Click to watch video

The skyline of downtown Houston is changing. 

That includes a big new residential housing project.

As the city looks at what some are calling the strongest economy in decades, there is still fear of the word "boom".

By whatever name, Houston's growth means downtown development. 

11 News

A strong economy means people are looking downtown again to live as well as work.

Friday night about 800 cement trucks were to pull up to a site in downtown. They are expected to start disgorging concrete into this mass of rebar about midnight and won't be done till noon on Saturday.

It has been 40 years since the last major residential high rise was built downtown.

"I think that Houston will see a lot more residential development downtown.  I think this is a lead project for many to come,” said architect Jeffrey Ryan of Jackson and Ryan Architects.

Now in a little more than two years the site will grow to a 37 story apartment building, that includes retail, a restaurant and will overlook a new park in the midst of Houston's growing job market.

"In that regard it's kind of turning the corner because it's kind of like saying we're really committed to this, to this vision of being this multi dimensional type place,” said Robert Eury the president of Central Houston, a downtown business organization.

In Dallas Friday two members of Houston's city council went on tour to see what is working there.

"Our friends on the Dallas city council have done I think as much as any city in the country to stimulate the revitalization of downtown by bringing in all these huge residential projects,” a Dallas tour guide told the council members.

But Houston's skyline is likely to change in more ways than just residential.

While the trophy buildings built in the 1980s are still likely to define it, much of the prime office space has now been rented even with sharply rising prices.

So there is talk of something new.

“They're definitely planning and I suspect they are planning very seriously.  It's all the usual suspects,” said Sanford Criner a commercial broker with CB Richard Ellis.

It is the kind of momentum one expert says that feeds on itself.

Earlier this week there was an article about Houston in the New York Times.  The first line:  "The good times are back."  It also used the "B" word as in boom.

To those with memory the word is enough to make people more than a little jumpy.

"I think we all remember. But it's feeling awfully good right now."

And they expect a lot more cranes on the skyline in the next couple of years.