Actually, it does. Taking Houston's "Bayou Plan" into consideration...it'll probably either have to be secured against flooding or have some kind of flood protection seeing how Houston has had problems with hurricanes in the past flooding the entire city (i.e. Ivan and Allison). And seeing as Houston's average elevation above sealevel is 43 ft, I'd say it has a lot to worry about seeing as sealevels are expected to rise around 20-25 feet.Originally Posted by GuerillaBlack
And perhaps you can work on being objective instead of criticizing.
Socialism - bringing a greater good to a greater many, one golden parachute at a time.
Oh boy. Allison was a unique storm that stalled over the Houston metro area. Houston was able to help itself out without and federal, or even state help. And Houston city limits may be 43 feet, but a lot of the suburbs are above 100. Willis goes to 400 feet.
If you just looked at the Bayou Plan website, your answer would have been there.
I think his question was actually a valid one Guerilla. Because of Global warming, it is said that ocean levels will rise 50 feet like he said. I think the main people that are the most threatened by this is Floridians, seeing that they're on a peninsula and they'd get washed away first.
But then again, maybe you're right, it coul've been a snub remark against H-Town. But like it or not, it is going to become an issue just like the infux of tornados Dallas is prone to.
Last edited by ComingtoHouston; 12 February 2008 at 08:10 PM.
H-Town and Big D all the way!! Baby! Baby!
aka C2H aka Stoneclaw in other forums
Oh it was a snub. Had nothing to do with this thread. He could have just made another one asking that question, or go to Houston's forum to do the same thing. Throughout the three threads on Houston development, I usually get a few snubs when posting new information.
Well I guess people are right when they say they'll never be love between Big D and H-town.
Oh well moving on... Anymore projects?
Last edited by ComingtoHouston; 12 February 2008 at 08:08 PM.
H-Town and Big D all the way!! Baby! Baby!
aka C2H aka Stoneclaw in other forums
Actually, it wasn't a snub. If Dallas were in the same position as Houston, something would have to be done for it to avoid disaster. There are several cities around the world that will possibly be have to deal with rising sea levels. These include many of the greatest cities in the world, like London, and Tokyo. I was just curious about the Bayou Development's plans for flood control. (Though I suppose it would go beyond only protecting the Bayou but all of Houston from flooding.)
Socialism - bringing a greater good to a greater many, one golden parachute at a time.
You were? You should have said something about the Bayou Development thing in your first post then.
New Dynamo Stadium, which had its ground breaking a few days ago:
A pedestrian promenade is planned to lead up to Dynamo Stadium: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?se...cal&id=7918690
Preliminary concepts show an 80-foot right of way that spans six blocks on Bastrop from Bell to Walker, taking on a new identity called the Sister Cities Promenade.
The pedestrian-themed park will lead to the door step of the future Dynamo stadium.
"We intend to have sculptures and possibly fountains and related park," said Jim Olive with the Houston-Shenzen Sister City Association.
The Sister Cities of Houston is still months away from finalizing a design and breaking a ground, but the multicultural promenade will likely feature 17 gardens representing each sister city of Houston.
Planners also want it to be an integral part of experiencing a Dynamo game.
"Including before the Dynamo games we will have some sort of festivities and then everybody walks into together, as they do in Seattle," said Ellen Goldberg, president of Sister Cities of Houston.
New convention center hotel planned for East Downtown, with a pedestrian bridge to the convention center. It's being built by Chinese investors: http://swamplot.com/mayor-to-mayor-p...11/#more-25804
And another article: http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/p...ion-hotel.html
Dynamo Stadium update (July 12th):
Update on the new Dynamo Stadium:
That stadium is awesome! One thing that you can say about the state of Texas (post Reliant Stadium) is that our new sports venues are really eye-catching. You have Cowboys Stadium, Dynamo Stadium, the new UNT stadium, and even UTA's College Park Arena. I am so glad that we are moving away from the faux-vintage sports stadium/arena look. Thanks for the update, Trae.
fastest stadium construction ever. Allen's new stadium is taking longer.
For real. HOK-Populous looks to be doing a great job. I'd love to get up to Minneapolis to check out what they did with Target Field
From the look of the pictures this is pre-cast concrete construction, and its nothing new. Basically that method allows structures that use premanfactured concrete panels to go up fast, but there can be a long lead time for manufactering and shipping. The panels are typically more expensive than poured in place concrete, but there may be enough of savings in labor to offset the manufactering costs (not always). These type of buildings can go up fast and are great for small scale office buildings, parking garages, shopping strip centers, stadiums and the exterior skin of larger buildings. There is a company in China demostrating the premanfactured steel system and wall panels on two towers. Think they were able to erect the building in a matter of days. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGGNmMLskFs&noredirect=1 Building is nothing spectacular to look at, but fascinating to watch the time lapse video.
