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06/08/16 5:15pm

Yet Another Trade Offer for Mike James’s Rivercrest Mansion

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Rivercrest
9 Comments

2 E. Rivercrest Dr., Rivercrest, Houston, 77042

2 E. Rivercrest Dr., Rivercrest, Houston, 77042

Remember that home that was being built in Rivercrest for twice-former Rocket Mike James when he got traded away (the second time) back in 2008? The one that looked uncannily like the Royal Oaks home of Juwon Howard, for whom the Timberwolves swapped James back down to Houston? The pricetag on the 11,384-sq.-ft. home, with full-size regulation basketball court included, is set at $6 million as of the property’s late-May reemergence onto the market. The house was listed at just under $7.5 million back in September 2014 (after reportedly being shopped around for $8 million previously) and was pulled in December of last year following a half-million drop. 

The new listing mentions hydrotherapy immersion tanks, a putting green, and the pool below:

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Home Court Advantage
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Featured Posts
06/08/16 11:30am

Signs of the Glass House Montrose Condo Midrise Fading Away

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First Montrose Commons
7 Comments

3516 Montrose Blvd., First Montrose Commons, Houston, 77006 3516 Montrose Blvd., First Montrose Commons, Houston, 77006The west wall has been breached at 3615 Montrose Blvd., where Riverway had previously planned to break ground on a Philip Johnson/Alan Ritchie Glass House-themed condo midrise this spring. The 130-ft. sign (per a city inspector’s disapproving measurement) advertising the most recent condominium project planned for the corner at Marshall St. has been blacked out for about a month, according to a reader surveying the empty corner lot from above.

The comparatively tiny sales center sign is missing altogether; the same round of March inspection ticketing asked for it to be removed from the property. Also gone: HAR’s sales listings for the building’s individual units, which the site indicates were also removed around the end of April and the beginning of May.

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Montrose at Marshall
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Downtown
06/07/16 2:45pm

Former Chronicle Building Tunnel Back Open During Demo Limbo

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No Comments

Proposed Prairie Tunnel Map, per Theater Square lawsuit filings

The management at 717 Louisiana St. has sent out word to tenants that the tunnel segment beneath the vacated downtown Houston Chronicle building is now open again, even though the newspaper’s former headquarters at 801 Texas Ave. are still standing on top of it. Documents filed with the Harris County district clerk’s office show that Hines agreed to hold off on the demo for a while, after Linbeck’s Theater Square group filed a lawsuit to stop them.

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Downtown Downtime
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Featured Posts
06/07/16 12:45pm

River Oaks Baptist Conversion of Unemployed Former Walgreen’s Site Now Underway

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Highland Village
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Demolition of former Walgreen's at 3900 Westheimer Rd., Highland Village, Houston, 77027

The walls and roof of the former Walgreen’s at 3900 Westheimer Rd. are now being teased apart into the tangle above, following the issuance last week of a demolition permit for the 1975 structure. River Oaks Baptist School bought the property in April of last year, around the time Walgreen’s jumped eastward across the intersection of Westheimer and Weslayan/Willowick to inhabit the former Fresh Market space (where it now operates next to what turned out to be a Texas Emergency Care Center neighboring the River Oaks branch of Mattress Firm).

Here’s another angle on the teardown, with the 1963 Willowick Condominiums tower peeking over the scene in the background:

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Born Again in Highland Village
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Brazoria County
06/06/16 5:30pm

Exciting New Type of Water Problem Announced in Flood-Weary Fort Bend County

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Flooding, Fort Bend County
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Flooding along FM 521, Brazoria County, TX 77515

Fort Bend County Boil Notice Area, June 6Residents of the Rio Brazos area near Cumings Rd. north of Rosharon are being advised as of this afternoon to boil their tap water until further notice, while the Fort Bend County Fresh Water Supply District 2 sorts out possible problems stemming from a flood-related loss of water pressure in the network. (The map included here has been added to the Fort Bend County emergency office’s Facebook page following a brief online outpouring of confusion as to what neighborhoods the warning was actually targeting.)

