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Useless, eh? How about soil erosion control, flood control, co2 absorption, heat dissipation, noise and air pollution reduction, oxygen regeneration, groundwater protection, etc...?
How do you get rid of weeds in your yard, if you don't mind me asking?
By hand... I do not get all of them, just enough of them to not have them take over the whole yard.
Cool. Good thing you don't have an HOA fining you if you don't start using Roundup and other stuff that's offsetting these benefits to the environment you're talking about, because you didn't get all the weeds in your yard.
Cool. Good thing you don't have an HOA fining you if you don't start using Roundup and other stuff that's offsetting these benefits to the environment you're talking about, because you didn't get all the weeds in your yard.
No HOA for me. I don’t like chemicals. I’m not that fanatical about my lawn. I don’t even weed n feed. Just mow once a week in the summer, twice a month during the winter. Water for 15 min twice a week in the summer. Pull a weed here and there as I throw out the trash or get the mail. I don’t make it a chore. I guess that’s too much cost and maintenance for some. I should rip out my lawn and xeriscape and install a bioswale. That’ll make Houston more attractive (in keeping with the topic of the thread).
To the con getting released from Huntsville or the junkie from DeRidder or wherever where Sheriff Thibodeaux gave them a Greyhound ticket, it means he might have to go somewhere else to buy dope and shoot up.
It's all a matter of perspective.
My perspective is, you get rid of this anchor on the growth of lower downtown/Midtown and go get on one of the other freeways if you want to gawk at skyscrapers from the car. Then some more stuff might get built to look at. God willing, it'll have something to see from the street and not just from the car.
This might even be the decade this stack of crap goes down, because this will only help the viability of redeveloping its block.
Sometimes you have to do a little pruning to help the tree grow. I learned that from some friends in the medicinal horticulture field.
You over exaggerate the old Days Inn. The Federal Building has been re-cladded, the Exxon Building is visible as a mid-century modern landmark, and the Metro Building and the high-rise residential near the Catholic Cathedral crowd that one building out. You won't even notice the Days Inn driving on the Pierce Elevated at 60 MPH.
And the Days Inn is the only shell left in the Southside of DT. The Sheraton-Lincoln connected to Total Plaza was demolished a decade ago. The Savoy is gone. And the old Central Bank building was saved, gutted from the inside, and re-cladded with a glass curtain. No more eyesores left, except for the lone holdout. Might need to update your perspective.
Removing the elevated will destroy emerging leafy residential blocks very close to the freeway, such as this one near the Midtown Randalls once office buildings start on the edge of Midtown instead of filling in the desolate Southside. Houston won't be able to have residential areas conveniently located near the CBD like "Condoland" along Michigan Avenue and the lakefront without the barrier the elevated provides for Midtown.
And I wasn't even talking about that part of the freeway. It's the famous western view of DT that you find in postcards and online photos. There has been a trend (or conspiracy) to emphasize the ugly eastern side in preparation of the freeway relocation, but in Houstonian's hearts it's the west side that screams Houston.
This is as close as you will get to view a mountain range on this side of IH-10. The view through DT was never tiresome as I made my way to UH (main campus) from my house in Cinco Ranch.
You will never get the same height at street level or the panorama without the car. The balance and the architecture are just stunning from a distance. You won't be able to see how all the details come together without viewing it as a whole.
Honestly I'm tired of the recent crop of pseudo-urbanists critiquing/griping about street level and ignoring the skyline when the medieval Gothic cathedrals emphasized Heaven when pointing to the sky with its sheer height and mass, despite featuring extremely detailed carvings from ground level. Houston has a balanced and colorful skyline that no other city can match.
You over exaggerate the old Days Inn. The Federal Building has been re-cladded, the Exxon Building is visible as a mid-century modern landmark, and the Metro Building and the high-rise residential near the Catholic Cathedral crowd that one building out. You won't even notice the Days Inn driving on the Pierce Elevated at 60 MPH.
And the Days Inn is the only shell left in the Southside of DT. The Sheraton-Lincoln connected to Total Plaza was demolished a decade ago. The Savoy is gone. And the old Central Bank building was saved, gutted from the inside, and re-cladded with a glass curtain. No more eyesores left, except for the lone holdout. Might need to update your perspective.
Removing the elevated will destroy emerging leafy residential blocks very close to the freeway, such as this one near the Midtown Randalls once office buildings start on the edge of Midtown instead of filling in the desolate Southside. Houston won't be able to have residential areas conveniently located near the CBD like "Condoland" along Michigan Avenue and the lakefront without the barrier the elevated provides for Midtown.
And I wasn't even talking about that part of the freeway. It's the famous western view of DT that you find in postcards and online photos. There has been a trend (or conspiracy) to emphasize the ugly eastern side in preparation of the freeway relocation, but in Houstonian's hearts it's the west side that screams Houston.
This is as close as you will get to view a mountain range on this side of IH-10. The view through DT was never tiresome as I made my way to UH (main campus) from my house in Cinco Ranch.
You will never get the same height at street level or the panorama without the car. The balance and the architecture are just stunning from a distance. You won't be able to see how all the details come together without viewing it as a whole.
