DESIGNING HOUSTON’S BICYCLE UNDERBELLY 
Peter Muessig’s graduate thesis for the Rice School of Architecture imagines a system of symbiotic bike-only features he’s calling “Veloducts” that would be fused on, under, around, and through the city’s existing car-dominated infrastructure. This rendering shows just such a Veloduct, which appears to be similar to those foot bridges already spanning Buffalo Bayou. But OffCite’s Sara C. Rolater explains how a Veloduct is much more ambitious: “In variations of concrete, joists, and steel, [a Veloduct] can be grafted onto the pillars of freeways, hang suspended by girders, or stand on its own columns. . . . [allowing] cyclists to capitalize on precisely those systems that have previously hindered them. That [the project] enables different modes of transport to coexist without crowding each other seems especially critical for Houston, where a lack of safe-passage laws have made many of Google Maps’ bright-green highlighted ‘bike-friendly’ roads anything but.” [OffCite; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Peter Muessig
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE STRIP CENTER MANDATE “Wait, so there’s no nail salon now? Is that legal? I thought that municipal laws required all strip centers of a certain size to have tax prep, a dry cleaner, a nail salon, and a coffee shop/ice cream parlor/yogurt bar.” [Sihaya, commenting on Telephone Road’s New Sweet and Sweat Shops]
As though mandated by some surgeon general recommendation for commercial development, the new neighbors in the Tlaquepaque Market at Telephone and Lockwood are an ice cream shop and a fitness studio. Scoops, the sign for which recently appeared above those window bars, is replacing a nail salon at 724 Telephone; it will share a wall with a Zumba studio, a former dollar store that doesn’t have a sign yet — but it does appear to have been renovated to provide rump-shakers inside the comfort and convenience of opaque window screens. These new interests are just a few blocks from the new Oak Leaf Smokehouse that opened for lunch in late February at 1000 Telephone Rd., and just a few suites from the new-ish Blue Line Bike Lab.
- Previously on Swamplot: Telephone Road Smokehouse Replaces Telephone Road Smokehouse, Heights Bike Lab Expands, Opens Shop Near UH in East End
Photos: Allyn West
NOW ON YOUR MOBILE DEVICE: WHY YOU CAN’T BREATHE 
A team comprising researchers at UH, Air Alliance Houston, and the American Lung Association have launched OzoneMap, an app that “monitors chemical weather,” reports John Metcalfe of The Atlantic blog Cities. And whether the app helps explain your coughing fit or alerts you to the chance of a really pretty toxic sunset, the best part is that it’s only available in Houston! And why Houston, of all places? Besides the industrial flares, that is? Here’s Metcalfe: “The Houston/Baytown/Huntsville region comes in eighth place for most ozone-polluted cities in America, as ranked by the American Lung Association. Persistently sunny weather, a battalion of petrochemical facilities and scads of fuming cars on the road make Houston a nightmare for anyone who’s chemically sensitive. For these folks, walking outside is like playing a lower-stakes version of Russian roulette, with 30 to 40 days of the year fogged with hazardous levels of ozone.” [Cities; previously on Swamplot] Map: Cities
THE MULLET MANAGES TO PAY RENT 
The graffiti training ground known as The Mullet spent much of this week pleading on Facebook for donations to help cover $2,000 in rent and avoid a lock out of the repainted warehouse at 10902 Kingspoint Rd. between Fuqua and Almeda Genoa Rd., reports the Houston Chronicle‘s Francisca Ortega, but it appears that the spraypainting will be able to go on a little while longer: “After making the plea they received about $800 from about 10 different donors. A benefactor then agreed to cover the rest. . . . With the next 30 days of rent covered, [co-curator Justin] Hinojosa said they are looking forward to next month and raising money to help cover the final facility structural improvements.” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Candace Garcia
WEINGARTEN RESPONDS: HEY, IT’S NOT US, IT’S MARFRELESS 
The make-out den behind the blue door says it’s closing because of the “rising cost of doing business” in the River Oaks Shopping Center, but landlords Weingarten Realty don’t see it that way — or at least that’s what an email sent yesterday to the Houston Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff says: “It was Marfreless’ decision to cease their operations at River Oaks Shopping Center. Weingarten Realty has made several attempts to contact the tenant to continue discussions but we have not been able to get a response. We remain open to discussing a lease extension and agreement.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user jmcgeough
ROGER GOODELL: 2,500 EXTRA PARKING SPACES DOES SOUND PRETTY GOOD 
The study paid for by the Texans and the Rodeo that found the Astrodome could be torn down and replaced with 2,500 parking spots for $29 million — the one Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said he’s putting on his shelf — has apparently made its way to the desk of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who seems to have crunched the numbers in light of Houston’s impending bid to host the 2017 Super Bowl. Goodell, reports the Houston Chronicle‘s John McClain, says he doesn’t want to get involved in the dome demo drama right before getting involved: “That issue is for the community to decide, but I think having an extra 2,500 parking spaces would enhance Houston’s bid.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Russell Hancock
Could it be . . . time? A reader claims to have spotted the first inside-the-Loop Dunkin’ Donuts — or at least the future home of it. Last spring, franchise group 521 Interests announced plans to open 16 new Dunkin’ Donuts in Houston; this photo taken this morning in Montrose at the corner of South Shepherd and Fairview shows what might be the first of those, now that the former Arby’s is festooned with the donut makers’ orange and pink signage. Claiming, among other achievements in food and beverage, to be the nation’s top bagel retailer, Dunkin’ Donuts will be just a block and a half away from the Hot Bagel Shop.
