Houston's high & midrise residential

[H-Town]

Hello all,
I've compiled some of Houston's high and midrise residential buildings. Nothing artistic, just angles.



















































































































































































































































































































Just thought I'd throw in a couple from downtown. This first one is early on a Sunday morning.

[soleri]

Huge!

I've never been to Houston but I'm fascinted when I see pictures of fairly dense (and newer) residential areas. Clearly, there's a strong urban tendency at work here. Yet we always here how Houston is the paradigm of the autocentric spawlopolis.

Count me intrigued, too. I'm not sure if there's a vibrant urban center here, but it sure seems like there ought to be.

And I love all those jazzy modern lofts!

[vjhe]

Nice collection of photos.

[Boris]

.............

Great photos HT.

[cabasse]

i love the bold feel of houston's modern-styled recent construction. it fits the city very well.

[RockHillJames]

I'm actually in Houston right now as I type this. I was in town this week on business. This town confuses the hell out of me...I both love and hate it at the same time. Just an obscene amount of highrises, but the lack of zoning keeps it from feeling as big as it should (like a Chicago or NY). Skyscrapers are spread all over the place like weeds.

I think this is the condo tower that so baffles me:


What's the deal behind this? If it's the condo tower I think it is (skinny one in the Galleria) it's like they finished one side and then just covered up the other three, the ends hardly have any windows on it. Weird.

You got a shot of my hotel!


I'm on the 17th floor.

Usually staring at the Williams Tower. Love that tower, and the whole "Eye of Sauron" thing it's got going on at night!

[erasercut]

With the exception of the shots of the old part of downtown, Houston and it's architecture has always seemed so dull to me. Tons of uninspired 70's and 80's highrises.

[H-Town]

Originally Posted by erasercut

With the exception of the shots of the old part of downtown, Houston and it's architecture has always seemed so dull to me. Tons of uninspired 70's and 80's highrises.

Then I'm assuming your not a fan of one of the greatest modern architects in the world? By the way that would be Phillip Johnson.

[Great_Hizzy]

What's the deal behind this? If it's the condo tower I think it is (skinny one in the Galleria) it's like they finished one side and then just covered up the other three, the ends hardly have any windows on it. Weird.

It's called the Mercer Tower. There were supposed to be two of them, side by side, but the second one has yet to go up. It's a hideous piece of poo that, suprisingly, has done okay in terms of sales. But it's a real slap in the face to the asthetic quality of Uptown's skyline. Obviously, its most glaring flaw is, as you pointed out, the complete lack of windows and ornamentation on the back side (south side) of the building.

[RockHillJames]

That makes a LOT more sense now.

Hope they build that second tower.

[JManc]

before 9/11 there were actually supposed to be 4 mercer towers with the rears facing one another but was scaled down to 2. no signs of tower 2 being built as of yet...still a grass field.

[i_am_hydrogen]

Interesting shots. I've always wondered about the residential side of Houston.

[Complex01]

Those are nice residential shots. Would love to live in the area. Very nice...

[JEH-NYC]

I like that Houston seems to have a lot of loft buildings.
Thanks for sharing the pics!

[vanman]

I was going to ask if it's true that Houston has zero zoning laws but somebody already made that clear. Is there a specific reason why it has no zoning laws?

[Great_Hizzy]

Basically, local sentiment has prevailed against it over the decades. One reason is due to the fact that because Houston has so many master planned communities within its boundaries (the most in number of any city in the country at last report back in 2002), deed restrictions are still strong and the communities themselves are fairly well protected from encroaching development. Nevertheless, outside those subdivisions or master-planned communities, it has also allowed developers some developmental freedoms that are a bit unruly, including parking lot size, strip mall length, etc. The city has imposed some defacto deed restrictions on commercial properties but they still don't have the same exact reach as your typical zoning laws.

It's a mixed bag overall, but to the urbanist (especially the knee-deep, irrevocable and unimpeachable urbanist), it's easily offensive.

[soleri]

Originally Posted by Great_Hizzy

Basically, local sentiment has prevailed against it over the decades. One reason is due to the fact that because Houston has so many master planned communities within its boundaries (the most in number of any city in the country at last report back in 2002), deed restrictions are still strong and the communities themselves are fairly well protected from encroaching development. Nevertheless, outside those subdivisions or master-planned communities, it has also allowed developers some developmental freedoms that are a bit unruly, including parking lot size, strip mall length, etc. The city has imposed some defacto deed restrictions on commercial properties but they still don't have the same exact reach as your typical zoning laws.

It's a mixed bag overall, but to the urbanist (especially the knee-deep, irrevocable and unimpeachable urbanist), it's easily offensive.

My hometown of Phoenix does have zoning laws, but if anything, even fewer urban impulses than Houston. I'm not exactly sure what the relationship is here. Phoenix gave away a lot of zoning upgrades a few decades ago and pretty much doomed its downtown to also-ran status. What I see in these pictures of Houston is a place with still enough urban energy to have a significant downtown and surrounding urban neighborhoods. Zoning or no, Houston definitely looks like a city.

[austin356]

Originally Posted by soleri

My hometown of Phoenix does have zoning laws, but if anything, even fewer urban impulses than Houston. I'm not exactly sure what the relationship is here. Phoenix gave away a lot of zoning upgrades a few decades ago and pretty much doomed its downtown to also-ran status. What I see in these pictures of Houston is a place with still enough urban energy to have a significant downtown and surrounding urban neighborhoods. Zoning or no, Houston definitely looks like a city.

I would actually say that if Houston had zoning it would be less dense, more parking, and more sprawlly than it already is. 99.9% of zoning laws in America are designed specifically to make the physical environment more conducive to automobile traffic. We should ask ourselves, if zoning was enacted in houston, would the residents vote for classical style urbanism, and transit or sun-belt, same as every other city, low-density sprawl? I am inclined to bet my money on the latter, so anything that prevents the government from doing the wrong thing (requiring sprawl) is good. The market will decide in Houston, and the market is deciding urbanity, so we must not let government get in there and screw up what we want.

[BTinSF]

^^^All I can see is a bunch of "photbucket bandwidth exceeded" symbols. Whassup?

[James Bond Agent 007]

Great collection, lots of interesting stuff there.