Already started, via Barracuda:

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/IMG_1352.jpg

http://i378.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/IMG_1351.jpg

Here's some more info from a poster on HAIF who attended the community meeting:

So the Whole Foods people were at the North Montrose civic association meeting last night and I got some details. The following is what I learned:

1) The reason the back-end of the store is facing Dallas and the side is facing Waugh is because of the AIG building. They (AIG building owner) required that the store be placed as far away from the building as possible. This meant that the parking lot had to sit between the AIG building and the store pushing the back to Dallas (unfortunately).
2) The loading entrance will be on Dallas and will exit onto Waugh. This means the trucks will not have to cross any traffic to get to the loading docks.
3) The trucks will be loading sometime in the early morning and should be finished by 8:00 AM. There will be nice large wooden doors to conceal the entrance and exit to the loading dock during the day when there is no loading.
4) The corner of the store on Waugh closest to D'amico will contain an outdoor/indoor style cafe with garage-type doors that open in good weather. The renderings of the store show a patio with umbrellas. They expect to have bands, etc playing there.
5) The store will be very pedestrian friendly with all traffic entering from the BACK of the parking lot (close to D'amico). They say they learned from the Kirby store that allowing cars to enter by the store entrance is a nightmare for traffic.
6) There will be bike racks with some 50 or available slots. There will be a free tire filling station. The focus here is to really drive bike traffic (and pedestrians as noted in #5).
7) There will be many skylights on the roof allowing a bunch of natural lighting.
8) There will be many large trees that should grow to provide good shade in time (not just those short trees).
9) No comment on an apartment building going up next to it BUT.. look at the roundabout driveway. Obviously not built just for a grocery store.
10) They will recycle their own rainwater and use it in sprinkler system.
11) I think 250 parking spots. Kirby store has 150. Kirby store is 35,000 sq ft and this one slightly larger at 40,000.
12) No real details on the inside of the store. They expect it to fit in very well with the diversity of Montrose. They are reaching out to local artists to put local art in the store (and around it). I can't remember exactly the email to submit. Maybe montrose.artist@wholefoods.com?? If you are and artist and want to submit your stuff give it a whirl.
13) They expect to open in the spring. Shooting for March if no big weather delays.
14) Store hours aren't set. Expected to be 7:00AM to 10? (if i remember correctly).
15) They are very excited as were the people in the meeting. They say Houston is the #2 market for them (they have 300 stores i think). Every store is built for the specific location (sugarland way different of course than Montrose).
16) They think there will be a bank at the corner of D'amico and Waugh in that section of the parking lot (which is what we really need right????)
17) They are hoping to relieve some of the high traffic they get at kirby store as it is a nightmare.
18) That's all i can think of right now. I'll post more if i remember.

-Shannosa-

Man, that terminal is something you'd see overseas somewhere. Awesome...just awesome!

The Houston Intermodal Terminal will be amazing to see once built.:cool:

BLVD Place has had some work going on for the passed few months. They recently installed a stoplight that will service the little road that goes through the middle of the project (which they named BLVD Place Drive. :haha: Seriously? Those are all the suffixes of actual road names.)
They also put up signs around the site. The ones that go with any construction project: "The building in this picture is going up at this location" and some phone numbers for leasing info.
In the passed 3 weeks, there were also surveying crews working on the site and some holes were drilled, although I have no idea what for.
I drive by the site about ten times a day (I'm a delivery driver for a shop a block away, and I live across the street from the site), so nothing has escaped me.
The project is definitely moving. As soon as the first bit of construction equipment shows up, I will definitely let you guys know. ;)

I bet this will confuse computer programs, if it doesn't allow a user to query based on the order the words come in.

"Uh, this is Pizza Hut, yeah man, uh, my manager never trained me to use the computer, so uh, your address, is like, fake or something. Can you come and pick it up?"

Another development going on that I haven't seen mentioned is Grady Middle School. They just demolished the old school, and are working to build the first of a two-phase plan of expanding the school to nearly double the size. But the part that I like the most is that the plans look amazing:
http://harvinmoore.com/wp-content/up...endering_m.jpg
The image above came from the article about the construction:
http://harvinmoore.com/the-new-grady...nd-briargrove/

Grady is located at the corner of San Felipe and Sage, near the Galleria. What I really love is how much it matches with BLVD Place, which is going up 2 blocks away. I also think it's funny that they included an image of an M3 in the rendering.