Honestly I'm tired of the recent crop of pseudo-urbanists critiquing/griping about street level and ignoring the skyline when the medieval Gothic cathedrals emphasized Heaven when pointing to the sky with its sheer height and mass, despite featuring extremely detailed carvings from ground level. Houston has a balanced and colorful skyline that no other city can match.
The clouds show how tall is the Sears Tower. (Sunshine is rare in the North.) It's nothing like any skyscraper in Texas!
You know it's ridiculous to say sunshine is rare in the North..... The picture I see from the poster you replied of a abandoned building says taken March of last year. But could be gone now of course in Houston.
No one says Houston's core from a distance isn't nice or stunning to some. But up close it gets more sterile if street-level is without businesses, stores and eateries. No one says no improvements are happening in downtown Houston. But those huge garages are not going to add any and even Main Street lacks much. Aspects look nice with flowers. The pond section is just blah. Some newer buildings like one that replaced the Old Macy's one ..... is like the worst that possibly could be built for a main St.
Best parts are the block with some of old Houston left. No building on Main St should lack something street-level. Especially if new. The city should have forced something to get a building approved. Or maybe anything goes in Houston's Core too?
A plan with vision includes making it known to developers. Houston wants street-level things added to new buildings. That's not zoning. It is finding ways to change the Core to a more street-level friendly place. So a less sterile-effect label it might still get....... is lessened.
What good for any Main Street USA city ..... did this dark monstrosity do replacing old Macy's????
That is where the city needed to require the builder to add street-level something. Only nice part is the wall of green along the sidewalk.
We can push beautiful skylines till ....... but if much looks blah at street-level in buildings? It takes away from better impressions visitors who have seen more vibrant cores..... having experienced them. Comparing it to Houston's yet. It does not help. Letting such a blah building be built replacing a once vibrant store ...... did nothing to help.
This was Chicago's old Main Street State St. It lost most of its retail 70s 80s. But much returned. But N Michigan Ave or Mag Mile became the flagship shopping Mecca for the cities Main St.
View on State Street. Once mentioned in that famous Frank Sinatra song..... You never see peope on streets like this in Houston's Core.
You know it's ridiculous to say sunshine is rare in the North..... The picture I see from the poster you replied of a abandoned building says taken March of last year. But could be gone now of course in Houston.
Remember the saying "There are only two seasons, Winter and Construction"? Typically 9 months of cold/cool, grey weather followed by approximately 6 weeks of warm sunshine between Memorial Day and Labor Day that makes all Chicagoans rush out to the festivals and parades before the cold comes back in early-mid September (apparently fall made an early appearance during my last summer visit 5 years ago).
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Best parts are the block with some of old Houston left. No building on Main St should lack something street-level.
If you really think that this is charming, you might need your head examined!
A plan with vision includes making it known to developers. Houston wants street-level things added to new buildings. That's not zoning. It is finding ways to change the Core to a more street-level friendly place. So a less sterile-effect label it might still get....... is lessened.
What good for any Main Street USA city ..... did this dark monstrosity do replacing old Macy's????
The Macy's would be a perfect fit in the old Sakowitz across the street. Tearing down the north 1/3rd for a tasteful attached office building for the Macy's Inc. HQ or an addition that completely matches the rest of the store would be perfect for the new DT store.
The open space/squares around each building does not create sterility, but it creates a system of parks/open space and provides workers an easily accessible place to "defrost" during lunch hour in the summer and reduces shadowing. No planner wants to repeat the Equitable Building mistake.
That is where the city needed to require the builder to add street-level something. Only nice part is the wall of green along the sidewalk.
I was there about a week or two before Christmas. There is a horrible homeless problem in DT Houston and it was obvious that the flower bed was used as a toilet. (I smelled both types of human wastes. You would be wishing that it was massive cache of pet waste instead!) There is a reason that Houston favors the minimalist style when it comes to street furniture!
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We can push beautiful skylines till ....... but if much looks blah at street-level in buildings? It takes away from better impressions visitors who have seen more vibrant cores..... having experienced them. Comparing it to Houston's yet. It does not help. Letting such a blah building be built replacing a once vibrant store ...... did nothing to help.
Everybody likes to hate on Houston's tunnel system. If Houston had invented the High Line, it would be called tacky, ugly, etc. But it's only cool because it's in NYC (and verboten to trash the town) and the taste-makers have hyped the beauty of this rusty bridge (also an euphemism for the L tracks).
The good part about the tunnels is that the tunnel system has saved countless commuter lives from pedestrian-car accidents over the years, more important than any street-level aesthetics!
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This was Chicago's old Main Street State St. It lost most of its retail 70s 80s. But much returned. But N Michigan Ave or Mag Mile became the flagship shopping Mecca for the cities Main St.
View on State Street. Once mentioned in that famous Frank Sinatra song..... You never see peope on streets like this in Houston's Core.
Besides saving lives, the tunnels are more aesthetically pleasing to be inside and air-conditioned for such a hot climate. The north's summers don't compare with the extensive heat/humidity and periodic dangerously high temperatures like the Sunbelt. It also saves time by not having to cross the street and suffering through unsynchronized traffic signals. I tried walking on the sidewalk and it was much faster, comfortable, and safer to be underground.
