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Friday, September 5, 2008

Cisterns and Balcony Bikes: What You’ll See at the Mirabeau B.

September 5, 2008 – 10:00 am

Rendering of Mirabeau B. Condos, 2410 Waugh Dr., Hyde Park, Montrose, Houston

How could anyone hope to top the opening line of River Oaks Examiner reporter Kirsten Salyer’s story about the Mirabeau B. condos?

Pigs flew over Hyde Park as residents and developers came together to promote Houston’s first green condominium.

This full-priced condo building is slated for the former site of Half Price Books, at the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh in Montrose. The 4-story development will have 14 units, priced mostly from $400,000 to $600,000 — though one penthouse unit will go for a cool million.

If they can sell 6, developer Joey Romano tells Salyer, they’ll actually build it!

And here’s some of the promised greenishness: The Mirabeau B. will leave 5 large oak trees and a large open space on the site. There’ll be a green roof, a solar array to shade one of the walkways, and cisterns to capture runoff. Harvest Moon Development says it’ll use low-flow plumbing fixtures, low-E glass, and low-VOC paints. A single central heating-and-cooling system to save energy. Attention to natural light in each unit. An in-condo recycling area. And actual native plants!

Plus a few more things that go with the hoped-for LEED-Silver rating: 10 percent of all building materials will contain recycled content, and 20 percent will come from within 500 miles. Half of all construction waste will be recycled.

What’s the punchline? How about . . . the architecture firm is from Austin?

More images of the Mirabeau B. below!

Continue Reading This Story >

10:00 am | 6 Comments | Read more about Condos, Construction Materials, Development Strategy, Environmental, Green Design and Development, Neighborhoods: Hyde Park, Neighborhoods: Montrose, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing
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Monday, July 28, 2008

Granite Countertops Are Hot!

July 28, 2008 – 11:41 am

Granite Countertops

Weary of so many drab and formulaic new kitchens boasting granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances? Thanks to a miracle of modern science journalism, design help is on the way. The tyranny of the knee-jerk Kitchen redo formula may soon be over!

The “Your Granite Countertop May Be Radioactive or Emit Radon” meme got a major boost in the media last week, as an article in the New York Times and separate reports from a Rice University nuclear physicist spawned fears among consumers — and dismissive retorts from industry spokespersons.

No need to panic: Your countertop may not be emitting enough radiation to cook the food you put on it. But hey, maybe you should have your surface tested? The idea of bringing a Geiger counter along on your Home Depot shopping trips conjures up so many exciting possibilities!

Whether the latest concerns indicate a pointless consumer scare or an actual health hazard, the writing is on the wall for the granite-countertop trend, which jumped the shark long ago. In Houston — which has no stone naturally, but where builders love to follow design trends long abandoned elsewhere — they were always a strange import. Cliche-weary designers will likely promote radon-and-radiation fears just to get fashion-handicapped clients to try something else. And solid-surface competitors will only be too happy to take advantage of the situation. But if the 2-decades-long granite-surface craze finally ends, how long will their “Looks Just Like Granite” surfaces be attractive to buyers?

Photo: A2D Construction

11:41 am | 7 Comments | Read more about Air Quality, Construction Materials, Environmental, Hazards, Interiors
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Friday, July 25, 2008

Back in the Waterway, Everyone!

July 25, 2008 – 2:07 pm
   

City Council voted earlier this week to relax restrictions on the construction and renovation of homes in frequently flooded areas. The restrictions had been enacted quietly 2 years ago and protested by floodway residents ever since. “Under the revised rules, permits for construction on vacant land in floodways will be issued only if the building uses a pier and beam rather than a slab foundation, and if the applicant pays for any necessary mitigation, [deputy public works director Andy] Icken said.” [Houston Chronicle]

2:07 pm | 1 Comment | Read more about Development Restrictions, Environmental, Flooding, Quicklink
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Hogg Bird Sanctuary Park: Mowing the City’s Back Yard

June 25, 2008 – 10:07 am

Some residents of Glen Cove St. have been encroaching on the Hogg Bird Sanctuary with their lawnmowers and destroying the birds’ habitat, complains an area resident. The sanctuary is nominally a part of Memorial Park, but is adjacent to Bayou Bend, the former Ima Hogg estate.

Abc13’s Miya Shay comments:

there are about a dozen homes whose own lawn shares a border line with the sanctuary. One of the women who actually lives there is complaining her some of her neighbors are mowing the grass, and putting up a hammock in what is technically city property. Instead of respecting land deeded by the Hogg Foundation, the neighbors are using the land as their own property.. for free.. forget the birds. As you can imagine, some folks are not so happy about it.. and demanding that the Parks department do a little more than just send angry letters and putting up “do not mow” signs….

