How Houston Is Becoming America’s Next Dense City

[KevinFromTexas]

Houston has the added benefit of already having high rises in every part of town, so it's not exactly a shock to Houstonians to see more of them clustered together or to have upzoning occur in places around those areas with increased density levels.

Also, why are people so defensive about their city when it is used as a yardstick to something that other places strive to become? If anything, it should be a matter of pride that their city was cited as a place that may be onto something with solving an issue.

And I wouldn't call "more expensive" to be outperforming in anything unless unaffordability was your goal.

[dc_denizen]

^ exactly

another great pic that illustrates houston's density potential

Midtown Houston to Galleria Area Skyline 1 by Mabry Campbell, on Flickr

I honestly think the reaction to this article can be explained by a poor understanding of houston's built environment (partially thanks to the very poor and infrequent quantity of aerial photos, which also afflicts dallas)

if most people think of houston they probably think of this...



...and not the pic above.

[LA21st]

I wouldn't minded if it was worded differntly.
Dc Denizen says-

"ell that's more of an infill corner of inner houston

the houston model would be tightly packed SFH, tons of houston boxes (5-6 story midrises), and a smattering of highrises.

whereas LA is tightly packed SFH, tons of small apartments, and a smattering of highrises"

I mean, this isn't even true.
LA's core is far more mutli family than SFH. And LA DOES HAVE more 5-7 mixed use buildings. Like, I don't even...

[dc_denizen]

also I think Houston illustrates that parking isn't such a big problem when it comes to building urbanity/density.

look at the pic above. does the parking garage on the right meaningfully detract from density/urbanity of a dense suburban area? not at all

the bigger issue is building to the curb, and allowing multifamily, which houston does quite well.

[chris08876]

Houston has tons of potential. Just like the weather, hopefully it will remain a hot hot market. An open canvas not really restricted by geography, grow it shall.

Although I would like to see Dallas become the next dense American city (Dallas is better IMO ).

[badrunner]

I actually do like Houston and its experiment in affordable high density, but this article just seems a little bit tone deaf and out of date. I mean, I understand it's just empty, shallow ideological posturing from a right-wing "think tank", but at least they could do their homework on the issue. It's just lazy and amateurish. This was recently posted in another thread:

Originally Posted by dimondpark

20 Largest Metro Area(MSA) GDPs by 5-year growth.

2013-2018 Metro Area(MSA) GDP Growth:
+$332.642B New York +23.10%
+$227.308B Los Angeles +27.70%
+$165.369B San Francisco +43.14%
+$117.882B Dallas +29.87%
+$115.532B San Jose +53.61%
+$111.800B Chicago +19.35%
+$107.778B Seattle +37.91%
+$97.900B Boston +26.77%
+$97.343B Atlanta +32.45%
+$92.619B Washington +20.67%
+$69.674B Philadelphia +18.60%
+$83.263B Miami +30.67%
+$57.268B Phoenix +28.93%
+$55.012B Houston +12.98%
+$53.627B San Diego +28.00%
+$51.840B Denver +34.03%
+$50 538 Minneapolis +23.60%
+$47.886B Detroit +21.78%
+$46.783B Riverside +33.33%
+$35.070B Baltimore +20.59%

Houston coming in dead last...

For this reason, “getting a bunch of Houstons” should be an urbanist goal.

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by chris08876

Houston has tons of potential. Just like the weather, hopefully it will remain a hot hot market. An open canvas not really restricted by geography, grow it shall.

Although I would like to see Dallas become the next dense American city (Dallas is better IMO ).

Yea if you like hanging out with these guys...

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by badrunner

I actually do like Houston and its experiment in affordable high density, but this article just seems a little bit tone deaf and out of date. I mean, I understand it's just empty, shallow ideological posturing from a right-wing "think tank", but at least they could do their homework on the issue. It's just lazy and amateurish. This was recently posted in another thread:



Houston coming in dead last...

But what's the population growth? I believe Houston only dipped <100k per year the past two years. Even when the worst O&G recession since 80s hit in 2014, Houston grabbed ~180K.

DFW certainly outpaced Houston in population growth too, but I would imagine it still outclasses many others and those folks need places to live.

[Shawn]

This probably doesn’t need to be said, but: there aren’t too many worse things for a metro area to experience than sustained population growth without corresponding sustained employment growth. This is particularly important in places like Texas where the state doesn’t get the benefit of incremental income tax revenue generated by the incremental population growth.

[JManc]

Houston is in for choppy waters. Oil and gas is sliding back into a mini recession and the city is still reeling from Harvey which inflicted $130 billion in damage and had far reaching effects on economic well-being. A business is going to think twice moving/ expanding in a city prone to frequent natural disasters.

