HOUSTON | Development Thread II - Page 207

AviationGuy · #**4121** Posted **Oct 18, 2012, 4:29 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by TexasPlaya

What makes you interested in Westbury, if you don't mind me asking?

My family had a home close to Westbury, on the east side of Post Oak, and I had friends in Westbury so knew the area somewhat (when I was a kid). These days I hear a lot about Westbury being an up and coming popular neighborhood, and supposedly there are quite a few mid century moderns, which I'm interested in.

photoLith · #**4122** Posted **Oct 19, 2012, 9:59 PM**

6565 md Anderson boulevard.

photoLith · #**4123** Posted **Oct 22, 2012, 5:40 AM**

Updates from this weekend.

3009 Post Oak

New mid-rise on 11th st and dunlavy.

New condos going up near 19th street in The Heights.

New houses on 17th st. in the heights.

Lots of new semi historic looking bungalows going up in the heights right now. This one was on 12th st, near my new apartment.

Historic reconstructions in the heights.

New apartment complex on Douchington Ave near the old 6th ward.

A fairly recently restored historic firehouse on Washington.

Recladding of the federal building downtown.

The new daycare center on Main and Fannin, super exciting usage of land downtown, ugh.

Restoration on the historic Carter Building is now fully underway it seems, it will house a Marriott Hotel in the future. They are ripping that shit 1960s cladding off and restoring it to the way it looked in the 1910s.

They just finished the restoration on this 1930s loft building.

The soon to be demolished Ben milam Hotel across from the baseball stadium, just one more part of Houstons history needlessly lost.

East End line progress across from the soccer stadium.

Further down the East End Line heading towards the coffee plant.

More progress.

Looks like they are finally restoring the long abandoned Robert E Lee school in the greater Heights. I think its supposed to become like a family/community centre.

The newish soccer stadium, I know it was completed a while back but whatever.

The recladding of the federal building on the right, and in the background if you look closely you can see the cranes on the couple buildings rising in the Galleria Area.

A couple cranes in the medical center for the new pancreatic cancer/generic cancer research tower.

JoninATX · #**4124** Posted **Oct 22, 2012, 6:05 AM**

Great update PhotoLith, I hope the federal courthouse ends up looking like this.

http://www.rdlr.com/projects.asp?indid=5&projid=109

photoLith · #**4125** Posted **Oct 22, 2012, 6:09 AM**

^
No, its just going to be pure glass.

JoninATX · #**4126** Posted **Oct 22, 2012, 6:17 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
No, its just going to be pure glass.

Cool... also I feel ya about that daycare center right in the middle of downtown. I'm glad there taking part of a surface parking but at the same time I felt that they could have put a daycare center somewhere else.

Nexis4Jersey · #**4127** Posted **Oct 22, 2012, 10:53 AM**

I love when they put more detail into those new homes , better then the white tacky crap they usually build...

mfastx · #**4128** Posted **Oct 22, 2012, 8:47 PM**

Great updates, thanks so much for posting! Judging by that last pic, it is amazing how much Midtown has filled in over the last decade or so.

photoLith · #**4129** Posted **Oct 22, 2012, 10:58 PM**

^
Yes, mid-town has changed a ton in the past decade but most of the infill has been rather shitastic and anti urban with gates and development that doesnt go up to the sidewalk. The southern part of mid town is the worst offender, the section of mid-town that leads into Montrose has had a lot off good urban infill although recently.

AviationGuy · #**4130** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 2:19 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoLith

^
Yes, mid-town has changed a ton in the past decade but most of the infill has been rather shitastic and anti urban with gates and development that doesnt go up to the sidewalk. The southern part of mid town is the worst offender, the section of mid-town that leads into Montrose has had a lot off good urban infill although recently.

I, too, like that part of midtown closer to Montrose. Some really classy looking stuff. The parts I've seen near 288, I don't like.

So how are you liking living in the Heights? Can you get a decent place (buy/rent) for a reasonable price? My impression has been that it's horrendously expensive, but you live there so you can tell me.

