that site won’t remain a mcdonald’s site forever. the highest and best use has changed. i do agree about the garden apartments next door. what a waste of a good site. i watched the construction and it was garden apartment alright.

I have been to all three cities, thanks and you are correct. But… all three of those cities are forced to use every square meter due to density. Houston developers(at this point) do not have density issues. Mostly they are driven by ego and greed it seems. I’m sure many of us drive past that location regularly. Saturday morning I drove past and imagined the claustrophobic feel (not to mention traffic load) that tower would dump on the curve.

As a designer, I agree that Houston is an empty palette for progressive, daring design. But as I was told in art school, a real artist knows what to leave out as much as what to put in. I think we are better off with a tower on that particular triangle at this time.

Happy new year to all.

I guess I don’t understand what context you are referring to. Post Oak is filled with towers now and will be more so in the future. I think the new garden apartments next door to the site are out of context. If there is one thing the more urban parts of Houston, like Uptown, Midtown, and the Med Center, don’t need it’s more friggin’ garden apartment complexes. Regarding the appropriateness of a tower on a triangular site - I recommend you take a trip to San Francisco or NYC or Chicago where you will see amazing towers built on every type and shape of site imaginable. Houston’s developers need to travel more too. There is NOTHING so unique about Houston that it can’t have better buildings, real urban development, and designs that are better than mediocre. The facts that land is so plentiful and cheap, labor is cheap ( no unions), and regulation is practically non-existent should make Houston a hotbed for daring, progressive architecture and development. Instead, there is no real competition so everyone is just lazy, producing just whatever it takes to get by. It is sad and frustrating.

It was over the top, but finally not tacky. Your post is a hatchet-job. “..the Titan grasped desperately at themes — from anywhere but Houston ..” What Houston based themes would be appropriate? A bayou tower? A strip mall tower? A freeway tower? Give it a rest. Houston NEEDS buildings and developments that aspire to be something more than this place has to offer.

“…bestow on the project a greater nobility than otherwise possible from its humble origins in a McDonald’s parking lot.” Are you kidding? What new development doesn’t intend to be better than what came before? This is just overblown rhetoric aimed at an easy target. At least the Titan was not faux French, Tuscan, or Tudor. Houston is supposed to be Space City afterall, so why not a Buck Rogers tower? Swamplot deserves better than this post.