^
Awesome, hopefully all that gets implemented.
http://www.chron.com/business/articl...or-2434156.php
Pictures from article. I would love to see all of this built, but what I envision unfortunately happening will be that half of that stuff will get built, the rest of those lots will be turned into parking garages for some of those projects. I hope thats not the case, but developers in downtown Houston love instead of incorporating parking structures into buildings, they just like taking up the lot next to their building with a miserable parking garage.
http://www.chron.com/business/articl...or-2434156.php
Render of new convention center Hotel across from the Hilton.
http://www.chron.com/business/articl...or-2434156.php
In the above plan it looks like something will be built in front of the Embassy Suites to hopefully cover up a little bit of that disgrace of a building that faces Houstons premier public park.
Seeing all of this new possible developments makes my heart race and I cant wait to see construction start once again!!!! Seeing parking lots disappear makes me a happy man. In that first render, seeing no parking lots is just ah, amazing! The only problem unfortunately right now is that Discovery Green is so packed because there is usually cheap parking available right across the street for the suburbanites to park their cars so they dont have to walk too far. If all of these surface lots get covered up, where will people park? There is some parking under Discovery Green but its like 10 bucks or so, when parking on the surface lots is usually 5 bucks. I hope they at least have a parking garage built into one of these future buildings that has public cheap parking and not just for residents or workers of the buildings and instead for Disco Green patrons. If the parking goes away, so does the crowds. There's always a caveat.
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On another note, I was just reading Swamplot and found more info and a more detailed map of what may happen around Minute Maid Park in the future.
City Playing Musical Blocks with Downtown Houses
Quote:
Yesterday was moving day for 2 unusual Downtown buildings: The 1905 Cohn and 1904 Foley (above) houses cattycorner from the George R. Brown Convention Center. Leftover single-family homes from an area once known as Quality Hill and now strangers in the land of skyscrapers and stadiums, they’d be notable Downtown residents even if they weren’t designated historic structures. The city is moving them across the street and a block closer to Minute Maid Park, where they’re intended to become add-ons to a mysterious Regional Tourism Center proposed for the 600 block of Avenida de las Americas.
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http://swamplot.com/city-playing-mus...es/2011-11-03/
It's also about time someone cleans up the area under 59, that place is a hot mess and a blight. All around it looks like some amazing things are about to start; very exciting! But all of this could take years upon years to complete, maybe even 2020, who knows? I have been hearing a lot about the new convention center hotel though at least, so that could start fairly soon. The rest of the stuff in the renders is probably just speculation to the best of my knowledge.
This new render just seems to be expanding upon this old render from maybe 3 years ago or so. I guess we will just have to see how it all pans out.
http://www.houstonarchitecture.com/h...tion-district/
The convention center hotel in this old render seems to still have the same basic design as the new render shows interestingly enough.