AviationGuy · #**4131** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 2:23 AM**

Can someone tell me what the building under construction is on the left hand side of this web cam view, in the background? You'll need to look at a daytime capture.

The BBVA building is looking sharp.

http://www.earthcam.com/client/bbva/

photoLith · #**4132** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 3:08 AM**

I dont know the name of that building, but it TO'd about 2 months ago. Its an apartment or condo tower on Westheimer right next to the CVS.

And living in the Heights is kick ass. The people are so cool and it feels like a real urban neighborhood. Downtown was cool with my view, but the Heights is a real community. I drove through the Heights my first day looking for a new apartment and right away I found the place Im staying at on 12th st and Beverly in a 1928 house thats 800 square ft for believe it or not, 620 bucks a month. I was paying nearly a grand and would be paying now 1300 bucks a month for my 420 square ft apartment in Houston House downtown.

Here are some more random things from the heights and such.

Heights new construction, much better than the shit new 3 story ugly condos going up in Montrose. Theres an ordinance now that says that any new development going on in the heights has to be done in period styles that were historically indicative to the heights.

A new trend is to instead of tearing down the historic homes, build additions to the backsides while preserving the fronts. I would much rather have the houses just stay as is, but I guess its better then them getting torn down.

More new houses.

Newish development on I-10 at the southern most reach of the heights.

Heights new faux historic house.

The end as for now of the north line at UHD.

And two bonus shots for the hell of it from tonight.

Looking out towards the Ship Channel from the downtown Hilton.

AviationGuy · #**4133** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 3:50 AM**

Those faux historic houses are actually very well done. I especially like those two where one is purple and the other green.

photoLith · #**4134** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 4:17 AM**

Yes, there is a lot of good construction going on now in the heights when it comes to historic styles, but theres also a lot of shit that has gone up in the past 10 years, some of the faux victorian houses are very ill proportioned and kinda cheap looking. But luckily, since Parker has become mayor, there have been a lot of new historic districts established in the heights which are now fully protected from tear downs and new construction, unless they adhere to strict historic architectural guidelines, and thats only on lots that have no houses on them. It used to be that the historic districts in Houston were not really protected. A developer could just wait 90 days if the tear down wasnt approved by the city council. Now, structures, even new ones that were built 3 years ago are protected. The only way a house can now be torn down in historic districts in Houston is if they are completely beyond repair. To my knowledge, only one house out of all of the cities historic districts has been approved to be torn down. The house had been abandoned for 10 years and the roof completely caved in and then caught on fire.

Reverberation · #**4135** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 2:37 PM**

Quote:

I wish they built more office buildings this way. I get that it has to do with demising space and leasing it but still. Some of the coolest looking office buildings are the brick and stucco ones that are at Montrose and Colquitt. And thank God Mayor Parker is working to preserve the character of the Heights. Rice Military was starting to look like Tel Aviv with all of the modern Bahaus and whatever "hill country modern abstract semi colonial mediterranean" stuff they were putting up everywhere.

photoLith · #**4136** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 2:50 PM**

Rice Military looks terrible these days. There are no historic districts in that hood. The new stuff going up is horrid looking, the same kind of crap is going up all over Montrose too. They tear down the beautiful old bungalows and replace them with offensive un urban 3 story stucco condos for all the rich yuppie douchebags BMW owners moving in from Kingwood and Katy to occupy.

And then they also are building suburban shit like this all over Montrose and Rice Military too.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...8AD6105D497E47

These suburbanites moving into the city once their kids go off to college want the party atmosphere of the city while turning it into an offensive suburb at the same time. Shit like the above house doesnt belong in the city, it belongs in Porter.

Rail Claimore · #**4137** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 10:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoLith

Rice Military looks terrible these days. There are no historic districts in that hood. The new stuff going up is horrid looking, the same kind of crap is going up all over Montrose too. They tear down the beautiful old bungalows and replace them with offensive un urban 3 story stucco condos for all the rich yuppie douchebags BMW owners moving in from Kingwood and Katy to occupy.

