How did Houston end up with so many skyscrapers? (Dallas: to live in, stores)

[BCLRRE]

Originally Posted by groovamos

I know of a place where you can get a view of west loop , Greenway plaza, downtown and med center. However if you consider how far apart Greenspoint and the Energy Corridor and Westchase are, you're not going to get a good view to include those.

Go to the Arena Place towers in Sharpstown. These 19 story towers each have a full height window cluster that you can watch as you ride the elevators which have a glass side. You can go to the top and walk around the corridors looking over the atrium and go to the window. One of these towers will give you a view of downtown and the other districts mentioned and I think the other tower will give you a view of Westchase and the Energy Corridor. I have taken pictures there, but the photos do not do justice to the expanse you see. The skyline is just so spread out in front of you that any photo is going to be a let down. You can see Greenspoint way off in the distance looking too small to see well.

Interesting how we have a couple of new clusters started at the Woodlands and at 249/Willowbrook like 25 miles from downtown.

OK gonna post below a NASA photo of their B27's whch are the only 3 airworthy in existence. This photo was in the Chronicle. It is a good inner loop shot without the med center, energy corridor and Westchase.

Great post and pic, but the Houston haters will still say that Houston isn't some other city and all those skyscrapers are photo-shopped in, Lol.

[radiolibre99]

I don't get the Houston haters and the urban purists. For instance Austin has a much more dense urban core and downtown but it still has the feel of a small city. I don't get the sense that I'm in a huge city at all and you can go all the way to South congress and get that dense walkable scene. Yet Houston feels WAY bigger and Uptown alone makes it feel grander than a smaller city like Austin. So I don't get why it's not considered as "urban" or large.

[BCLRRE]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

I don't get the Houston haters and the urban purists. For instance Austin has a much more dense urban core and downtown but it still has the feel of a small city. I don't get the sense that I'm in a huge city at all and you can go all the way to South congress and get that dense walkable scene. Yet Houston feels WAY bigger and Uptown alone makes it feel grander than a smaller city like Austin. So I don't get why it's not considered as "urban" or large.

I agree 100%. Everybody knows that Houston is very urban and very large. The Houston haters and 'urban purists' have never (and perhaps, never will) accept that fact that Houston, yes Houston, is a world class cosmopolitan metropolis that continues to grow. It's the largest city in Texas, by far, and the 4th-largest in America. The hating will only get worse as a growing Houston gets closer to surpassing Chicago as 3rd-largest city (which continues to lose population).

[radiolibre99]

I agree with you 99% percent except that Houston isn't quite world class just yet but it's literally on the tip of it. It's still classified a beta city according to the world rankings of cities but it's well on its way to be alpha. As far as Texas is concerned it's Alpha by many miles. I do think it's right at Chicago's heels. The latter is Alpha but Houston is considered Beta +.

[radiolibre99]

Although as much as I want it to reach Alpha status I'm afraid of it having all the trappings of a world class city which I see in LA and NYC. I kinda like how Houston is now coasting in between Alpha and Beta. If it could mimic the world class success of Chicago it would be ideal.

[BCLRRE]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

I agree with you 99% percent except that Houston isn't quite world class just yet but it's literally on the tip of it. It's still classified a beta city according to the world rankings of cities but it's well on its way to be alpha. As far as Texas is concerned it's Alpha by many miles. I do think it's right at Chicago's heels. The latter is Alpha but Houston is considered Beta +.

Yes you're right Beta+, in the Alpha, Beta, Gamma sense. I'm referring to world class in the general sense, like amenities: as there's nothing you can get in Chicago that you can't in Houston...or Miami, Seattle, LA, NYC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, DC...all world class.

I think the latest Alpha, Beta, Gamma world rankings are from 2015, so Houston may be Alpha now, or very close. It will be interesting to see who's who on the next rankings.

[radiolibre99]

Houston has all that on lock. In five years with this trajectory Houston should be alpha by then or at least a notch below if not at least an alpha minus.

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by BCLRRE

Great post and pic, but the Houston haters will still say that Houston isn't some other city and all those skyscrapers are photo-shopped in, Lol.

Yeah and that pic only shows about half of the West Loop, for example the towers north of and along San Felipe are out of the photo on the left, plus there have been about a half dozen new ones put up since that photo was taken. The towers of the Med Center/Hermann Park are cut off the right border.

I just had a thought, going to Arena Place with a good camera and doing a video where you could pan and zoom all around. You have to wait for a clear day with cold front blowing the haze outta here.

Houston is the #3 skyline in the country OK? If you don't believe it go to the well known webpage of skyscrapers (PM me for the link) and count say every building 18 or more stories of the top 8 metros. If you go to the Dallas page you have to count up Arlington, Frisco, Irving, Richardson and they still can't touch us, neither can Atlanta or any West Coast city in this department. I've hosted people from Seattle and they were stunned at the scale of this place with the highest number of Fortune 500 headquarters of any metro outside NYC.

And I'm not even from here either although I have now been here more than any other place. Lived in Nashville (<<came of age) Atlanta (<<born) Chicago Austin and L.A. too.

Originally Posted by Spade

Well Houston is still very much suburban in nature. It does not compare to Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Boston, and San Francisco. Clearly Houston isn't like any of these cities and for good reason. Most of Houston's growth occurred after the car became the main transportation for society.
It's getting more dense but it's not there yet. Personally, I only look at the inner loop as the "city" part as it will have the best chance to build a more cohesive walkable environment. Most of Houston's neighborhoods are indeed suburban. Like it or not, high standards on walkability matters when it determines how urban your city is.

BTW, the density inside the loop is over 5100 ppsm.

This is changing rapidly as the city has had to go vertical residential now to save commuting time headaches and everyone knows it. Empty nesters in the workforce not concerned with schools any more want to move inside the loop now to get a taste of Houston's evolving urbanity plus save commuting time. One of the things that stunned my latest visitor from Seattle is the amazing proliferation of 4~8 story block apartments in addition to the cranes still putting up residential towers.

Something else too is the changing parking situation all over West Houston which is getting more inconvenient as the years go by.

[groovamos]

Need to post another photo this one is looking west, with the Bayou, Allen Parkway, Memorial Drive, and AIG building dominating. You can see parts of the West Loop at the left border, which were cut out of the NASA photo that I posted last night. About 40% of the way from left to right on the horizon you can see the Energy Corridor, a tiny far away feature in the view. This is taken from a downtown building.

At the bottom right is a green rectangle which is the new topping to the old cistern which is open to the public for tours, part of Buffalo Bayou Park. We should lobby the city to have the pavilion (the lower concrete rectangle on the cistern topping) on this green patch canopy converted to a viewing platform, which should not be that expensive, and would give a better view of the inner loop. You almost have one now, you can see the tops of a few inner loop buildings but Your truly really curious what another 20 feet height would do for the view of West Houston. I think Wortham Foundation money built this whole facility over the cistern and also the skate park to the left of the cistern.

[3shipguy]

Originally Posted by BCLRRE

Yes you're right Beta+, in the Alpha, Beta, Gamma sense. I'm referring to world class in the general sense, like amenities: as there's nothing you can get in Chicago that you can't in Houston...or Miami, Seattle, LA, NYC, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Dallas, Boston, DC...all world class.

I think the latest Alpha, Beta, Gamma world rankings are from 2015, so Houston may be Alpha now, or very close. It will be interesting to see who's who on the next rankings.

How about an amusement park? Houston, got any?