[llamaorama]

To be fair the vast majority of Houston looks more like the second photo, even if it is really out of date. The I-10 corridor looks good now, like a subtropical Toronto 401 corridor, because that's the favored direction of growth in the metro. But now drive on I-45 or 59 north or I-10 east and it looks exactly like that picture.

'Market urbanism' tends to have good outcomes in areas that already have high land values and established land use patterns. In other words, the central part of the city.

The dark side to all this is visible once you get outside the 610 loop, which is the vast majority of the city and always will be. The lack of planning and code enforcement and spending on infrastructure improvements means most areas are piecemeal, run down, sprinkled with noxious industrial land uses, and have flooding problems as a result of drainage being ignored.

I don't have much faith in claims that the city will radically densify. Certain desirable areas will, but as a whole the City of Houston and what's inside the Beltway is aging, undesirable 1950s era suburbia that will if anything shrink. The lions share of growth is on the suburban fringe and consists of mcmansion sprawl.

[PhillyRising]

I stayed in the Westgate section of Houston right off the Loop 8 lst month. We were next door to Phillips 66's new building. The coolest thing about it, the soccer field and track built on the top of tje parking garage. And people were out there playing soccer....

[mhays]

These threads seem to cherry pick the densest-looking photos of Houston. Estimates show very low citywide density, including pretty low density for the inner loop.

As for whether large amounts of parking are an issue, from the actual resulting density to urban feel to transportation mode splits...let's just say we won't agree.

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by mhays

These threads seem to cherry pick the densest-looking photos of Houston.

The whole point of this thread is the trend in Houston toward increased density. Of course the densest neighborhoods will be shown as examples. If the trend were toward more purple houses, would you show photos of older yellow houses to illustrate that trend?

I've known Houston for a long time, the fact that *any* part of the city looks like what's in this screenshot is amazing.


AM by bill barfield, on Flickr

Let alone like this:


am2 by bill barfield, on Flickr

Or this:


am3 by bill barfield, on Flickr

[BnaBreaker]

There are things I really like about Houston. However, it's built environment is not one of those things. The reality there is that Houston can boost it's density numbers all it wants. But until the city ceases it's habit of fronting every street with seemingly nothing but garage doors and blank walls and security fences, it will continue to be a low quality urban environment. Population density is only part of the equation. A commie block section of Vladivostok in 1983 was dense, but would it have been anywhere human beings would want to be? Of course not. Now obviously I'm not comparing Houston to communist era Vladivostok, but my point is that if Houston thinks they can just throw up a bunch of bland apartment blocks and the urban vibrancy will just come naturally, then they're unfortunately in for a rude awakening.

[Cory]

Originally Posted by BnaBreaker

There are things I really like about Houston. However, it's built environment is not one of those things. The reality there is that Houston can boost it's density numbers all it wants. But until the city ceases it's habit of fronting every street with seemingly nothing but garage doors and blank walls and security fences, it will continue to be a low quality urban environment. Population density is only part of the equation. A commie block section of Vladivostok in 1983 was dense, but would it have been anywhere human beings would want to be? Of course not. Now obviously I'm not comparing Houston to communist era Vladivostok, but my point is that if Houston thinks they can just throw up a bunch of bland apartment blocks and the urban vibrancy will just come naturally, then they're unfortunately in for a rude awakening.

I think the density is not being thrown up for vibrancy. There are just some desirable areas that are landlocked by Houston’s already developed area and are becoming islands of density. Growth through densification is the only option and giving the city does not have any geographical constraints, I’m glad the trend has emerged.

[DCReid]

Well, if LA of all places can boost density and build up a downtown, I'm guessing Houston or any other city can. At least Houston appears to be capitalizing on areas with the best chance of becoming more walkable, like downtown, midtown, Med center, and uptown. It seems ridiculous that some cities want to creat new developments in the middle of nowhere (usaually off the expressway) and add a few residential building and assume it will become walkable.

[LA21st]

Lol, what? La of all places?
La was always much denser than the other Sunbelt cities. The city always had dense areas, it's just adding to them. Downtown always had better bones to build on .

[DrakeFrst]

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

^ exactly

another great pic that illustrates houston's density potential

Midtown Houston to Galleria Area Skyline 1 by Mabry Campbell, on Flickr

I honestly think the reaction to this article can be explained by a poor understanding of houston's built environment (partially thanks to the very poor and infrequent quantity of aerial photos, which also afflicts dallas)

if most people think of houston they probably think of this...



...and not the pic above.

Definitely agree, made the same mistake just recently and the person i was talking to explained the same thing to me as you did in the post, i bet if people visited - they would've reacted differently.

Also poor wording of the article doesn't help the case either!

[Quixote]

Originally Posted by LA21st

Lol, what? La of all places?
La was always much denser than the other Sunbelt cities. The city always had dense areas, it's just adding to them. Downtown always had better bones to build on .

Dude. Just. STOP.