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Cypress
04/05/16 10:00am

A View from the Heavens of the Literal Crossing at Towne Lake in Cypress

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Lakes
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The Crossing, Towne Lake, Cypress, TX 77433

2013 Map of The Crossing, Towne Lake, Cypress, TX 77433A high-flying reader sends this mid-March progress shot of the segment of Cypress’s Towne Lake development known as The Crossing. The other major crossing planned for nearby — a continuation of Towne Lake Pkwy. over the less-holy water feature under construction to the south and east, as shown in this selection from the development’s master plan — looks to still be in the works. The parkway will eventually connect all the way down to the Kroger just south of Tuckerton Rd. 

The site also seems to have resolved some of its earlier crises of purpose: Originally the land just north of David Anthony Middle School was labeled as a potential church, but developer Caldwell Companies appears to have opted for the secular route since the 2013 version below was published:

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Driving on Water
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Featured Posts
04/04/16 4:30pm

A Drive by the Schoolbus-Turned-Drive-Thru-Taqueria on Crown St. in Fifth Ward

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Taqueria Taconmadre at 610 Crown St., Fifth Ward, Houston, 77020

Here’s a late-afternoon shot of the drive-thru in action at Taqueria Taconmadre’s extended taco schoolbus, parked in its usual space this past weekend at the corner of Crown and Brownwood streets. The Taconmadre taqueros have been frequenting the concrete slab on the lot across the street from X-IT Bail Bonds for at least a decade, though the green vehicle employed has been upgraded from truck to bus to bus-plus during that time; the drive-thru setup was added in the most recent expansion a few years back. Those not comfortable breaking with standard foodtruck transaction protocol can still order on foot from the bus’s passenger side. 

The taqueria operates a brick-and-mortar drive-thru-or-sit-down spot at 905 Edgebrook Dr., between Ryan’s Express Dry Cleaners and Casa Tires; Taconmadre also lists Bellfort St. just west of I-45 as the normal location of another green (but non-drive-thru) truck, between dry cleaner St. Mary’s Washateria and GG’s Wheel & Tire.

Photo of Taqueria Taconmadre truck at 610 Crown St.: CW

Tacos in Idle
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Featured Posts
04/04/16 12:30pm

Prince’s Hamburgers Popping Up in the Former Jack In The Box by Waltrip High School

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Garden Oaks, Oak Forest
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Prince's Hamburgers at 3425 Ella Blvd., Garden Oaks/Oak Forest, Houston, 77018

New colors and signs now herald the coming of Prince’s Hamburgers to 3425 Ella Blvd., north of 34th St. between “Wash Me” Car Wash and the Kar Hospital. Prince’s former dominion near 59 at Weslayan is now under the rule of not-quite-an-emergency health clinic MedSpring Urgent Care, though the 1930s restaurant chain still maintains another freewayside outpost in the former Murphy’s Deli spot on I-10 between N. Kirkwood Rd. and Tully St. Prince’s underground holdings Downtown have also been relinquished, along with the diner location on N. Post Oak Blvd.

The newly marked territory on Ella shares its western border with the Waltrip High School track. Across the street from the coming is Ella Plaza, formerly home to yes-that-Swayze Swayze School of Dance and recently worked over by serial redeveloper Braun Enterprises. Looking from the strip center’s parking lot to the south, the Shipley’s donut sign can be spied rising over the horizon, as can the Sunbelt Jewelry & Loan pawn shop’s commanding sign:

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Royal Succession in Garden Oaks
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Featured Posts
04/04/16 10:00am

Hardy Yards Letters Get Roughed Up Again Under the Red Line Overpass

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Near Northside
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Hardy Yards sign, Burnett at Main St., Near Northside, Houston, 77026

The recent restoration of the Hardy Yards district sign’s upright stature and youthful good looks appears to have been short-lived — Christopher Andrews found the H sprawled flat on its back over the weekend, with a few of the other letters also looking less than fully vertical in the late-night shot above (peering east down Burnett St. from the corner with N. Main under the light-rail overpass). Metro says it’s on the case, again.

Photo of Hardy Yards signage: Christopher Andrews

N. Main at Burnett
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Featured Posts
04/01/16 11:30am

Bayouside Estate Sports Title, Tobacco Barn Floor, and $5.5 Million Price Drop in River Oaks

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3688 Willowick, Houston, 77019

Known as ‘Bayou Breeze’ to its friends, the 16,022-sq.-ft. English manor-style residence designed by architecture and landscape firm Curtis & Windham includes 6 bedrooms, 6 baths, and 2 half baths. Listed in January 2013 at $19.995 million, the house’s asking price has lowered incrementally 5 times since then, most recently falling to $14.495 million just in time for Christmas last year.

The house was built along Buffalo Bayou across from Memorial Park in 2000, but incorporates older materials (such as wood from some North Carolina tobacco barns used in the floor above, and bricks plucked from the previous house on the property).  Nods to antiquity in the furnishings come from New York interior designer Bunny Williams. The 3.71 acre lot includes a pool, a putting green, and several formal gardens.  