- Previously on Swamplot: Dunkin’ Donuts’ Big Texas Push, Dunkin’ Donuts Coming Back to Bellaire
Photo: Swamplot inbox
So the excavator is sneaking up on the old Fiesta. You knew one was coming. And you know there will be more. As of this morning, the low-slung building at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama hasn’t yet received a demolition permit, but it’s been on the smashing block since closing in July, not too long after H-E-B opened the Montrose Market across the street. Developer Marvy Finger, who now owns the property here in Lancaster Place, has said he plans to build something Mediterranean — a 6- to 8-story apartment complex that might or might not have some retail, too: “We’re going to try to create something really beautiful,” he’s told the Houston Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff.
- Previously on Swamplot: Scenes from the Dunlavy Fiesta Farewell Shopping Experience, Montrose Fiesta on Dunlavy Will Close Forever in Less Than a Month, Montrose Fiesta Building Owners: That Variance Is for Future Generations, The Montrose Fiesta Is Over: Here Comes Lancaster Square, West Ave-Style Apartments and Retail Planned for Dunlavy Fiesta Site?, Dunlavy and West Alabama: The Fiesta Antiques District
Photo: Loves swamplot
THE END COMING FOR MARFRELESS IN RIVER OAKS And the low-light, low-key make-out den behind that signless blue door in the River Oaks Shopping Center says it’s closing at the end of March in a press release quoted here in the Houston Chronicle: “Marfreless’s owners have been trying to do whatever they could to keep the bar operational but other entities involved weren’t budging in regards to the rising cost of doing business, making it impossible to keep the business at this location.” Serving martinis and discreetly turning the other way as couples have gone at it for 40 years, Marfreless says it’s looking for another location. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Flickr user jmcgeough
- 825 Bayland Ave. [HAR]
APARTMENTS IN OLD HUMBLE OIL BUILDING DOWNTOWN TO GO THE WAY OF ITS HOTEL NEIGHBORS 
Back in 2003, 2 of the 3Â Humble Oil buildings at 1212 Main and Dallas St. were turned into hotels. The oil-to-hospitality transformation will soon be complete, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker: A Maryland company has acquired the 3 buildings for about $80 million and says it will convert the last of them into another hotel. Presently, that tower at 914 Dallas St. holds 82 apartments. By 2015, reports Zucker, it will become a 166-room SpringHill Suites, joining the 191-room Courtyard and the 171-room Residence Inn — each of which is now dubbed a “Houston Downtown Convention Center” hotel. [Houston Business Journal]Â Photo: Wikimedia Commons
JUDGE EMMETT NOT IMPRESSED BY TEXANS, RODEO PLAN TO DEMOLISH THE ASTRODOME 
A study paid for by the Houston Texans and the Livestock Show and Rodeo has determined that tearing down the Astrodome will cost a hair more than $29 million, reports Fox 26, but Harris County judge Ed Emmett doesn’t seem all that moved by the study’s finding: “Unless there’s something there I didn’t see when it came across my desk, all I saw were two or three options for how to demolish it and turn it into a parking lot. I know that’s their position. I’m not denigrating it, but that doesn’t really move the ball anywhere.” And what’s Emmett going to do with the study? “Read it and put it on a shelf. . . . It’s not meaningful at all.” [Fox 26; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia
UNMARKED GRAVES UNCOVERED IN DICKINSON AFRICAN-AMERICAN CEMETERY 
Over the weekend, volunteers clearing brush and whacking weeds at the Magnolia Cemetery, the African-American cemetery between League City and Dickinson near FM 646 and Highway 3, found hundreds of unmarked graves that date back before the Emancipation Proclamation. Now, reports abc13’s Erik Barajas, the Galveston County Historical Commission is working to identify the graves as the cemetery seeks state designation and protection as a historic site: Pastor William H. King III of Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, behind which sits Magnolia Cemetery, tells Barajas: “‘There are slaves buried here. There are people from World War I, World War II, school teachers, people who worked in the community. . . . We want to make sure.'” [abc13] Photo: USGenWeb
Hines has confirmed that it will be putting up something new — maybe this glow stick of an office building, maybe not — at 609 Main, just north of the former MainPlace, now BG Group Pipe Wrench. Pickard Chilton, says Hines, will design a 41-story, 815,000-sq.-ft. office tower just as soon as an anchor tenant is signed. This view of the rendering released this week seems to look south toward the Hines-owned downtown block bound by Main, Texas, Fannin, and Capitol. Now, half that block is an $8 a day parking lot. If you look closely at the rendering, you’ll see an Apple logo just to the left of that entrance teepee. Whether that will actually be a new Apple store is not confirmed — and anyway, before anything new can come in, Hines will have to tear down what’s already there: The unoccupied Texas Tower, the former Sterling Building, at 608 Fannin:
