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Yeah those Houston buildings aren’t designed with any concern toward street life at all. What’s the point of even building density if it’s still car centric. Even the car sewer Peachtree Center in Atlanta is starting to course correct (This is a currently under construction apartment building on top of an existing parking deck). Even here you can see that there’s at least restaurant space at the bottom of these parking decks.
There's some retail/restaurant space on the ground floor of those decks, just not on the side that's showing when you first click on the link.
There's some retail/restaurant space on the ground floor of those decks, just not on the side that's showing when you first click on the link.
Yes I see now. The Main St section looks great and the retail on the sides are okay. Houston needs to take away some of these lanes and expand the sidewalks in this area. Main looks great but every other street looks like a hellscape. And I also don’t understand why they built separate parking decks instead of maximizing space by incorporating them into the buildings. They could’ve put up two more residential buildings instead of parking decks.
Yes I see now. The Main St section looks great and the retail on the sides are okay. Houston needs to take away some of these lanes and expand the sidewalks in this area. Main looks great but every other street looks like a hellscape. And I also don’t understand why they built separate parking decks instead of maximizing space by incorporating them into the buildings. They could’ve put up two more residential buildings instead of parking decks.
Basically podiums. That’s a problem too but less of one. To be fair, I don’t think skyhouse builds like anyway anywhere. You can at least hide those. The stand-alone garages are just bad. I’ve also said that downtown Houston needs to lessen the multitude of one way streets. Either take some lanes away and incorporate bike lanes or change them to two ways. Those one way streets are like mini highways when I am there.
Skyhouse is a brand of residential tower designed for low-cost, permissive cities. The neighboring garage works because land is cheap, and because some cities let developers do stand-alone garages. And it's much easier and cheaper when retail isn't required. What works at $10 million per acre won't work at $50 million.
But honestly, to make the top 10 you shouldn't have many above-grade garages at the bases of buildings regardless. Unless you're Chicago where the scale of urbanity and density get you extra points.
Retail shouldn't be required on every street. In even the best downtowns, outside of a few core districts there isn't demand, so it's best to concentrated it into a few good streets vs. a bunch of sparse ones. But you want doorways and activities at every block. The problem with above-grade parking isn't just the lack of retail, but also the lack of anything else happening upstairs, like offices.
Skyhouse is a brand of residential tower designed for low-cost, permissive cities. The neighboring garage works because land is cheap, and because some cities let developers do stand-alone garages. And it's much easier and cheaper when retail isn't required. What works at $10 million per acre won't work at $50 million.
But honestly, to make the top 10 you shouldn't have many above-grade garages at the bases of buildings regardless. Unless you're Chicago where the scale of urbanity and density get you extra points.
Retail shouldn't be required on every street. In even the best downtowns, outside of a few core districts there isn't demand, so it's best to concentrated it into a few good streets vs. a bunch of sparse ones. But you want doorways and activities at every block. The problem with above-grade parking isn't just the lack of retail, but also the lack of anything else happening upstairs, like offices.
You're right, Skyhouse is terrible. I didn't know they built a tower in Midtown Atlanta and did the same thing here. (Skyhouse Midtown)
Parking decks can be done well though. Icon Midtown does this pretty well in my opinion. I don't know exactly how we deal with this in southern cities though. How do we totally get rid of parking decks in 2020?
I like Seattle's modern developments. They are generic, but they fit well with the prevailing architectural style of the city, and pretty much all of them have pedestrian level store fronts.
Skyhouse is a brand of residential tower designed for low-cost, permissive cities. The neighboring garage works because land is cheap, and because some cities let developers do stand-alone garages. And it's much easier and cheaper when retail isn't required. What works at $10 million per acre won't work at $50 million.
But honestly, to make the top 10 you shouldn't have many above-grade garages at the bases of buildings regardless. Unless you're Chicago where the scale of urbanity and density get you extra points.
Retail shouldn't be required on every street. In even the best downtowns, outside of a few core districts there isn't demand, so it's best to concentrated it into a few good streets vs. a bunch of sparse ones. But you want doorways and activities at every block. The problem with above-grade parking isn't just the lack of retail, but also the lack of anything else happening upstairs, like offices.
Maybe the good thing is that one day such above ground garages could be torn down and rebuilt?
I think that Seattle is very unique in the US. It doesn't have much rail transportation compared to the top 5, but it has good bus transportation that all types of people are willing to use. So residents get by with much fewer cars than comparable cities. LA still builds tons of parking. We're only just now seeing buildings being built with more units than parking spaces.
You're right, Skyhouse is terrible. I didn't know they built a tower in Midtown Atlanta and did the same thing here. (Skyhouse Midtown)
Parking decks can be done well though. Icon Midtown does this pretty well in my opinion. I don't know exactly how we deal with this in southern cities though. How do we totally get rid of parking decks in 2020?
Houston is in a worse location for this particular issue as the soil may not allow many underground parking and there are threats of flooding.
I like Seattle's modern developments. They are generic, but they fit well with the prevailing architectural style of the city, and pretty much all of them have pedestrian level store fronts.
I love the way Seattle looks and hope Atlanta can replicate a lot of that. I think O4W will be the testing ground for that in Atlanta. Seattle having Neighborhoods like this amongst urban development gives me hope for the south.
You're right, Skyhouse is terrible. I didn't know they built a tower in Midtown Atlanta and did the same thing here. (Skyhouse Midtown)
Parking decks can be done well though. Icon Midtown does this pretty well in my opinion. I don't know exactly how we deal with this in southern cities though. How do we totally get rid of parking decks in 2020?
Above-grade parking will generally cost less (so I've heard) than below-grade parking from a construction-cost standpoint, particularly in some soil conditions. But you can discourage it in many ways.
You can simply not allow it. Or do what my city does and set tight limits, plus require it to be screened behind other uses like housing units.
You can also count parking in floor-area-ratio calculations. Most cities have limits in square footage and height above-grade, which might apply to commercial use only, or residential too. Whatever the rules, make parking count against the final tally.
You can also let developers choose to build less parking, or no parking. Eventually developers and financiers will figure out that they can earn a lot by targeting the no-car market or simply a lower ratio. This creates a feedback loop where you're also rewarding people for ditching their cars, which creates more of a walking culture, which encourages more developers...
With low/no-parking, developers will find small lots viable. Parcels that can't fit much parking due to simple geometry will eventually make sense for large unit counts. Small units will make more sense, helping affordability.
As for whether it's ok...we can disagree. Icon has some doorways but it's both a cause and effect of the highway-like road. One reason is the number of cars this sort of building brings (re: volume of parking, not so much where it is). Another is the wall effect due to having a non-active use up there, even if there's some art to its exterior treatment.
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