Awesome photo!

Looks like it might be taken from a location due south from downtown Houston, maybe somewhere around the Ft. Bend County line?

No, this picture was taken out on the east side. Where on the east side I don't know. But the configuration of the buildings downtown tells me this is DEFINITELY way out on the east side somewhere.

That is definitely an awesome photo. Would be even better if the dirt piles were cropped out of the photo. I don't know if that's a construction site or some sort of industrial site. I agree it's way out east of downtown, where some of the best views can be found (especially from the high bridges over the Ship Channel).

looks like either the view from the San Jacinto monument or from the ship channel toll bridge

Probably somewhere in East/Southeast Houston near the ship channel and industrial area.

I've been around many parts of Houston and the best view of Houston's inner core (IMO) is from the Beltway8 and 59S interchange in SW Houston. I've thought about pretending to have car trouble on top of the interchange for a few minutes and snapping a few photos but always have chickened out. It's pretty dangerous to do that for jut some photos.... but still.

Perhaps a pie in the sky plan, but I've always wanted to harness Houston's bayous as a continuous greenbelt. Here's a ~$5.4 billion "proposal" to do so:

Red Fields to Green Fields: Houston

And a video:

If that ever comes into fruition, it could really really change Houston. Talk about increasing land value. Downtown if surrounding by these parks could be amazing, it would bring in people and apartments.

A good model is Allen Parkway along Buffalo Bayou, which has been beautiful for many decades. There are also already some great greenbelts west of Loop 610 out to about the Beltway or beyond. It needs to be done along Braes Bayou and others.

[Swamplot]Nixing Milhaus Retail: Why These New Midtown Apartments Won’t Have Shops on the Ground Floor

All images from Swamplot
http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploa...elevations.jpg

http://swamplot.com/wp-content/uploa...-site-plan.jpg

Overall good news:
Read the entire article for why ground level retail doesn't seem to be financially feasible in Houston from a developer standpoint.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7199/6...bab6a4cb_b.jpg
East Downtown LRT by Transit Nerds, on Flickr

The Southeastern Light Rail Line in Houston in its own Right of Way with the Columbia Tap bike path

Being as fast growing as it is, I'm surprised there's not as much skyscraper development in Houston (Or Dallas or Atlanta for that matter) I suppose that will come with time? It would help the urban sprawl problem.

New rendering of the 35-story condo tower that will sit on the site of the former state grille. This picture (taken by someone else) is of the rendering that is up at the site.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-S_R8HKZFc3...0/IMG_6666.JPG

Yes, it was me :)

blog link: http://goo.gl/jKkGf

Construction pics for: Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Building for Personalized Cancer Care

http://goo.gl/RFE9f

we're still in a crippling recession. up until very recently, development and construction of new buildings ground to a complete halt. there are several never-completed buildings around town.

I really like what they did with the glass cladding on the lower levels with what appears to be the parking levels (assuming those are indeed parking levels). It reminds me a bit of the dragon scale effect on IFC in Hong Kong. Where in the city is this building being built?

Off Westlayan I think...

Although I had thought of many areas of the country to be in a "crippling recession" since it started in 2007, I had thought of Houston as experiencing more of a "slowdown". Was not aware that there was no construction at all. What about houses, condos, townhomes, medical buildings, stores, etc.?

Edit: On rereading the other posts, looks like you may have been referring just to tall buildings?

While Houston weathered the recession better than most, banks are still holding money pretty close to their chests and financing can be difficult to secure. I believe there are only three 15+ story buildings under construction at the moment (at least in the city limits). All are in the Galleria area, and all are in the 20 story range. Skanska is financing their building themselves. The other two are the BBVA building and an apartment building.

I think one reason there is a perceived slowdown (at least I noticed this in myself) is due to the lack of major construction downtown and in the TMC. A lot of projects finished in the last few years downtown, but nothing concrete is really in the works at the moment. In the medical center a lot of projects have been put on hold due to uncertainty in the healthcare industry and of course due to financing issues. So downtown has no major new construction at the moment, and I think the only large building going up in the TMC is the one paid for by the donation from the former UAE president.

That being said, there is quite a bit of construction going on in Houston. Most of it is in the 3-8 story range though. It kind of relates to Zapatan's earlier question about skyscraper development. The inner loop is still dominated by low rise buildings, and even mid rises will bring a huge jump in density. Obviously many of these areas are wealthy neighborhoods which won't be going anywhere in our lifetimes, but even in Midtown (and Downtown for that matter) there are many blocks that are either empty or only occupied by strip centers.

I feel like I am rambling at this point, but one more thing. In regards to skyscrapers and Midtown. I believe parking might be one of the limiting factors. Downtown is the only area exempt from parking requirements (Uptown, TMC, and Greenway have the right to their own parking management areas, though I don't think Greenway ever utilized this. As result they are allowed shared parking and the TMC has 1.2 spaces per 1,000sf compared to the 2.7 usually required for health care buildings). This means any development in Midtown would require a certain amount of parking. This can make transitioning to a pedestrian friendly area incredibly difficult since they already need to meet certain criteria before exemptions can be made. For purely residential buildings it probably isn't that difficult to provide 1-2 spots per unit, but the requirements for businesses can be exorbitant. I believe late last year the city was pushing to change the requirement for bars to 14 spots per 1,000sf That would be roughly 4,500sf of parking for every 1,000sf of bar space. Now with that said, I don't have a perfect grasp of the parking ordinances here, so ground floor retail might actually fall under shopping center guidelines.

The long and short of it is parking regulations can be a real headache. They can also discourage redevelopment of historical buildings because they fall under the same restrictions at the moment. Of course mid rise residential is better than surface parking lots for decades because every land owner downtown expects to reap the rewards from a skyscraper.

Back to the original point, there is a ton of apartment and townhouse construction going on in Houston. There just aren't really any big signature buildings going up at the moment so it can feel like nothing is happening.

Oh, don't be fooled. There are many projects in the works in the Houston *area* and many more are close to starting construction. Here's a list just off the top of my head:

BBVA building, Galleria area: 22-stories (UC)
Condo tower, Galleria area: 22-stories (UC)
Condo tower, near Westlayan: 35-stories (construction soon)
Anadarko Tower, The Woodlands, 31-stories (UC)
Exxon Campus, The Woodlands, multiple midrises (UC)
Research Forest Campus, The Woodlands, multiple midrises (Construction soon)
Convention District: multiple highrise hotels (renderings done)
Ashby Highrise: 22 stories (legal fight)

Those are just off the top of my head.