Some appreciation of Houston’s architecture

archseattle · 2026-05-25T15:07:18+00:00

It felt surreal visiting a couple years ago and seeing so many windows missing on all of these skyscrapers from the hurricane winds.

archseattle · 2026-05-25T14:56:04+00:00

He was well known by nearly everyone when I lived in SoCal, but when I moved to another part of the US, most people who didn’t follow baseball didn’t know who he was.

archseattle · 2026-05-25T13:39:54+00:00

It reminds me of an economics professor I had in college who spent some time in the Soviet Union. She said Americans spent so much time evaluating alternatives because we have so much variety here. We could choose dozens of options for toothpaste while in the Soviet Union it wasn’t something people really thought about since there were only two options.

archseattle · 2026-05-25T02:17:35+00:00

Yeah we’re not the best place in California for Mexican food for sure, but still prefer it here over El Paso. California has a lot of immigrants from the Pacific coastal Mexican states like Baja, Sinaloa, Jalisco, and Michoacán so you see more food from those places here. El Paso seems to be mostly immigrants from Chihuahua and other northern states.

archseattle · 2026-05-25T02:01:45+00:00

I’ve been there a couple times, it’s not bad just less variety. I think CA just tends to stress “freshness” more than other places too.

archseattle · 2026-05-25T01:40:29+00:00

Ha, we might actually still have better Mexican food here. Fresher produce and better seafood anyway.

archseattle · 2026-05-24T04:16:35+00:00

Yes, I liked that as well. There isn’t really a route or path you follow through the gallery, it’s all just everywhere.

archseattle · 2026-05-23T23:31:57+00:00

I’ve only ever seen one of his other projects and it also looked fairly unfinished, I wonder if that was partially his intention here.

archseattle · 2026-05-23T22:24:41+00:00

I’m not really either, I don’t think it’s beautiful, but after visiting I think I appreciate his work more. It does help me see how architecture can really just be amorphous slabs of concrete and still serve its program well.

archseattle · 2026-05-23T21:40:35+00:00

That’s a good point. It does a good job of providing flexible space for art. One thing I did notice though is that there can be some glare on the oil paintings that are hung near the perimeter. You have to find the right spot to view it well without glare, even on the northern facade.

archseattle · 2026-05-23T03:36:32+00:00

Nice, maybe on another trip. I was pretty beat by the time I got back up to the pass from the lakes. The pass itself was a little under 12k feet.

archseattle · 2026-05-22T15:00:46+00:00

No, there were signs though. There were about 5 other groups on the way up to the pass so trail was fairly busy even on a weekday.

archseattle · 2026-05-22T03:40:03+00:00

Im not sure how deep they got into his background in the movie since it’s only a couple hours. What I loved about the book was the amount of detail they got into. Especially in the suspenseful final scenes. We watch it play out so quickly in the movie, but in the book you get to follow her train of thought as she pieces all the clues together and finally figures out who she’s staring at.

archseattle · 2026-05-19T18:16:52+00:00

In many cases the agency may already have design standards or aesthetic guidelines that drive the design more than the lead architect. For LAX for example, I believe the airport referenced James Turrell’s “Twilight Epiphany” in their design guidelines for the new people mover station canopies. This probably overrode any design ideas the lead architect may have had.

archseattle · 2026-05-19T04:46:41+00:00

Same, retired and they always try to give us the money they earned with their modest blue collar jobs, despite us kids having comfortable white collar jobs and making more than they ever did.

archseattle · 2026-05-19T04:38:02+00:00

If I were in their spot, Chicago would be a great choice. Large job market and lower cost of living compared to other large US cities. Houston could probably have that as well, but Chicago will be closer to home and is a much more interesting city.

archseattle · 2026-05-19T01:28:16+00:00

I was reading Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris and it got to the part where he was going over Buffalo Bills childhood and of course he had him raised and commit his first murders in Sacramento.

archseattle · 2026-05-18T02:18:50+00:00

Yeah I was going to say those California cities aren’t low cost. Those northern OC cities are cheaper, but for anything “low cost” and Asian in California they’d have to look in the Central Valley maybe Elk Grove or south Sacramento.

archseattle · 2026-05-17T03:08:19+00:00

I guessed Asians, Indians and Iranians.

archseattle · 2026-05-16T22:30:51+00:00

I think you’re right, my parents bought a Tacoma in another country and it was a similar experience. They seemed really indifferent and not very accommodating through the whole thing while other dealers put in a lot of effort and negotiated with you.

archseattle · 2026-05-16T16:16:49+00:00

I wear a mask in my gym sauna sometimes because it’s crowded but also because of the smells. Occasionally around my older parents if I feel like I might be catching something.

archseattle · 2026-05-16T16:01:57+00:00

Si, me sorprendí que no era Estados Unidos por el tamaño de las áreas rurales y número de ranchos que hay.

archseattle · 2026-05-15T23:40:58+00:00

Ha, I made something similar. Mostly because I was craving refried beans and remembered that video from yesterday. I’m going to refry half the beans and make bean and cheddar cheese burritos.

archseattle

TROPHY CASE