Shay reports that City Council wants to get to the bottom of it . . . and maybe store some construction equipment in the sanctuary too!

10:07 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Environmental, Gardening, Neighborhoods: Crestwood, Parks, Trees, Wildlife
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Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Just Listed: Little Green Rehab in the Sixth Ward

March 4, 2008 – 11:47 pm

706 W. Sawyer St., Old Sixth Ward, Houston

It’s a little old bungalow on a small lot . . . but it’s clean and green inside! The sellers of this 2-bedroom, 1 1/2-bath, 960-sq.-ft. home say they’re trying to get this Sixth Ward home LEED certified:

The 1920 facade has been preserved, but when you open the door, its all about 21st century. The hm has been renovated using non toxic materials, low VOC paint & sustainable design materials.

A neighbor who watched the work reports the house was sold to the current owners as a teardown:

It was a nasty, dirty, filthy, funky house with a garage in the front yard. They tore the garage off the front, moved the house around on the lot a tad, and have done an outstanding renovation.

Plus: the neighbors are very very quiet, says our correspondent. The house is next to Glenwood Cemetery.

Read on for more pics, from before and after!

Continue Reading This Story >

11:47 pm | Read more about Construction Materials, Development Strategy, Environmental, Green Design and Development, Historic Preservation, Homes for Sale, Neighborhoods: Old Sixth Ward, Real Estate Marketing, Renovations
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Thursday, February 14, 2008

And the Nighttime View Is Simply Stunning!

February 14, 2008 – 3:15 pm

Georgia Gulf Nighttime View

Available now: A whopping 286.4 acres of lovely and historic waterfront property . . . inside Beltway 8! Easy freeway access. Close to . . . everything! Sealed bids are being accepted until April 7th.

Cushman & Wakefield, the real estate firm listing the site, said the property contains some of the last remaining large tracts of . . . land with water frontage in the Gulf Coast region.

This sounds almost too good to be true.

Photo: Georgia Gulf

3:15 pm | Read more about Environmental, Industrial Properties, Land Sales, Neighborhoods: Pasadena, Real Estate Marketing
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Thursday, December 27, 2007

The Leaky Lakes of Crown Oaks

December 27, 2007 – 11:31 am

Lake at Crown Oaks, ConroeThe charms of gated acreage near Lake Conroe: large, wooded lakefront homesites, plus only a 25 minute commute . . . to The Woodlands! Oh, and if we’re talking about 1400-acre Crown Oaks in Montgomery County, lots of lawsuits, too!

Last year, the Crown Oaks Property Owners Association, along with individual homeowners, sued Affiliated Crown Development LTD, citing poor structure of the two manmade lakes in the development, located outside Montgomery.

But so much has happened since then: After new board members decided the developer would finally work with them to solve the lakes’ problems, the property owners association dropped its suit this fall. But now two groups of 10 individual homeowners have hired separate legal teams to continue their lawsuit against the developer. And in turn, the developer is now suing the engineering and construction firms it hired to build the dams on both lakes.

But there’s even more lawsuit fun:

“The POA tried to get out of the suit as a plaintiff, so my group has also sued them,” [homeowner attorney Kevin] Forsberg said. “The individuals were not satisfied. … Even though the POA started working with the developer in the hopes that the lakes would be fixed, nothing has actually been done.”

What’s it like to build your home on a lake that doesn’t bother to show up? Thanks to the amazing power of the internets, you can experience all the highs and lows of manmade-lakefront real-estate investing yourself — from the comfort of your own computer! Watch videos and read details of the whole dam story . . . after the jump!

Continue Reading This Story >

11:31 am | Read more about Environmental, Flooding, Hazards, Homeowners' Associations, Lakes, Land Development, Landscape, Master-Planned Communities, Montgomery County, Neighborhoods: Crown Oaks, Real Estate Marketing
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Thursday, December 6, 2007

Fifth Ward: New Urbanists Meet Old Toxic Waste

December 6, 2007 – 2:35 pm

Residences at Seventh at 5th, by DPZ

A reader who lives in the neighborhood points us to drawings and information from New Urbanist planners Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co. about the firm’s designs for the former MDI Superfund site in the Fifth Ward. DPZ, of course, is most famous for the enormous small-town-sized stage-set the company designed for the 1998 Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show, which became so popular that it was kept on and is now used as a Florida Panhandle resort named Seaside.