I really wish in the Galleria area they would build stuff up to the sidewalk. Most of the new buildings and towers going in down there have grass lawns for a good 10 feet from the sidewalk and then the building starts. It gives the area still a very suburban feel to it, when it doesnt need that. If it werent for that, The Galleria area would probably feel as urban as downtown does.

Thanks for posting! I've put this in the DB - http://skyscraperpage.com/cities/?buildingID=92112

It's because of the city ordinance. Anything built on "major thoroughfares" (i.e. Westheimer, San Felipe, Post Oak, etc.) must be built 25 feet back from the property line. And in a lot of cases, the property line, is several feet back from the curb.

^
Well, thats pretty ridiculous, any chance of that changing?

Wells Fargo Tower and Main Place Lighting
 

Main Place

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0818.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0817.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0816.jpg

Main Place and Wells Fargo

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0815.jpg

Wells Fargo

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0819.jpg

Doubtful. The city wants to keep the building lines back so they can expand the lightrail system.

and you think the traffic is bad now in the galleria, they put the light rail through post oak/westheimer, its going to be a complete mess!! For the sake of the people, they need to put almost the entire post oak line underground.

If there is any possibility of getting our light rail off of roads, that possibility is for elevated rail, not subway.

I'm glad Wells Fargo Plaza fixed the lighting, and I absolutely love MainPlace's lighting. Other skyscrapers in downtown Houston need to take note, this is how lighting is done.

There is possibility, but I would say it most likely won't happen. I think the most ideal and realistic scenario would be elevated/underground under key intersections like Westheimer, San Felipe, Kirby, Shepard, etc. I think at this point, Houston just needs to get as much money out of the Feds and get this thing built. I wish we could hold another referendum, but the chance of it not passing and setting Houston back another 15 years is too great.

Also, because of Houston's population growth, the suburbs will hold more representation than the City of Houston in METRO transit agency in the coming years. It could be possible that this is Houston's last chance to build an inner core light rail network.

-Texas budget

-Houston soil

That prevents it from happening.

The Houston soil thing is overrated.

The Wells Fargo Tower on Friday night.

Blue and Red

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0822.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0823.jpg

Green

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0821.jpg

http://i733.photobucket.com/albums/w...4/IMAG0820.jpg

i have no problem on the elevated system at all. However, going through the galleria, I highly doubt anything would be approved for an elevated train running down post oak. it doesn't fit the area.

has there been any confirmed reports/drawings of where the rail hooks up with the galleria? I think it would be great to have it linked up to the bottom floor of the food court.

It is of my opinion that not running the light rail line at street level may act as a discouragement of using mass transit. Are streets needed... ...yes. However if driving options are slightly limited, it may better encourage the use of the light rail.

No plans have been approved, but the idea is that the Uptown line would run down Post Oak, and the University line would run down Richmond (continuing on Wheeler, running near HCC downtown, passed St. Thomas, through TSU, and ending at UH), and they would converge near the Best Buy. No idea how it would link with the Galleria, but it would probably be a small surface station near it, around where the pedestrian crossing across Post Oak at the Dillard's is.

Midtown Grove under construction in southeast Midtown

http://innerlooped.com/wp-content/up.../01/design.jpg

http://innerlooped.com/wp-content/up...1/siteleft.jpg

http://innerlooped.com/wp-content/up.../siteright.jpg

Link

no it won't. People will avoid the street that the light rail is on.

Photos I took 2 days ago, now Im back in Arkansas, YAY

http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/...irdboy1/mp.jpg

http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/...rdboy1/mp1.jpg

http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/...rdboy1/mp2.jpg

http://i1117.photobucket.com/albums/...rdboy1/mp4.jpg
That is how you do a parking garage.

Hopefully vehicular traffic to a small degree. It should disperse a small amount traffic to the side streets and parallel streets. The Uptown Management district and the City of Houston have been upgrading the streetscapes in Uptown and incrementally been adding and connecting streets to form a more urban street grid (Uptown certainly still has ways to go). These additions should help alleviate some of the traffic presently, and in the future (assuming light rail is built).

Love those night pics. Very Kewl...

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/p...slam-dunk.html

Magic Johnson and his new investment partner plan on turning the Hotel Icon Downtown into either a W Hotel or Ritz Carlton. Just in time for the Final Four this April, too.

That last pic looks like the rendering, thanks for posting Photolitherland!