Meanwhile, TXDOT is still listing dozens of miles of roadways as covered by to high water as of this morning, with more closures expected as Brazos floodwaters drain southwest toward Angleton and Freeport. Here’s Brazoria County’s latest worst case scenario potential floodmap, with the county’s mandatory evacuation zones now stretching across more than 15 miles from roughly Brazos Bend State Park to the outskirts of Angleton:

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Water, Water Everywhere
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Featured Posts
06/06/16 12:15pm

Cane Rosso’s Heights Spot Opening Today Right After Niko Niko’s Spring Branch Branch

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Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Spring Branch
6 Comments

Cane Rosso, 1835 N. Shepherd Dr., Houston Heights, 77008

Following a few months of permit angst and the placement of a red pig in the parking lot, the N. Shepherd location of Dallas-import pizza join Cane Rosso says it will open this evening at 5pm. Cane Rosso’s other planned Houston spot is still getting worked over on Yoakum St. at Richmond Ave.

Just beating it to the punch this afternoon is the even-longer-delayed 4th location of  Niko Niko’s Greek & American Bakery & Cafe, opening at 3pm in the former Chili’s building across the parking lot from Houston Community College’s Spring Branch campus:

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Ovens Finally at the Ready
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Featured Posts
06/06/16 10:30am

Former Fiesta Site Preps for Teardown as Heights Dry Zone Petitioners Circle

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Houston Heights
19 Comments

Former Fiesta Mart, 2300 N. Shepherd, Houston Heights, Houston, 77008

Fiesta at 2300 N. Shepherd Dr., Houston Heights, Houston, 77008The glowing parrot and red neon lettering previously decorating the front of the former Fiesta Mart at 2300 N. Shepherd Dr. have been traded out for a construction fence and a few streamers of festive caution tape. A pre-demo permit to disconnect the 1965 building’s plumbing was issued near the end of May, and a reader snapped the top photo of the site during a break in Friday’s rain.

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Cleanup on 23rd
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Featured Posts
06/03/16 12:45pm

Watch 7 Months of Kirby Collection Construction Race Into Place in 30 Seconds

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Upper Kirby
1 Comment

A very quick summary of a long, long peek over the construction fence at Kirby Dr. and Colquitt St. shows the progress to date on the mixed-use Kirby Collection development. Developer Thor Equities has been working over the former site of the Kirby funeral bars since last fall, and has reached the top level of the complex’s parking garage. Thor plans to have the main skeleton of the office tower done by November and to put the last structural bits of the ellipse-footed residential tower in place by early 2017.

Video: Thor Equities

Making Short Work Of It
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Featured Posts
06/03/16 11:15am

Former Gaslamp Spot Turns Into 360, 90 Degrees To the Left

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Midtown
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360 Skybar Patio, 500 McIlhenny St., Midtown, Houston, 77006

Some things have changed in the last few months at the corner of Brazos and McIlhenny streets in Midtown, where scandal-embroiled nightclub Gaslamp appears to have shut down to make way for a newly-opened bar called 360. The Gaslamp sign is gone, and the building’s new Facebook page also lists it as located at Google-baggage-free 500 McIlhenny instead of 2400 Brazos (though the number 2400 was still in place over the door as of last week).

The former second-floor club-within-a-club Elysium space upstairs appears to have been redecorated as well, and to have picked up the name The Hamptons. Other things remain the same, however — for example, the photo posted last week of 360’s rooftop patio (above) is remarkably similar to a view from the rooftop previously posted to Gaslamp’s webpage (below):

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Midtown Makeover
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Brookshire
06/02/16 10:30am

What the Brazos River Looks Like When It Shatters All Previous Flood Gauge Records

by
Flooding, Richmond, Rosenberg
5 Comments

may-31-flooding-FM-723-rosenberg-2

TxDOT has been doing some circling around over the thoroughly soaked Brazos River valley this week grabbing a few snapshots, including some taken yesterday morning as 31 East and Central Texas counties picked up flood-related disaster declarations from the governor’s office. Running north-to-south (right-to-left) under the murky waters shown above is FM 723 in Rosenberg, TX; you can spot the bridge rising up to cross the river’s normal channel on the left side of the photo, while SH 36 stretches away to the northwest.

Flash- and non-flash flood warnings are in effect around the region through at least Friday night, depending on how intense the rest of this week’s predicted downpours turn out to be. Meanwhile, the already-feet-past-the-previous-record flood gauge at nearby Richmond, TX, is still creeping upward this morning toward 55 ft.:

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Water Under the Bridges
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Featured Posts
06/01/16 4:45pm

Is This What That Rice Opera House That Diller Scofidio + Renfro Was Going To Design Will Look Like?

