre master planned community south of Houston
Quote:
Houston — which already has some of the best-selling master-planned communities in the country— is getting another.

Dallas-based Hillwood Communities this spring will break ground on its first Houston-area master-planned community, named Pomona. The 1,000-acre development will be near Highway 288 in Manvel, about 20 miles south of downtown Houston.

The $700 million development, with Houston-based McGuyer Homebuilders Inc., will have 2,100 single-family homes when complete. The first phase will include 300 homes built by Highland Homes, David Weekley Homes, Coventry Homes, Plantation Homes and Trendmaker Homes, Hillwood said.


The development also will include 300 acres of open space in the form of wetlands and protective waters.

http://bizjournals.com/houston/morni...re-master.html
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  #6278  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 11:39 PM
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I wouldn't say that Houston looks like Paris "in spots", just that there are very few buildings here and there that resemble some in Paris (Saint Honore for example) and the Skylines only look alike from the pic that was posted.

Also, no one said they want Houston to be a copy of Paris or LA. Just saying they somewhat resemble each other. I too love the unique ways Houston is developing due to no zoning.

For a better look at all the mid-rises underway in Houston, please take a look post #2 on the first page. I just updated the list.

Last edited by Urbannizer; Feb 10, 2014 at 11:51 PM.
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  #6279  
Old Posted Feb 10, 2014, 11:55 PM
N90 N90 is offline
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Renderings in the link.

The Park on San Felipe
Quote:
The Park on San Felipe provides a new opportunity to augment and enhance Uptown’s public realm and reinforce its position as one of Houston’s most prominent addresses. Currently, the park sits across from a new mixed-use development under construction including restaurants, residential space and a Whole Foods Market set to open in April 2014. The park is also within walking distance from multiple office, retail and residential buildings. Directly south of the site, future plans for development is unknown and studies for potential shade models and screening were mandatory to
create a design that would sit well with and connect to the near future development as well as become a
trademark open space for the Uptown District. The design focuses on maximizing the space of the park through connectivity and flexibility and providing a comfortable refuge for pedestrians. We image the Park on San Felipe to be an modern oasis within its new urban setting, a great space to have lunch with friends, grab a coffee during a shopping
break, watch a small performance like a quartet after dinner in the district. SWA prepared a series of design studies that move from an interim function (“Uptown Is Moving”) to a permanent ppark space with changing programmed events.
http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/h...on-san-felipe/

Looking forward to moving to Houston soon.
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  #6280  
Old Posted Feb 11, 2014, 12:43 AM
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Originally Posted by StatenIslander237 View Post
I can sort of understand where toxteth is coming from with that, but I think more what he's going after is the wide variation of scale and style of construction all over, including a lot of imitation architecture meant to resemble other places. I can tell you from many Google Streetview excursions that I've seen apartment blocks throughout 'hoods inside the 610 loop that are meant to evoke blocks from Barcelona, Paris, Rome and everywhere in between, with varying degrees of success. That Streetlights at Midlane project...that's definitely supposed to be a little Paris, a little London, and a dash of New York put in blender and set to puree. All those newer homes in the Heights or even the Woodlands come to mind as well, the ones with the massive two-story sundecks and ceiling fans that look straight out of New Orleans? That was my interpretation.

I used to think Houston was like another Los Angeles, but as I become more familiar with the city (even from afar) and see it evolving at warp speed right now...I really think it's becoming its own animal altogether. If anything, it's taking bits and pieces of perceived correctness from other places and stitching it into the patchwork quilt (which could also be what toxteth was trying to describe).
Yours is probably the most honest, accurate post on this concept I've ever seen. I especially love your comment on the New Orleans style homes that are popping up all over. That's my favorite style by far. Incidentally, someone here once posted that there's a hint of Tel Aviv in some of the condo developments or neighborhoods. I've never really researched that and haven't looked at Tel Aviv photos (or Street View).
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