As for the stadium, its cool looking. It looks like a cubist version knock off of the Bird's Nest in China though.
That's an interesting comparison to draw. I'd like to see how the quality of construction, and not necassarily ammenties but rather finish of the two buildings compare. This makes it interesting because I'd still bet that the Houston stadium, a regional soccer stadium, will still be of higher quality (longer life, better 'usability', more fan-friendly, and for damn sure have better bathrooms) than the olympic stadium (a world class sports venue for the biggest name in sports worldwide) in Beijing. At least I hope that it does.
And it's now complete. Opening game for the Houston Dynamo is May 12th (I think the game is on NBC Sports).
That place looks freaking outstanding! Well done Houston. Very jealous. Meanwhile "our" FCD plays in Oklahoma... nice.
Yea, this is so unfair. That is such a cool venue and the location is outstanding. I'm really interested in what type of development this is going to spur. It's interesting because although there are already other sports venues there, it still doesn't look like the area is undergoing major expansion (I know that minutemaid park is still pretty new though) but once downtown starts to really fill up around discovery green then I'm sure there'll be some major outpouring of development across the EastEx
^^There have been a couple of new lofts in that area (new and converted warehouses), as well as townhomes. It has been growing and I think the stadium will accelerate that. It's also nice that there will be a light rail station and two different lines will converge at the front of the stadium. It finally opened, too. I want to go to a game down there:
http://houston.culturemap.com/newsde...r-is-trending/Little first-class touches abound. Some of the concession stands hand out samples, like you're shopping at Central Market rather than deciding whether to spend $8 on a barbecue sandwich or on taco nachos. Smiles are the order of the day as The Compass seems determined to become the friendliest arena in Texas.
Watt — the Houston Texans emerging star — is sitting in the front row, soaking it all up. De La Hoya — the boxing great turned Dynamo minority owner — is in the house as well. You could do a lot worse for celebrity rows.
Fourteen of the 19 teams in Major League Soccer have their own soccer-specific stadium now, but the Dynamo's is the only one that's part of a city. On day one, a good dozen fans mention to me how they're surprised by how close the place is to Minute Maid Park. Another part of Houston is opening up for many — an area they'd never have even thought of walking toward before.
New season ticket holders Stephanie Fulton and Liz Brackeen plan to ride their bikes to most games. Soccer in America tends to draw these types of eco commuters more than other sports. To be a soccer fanatic in a land that worships the other football, you almost have to look at things a little differently.
It turns out this stadium may make people look at Houston a little differently too.
"To me, the most important thing is where this stadium is," Luck says, his blindingly bright orange jacket showing just how much he still bleeds for this franchise. "It means everything that it's right by Minute Maid, that you can see the skyscrapers of downtown from here, with the energy companies and the law firms nearby."
Suddenly, it's the place to be — a soccer stadium in the East End. That's where the celebs from other sports want to roam. Talk about a farfetched dream come true.
"Coolest day ever," 10-year-old Houston native Angelina Martinez says, echoing the thoughts of many of the Dynamo pros.
Soccer's more than trending.
That is awesome! Well done Houston!
DAGNABBIT!
It's hard to tell what's going on over there because google maps' imagery for the area is ancient. It doesn't even show ground work for the stadium. Bing is even worse :/.
I'll be in Houston for FPSF on June 2nd and 3rd. I'll definitely take a look around the area while I'm down there.
Edit: well I guess it's not that ancient... google earth says it's from March '11 which is the same age as the Dallas imagery. They just built that thing impressively quickly I guess.
I drove through that area about two weeks ago. Kind of like the Cedars in how unfinished and rough that area was, but more new development. Though the roads on that side of downtown are a bit jacked because they didn't do a Dallas Convention Center like drive under, I envy them having baseball and soccer downtown.
Yeah that's probably the best comparison. And yes, it is a bit jacked. The elevated Eastex freeway really hurts that side. There are long term plans to expand the convention center to the other side of the freeway, and connect it to a convention center hotel on that side. There are also plans of another convention center hotel next to Discovery Green Park. This has really been accelerated, especially after the Omni opened and Austin's discussions on a new convention center hotel there.
http://www.bizjournals.com/mobile/ho...onvention.html
http://www.chron.com/business/articl...or-2434156.php
I really liked hanging out at the park. Very nice.
