THE ODDS ON A PIERCE ELEVATED COMEDOWN 
Writing in the latest issue of Texas Architect magazine — which is now debuting a redone website with a new web address and a new all-articles-are-now free policy — Ben Koush surveys the prospects for the raised section of I-45 now dividing Midtown from Downtown: “While there have been some plans floated around to convert the decommissioned section of the Pierce Elevated into Houston’s version of the Highline, most people I spoke with didn’t think that was going to happen, simply because TxDOT needs the money it could get from selling that right of way to private developers. Some still hold out hope that at least some of the land or maybe even a small section of the elevated roadway could be made into a public green space.” [Texas Architect; previously on Swamplot] Plan of “currently approved scheme” for I-45 rerouting around downtown, showing possible green space: SWA Group
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RESPONDING TO A FLOOD OF COMPLAINTS ABOUT FLOOD INSURANCE Meanwhile, in New York: A few months after a joint Frontline and NPR investigation noted how profits for insurance companies administering the National Flood Insurance Program regularly peak after flooding disasters, a new report issued by the office of New York attorney general Eric Schneiderman says there’s a lack of accountability in the program that is likely costing taxpayers millions and cheating the homeowners the program is designed to serve. The AG’s office “has now found flood insurance does not cover what it promises in its ads, that many engineers and others hired to evaluate damage were not qualified and that homeowners were wrongly prevented from seeing copies of their own reports,” reports NPR’s Laura Sullivan. In response, FEMA says it has adjusted its rules and will continue to do so to make sure costs of obtaining outside services are justified and documented. [Frontline; NPR]
Today’s sponsor is the 4-5-bedroom, 4-bath single-family home at 1704 Kipling St. in Winlow Place. Thank you for supporting this site!
The duplex that originally stood on the northwest corner of Kipling and Dunlavy was built in 1930, but it had been vacant for 20 years before Houston architect Donna Kacmar renovated and converted it, in 2007, to this single residence. Kacmar recycled some of the materials from the house for its own rejuvenation: Termite-ridden oak planks on the first floor were replaced by shiplap — removed from the interior walls, milled, and turned into wide-plank flooring. New cabinet pieces were fabricated from the home’s longleaf pine door jambs. Interior doors are refinished originals, but all windows and exterior doors were replaced, soapstone countertops inserted, and a new garage constructed.
The renovation efforts resulted in a Good Brick Award from the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance (now known as Preservation Houston) in 2008. But the home has more to offer than its rehab pedigree: There’s also the central Montrose location. Coffee, croissants, and company are just a short walk away. The 3,552-sq.-ft. home is just a couple blocks south of the storied corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy.
1704 Kipling St. is listed for sale by New Leaf Real Estate, which offers unique savings programs for both sellers and buyers. You can see more photos of the renovated home — including the back porch and brick exterior — and get more info about it on the property website.
Isn’t it time people focused on the cool stuff you’re offering? That’s what Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day program is for.
NOVEL APPROACHES TO HOUSTON 
Noting the “daily clash” of old and new, local and immigrant, and very rich and very poor around these parts, “the tawdriness of those who control the city’s worst quarters,” and the density of terrific raw material for stories, Mimi Swartz wonders — as she considers 3 new novels set in the Bayou City — why Houston hasn’t served as the setting of more great fiction: “Anyone from Charles Dickens to Edith Wharton to Tom Wolfe would have or should have killed for the chance to take Houston on. And yet, so far, few have stepped up. The hands-down best novelist on Houston is Larry McMurtry; the best of his books set here — Moving On, All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, Terms of Endearment, and The Evening Star — evoke the place with affection and authority. But McMurtry’s last Houston book came out in 1992.” Worth mentioning since then: short stories by Antonya Nelson; a few scenes in Justin Cronin’s vampire trilogy, The Passage; Alicia Erian’s novel Towelhead; and thrillers by Attica Locke. Still, she notes, “with Houston, every writer is pretty much starting from scratch.” [Texas Monthly] Photo: faungg [license]
Here’s a view of the scene this morning at 611 Shepherd Dr., which until late last year was the home of Kicks Indoor Soccer. The metal structure that housed the indoor artificial-turf field and bar is being kicked to the curb in anticipation of a new apartment complex planned by Mill Creek Residential, which is now in control of the full block bounded by Shepherd, Floyd, Blossom, and Durham, lodged between Rice Military and Magnolia Grove.
Photo: Mosaic Clinic
- 2113 Kingston St. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON HEIGHTS HISTORY IN THE MAKING 
“. . . They probably looked around and saw hundreds of 3k-plus-sq.-ft. Faux Craftsman, Faux Victorian, Faux Colonial, Faux Historic, etc. ‘bungalows,’ that have replaced (or bastardized) most of the real Craftsman, Victorian, Colonial, historic bungalows and realized that the Heights ‘style’ is all fake anyway, so why bother replicating more Faux? They instead designed a building that represents its own era, 2016. . . . Don’t fret, in 100 years, this will be ‘historic’ too.” [John M, commenting on Once Bashful Heights Post Office Replacement Retail Now Willing To Step Up to the Street, Learn To Like Sidewalks] Illustration: Lulu
HOUSTON’S NEW OFFICIAL MESSAGE TO IMMIGRANTS: WELCOME, Y’ALL! 