And then they also are building suburban shit like this all over Montrose and Rice Military too.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=...8AD6105D497E47

These suburbanites moving into the city once their kids go off to college want the party atmosphere of the city while turning it into an offensive suburb at the same time. Shit like the above house doesnt belong in the city, it belongs in Porter.

I have the opposite view on the architecture itself: I love this gaudy stuff they build, and it's one of the reasons I like Houston. This is more the kind of stuff you find in Los Angeles or Tokyo, not some eastern US city where every house is brick. Perhaps my imprint is different from yours since my first taste of urbanism as a young kid was in Asia, where variations of this are common for single-family homes in Tokyo's 10-20K ppsm-density suburbs, but I like seeing a bit of this stateside. Houston has plenty of neighborhoods that look like they could be in Atlanta, Chicago, or New Jersey. I don't care about those.

photoLith · #**4138** Posted **Oct 23, 2012, 11:18 PM**

That's a generic southern suburban home that only deserves to be caught on fire an then torn down with a bulldozer. It doesn't belong in a once historic bungalow neighborhood. And Tokyo is one of the ugliest cities in the world at street level and that house is nothing like architecture in old parts of la, nor did they build shit like that in Tokyo, again it's a generic crap suburban home and is a disgrace.

AviationGuy · #**4139** Posted **Oct 24, 2012, 2:21 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoLith

That's a generic southern suburban home that only deserves to be caught on fire an then torn down with a bulldozer. It doesn't belong in a once historic bungalow neighborhood. And Tokyo is one of the ugliest cities in the world at street level and that house is nothing like architecture in old parts of la, nor did they build shit like that in Tokyo, again it's a generic crap suburban home and is a disgrace.

Seems like the bottom line is there's something for everyone in Houston home styles. I happen to dislike the style in the photo above, but love the style that is so common that looks like northeastern suburbs (e.g., a lot of the 1960s 2-story homes in the Memorial Villages and the FM 1960 piney woods areas). Above all, I like the mid-century moderns of many southwest Houston neighborhoods like Westbury, Meyerland, etc.. I also like the original and faux Victorians of the Heights. If a person doesn't like one style, they just need to drive a short distance to find something they might like.

What's disturbing to me is what I've seen on Google Streetview, where dozens upon dozens of new developments in the far suburbs (e.g., Katy) contain homes so similar that you can't tell one neighborhood apart from another. They're actually nice homes, especially the interiors, but just too generic. I guess that's why so many of us appreciate the city proper. It's not perfect but at least there's a lot of variation.

Rail Claimore · #**4140** Posted **Oct 24, 2012, 2:34 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by photoLith

That's a generic southern suburban home that only deserves to be caught on fire an then torn down with a bulldozer. It doesn't belong in a once historic bungalow neighborhood. And Tokyo is one of the ugliest cities in the world at street level and that house is nothing like architecture in old parts of la, nor did they build shit like that in Tokyo, again it's a generic crap suburban home and is a disgrace.

I'll take Blade Runner over some pretentious faux *insert "high-class" 19th/early 20th Century architecture style here* crap any day, so to each their own.

That's not generic "Southern" suburban architecture, whatever that means: Have you actually been to other large southern cities like Atlanta or Charlotte? I got news for you: most of the houses there are either 90%+ brick veneer (like you find in say, Cinco Ranch) or wood siding.

A huge chunk of new development in Southern California looks like that or has similar siding and massing with small lot sizes. Practically all of Irvine and much of southern Orange County is like that only with Spanish roof tile being more common.

And they most certainly build that kind of "shit" in Tokyo, similar to what you see in OC, only with a lot of Japanese/Asian style roofing. You can see plenty of it riding the train in from Narita Airport. Next time you're there, take any train line north out of the city to Saitama: that whole swath of Tokyo's northern suburbs is full of subdivisions that look like that only with smaller lot sizes and fewer garages.