So now that Dallas and each of the big three Houston and Austin have one attached Convention Center Hotel Houston and Austin might build a second attached Convention Center Hotel to try to out do the other? I cant wait to hear how Dallas City Hall is going to fund a second attached hotel. F2P
Double-facepalm.jpg
It's unnecessary. Private developers have already started adding more hotel rooms in downtown Dallas, thankfully - the lack of hotel rooms has been one of downtown's primary deficiency for decades.
But I ask you why is Austin or Houston wanting to build second attached hotels? From what I know about Austin they do seem to have trouble having enough capacity in their downtown as far as hotel rooms go but from what I understand there is a couple hotel proposals that haven't gone forward by private developers yet so why should the city force another hotel if private developers can not do it down there even with the high demand?
Then the same question for Houston are they short some hotel rooms? Is there demand developers are not stepping up to fill or is it that they can not get financing? Or is it like what happened with Dallas are conventions now demanding two hotels to come to town?
I am just curious why now they are going after building two attached hotels? I know its not unheard of in other big cities for their to be more than one attached hotel to a convention center but what is driving this demand in the state to build these additional city backed hotels? I just want to understand this better to know if Dallas will be behind because we don't have two as well or if its a sign of something else for those two cities.
Though there is a "designated" convention center hotel in Austin, it is still not actually attached as far as I know. The proposed 50-story Manchester hotel would be the first to have a glass walkway feed directly into the center. The other newish hotels are part of a plan to offer a range of prices and grades, within easy walkability of the center. Several non-stunning but useful new hotels have already contributed to the overall success of the convention area, emboldening others to try their hand at it. Marriott has two props and intends another more luxe a block further away on Congress. Hilton has two. Hampton Inn has one, and a Hyatt property is currently in construction next door to it. Add the venerable Four Seasons and the center is almost surrounded by hotels. None of these is more than one block from the center. No one seems to mind.
Would it not be more accurate to say private developers are talking about adding more hotel rooms in downtown Dallas?
It's a bit comical to cling to the delusion that downtown Dallas has been suffering from a lack of hotel rooms, in spite of the continuing accumulation of evidence to the contrary. If a market has had a supply shortage, one would expect (a) a rather high occupancy rate and (b) total revenue to increase when supply is increased. Instead, downtown Dallas has had a long-standing low occupancy rate and had seen a revenue decrease in response to a substantial increase in supply, at least so far.
Last edited by Tucy; 03 January 2013 at 04:13 PM.
Not agreeing or disagreeing, but as much as you throw numbers about I'm guessing that you understand that the hotel industry is pretty fragmented, and that overall numbers rarely tell what's going on within a given market.
A mile northwest of BBVA Compass Stadium, on the north bank of the bayou, a quarter-of-a-square-mile tract is to be sold. Longtime owners Kellogg, Brown and Root have planned to relocate out to the Grand Parkway near Katy in west Houston. The new owners, still undisclosed, are said to be interested in urban infill. This would be the first large mixed-use landscape oriented to the Bayou.
Houston is losing the downtown Macy's (former Foley's).
http://www.click2houston.com/news/Ma...z/-/index.html
Remainder of story HEREMacy's announced Thursday that it is closing its downtown Houston location. . . .
Houston Pavilions is now GreenStreet.
http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/b...pavilions.html
Attached is a rendering of the linear park that'll run through the three block project after renovations are completed by late 2013.
That looks pretty cool! Sounds like some of the changes being made at VP.
I'm sorry, but it just looks a bit dated with the whole multi-storied walkways...something you'd see in SoCal in the 90's.
800 Bell sold to Shorenstein Properties for $40psf to renovate.
There's a possible second and third convention hotel in the wings.
There's a new Chevron tower and a spate of spec proposals I guess quietly pre-leasing energy and legal firms downtown these days:
609 Main at Texas (Hines/Colville)
Capitol Tower (Skanska)
Preston-Prairie-Milam-Travis (Stream/Essex)
no word recently on Brookfield's Five Allen Center.
The 'first' convention center hotel, built with public assistance, sold to a private entity, right? Do you know if the city broke even, made a profit?
The mediator between the head and the hands must be the heart.
Houston still owns that Hilton hotel. Plans are going forward for the Marriott.
These things only go forward based on the below market interest rates obtained since the taxpayers back the bonds. If everything works, they can show a nominal profit to city. Unfortunately, the people that might buy the hotels must be at market rates or use cash, if they can get a loan. Or they get property at discount.
Houston could be in hotel business for awhile.
That 609 Main tower has an interesting look. I like the overall shape, although I feel like something is missing but not sure what.
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