I remember reading about the Pedmall. That was a big mistake to encourage street-level activity because it was so sterile and eerie. (My Chicago uncle contends that removing the Pedmall was the biggest mistake though.). I never liked the Main Street Square for the same reason. Hopefully the big detours disappear and Main Street is continuous again!
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Or a parking garage with retail street-level around it.
Why discourage transit use? First, I would mandate that all new buildings take a whole block. Second, there will be only token basement-level parking for visitors and no new parkades or garages above ground.
Given a choice, Houstonians would rather drive in instead of taking transit. The hot summer climate is the biggest excuse. The tunnel system along with a downtown shuttle reduces the time spent in hot, humid temperatures when arriving Downtown.
Mixing old and new is good. I do mot know what your problem is with it. You repurpose and restore it.....
Then you post this in the Loop A CHURCH AS A UGLY THING IN THE CHICAGO'S LOOP .....
Totally ridiculous..... worst kind of mockery. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8819...7i13312!8i6656
yeah .... that is ugly above indeed.
From Wikipedia: The Rookery Building is a historic landmark, office building located at 209 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Completed by architects John Wellborn Root and Daniel Burnham of Burnham and Root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings, and was once the location of their offices. The building is 181 feet (55 m) high, twelve stories tall, and is considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago. It has a unique style with exterior load-bearing walls.
* You know ..... there's something wrong here.... maybe YOU need your head examined....
I also said nothing on the Tunnels in my post. Chicago has them too. Look it up.
This building is on the block. You did not flatter Main St of Houston with some street-views. That is stupid of you no?
I had to shatter your romantic notion of Beaux-Arts. The vacant STATE NATIONAL BLDG is a tall, narrow eyesore in a dilapidated block divided into fifths--plenty of no-nos in that frontage. Sadly, I have to pass by it on the way back home from church.
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Mixing old and new is good. I do mot know what your problem is with it. You repurpose and restore it.....
Here is a proper mixing of old and new. The Gulf Building (now Chase Building) has a historic banking hall with a stained glass mural depicting the Battle of San Jacinto (20 miles away) that won Texas' independence from Mexico in 1836 (100 years before). BG Place is catty-corner from Chase and has Houston's first sky garden. Then there is the J.W. Marriott that was opened a few years ago after extensive interior gutting of the 1910 skyscraper.
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Then you post this in the Loop A CHURCH AS A UGLY THING IN THE CHICAGO'S LOOP .....
Totally ridiculous..... worst kind of mockery. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8819...7i13312!8i6656
yeah .... that is ugly above indeed.
The real mockery is the ugly facade of a Vatican 2-era church fit for the celebration of the New Mass. Luckily you have St. John Cantius near Cabrini-Green!
It's stuffed between 3 commercial buildings, which tells a lot about Chicago's priorities. At least the Methodist church up the street has a commanding view from the tower (great alternative to the paid Willis and John Hancock skydecks).
The Catholic and Episcopalian cathedrals are in the Near North Side--a few blocks from the Mag Mile. At least the cathedrals in Houston are in Downtown and are full-size churches taking up a whole block.
The courtyard of the Episcopalian Cathedral exemplifies Urbs in Horto as an oasis in the city. It has a good ground-level view of the skyline--609 Main is dominating from its catty-corner location.
Then you post this street-view of the oldest standing skyscraper (then it was)
A HISTORIC NATIONAL LANDMARK BUILDING. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8793...7i16384!8i8192
From Wikipedia: The Rookery Building is a historic landmark, office building located at 209 South LaSalle Street in the Loop community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Completed by architects John Wellborn Root and Daniel Burnham of Burnham and Root in 1888, it is considered one of their masterpiece buildings, and was once the location of their offices. The building is 181 feet (55 m) high, twelve stories tall, and is considered the oldest standing high-rise in Chicago. It has a unique style with exterior load-bearing walls.
* You know ..... there's something wrong here.... maybe YOU need your head examined....
The color of the stone is too dark for this latitude. The shade of red is pretty ugly even if it was in sunny Texas.
The alley way separating the hotel is a big gap and very sketchy (from homeless restroom to, at worst, a secluded location for rape and/or murder).
The eclectic entrance to the Rookery violates architectural principles by mixing the Romanesque arch with classical columns (even the columns could not decide between rustic arches or rounded columns).
Too bad the Home Insurance building (the original skyscraper) was torn down across the street and replaced by the Field Building. The CBOT and the twin Federal Reserve and Continental Bank Building around the corner is a very majestic dead-end of LaSalle Street however.
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I also said nothing on the Tunnels in my post. Chicago has them too. Look it up.
You've criticized Houston's tunnel system killing pedestrian traffic in the past. Applying Northern standards to a Southern environment does not make sense, except for Yankee pseudo-urbanists who have no idea about the principles of environment, climate, place, and adaptation.
Last edited by KerrTown; 02-05-2020 at 01:05 PM..
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Especially if new. The city should have forced something to get a building approved. Or maybe anything goes in Houston's Core too? 