InTown Homes and Lovett Homes owner Frank Liu bought the MDI site — a former metal foundry and spent-catalyst “recycling” facility famously polluted with lead and several thousand chemistry sets’ worth of other toxic substances — from the EPA late last year, with promises that he’ll spend a couple of years and $6.7 million remediating the property before letting Houstonians live there. Still, 36+ acres of inner-loop land at $5 a square foot doesn’t sound like too bad a deal.

After the jump: a look at DPZ’s MDI plans, plus large grains of salt.

Continue Reading This Story >

2:35 pm | Read more about Development Strategy, Environmental, Hazards, Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward, Proposed Developments, Toxic Sites
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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Planting Grass Over Their Heads

October 9, 2007 – 4:19 pm

Green Roof at UH’s Burdette Keeland Design and Exploration Center

Will something like this be coming soon to a home near you? Up now: a green roof atop a renovated building that will serve as a fabrication shop for architecture and industrial design students at the University of Houston. Unlike most of Houston’s (few) commercial and institutional buildings with a planted roof, this one has a slope to it.

Photo of Burdette Keeland Jr. Design and Exploration Center: Green Team Houston

4:19 pm | Read more about Construction Materials, Environmental, Gardening, Green Design and Development, Institutional Buildings, Renovations
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Tuesday, September 18, 2007

When Bats Attack Your Home

September 18, 2007 – 9:07 am

Ever wonder what it would be like if hundreds of mating-season-crazed bats infested your home? If your home happens to be a men’s dorm at Texas Southern University, there’s no need to imagine.

Yes, last weekend was batting practice time again at TSU’s Lanier Hall East dormitory. Before the 211 students living there were moved into area hotels, some of them got in a few swings, as documented in this YouTube video. Sure, the delivery may have included some wild pitches, but the bats may also have been throwing rabies spitballs.

Extermination teams are reportedly working on clearing out the (now obviously mosquito-free) dorm.

9:07 am | Read more about Environmental, Hazards, Neighborhoods: TSU
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Thursday, August 2, 2007

Airport Living

August 2, 2007 – 2:24 pm

The Williams Home at Hooks AirportContinental pilot Stephen Williams and his wife Nancy are the proud owners of one of several homes built in airplane hangars at Hooks Airport, a private airfield in Spring.

Initially, the Williamses wanted to add on to a Hooks Airport hangar they owned which contained a small apartment. But that plan was rejected by the FAA because it would have been too close to the runway.

They worked with Architect Kyle Cox to create their new 3,300-sf hangar-home.

At the top of the spiral staircase is the pinnacle of this unique home. The tower room is complete with a 360-degree set of windows, providing guests an overview of the airport. It has a steel catwalk that adds to the design, and provides visitors a chance to step outside to enjoy the view as well as the weather. The room also houses a bar and a dumbwaiter to make entertaining simple.

“We put in the things that we wanted. I wanted a nice cooking area,” Nancy said.

With a host of friends and a community full of fellow aviation enthusiasts living at Hooks Airport is nothing short of spectacular. “It’s a neat, quiet community,” Nancy said. “We love it here.”

Photo: 1960 Sun Group

2:24 pm | Read more about Airports, Development Restrictions, Development Strategy, Environmental, Home Design, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Spring, New Construction: Residential, Transportation
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Friday, June 22, 2007

Here Come the Franchise Biodiesel Plants

June 22, 2007 – 7:55 am

Biodiesel Production Plant in Carl’s Corner, TexasSure, everybody’s excited about biodiesel because it’s new and rare. But just wait until smelly biodiesel production plants start littering the landscape like fast-food franchises.

If you’ve got $1.95 million, you can set one up too. A company out of Florida is selling “prepackaged,” turnkey biodiesel plants from a German factory. Let them come, and they will build it:

As part of its business-in-a-box plan, Xenerga promises long-term, exclusive deals to purchase waste cooking oil from a network of suppliers whose clients include McDonald’s Corp. and Chili’s Grill & Bar. Xenerga’s supply side also focuses on rendered animal fats like beef tallow, chicken grease and pig fat, all of which are plentiful in Texas.

Interest from this region has been strong, the company told the Houston Business Journal: a plant in west Houston is planned already.

Xenerga also promises to deliver customers willing to buy the estimated 5 million gallons of biodiesel per year that the plants produce.

Each Xenerga plant only takes up half an acre, requires two employees at a time, and can be sited almost anywhere from light industrial parks to rural farmland.

