The city just planted what seems to me around 100 baby pines (couldn't realistically count all of them) in hermann park/hermann golf course to make up for all of the oaks and pines lost in the drought last year. Would definitely like to see more of that.

Drove by the lot on, estimated address, 1121 Capitol St. Lot on Capitol, Fannin , San Jacinto and Rusk. A Crane was lowering a truck, the ones that drill the ground. One of the crew members said Texaco had bought the lot and will DEMO. Any news about that lot?

I also heard that thousands of pines are being planted in Memorial Park. I hope there's some sort of watering program; otherwise, if we have another dry year, the planting program will be for naught.

Swamplot:APARTMENTS IN OLD HUMBLE OIL BUILDING DOWNTOWN TO GO THE WAY OF ITS HOTEL NEIGHBORS

http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploa...humble-oil.jpg

^
Are they talking about that 60s building, the white one?

No. The way I understand it, there are 3 buildings on this block (in the foreground of the pic) that will soon all be hotels. Two of the buildings were converted into hotels in 2003 per the article ( I corrected my link).

Some interesting tidbits from Bis Now Real Estate Houston

On some more office coming to the inner loop, N. Montrose and Greenway Plaza:

"Infill projects are branching out":

On Montrose:

Some juicy rumors/news on downtown from a few folks in "da biz" on HAIF.

Essentially Chevron may build a campus in downtown. It already has/will lease 2.8 million sf downtown, but rumor has it the new campus will have 4 million sf. The additional sf will come from a new (rather large) building. Furthermore, improvements at street level would occur to promote connectivity among the building and surface lot(s) will be used as green space and retail for its employees.

Again these are rumors and/or proposals that have not been finalized/announced. They came from some reputable posters who don't work together but whose information matches one another. Take it for what it is worth.

^
I take it that they would be talking about the lot where the old YMCA was right?

^^ yes

For the new skyscraper yes, but the insiders indicate there maybe more lots involved. As I said, if the rumors are true then Chevron wants a campus a feel in this part of downtown that would involve a lot of street level improvements along with green-space and more retail on additional lots.

Edit:

The powers to be seem to speculate this will be a tower that rises slightly under 50 stories. It would have bigger floorplans, much like newer towers, and would be slightly taller than BG Group Place and around the same height as the speculative Hines' tower.

BINGO!!! "City Beautification" I know, the city has bigger fishes to fry, but I think this would give it more appeal to houstonians and tourist, it would be a really good investment I think...

At first I thought they where going to demolish that building, and if they had I would have chewed the city of Houston out, but Im glad that wasn't the case. :yes:

A new Astrodome idea: Strip the dome to its skeleton and put a park underneath the re
 

BY WHITNEY RADLEY
03/27/2013

http://houston.culturemap.com/newsde...h-the-remains/

I've always loved the Astrodome. I love its space age architecture and it is the closest thing to a world landmark we have; being the worlds first domed stadium. Unfortunately, keeping the Astrodome, is very unpopular in Houston right now.

I'm still disappointed, a residence is much better than a hotel.

I don't sense that it's unpopular; just that it's a space that can be torn down for a lot less money than it takes to rehab. And the only thing it seems useful for is sporting events and large conferences.

Westbury Square also has a history, but it's been allowed to go so far to rot that it may impossible to rehab.

Hey guys. Lifelong Astros fan from Austin here. I'm so pumped for opening day!

In response to the picture of Minute Maid Park below posted on another forum, I mentioned that the view is not scenic enough and needs more highrise buildings outside out the stadium. Someone then responded, saying that there's a 25-story building under construction right now just outside the stadium that will be visible just over left field. Is this true? If so, what building is it and where exactly is it located?

Also, are there any more projects in the works for this area? I'd love to see Houston have a very scenic view like some other cities do. It might help with attendance and maybe it will get them to take down that stupid, ugly structure with all of the billboards on it.

http://i.imgur.com/L8DH7QP.jpg

There is a project going up right across the outfield wall, but it will only be 7 stories tall. It's going to be a massive Finger Co. apartment building spanning two blocks with some ground floor retail thrown in.

The 20+ story residential tower (Skyhouse, similar to the one going up in Austin) is about 15 blocks South of Minute Maid.