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Rice University
24 Comments

Proposed Opera House, Rice University, Houston, 77005

Proposed Opera House, Rice University, Houston, 77005A set of unattended display posters spotted during Rice University’s graduation weekend appear to show interior and exterior renderings of the campus’s planned opera house. The drawings (which were reportedly laid out somewhere in would-be-next-door Shepherd School of Music’s building) included a campus site plan showing the rendered structure’s footprint in place between the existing music school and the remaining stadium-side parking lots.

Rice announced back in early 2014 that Diller Scofidio + Renfro would be the architect for the project — but this design doesn’t really look like the kinds of projects DS+R is known for. DS+R hasn’t yet responded to Swamplot’s attempts to confirm whether or not the firm is still involved.

Included with the presentation materials was the foamcore model below, which renders the building’s ornate exterior details in full 2D and demonstrates some additional landscaping options:

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Lifting the Curtain
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Featured Posts
06/01/16 1:45pm

MaRS’s Answer to Chronic Board Meeting Nappers

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Furniture
4 Comments

Design for convertible sitting and standing conference table from MaRS

First order of business at all future meetings around Motile: achieve full consensus on table height. The rendering above from Mayfield and Ragni Studio shows the Houston architecture and design firm’s plan for an adjustable conference table, allowing working teams to alternate at will between sitting and standing (so long as they can unanimously agree on exactly when to do so). The table is headed for this summer’s NeoCon design trade show, where it’s in the running for a HiP award; if you like the idea, the trade show’s online voting system appears to still be operational (though the voting period appears to have formally ended yesterday).

Renderings: MaRS

Table the Motion
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Featured Posts
06/01/16 11:00am

A Peek Inside the Half-Baked Krispy Kreme near NRG Stadium

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South Main
12 Comments

3055 S Loop W Fwy., South Main, Houston, TX 77054

The jutting, Tyvek-wrapped facade of the under-construction Krispy Kreme donut shop at 3055 S. Loop W. has looked like this for a while now, says a reader curious about the store’s progress. Following the North Carolina pastry chain’s complete retreat from the area in 2006 after a lawsuit with its main regional franchisee, the company opened 2 new Houston stores in 2015, though the announced-then-retracted February grand opening date of the Hwy. 6 location turned out to be much more December-ish than originally planned.

Eater attributed the slow-off-the-line opening to permitting delays, though regional franchise manager Guillermo Perales told the HBJ that the delays had to do with fears that the crowds would be too large for the store’s originally-planned infrastructure to handle. As for the South Main store? Posted to the inside of the front window is a highlighted letter from October documenting the donut stand’s theoretical ability to withstand hurricane-strength winds:

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Slow Rise in South Main
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Featured Posts
05/31/16 3:45pm

This Week’s Aldi Grand Opening Heralded by Tree Mutilation Spree Out Front on Bissonnet

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Robindell
21 Comments

Bissonnet at Beechnut streets, Robindell, Houston, 77074

Just in time for Thursday’s Aldi opening in a former strip center in Robindell, a reader sends photos of the newly de-limbed oaks along the edge of the grocery store’s new parking lot (looking along Bissonnet St. northeast from the intersection with Beechnut). Area residents on NextDoor claim the hacking occurred early Sunday morning, noting also that some fresh baby trees have been planted along the same stretch of road. Here’s another view down the same sidewalk, catching both the saplings and the stumps:

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Robindell
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Featured Posts
05/31/16 2:15pm

Texas Children’s Facilities To Be Parked Next to Stationary Bernie’s Burger Bus Between 22nd and 23rd

by
Houston Heights
7 Comments

2200 Yale St., Heights, Houston, 77008

The latest addition to the street-fronting retail strip planned for the former Alabama Furniture Store site at 2200 Yale St. appears to be a pair of Texas Children’s urgent and less-urgent care facilities. The medical groups are named as tenants in a pair of Braun Enterprises leasing documents filed with the county (which include the 90-degrees-off siteplan above). That’s the planned 3rd non-mobile location of Bernie’s Burger Bus shown on the far right, at the south end of the strip; the other 2 children-themed businesses are shown taking up the remaining 13,112 sq.ft. of leasable space in the center.

A 68-spot parking lot is depicted behind the Yale-facing center, which runs between W. 22nd and W. 23rd streets; the former sites of Fashion Touch Cleaners and Midtown Floors were permitted for destruction about the same time as the now-departed furniture store.

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Assigning Seats on Yale St.
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