COMMENT OF THE DAY: WITH A BULLDOZER AND A PUBLIC WORKS BUDGET, YOU TOO CAN WORK MAGIC! 
“Maybe we’re the only folks that would consider watching such a show, but it would be interesting if one of the networks would create an Extreme Makeover: Cityscape Edition. Imagine if Peter Park were given a TV show size budget for each episode to improve the urban blueprint of a small area such as this. Think of how such a show could change our nation’s perception and understanding of our cities.” [Thomas, commenting on Why the Sidewalk at the Washington Ave Five Guys Burgers Isn’t Walkable] Illustration: Lulu
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So the site where the 21-story Ashby Highrise is going up appears to have been cleared now of the Maryland Manor apartments and bordered with a nice new fence, which appears to have been freshly tagged with some carefully considered —Â commentary? The reader who sends these photos suspects that the all-caps shout-outs to 2 of Houston’s most well-known towers showed up early this morning
- Ashby Highrise coverage [Swamplot]
Photos: Swamplot inbox
KEEPING ONE MONTROSE TREE IN RESERVE 
The developer of those spur-side homes planned for this Westmoreland lot between Marshall and W. Alabama St. says that the old live oak shown in the photo isn’t going anywhere. In fact, Arpan Gupta tells Swamplot that a 1,410-sq.-ft. reserve area — as one commenter notes on the site plan — is being established around the tree’s “drip line” to set aside a park that not just the homeowners will be allowed to use. Additionally, explains Gupta, architecture firm Knudson and tree service Arbor Care have both been employed to take protective measures — mulching, fertilizing, fencing, etc. — during the “stress of construction.” [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
Once the scrap pile is cleared, Hanover will begin building a 12-story residential tower on this site near Rice Village. The demolition started yesterday to get rid of the aging Village Apartments facing Tangley and the Garden Gate facing Morningside; these properties share the block bound as well by Dunstan and Kelvin with the Village Commons restaurants. And that might be why — unlike its shorter predecessor on the other side of Dunstan, which you can see looming in the background in the photo above — this proposed tower isn’t planned to have any street-level retail. A notice sent earlier this year to Southampton residents suggests that it will have about 200 units.
Struggling to make themselves heard above the whoosh of traffic along the Washington Corridor, Better Houston’s Pedestrian Pete (a.k.a. one-time mayoral candidate Peter Brown) and visiting Harvard prof and city planner Peter Park take a very short stroll in this recently uploaded video. Their objective? To lament the guy wires, utility poles, and other hindrances for would-be pedestrians on the few feet of sidewalk they traverse in front of Five Guys Burgers and Fries and Buffalo Wild Wings in this strip center near Leverkuhn at 3939 Washington.
- Improvements Along Wash Ave [Pedestrian Pete]
Video: Pedestrian Pete
BIDS TO BUY LAW ENFORCEMENT HS PUNISHED FOR NOT FOLLOWING RULES 
HISD gave a unanimous no today to those competing bids from nearby St. Thomas High School and developer AV Dickson Street to buy the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice in Magnolia Grove. Apparently, the reason the offers for the 11-acre campus at 4701 Dickson St. were rejected had less to do with the numbers than with HISD’s preferred S.O.P.: “[T]he board’s attorney, David Thompson, stated immediately afterward that both bidders had violated the district’s ‘code of silence’ policy, which prohibits communication between trustees and those with pending business before them.” Superintendent Terry Grier tells the Houston Chronicle that the building will be going right back on the market: “Hopefully if we do that, the bidders will take our ethics policy seriously.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: HISD
COMMENT OF THE DAY: PARKING IN THE FRONT, BUSINESS IN THE BACK 
“It’s not BS. Local independent businesses may be relatively willing to provide their parking on the side / back / top / below or wherever. But I’ve heard from several retail developers that convincing a ‘credit tenant’ to lease in a structure that doesn’t have off-street front-door parking can be a major challenge, even if there’s an oversupply of parking elsewhere on site.
The developer of BLVD place wanted to put the development right up along the Post Oak Boulevard sidewalk –– and at the time there was the expectation there would be a light rail station right there. This was going to be done, I believe, without seeking a setback variance (and the Transit Corridor Ordinance in 2009 obviated the need for one anyway). But the tenants that were sought refused to come unless a parking lot was put in front –– the internal parking structure wasn’t enough for them. And so, the plan was redesigned with off-street parking in front, and the tenants came.