Long derided by some illegal-immigration opponents as a “Sanctuary City,” Houston appears now to be rebranding itself to suit. The city’s Office of International Communities, along with 2 area nonprofits, are joining to label Houston an official “Welcoming City†for immigrants and refugees, focused on welcoming and integrating new Americans. In joining the nationwide Welcoming Cities and Counties initiative, Houston is joining such hotbeds of newcomer friendliness as Boise, Idaho; Crete, Nebraska, Salt Lake County, Utah; Dayton, Ohio; and Memphis, Tennessee (not to mention Austin, LA, NYC, Chicago, and other likely suspects). Participating community groups intend to create a plan for Houston to “improve the lives of immigrants moving to Houston” and present it to Mayor Turner in November. [City of Houston; Welcoming America] Photo of sign in Chile: Pipe Loyola M
Has it really been a whole year since the famed house at 5623 Willow Walk Ln. in Huntwick Forest — touted by its sales agent, Paul Gomberg, as “the Filthiest House in Houston” — first appeared on the market? No, but the Chronicle‘s Darla Guillen has provided a “one year later” update on the storied property a full 4 months early. And really, with some of the newest pungent and juicy details she reports, why wait?
Gomberg first put the property on the market last December, detailing the home’s assembled collections of condiments, garbage, and animal deposits. “The foul stench of animals & their waste products permeates,” the listing summary noted, and at least one photo description included the always-colorful descriptor “feces galore.” In early January, Swamplot featured one of the tamer images from that listing as its Home Listing Photo of the Day. Later that week, Gomberg came out with this video tour of the property:
- 6211 S. Royal Point Dr. [HAR]
Please don’t turn around and stare, but suddenly another entire office tower in the Energy Corridor has become available for lease — all 20 floors of it. Any takers?
So far, only one of the 2 extremely available towers appears to qualify as a genuine see-through building — that would be the 22-story completed-but-never-occupied Energy Center Four, at N. Eldridge Pkwy. and I-10, which back in June ConocoPhillips announced it was giving up on moving into but hoped some other company (or 32) would sublease from them. And now from Nancy Sarnoff comes the other dropping shoe: energy company BP, announcing that by early next year it plans to vacate Four Westlake Park, aka WestLake Four, a little more than a mile west along the freeway feeder road, at 200 Westlake Park Blvd. BP has 7 years to go on its lease for that 22-year-old property from New York-based Falcon Real Estate Investment Management.
- BP puts more office space onto crowded sublease market [Houston Chronicle]
- ConocoPhillips offers up Energy Corridor tower as sublease glut grows [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Westlake Park Four: Steven Baker
Today’s sponsor is the 1962 colonial-style Ranch home at 7634 Glen Prairie St. in Glenbrook Valley. Thank you for supporting Swamplot!
Straight back from the foyer, past the main living and dining areas, you’ll find the den of this home, (above) with original terrazzo flooring and easy connections to the kitchen and breakfast areas — as well as the back patio and yard. Behind the camera in the above view is a wall of built-in cabinets, including a desk. (You can find a photo of it in the listing.) The kitchen has Corian countertops and stainless-steel appliances, and the 2 full baths and the 1 powder room have been updated as well. The home has 4 bedrooms.
Glenbrook Valley — in case you hadn’t heard — is Houston’s largest historic district, perched just 1 exit outside the 610 Loop. Its collection of midcentury Ranch, Colonial, and Modern homes earned it a place in a This Old House list of the best old-house neighborhoods in the South. And Scenic Houston has secured funding to turn neighborhood thoroughfare Broadway St. into what it calls a “classic Houston boulevard” (with overarching live oaks, red-brick crosswalks, modern streetlights, and extensive median landscaping) in time for next year’s Super Bowl. If you’re interested in Glenbrook Valley, look for the neighborhood home tour now being planned for the first weekend in October.
Want to learn more about this home? Check out the pics and details on the property website.
Is a Sponsor of the Day spot right for you, or a property or local business you know? Find out more about the program here.
LAND PURCHASES BEGINNING ALONG PROPOSED HOUSTON-TO-DALLAS BULLET TRAIN ROUTE 
Texas Central Railway’s CEO tells Realty News Report’s Ralph Bivins that owners of some properties in the projected path of the planned Houston-to-Dallas 200mph rail line have already agreed to sell their land to the company, which is hoping to get started on construction of the 90-minute route next year. Tim B. Keith says he’s “encouraged with the progress” of what he refers to as the project’s “voluntary land purchase program.” He notes that “Texas’ Constitution and state statutes have long granted eminent domain authority to railroads such as Texas Central, as well as pipeline companies, electric power companies and other industries,” but calls eminent domain “a last resort.” The line’s Houston station is now planned for “the area along the 610 Loop between 290 and I-10″ after a Federal Railroad Administration review rejected the idea of a Downtown stop because of projected high costs and environmental impacts. [Realty News Report; Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Tokaido Shinkansen Tokyo-Osaka line: Texas Central Railway
- 7205 Chimney Rock Rd. [HAR]
Fresh from the architects (Kirksey), here are revised plans (above) for Heights Central Station, the retail-and-office center MFT Interests is planning for the site at the corner of Heights Blvd. and 11th St. (and Yale) in the Heights where the former main post office for the Heights still sits, awaiting its fate. And whaddya know, the strip-mall-style parking that in the previous plan for the new development was shown fronting Yale and 11th St. has now been stripped away, allowing twin 10,000-ish-sq.-ft. 2-story buildings to front 11th St., right on up to the sidewalk:
