There’s what looks to be a moving truck parked in front of the home at 2244 Welch St. today, right next door to the building site at 2229 San Felipe St., where a giant crane is already in the process of constructing a 17-story Hines office building across the street from River Oaks. UH professor Richard Armstrong, who with his family rented the home, had complained to the media last month that the continual noise and diesel fumes and earth-moving going on next door was making it difficult to live there. A couple weeks later, Armstrong announced that financial assistance from Hines would help him move to a new home in Pearland. “This individual story may have ended,” a neighbor notes to Swamplot, “but there are many more neighbors left to deal with the ongoing noise and construction paraphernalia.”
- Previously on Swamplot: With Help from Hines, Family Living Next Door to Highrise Construction Site Exits to Pearland; Neighbor Has a Few Problems with That 17-Story Office Building Going Up Over the Side Fence; Lawsuit Won’t Stop Construction of Hines’s San Felipe Tower — At This Time; The Scene on San Felipe: Hines’s Friendly Neighborhood Skyscraper Is Going Up Now; Dear Hines: We’d Settle for a Residential Midrise, Please; Hines Not Stopping San Felipe Skyscraper; Hines Develops Website To Explain 17-Story San Felipe Development; “Stop†Signs Oppose 17-Story Hines Office Building on San Felipe; A Look Around San Felipe at the Randall Davis Condos and Planned Hines Office Building Site; Hines Plans a Shiny New 18-Story Office Building Across San Felipe from River Oaks
Photos: Swamplot inbox
hmm, too bad for professor armstrong. given his rather meager salary at UH (you can check texas tribune’s website if you want to know), that was the closest he would ever get to living in that area.
it looks like he wanted to live a caviar lifestyle on a budwiser budget and figured out a way to get relocated and compensated for his troubles so he can live large in the proletariat mecca of Pearland.
the kid- it’s a shame that a college professor has to live on “a budwiser budget.” But the point of the article is well taken–EVERYONE on that block (and more) suffers because of that 17 story monstrosity.
thekid: It’s too bad that you don’t have anything better to do than look up other people’s salaries and make snarky comments about them.
Those Texas employee salary numbers on Texas Tribune do not include things like administrative stipends (for running a program, being a chair, etc), or ‘summer salaries’. The salary shown is typically for 9 months, and the remainder can be made of bonuses from external grants or from other teaching jobs, for example (which are not shown in the TT tables). But some faculty folks are on 11 month salaries and have no extras, in which case the TT’s numbers are closer.
if he were a professor of something important i might feel sympathy for his salary but he is a professor of the humanities.
if he wanted the river oaks life style should have gotten a doctorate in a real field like science, medicine or technology. sounds harsh but if you read the chronicle of higher education, he and his ilk are part of a system that perpetuates degrees that have absolutely no value to anyone other than the academic world.
i doubt there are many grants available for latin and greek classics.
you shouldn’t be upset with me looking up his salary, he is a state employee. no different than the guy who fills your potholes, just because he is part of the intelligensia and has a “dr.” in front of name doesn’t mean he has any more value. in fact, his low salary is actually a determination by the market of what his knowlege is worth…
finally, i am being sardonic because he didn’t own the property, he was renting. do you think you would have gotten a story in the media if it had been some common people in an apartment in east houston having problems with construction near by? i seriously doubt it. this story has legs only because it is river oaks and he is a professor. it smack of elitism and reminds me of the Orwell quote “some animals are more equal than others”…
Hines better hope that Hell is a myth.
It’s a myth –Hines is concerned with the here, not the here after
It doesn’t matter if the residents of the house were renters or owners, that damned office building is way too close! The current appraisal on the house is $410,821. It will be interesting to see what happens to the property value for it and any other homes that are within spitting distance.
Looks to me like the professor is the lucky one. He got out and doesn’t have to worry about unloading that beast. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to that property.
Anything happen to the property value of the southmore mansion where Hines is building another monster? The building is so out of scale ya’ wonder if those guys went to school. Must have gone to Cougar High. Heaven help anyone in spitting distance. It used to be a pretty area with homes ripe for rehab, now most houses torn down and beautiful trees cut down for cheap cheap townhomes with no yards and no trees. Really sad for the museum district too. Hines is ruining a neighborhood to line their pockets while Our Stupid City mindlessly blesses.
BTW, San Felipe got in the media because they spoke up. People tend to do that when the house they’re living is cracking to pieces and their kids can’t breathe bc of fumes.