How did Houston end up with so many skyscrapers? (Dallas: tenant, living)

[the topper]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

Is it just density you're talking about because Houston is not known for density. It's a sprawling city but at the same time, I just made it to Houston from Austin today and there was a night and day difference. Austin's downtown is more dense and looks like Portland's a bit, but outside of that there is a ton of space. Houston, while sprawling, seems massive in terms of overall sprawl and size of the surrounding buildings and big box store along the huge freeways.

So it's not the density that I am looking at. It's just the size of the city itself. Uptown for one dwarf's Austin inner core. Downtown just hasn't been able to pick up steam quite like Uptown because it's not desirable but it's still urban to me. To me urban doesn't necessarily mean dense and packed. I think of development and Houston develops wide with parking lots and lots of space in between buildings.

Houston still has good features: pop. of 2.2 million with area over 550 sq. miles and many sub districts with buildings. It has big city amenities and lots of attractions. The weather is nice and sometimes exciting with thunderstorms. It's green most of the time. It has lots of sprawling freeways. Shopping is also big league. Lastly, it has a good economic base.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by the topper

Houston still has good features: pop. of 2.2 million with area over 550 sq. miles and many sub districts with buildings. It has big city amenities and lots of attractions. The weather is nice and sometimes exciting with thunderstorms. It's green most of the time. It has lots of sprawling freeways. Shopping is also big league. Lastly, it has a good economic base.

Right. My point wasn't to say that it's the same as Chicago or NYC in the sense of density or cohesiveness. I was saying that Houston is just an immense city that lays out and sprawls it's hugeness along MASSIVE freeways. After driving along Austin's 1-35 for a week and then driving into Houston, the distinction was felt as soon as I hit 45-South. You just get this big city feel with tons and tons of development. In that sense it reminds me of LA a bit with it's sunbelt urban sprawl, yet the city is quickly developing into something more east coast looking, while Austin is looking more west coast in terms of development.

[BCLRRE]

Originally Posted by the topper

Houston still has good features: pop. of 2.2 million with area over 550 sq. miles and many sub districts with buildings. It has big city amenities and lots of attractions. The weather is nice and sometimes exciting with thunderstorms. It's green most of the time. It has lots of sprawling freeways. Shopping is also big league. Lastly, it has a good economic base.

Right, and 2.2M is a 2014 number...it's continued to grow by leaps and bounds since then, and is currently over 2.4M. Houston isn't trying to be (nor does it want to be) any other city but Houston. Houston's evolution was one of sprawl featuring several major urbanized highrise districts connected by massive expressways, while others (great and smaller) evolved building from their singular densified downtown core. Again, now that Houston is densifying the sprawl with massive developments everywhere, it will be even more distinct and dynamic featuring several densified urban highrise districts all throughout one city. It's really amazing: you approach Downtown Houston, but then 15mins later Uptown/Galleria appears as if you've approached another major American city's downtown, then around the Loop up 288 15mins later the TMC skyline appears as if you've arrived at another major American city's downtown, and on and on. After all that you're like 'where am I?' You think you've gone through several major cities, but you're still in Houston...that's the unique layout and evolution of Houston. Towers and skyscrapers not just downtown, but spread all over.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

Spot on. Yes all those grouped together make for a near Manhattan look. But even so I still think downtown Houston has enough buildings to make it stand out on its own too.

more like a downtown Chicago look than Manhattan. There is nothing like Manhattan in the US even if one combines all of their cities highrises into one area.

[Jeohnny]

Originally Posted by the topper

I carefully examined this downtown by walking: Louisiana, Smith, Main, Commerce and Market Sq. I walk through the whole downtown area by Discovery Park, Convention/arena and ballpark. I was also in Edo(East Downtown). I saw the failed Houston Pavilions that part of it been converted to offices. It's bookstore long shuttered. I basically counted all the towers downtown for fun. It just came up short compared to other downtowns I mentioned before. It's not dense. It also lacks mid rises, too. The whole old section of Downtown L.A. has almost as many high rises as Downtown Houston with a bunch old 10 to 25 story buildings. I'm talking about the area around Broadway and Spring in Dt. L.A.. Dt L.A. is so much more dense and bigger than Houston's. Look at Downtown Portland: it's very dense and has a lot of high rises, although it doesn't look as impressive from a vantage point but it's dense. Don't get me started with Downtown Seattle since it has so many towers and old towers. It's very dense and packed.

Dallas is catching up to Houston and downtown la won't even be recognizable in 3-5 years . There are literally over 100 construction projects currently underway . There is nothing like that in the Houston core but dallas has about 50 construction projects in and around downtown. Still, I love the look and feel of Houston better.

[BCLRRE]

Originally Posted by Jeohnny

Dallas is catching up to Houston and downtown la won't even be recognizable in 3-5 years . There are literally over 100 construction projects currently underway . There is nothing like that in the Houston core but dallas has about 50 construction projects in and around downtown. Still, I love the look and feel of Houston better.

Dallas has a lonnnnnngggg way to go to catch up to Houston, and there are dozens of construction cranes spread all over Houston, not just downtown. Dallas is building more in its core (but so is Houston...a lot), but Dallas has no answer for Houston's massive Uptown/Galleria district (which also has construction cranes everywhere). In fact, Downtown Dallas is basically the size of Houston's TMC district. I also prefer the look and feel of Houston better. But let's not turn this Houston thread in the Houston Forum into another nasty and unnecessary Dallas vs Houston sh!tshow...we all know how that ends.

[radiolibre99]

Originally Posted by Spade

more like a downtown Chicago look than Manhattan. There is nothing like Manhattan in the US even if one combines all of their cities highrises into one area.

Yes as I've said before Houston is starting to have the feel of Chicago a bit. Good eye.

[ADCS]

To answer the question of the original post, mostly oil company vanity projects in the '70s and '80s. After the bust, they were chastened, and didn't have nearly the access to capital that they once did.

[Jeohnny]

Originally Posted by BCLRRE

Dallas has a lonnnnnngggg way to go to catch up to Houston, and there are dozens of construction cranes spread all over Houston, not just downtown. Dallas is building more in its core (but so is Houston...a lot), but Dallas has no answer for Houston's massive Uptown/Galleria district (which also has construction cranes everywhere). In fact, Downtown Dallas is basically the size of Houston's TMC district. I also prefer the look and feel of Houston better. But let's not turn this Houston thread in the Houston Forum into another nasty and unnecessary Dallas vs Houston sh!tshow...we all know how that ends.

I meant to say that dallas urban core it's smaller in size but the core is where the nice urban developments are happening. Dallas core has alot more mixed use cool developments coming than Houston's core. However the uptown area in Houston is very impressive but not really walkable. Dallas has a midtown project that would probably compete with uptown Houston when completed and it will be urban in design

[Mr. Clutch]

Originally Posted by Jeohnny

I meant to say that dallas urban core it's smaller in size but the core is where the nice urban developments are happening. Dallas core has alot more mixed use cool developments coming than Houston's core. However the uptown area in Houston is very impressive but not really walkable. Dallas has a midtown project that would probably compete with uptown Houston when completed and it will be urban in design

I tend to agree that they focus a lot more on "true" mixed use projects up north, but addressing the bolded point, that project will take years to complete and Uptown Houston will also continue to grow and improve in the meantime. The concept for Dallas midtown reminds me a lot of the redevlopment happening in Upper Kirby.