I don’t mean to imply support for the setback requirement –– I think in most cases it hurts way more than it helps and should be eliminated, or at least modified to not require a variance for more sidewalk-friendly development. Did you know that Kirby from Westheimer to US 59 is a Major Thoroughfare, therefore requiring a 25 foot setback from the right of way for new development? Same with Montrose from W. Dallas to US 59. Is this what we want for the primary streets of some of Houston’s most ‘urban’ neighborhoods, the very center of our city? In my opinion, this is ridiculous.” [Local Planner, commenting on Comment of the Day: When Houston Buildings Weren’t So Shy of the Street] Illustration: Lulu
FEEDING NEW APARTMENTS TO THE GRAND PKWY. FEEDER 
Austin developers Oden Hughes say that they have been eager to build in Houston, but the company’s first project here has come only as far east as Katy: A 354-unit apartment complex is going up a few miles east of Katy Mills Mall on 14 acres at the southwest corner of Kingsland Blvd. and the southbound Grand Pkwy. feeder. The Rancher reports that rent here at the so-called Parkside Grand Parkway will range between $850 and $1,655 a month for the complex planned to include 2 pools, a fitness center, and “an air-conditioned dog washing station.” [The Rancher] Rendering: Oden Hughes
DIPPING INTO DOWNTOWN’S BAR SCENE 
Tweeting this photo of its brand-new TABC sign in the window at 304 Main St., Little Dipper has emerged in Downtown’s twinkling constellation of new bars and restaurants: Eater Houston reports that this proposed bar is owned by the same folks who have brought you Poison Girl on Westheimer and coffee shops Black Hole on Graustark and Antidote on Studewood. It appears that the Little Dipper will be going into the space right next to ramen shop Goro & Gun at 306 Main, just around the corner from the OKRA Charity Saloon on Congress and that lot catty-corner from Market Square Park where Hines has said it is considering building a residential tower. [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: @littledipperbar
This corner of Richmond and Wakeforest appears likely to be developed into a new office building, part of what a recently approved application to reduce the building setback on both streets from the Upper Kirby Redevelopment Authority suggests is a plan to transform this block between Wakeforest and Eastside into a “mixed-use pedestrian-focused transit node.” The demolition of vacant office buildings here near Levy Park appears to have begun in 2009; the office building shown in the photo above, also apparently vacant, is likely the next to go.
Construction is well underway at the site of the torn-down Studewood Fiesta on the Village of the Heights. This updated (and softer) rendering shows the 4-story, 103-unit senior living facility as seen from near the intersection of 14th and Studewood; it will be bordered on the north by Algregg. A rep from developer Bridgewood Properties — which operates 3 similar facilities in Houston — says that the 1st floor will be devoted to a clinic for “memory care,” and the 2nd floor will include a fitness center, library, beauty salon, and assisted-living suites; the top 2 floors will be reserved for apartments, ranging from 1-bedroom, 524-sq.-ft. spaces to 2-bedroom, 753-sq.-ft. ones.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HUNTING FOR BURIED TREASURE AT CAMP STRAKE 
“I was once on a campout there and some guy in my troop, in the process of digging a hole for something, found an early 1940′s Walking Liberty half dollar, the most beautiful coin the U.S. mint ever produced. Suddenly we were all seized with hysteria. Old silver coins! In the ground! Right beneath us! And it just so happened that one of the scout masters had a metal detector. So at the behest of a dozen crazed boys in their early teens, he led us off on an afternoon mission seeking treasure. Each boy took turns claiming whatever was unearthed in the next metal strike. The beeping sounded, the digging commenced, up came an old rusty nail. Ten minutes later beeping again, excitement, digging, rusty nail. On and on, crisscrossing Camp Strake, through the woods, down the dirt roads, along the lake: rusty nail, rusty nail, rusty nail. Our numbers dwindled; soon it was just me and one other guy, dreaming of coins, digging up nails. And then it was evening and we gave up. All those little holes. A bucket full of rusty nails.” [Mike, commenting on Boy Scouts Sell Camp Strake in Conroe To Master-Planned Community Master Planners] Illustration: Lulu
There’s more going on at U of H than that new McDonald’s, apparently: A reader sends these photos of many of the construction projects scattered across the campus. This photo shows the pylons of the still-unnamed bowl with a Downtown view that’s replacing Robertson Stadium, demolished back in December. And in the background of the photo you can see the new Cougar Place apartments. KUHF’s Jack Williams reports that the new stadium is already about a third done; more photos after the jump illustrate the below-grade playing field.
Note: Read more about that tree here.
The sign shows that a variance is pending to reduce the setback here along Spur 527 — at left in the photo above — the better to fit 15 single-family lots on the less-than-an-acre property between W. Alabama and Marshall St. in the Westmoreland Historic District. A site plan included in the variance application for the subdivision Carnegie Oaks at Westmoreland shows that the 0.83-acre lot would be parceled out, with driveway access to the north from Marshall and to the south from W. Alabama. The lot’s right across the street from that fixed-up former Skylane complex the Spur. A city rep says that the planning commission will decide on the variance next week.
A builder working on these bungalows at 4204 and 4208 Crawford St. says the owner is freshening them up into rental properties. The Museum Park pair sat side by side on the market for about a year until they were purchased back in April, county records show. Dating to 1929, the roughly 1,100-sq.-ft. houses each have 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. They sit 2 blocks north of Wheeler at Crawford and Eagle St., near where the Southwest Fwy. vaults over Midtown.
Photos: Allyn West