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Mostly Born on the Bayou
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Featured Posts
04/01/16 10:15am

City Inspector: Those Who Want You To Live In The Glass House Should Not Post 130-Ft. Signs

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First Montrose Commons
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3516 Montrose Blvd. Signs and violation notices, First Montrose Commons, Houston, 77006

3516 Montrose Blvd. Signs and violation notices, First Montrose Commons, Houston, 77006

The big blue sign wrapping around the lot at the northeast corner of Montrose Blvd. and Marshall St. got decorated with a dayglow red tag from the city this week, calling for the banner’s removal. The sign is advertising the midrise condominium building planned for the lot at 3615 Montrose, formerly the site of the River Cafe; the Philip Johnson/ Alan Ritchie design’s footprint also extends into the lot to the north, whose slated-for-destruction 1910 brick house is currently gigging as a sales center for the development. The shot above looks due south at the angled northernmost portion of the sign, toward the intersection of Montrose and W. Alabama St.

Tags from a city inspector call out the “130 x 8 x 10”-ft. ground sign, as well as its smaller next-door companion piece, which refers to the condo building as “The Glass House” (no, not that one). Here’s what the whole scene looks like from up in the air, from the Parc IV tower across Montrose:

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Montrose at Marshall
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Featured Posts
03/31/16 4:00pm

Dallas St. Redo Winds Down Before Final Four Clocks Start Running

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Dallas St. Improvements complete, Downtown, Houston, 77002

Beating the basketball crowds headed to Houston this weekend, the Downtown section of Dallas St. that’s been getting done over looks to be pretty much finished and ready for action. A reader took some shots looking both ways in front of the south entrance to the Four Seasons between Caroline and Austin streets — up top is the eastern view down Dallas, gazing toward the George R. Brown Convention Center and the catty-corner staredown between Hilton Americas and Embassy Suites from either side of Crawford. The new trees seem to line up with the spacing plans shown in the previously released project plans, which included knocking out a driving lane on the north side and turning it into parking (as the vehicles above are politely demonstrating).

Here’s the Four Seasons again from other direction — this time looking west toward Houston Center, with the First City Tower rising out of the frame on the right:

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Traveling Downtown
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Featured Posts
03/31/16 12:00pm

Tremont Tower Tarp Returns After Brief Hiatus

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WAMM
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Tremont Tower Condos, 3311 Yupon St., WAMM, Houston, 77006

A reader peers up the Westheimer-facing side of the Tremont Tower condo building, noting that the longterm resident tarp has recently settled back onto its habitual spot atop the dome behind Austin export Doc’s Bar & Grill (between Graustark and Yupon streets). The photographer previously caught the tarp neglecting its station about a month ago (shortly after that late-Feburary windy spell), giving the lemon-yellow dome its day (or few weeks) in the sun after at least a year under cover:

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Under Cover on Westheimer Rd.
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Featured Posts
03/31/16 10:30am

1939 River Oaks Mansion Seeks New Cast and $16.95 Million

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, River Oaks
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1721 River Oaks Blvd, Houston, 77019

This 3-story Georgian  rolls out the red carpet at the corner of River Oaks Blvd. and Del Monte Dr.  Its 16,931 sq. ft. include a flexible 6-to-9 bedrooms, 10 full baths, and 5 half baths.  Built in 1939 on a 1.02 acre lot, this house premiered on the market in mid-October of 2015 at the price of $16.95 million.

Ready for a close-up?

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For Your Consideration
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Featured Posts
03/30/16 4:30pm

A Look at the Hardy Yards Site Plan Now That All Those Sign Letters Are Back In Place

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Near Northside
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Hardy Yards sign, Burnett at Main St., Near Northside, Houston, 77026

Hardy Yards sign, Burnett at Main St., Near Northside, Houston, 77026

The second A, R, and D of the signage at the intersection of Burnett St. and N. Main are now back in action (up top) beneath the Red Line light-rail overpass. The letters have been patched up and sent back to their assigned places above a freshly-repaired concrete planter, following an unfriendly run-in (or -into) near the end of January (pictured second, with the A dramatically sprawled backward onto the mulch).

The sign, marking the intended redevelopment of the former Hardy Rail Yards into a mixed-use complex in Near Northside, was added as part of the street and infrastructure work that’s been going on at the 43-acre brownfield site. Some of that work is visible in the site plan for the property posted by landscape architecture and planning firm Design Workshop: 

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Near Northside
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Downtown
03/30/16 12:45pm

Crews Stash Tower Foundation Behind the Former Texaco Building for Later Use

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Foundation pour at 1111 Rusk St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Rendering of Houston Luxury Apartments, 1111 Rusk St., Downtown, Houston (3)

Above is the after shot of the foundation pour that wrapped up late yesterday morning behind the former Texaco building currently getting made over as The Star at 1111 Rusk St. The pour started around 10pm on Monday night, a reader reports from up above the scene, noting that crews have been laying rebar for the last few weeks. The square-ish foundation was put down on the western end of the rectangular footprint of the parking garage planned to run from Fannin to San Jacinto along Capitol St.; renderings released in 2013 show a residential highrise tower growing out of the top of that part of the structure.

