Houston 360

[RGV]

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Views from Uptown, River Oaks and Greenway Plaza. And to think that we had a freeze last week.















































































































































































































































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[worried1]

Are there any condo hotels or service appartments in Houston that can be purchased?

We are moving to Houston in about 4 years.

[FMR-STL]

Very cool Pictures! Thanks..! Bigger than I thought..!

[koogle]

never been to Houston, but the city looks so damn clean in the pictures!!!

[samba_man]

Beaultiful downtown !

[james2390]

Lovely pics. I like all the post-moderness of everything.

[seattlehawk]

Originally Posted by samba_man

Beaultiful downtown !

This is not downtown but uptown, although you can see the skyline of downtown in a couple of pics. Many people confuse uptown area with downtown and that shows how big the city is.

[Gary B]

Originally Posted by seattlehawk

This is not downtown but uptown, although you can see the skyline of downtown in a couple of pics. Many people confuse uptown area with downtown and that shows how big the city is.

A little to add to the Uptown Houston kudo's.... It's one of the top ten business districts in the country, with more than 300,000 people a day commuting in and out. Of course that doesn't count thousands that live there.

Uptown is starting to change agin with the addition of Wolfs 30 story condo tower, Turberrys 42 story condo tower, plus midrise' going up everywhere. The area has really begun to densify.

Here's a pic from a couple of years ago of Uptown.




What's more amazing to me is the Texas Medical Center which is in a few pics above. This area has just about caught uptown Houston in building square footage (25 million for the TMC with more under construction now, versus the 30 million for Uptown) and has densified it's Commercial space beyond most CBD's in the country.

[SkyBridge]

Great pictures, beautiful towers - the city however appears dull and lifeless. Way too much open space and it seems too 'planned'.

[aquablue]

beautiful city

[Snowy]

Originally Posted by SkyBridge

Great pictures, beautiful towers - the city however appears dull and lifeless. Way too much open space and it seems too 'planned'.

I know what you mean - like one giant leafy suburb with a few big skyscrapers in the centre.

Maybe this is because this is the 'uptown', rather than the downtown (whatever the hell an 'uptown' is!). Maybe the downtown has more of a big city feel

[RGV]

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Thx for the comments on the photos.

The city was kind of empty because I took the photos this sunday. Here are a couple of prior threads I posted of the downtown area.



http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=418339


http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=415624


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[WinoSoul]

Great skyline!!

[seattlehawk]

Originally Posted by SnowyBoy1

I know what you mean - like one giant leafy suburb with a few big skyscrapers in the centre.

Maybe this is because this is the 'uptown', rather than the downtown (whatever the hell an 'uptown' is!). Maybe the downtown has more of a big city feel

Unfortunately, you are half right. Uptown Houston was never designed for pedestrain traffic. Wide roads and large parking lots fronting the stores and commercial establishents discourage foot traffic. On the other hand, downtown has a lot more potential for pedestrain traffic due to relatively narrower streets, the "canyon" effect of high-rises and store fronts/buildings directly fronting the road.

Despite that, uptown has a lot more "action" going on than downtown. Uptown is where you will find Galleria Mall, one of the largest in the US, a number of other upscale shopping venues, trendy resturants and city's major hotels. Uptown also has a large residential population that lives in high-rise condominiums, town-homes and single family homes. While all this generates traffic jams on the roads, most of the people stay inside rather than outside and hop around in cars thus leaving the sidewalks rather empty.

By the way, I think the terms uptown and downtown emerged from Manhattan which has north-south orientation. Downtown is at the southern tip of the island (hence "down" town) while uptown is "up" north. However, this is just my guess so I could be wrong.

[Snowy]

Originally Posted by seattlehawk

Unfortunately, you are half right. Uptown Houston was never designed for pedestrain traffic. Wide roads and large parking lots fronting the stores and commercial establishents discourage foot traffic. On the other hand, downtown has a lot more potential for pedestrain traffic due to relatively narrower streets, the "canyon" effect of high-rises and store fronts/buildings directly fronting the road.

Despite that, uptown has a lot more "action" going on than downtown. Uptown is where you will find Galleria Mall, one of the largest in the US, a number of other upscale shopping venues, trendy resturants and city's major hotels. Uptown also has a large residential population that lives in high-rise condominiums, town-homes and single family homes. While all this generates traffic jams on the roads, most of the people stay inside rather than outside and hop around in cars thus leaving the sidewalks rather empty.

By the way, I think the terms uptown and downtown emerged from Manhattan which has north-south orientation. Downtown is at the southern tip of the island (hence "down" town) while uptown is "up" north. However, this is just my guess so I could be wrong.

Thanks for the info.

I've just looked at the pics posted by RGV and I agree that the downtown has more of a 'big-city' feel. However, for me personally, it still hasn't got the strret-life of say New York, or Chicago.

I'm not going to endear myself to the Southerners on these forums, but I prefer the Northern US city feel over the Southern US city feel. The Northern cities feel older, with more history and character and because they were planned earlier and not in the 60s (like LA and Houston), they're more pedestrian oriented, rather than car oriented. I like the feel of cities like NY, Chicago, Boston, Philly and your own Seattle. Maybe it's because they feel more 'European' than the Southern US cities. Having said that, I do have soft spot for New Orelans!

[SkyBridge]

Maybe it's just an own culture that seems to be missing. I could be wrong, but so many of these big US cities feel empty to me. Same kind of buildings, same city structures - more working and shopping districts than actual cities. Even some < 300.000 inh. European cities feel more 'alive' than cities like Houston and Dallas.


-edit-

On all the pics in this topic and the two given URL's for above, there are NO people! No people, and so much open space:



Shocking picture!!!

[RGV]

there are NO people!

Don't blame Houston for that. Blame me. I really only have time to go out on Sundays to take these photos (job and family duties).

It's really a different situation during the week.

[TexasBoi]

The Houston Pavilions will fill in some of these parking lots, right? Becuase if so, let's revisit this picture in say 5 years.

[TexasBoi]

Originally Posted by SnowyBoy1

.

I'm not going to endear myself to the Southerners on these forums, but I prefer the Northern US city feel over the Southern US city feel. The Northern cities feel older, with more history and character and because they were planned earlier and not in the 60s (like LA and Houston), they're more pedestrian oriented, rather than car oriented. I like the feel of cities like NY, Chicago, Boston, Philly and your own Seattle. Maybe it's because they feel more 'European' than the Southern US cities. Having said that, I do have soft spot for New Orelans!

You aren't saying anything that we haven't heard before regarding southern cities. Northern cities feel older because they are older and have more history. Houston is still very much a young city compared to New York, Boston, and Philly.

[Snowy]

Originally Posted by TexasBoi

You aren't saying anything that we haven't heard before regarding southern cities. Northern cities feel older because they are older and have more history. Houston is still very much a young city compared to New York, Boston, and Philly.

That's not to say that the South is bad though, it's cities may be younger and therefore lack the character of the Northern cities, but overall it has a lot of character and charm, beautiful landscapes and countryside and great people - very warm and polite!