Photo: Biodiesel production plant in Carl’s Corner, Texas, by flickr user Nicola Matsukis

7:55 am | Read more about Alternative Energy, Environmental, Green Design and Development
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Thursday, June 14, 2007

Residents Living Over Contaminated Groundwater Shocked To Learn They Won’t Be Allowed To Drill Wells

June 14, 2007 – 11:44 am

One of the more fascinating EPA Superfund sites in the Houston area is a neighborhood off Jones Road just north of FM1960. Residents who had earlier appreciated how convenient it was to drop off their dry cleaning at nearby Bell Cleaners began to regret that benefit in 2002 when the TCEQ announced that the local drinking water was laced with nasty levels of dry-cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, or PCE.

That was bad. But now it’s even worse: These residents will now be prohibited from drilling their own wells to drink the local groundwater!

Coalition members said they recently learned Harris County officials would not allow anymore water wells to be drilled in the Jones Road Superfund site, which covers the Evergreen Woods and Edgewood Estates neighborhoods west of Jones Road and north of FM 1960, and some commercial properties east of Jones Road.

“We understand that Harris County is putting health concerns above everything else, but several residents out here believed they could drill another well into a deeper aquifer if they needed to, and now that is not an option,” said Jones Road Coalition board member Ron O’Farrell.

According to a Houston Chronicle story, only 124 out of approximately 400 neighborhood property owners signed up for a proposed pipeline to bring uncontaminated drinking water into the area. But now, after a Harris County order banning new wells—and the recent discovery of trace elements of vinyl chloride in existing residential wells—some residents are saying they want to re-open the signup period.

Why were they so reluctant to sign up for a supply of nontoxic water in the first place?

Coalition members said there are two primary reasons some residents are concerned about signing the agreement that would allow them to hook up to the water pipeline. One clause in that agreement requires residents to permanently cap their individually owned groundwater wells, and the other gives the state unlimited access to their property during the project and remediation effort.

“I would not mind paying a fee for the tap and paying a plumber, or whomever it takes, on my own to tap in to the pipeline as long as I don’t have to sign the agreement ad give them complete access to my land,” said Donald Haus, and Edgewood Estates resident.

11:44 am | Read more about Development Restrictions, Environmental, Neighborhoods: Fallbrook Greens, Neighborhoods: Tower Oaks, Toxic Sites, Water Quality
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Friday, June 1, 2007

Galveston Beaches: Everybody Back in the Water!

June 1, 2007 – 11:37 am

Galveston Beach

Phew! It’s okay to get back in the water at Galveston beaches. Those high levels of Enterococcus bacteria reported on Wednesday, indicating high levels of fecal matter, are gone. Everything’s back to normal!

Where does all that shit come from, anyway? Sewage treatment plants, septic tanks, boating waste, and storm water runoff, among other sources. Says the Texas General Land Office:

Water contact should be avoided for 48 hours following periods of heavy, prolonged rainfall.

Thanks for the tip, guys! You can track bacteria levels daily with a handy interactive map tool at the Texas General Land Office’s Beach Watch website. (Their happy slogan: “Check the Net Before You Get Wet!”) Other bacteria to watch out for: various species of Vibrio, which cause a few deaths a year. But don’t worry—you won’t need to check the net for Vibrio levels, because they aren’t monitored at all.

Photo: flickr user rodlkennedy

11:37 am | Read more about Environmental, Galveston, Water Quality
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Thursday, May 17, 2007

What’s To Like About Oak Ridge North: It’s Mostly Green and Lights Up with Chicken Fat

May 17, 2007 – 10:19 am

Home in Oak Ridge North

Since February, about half the residents of Oak Ridge North, a small city just across I-45 from the Woodlands, have been getting their electricity from chicken fat. The nation’s first entirely biodiesel-generated electrical plant, run by Biofuels Power Corp., supplies power to the community. The fuel comes from a sister company, Safe Renewables, which runs a plant two miles away that can create biodiesel from vegetable oils too. But chicken fat is apparently plentiful around here, so Oak Ridge north gets powered by schmaltz.

The power facility has the capacity to produce approximately 5 MW of electricity using three used diesel Caterpillar generators that act as a single source of power. At full load, they use 72 gallons of biodiesel per MW hour. An interesting feature is that waste heat from the generators is used to keep the fuel tank warm and prevent . . . the biodiesel from gelling. The company is experimenting with various additives to decrease emissions and increase efficiency. “We hope to get down to 60 gallons per megawatt hour,” Crimmins says.

When’s poultry power coming to the rest of Houston? Well, there’s that pesky nitrogen-oxide-that-becomes-ozone emissions problem. We hope they’ll be able to keep that French fry smell out of the AC, too.

Photo: xgray’s childhood home in Oak Ridge North

10:19 am | Read more about Air Quality, Environmental, Neighborhoods: Oak Ridge North, Utilities
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