BTW I agree about the parking garage. :D

The Wells Fargo Tower Jan 12, 2010. Once I get my good camera back I will get some better quality videos; the lighting is visible from many miles outside of downtown. Here are some links to my videos from tonight of the tower changing colors.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eZ9CiK7LbI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4DwxBxFNi0

Look at what I found today...
http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m...Towers-1-1.jpg
Another supertall from the Oil-Boom era that never made it :(. You can see 3 Allen Center and the Doubletree hotel in the background.

Maybe with oil prices getting ready to spike again, Houston will once again become 'super wealthy' and the demand will drive new highrises.

Do you have any info. on this tower? What website did you find this?

looks like it was one of the proposals for the 'other' infamous supertall, the Block 265 Tower

isn't there a parking lot there now??:hmmm:

Lets hope not.

Close. It's a parking garage. :(
http://www.emporis.com/application/?...houston-tx-usa

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-..._6293520_n.jpg
(screen grab from Google StreetView)

HOLY SHIT!!! That's just bad ass.

When did Wells get the new lighting scheme? For the longest time only a small section of white neon was all that was on. I knew that they had been testing out a new setup, but didn't think they would actually go through with doing the whole thing! Very cool!

I thought Chase Tower got new lighting up top too, but I never see it on.

Space City is looking mighty good these days I must say.

I just saw it last night. I was shocked to see. It looked awesome. Loved it.

http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/p...01/WF0111a.jpg

http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/p...501/WF0111.jpg

Very Kewl...

:tup:

I'm glad they finally fixed & updated the look of Well's Fargo Plaza's lighting.

Now if Chase Tower would turn theirs on every night.

@ Metro Matt; the Chase tower recently has only turned on the lighting for Christmas (white) and in February (Red), but the rest of the year the tower has been mostly dark. A few years ago just before Hurricane Ike a non-profit called lights out Houston got many towers to commit to reducing their lighting, and that is when many building owners shut off the lights on the tops of the towers. Chase tower, Four out of the Five Houston Center buildings, The shorter former Enron building, Exxon, and a few other smaller buildings turned off their lights with this commitment. Others such as the Heritage Plaza and the taller Enron were probably damaged and never fixed and have been dark for several years. Wells Fargo's owners hopefully started a trend in office tower lighting in Houston that will have the owners competing for better designs such as in the 1980's when most of the larger downtown skyscrapers were built. Just take a look to the south at the lighting schemes in the medical center office towers for what can be done downtown.

I pass downtown 5-6 times a week, so I have noticed many things over the years and researched what happened when the towers mostly went dark a few years ago.

Cruising condominiums?
 

I don't know about this one.

LOL. Hey, if they can make it work.... more power to them.

So they finally switched to LEDs on Wells Fargo. I'm guessing that's what it is since they're able to change lights like that. They're far more efficient and can change colors without any physical/manual change.

Yeah they ditched the white neon look for LED's.

Its the same thing used on the Austonian in Austin & Plaza Tower here in Tyler.

Wells Fargo had a ton of the old neon go out during Ike & only sections of it were lit. I'm sure they used the insurance money to upgrade.

one day I'll pull out the binoculars and have a closer look at the lights surrounding Wells Fargo.

As far as I can tell, there's separate red, green, blue, and white LED tubes, since sometimes I see the red fade below the green

On a building as tall as Wells Fargo they would almost have to use separate rows of tubes for it to show up good.

Makes sense.

Mayor Parker has signed an endorsement letter for a 1,000 room hotel and convention center on the east side of the Eastex Frwy across from GRB!

From HBJ:

Businessman Dan Nip wants to build a 1,000-room convention center hotel on the east side of downtown and has secured a letter of support from Houston Mayor Annise Parker to help him do it.
The hotel is proposed on a two-block site Nip controls on the opposite side of State Highway 59 from the George R. Brown Convention Center. The project includes constructing a pedestrian bridge across the busy freeway to connect the hotel and convention center.
The mayor’s letter is designed to show potential lenders and investors that Nip’s project is needed and would have the backing of the ...


Read more: Houston backs downtown convention hotel | Houston Business Journal

^
Holy crap, a pedestrian bridge over the highway, the will be sweet. I never thought anything of any importance would be built on the other side of 59 for at least another decade because that area is pretty much a shithole right now, but its getting better. And expanding downtown to the other side of the highway will do wonders. What I really hope one day is that somehow, they can move 59 further from downtown, that probably wont ever happen though.

With the raise in property values in that area over the last few years, I wouldn't call it a shithole. Now you got the light rail, Dynamo Stadium, and Houston sister-cities gardens going up there.