Downtown Houston’s page on the project still shows a rendering that includes the tower, which was of undecided height (so long as it was at least 20 stories above the parking garage) as of 2013. The current project description makes no mention of the planned highrise, however, and the rendering of the project on designer Hnedak Bobo Group’s site, currently shows only the planned parking garage, with the parking capacity estimate bumped up to 750 spaces:

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Mat Pour On Capitol St.
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Featured Posts
03/30/16 10:00am

A Glimpse Behind the Shotgun Chameleon’s Adaptable Skin in Fourth Ward

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Fourth Ward
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Shotgun Chameleon, Fourth Ward, Houston

Shotgun Chameleon, Fourth Ward, Houston

From the inside out and the outside looking in, here’s a peek through the semi-see-through mesh facade of University of Houston architecture professor Zui Ng’s Shotgun Chameleon house, located just east of the intersection of Cleveland and Gillette streets in the Freedmen’s Town National Historic District. The 2-story 3-bedroom home was named Architectural Record‘s house of the month last month, and was originally designed for a 2006 expo of building ideas for post-Katrina New Orleans. The space can be used as a duplex or a split home-office setup thanks to a set of exterior stairs leading to the upper floor.

The design’s appearance can also be adapted to blend in with different neighborhoods and urban settings. The metal mesh, which covers most of the upstairs balcony on the street-facing side of the building, could provide a scaffolding for leafy cover, or could get wooden siding tacked over it to help the structure fit in with similarly-adorned neighbors. Ng says the front could even go commercial, with the upstairs hosting a billboard for a downstairs business, or go high-tech, with options ranging from solar panel arrays to breeze-catching louver arrangements.

The Chameleon is shown above between a metal-skinned contemporary house and an older wood-sided home. Here’s a view from the back side, which is shorter due to the structure’s sloped roof: 

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Blending In in Freedmen’s Town
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Ashford Forest
03/29/16 5:15pm

A Round View of the 1966 Contemporary Now For Sale on Harvest Moon Ln.

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Homes for Sale, Interiors
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907 Harvest Moon, Houston, 77077

907 Harvest Moon, Houston, 77077

Don’t let the sharp exterior angles fool you —this Harvest Moon Ln. home now on the market in Ashwood Forest is well-rounded in its interior decor. This 1966 home includes a uniquely appointed master suite, complete with period-appropriate fireplace (visible just to the right of the railing, above) and featuring extensive slate tiling.  Sold in 2011 for a little under $275,000, this 2754-sq.-ft. house boasts 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and 2 half baths; the price on the home and all of its updates has since risen to around $456,000.

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Bathroom’s on the Right
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Featured Posts
03/29/16 2:45pm

Garden Oaks West End Cleaners Makes a Sudden Break Across 290 for Westview

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Oak Forest
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West End Cleaners, 3406 N. Shepherd Dr., Garden Oaks, Houston, 77018

No, says a representative of West End Cleaners who’s been fielding calls this afternoon, the business isn’t shutting down. It’s just departing hastily from its branch location of a few more hours at the remodeled N. Shepherd strip center on 34th St. (in the spot between Pink’s Pizza and the Garden Oaks Veterinary Clinic) due to a rent hike. Plans have already been laid to land near the intersection of Westview Dr. and Silber Rd.; the business is also scouting for a new location in the old neighborhood, near 34th and Ella.

Furthermore, the rep emphasizes strongly that the clothing currently in-house will not be donated in 24 hours, as has been suggested on Facebook; all clothes will be moved over to the new location, and the business’s pickup and delivery service will continue as normal. The original actually-in-West-End location at 4918 Washington Ave is still in service, too out of service as well; the business’s phone system lists it along with additional spots in the Energy Corridor and Cinco Ranch.

Photo: ‎Isela Lopez Venecia

 

 

N. Shepherd Cleanout
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Featured Posts
03/29/16 11:00am

McGowen Cleaners For Sale on Fairview Near Restaurant-Slated Former Te House of Tea

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Vermont Commons
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1931 Fairview St., Vermont Commons, Houston, 77019

Just a few blocks northwest from the ballroom in the works on Woodhead, a reader sends a shot of the former McGowen Cleaners at 1931 Fairview St., now up for sale by NewQuest Properties. The cleaners closed shop on Friday the 13th back in November, though they allowed straggling clients to come by for their left-behind clothes through the end of last year.

The once-actually-on-McGowen business’s 3090-sq.-ft. former building (on a 15,000-sq.-ft. lot) is surrounded to the north and east by townhomes, and by older homes and duplexes to the south and west; 1 block down Fairview is the former Te House of Tea, which the reader reports just got a new parking lot where its back garden used to be. NewQuest’s  sales flier for the McGowen Cleaners property also shows the Te’s spot tagged for a new restaurant:

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Fairview Fare
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