Featured Posts

Houston Heights, Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants

8 Comments

VEGAN FOOD TRUCK NOW PARKING AT HEIGHTS WATERWORKS ON NICHOLSON ST. Vegan food truck Ripe Cuisine is now well on its way to a brick-and-mortar spot in the soon-to-be redone Heights Waterworks utility turned retail complex on W. 20th St. According to a building permit filed yesterday, the owner is signing up for a 2,061-sq.-ft. renovation of one of the structures Braun Enterprises is leasing out. The map above from the developer — which began buying up portions of the property last year — marks the restaurant’s territory fronting Nicholson St. and its parallel bike trail with the bright red tomato logo that’s native to its food truck. But that’s not really the look to expect from the plant-based restaurant once its fully-grown; it’s rebranding to Verdine. Derived from the Latin for “green” and “truth,” explains the restaurant’s fledgling website, the name comes with a brand-new V-shaped logo, complete with a small bird nested in the crook of angled capital letter. [Previously on Swamplot] Map: Braun Enterprises

77008, Adaptive Reuse, Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

07/24/18 10:30am

Warby Parker Will Pick Up Where Yankee Candle Left Off in Rice Village

Openings and Closings, Retail

No Comments

The storefront between Athleta and Altar’d State on University Blvd. won’t be vacant for much longer: a building permit filed yesterday indicates Warby Parker is about to move into the space. Before it gets there, a few renovations will overhaul the 2,500-sq.-ft. box pictured at top, which lost its Yankee Candle lettering (shown above) around January when the former tenant wrapped up its close-out sale and shut its doors for good.

Previously on Swamplot: Rice Village Yankee Candle Going Dark This Month

Photos: Trademark (vacant store); Swamplox inboxÂ (Yankee Candle)

Village Newcomer

77005, Openings and Closings, Retail, Rice-Village

07/23/18 5:45pm

Sugar Land Home Listing Photo of the Day: Alone at Last

Homes for Sale, Sugar Land

No Comments

1226 Cambrian Park Ct. [HAR]

77479, Closets, Homes for Sale, Sugar-Land

Apartments

07/23/18 5:15pm

The New 15-Floor Apartment Building Heading to the East Side of the West Loop

Galleria, New Construction

10 Comments

Here’s the latest look at the Gables Westcreek apartments from right outside their planned garage entrance on Westcreek Ln. south of San Felipe. The 302-unit highrise is set to take over a 2.6-acre southwest portion of the site once occupied by the Westcreek Apartments. (Other chunks of that demolished complex have already been divvied up among the Arabella, Wilshire, SkyHouse River Oaks, and some surface parking.)

In those digs, 14 stories will pile up atop the ground floor parking garage, as shown in the site plan below from architect Ziegler Cooper:

Gables Westcreek

77027, Apartments, Galleria, New Construction

07/23/18 3:30pm

Texas Electric Customers Are on a Record-Breaking Power Usage Spree

Quicklink, Utilities

14 Comments

TEXAS ELECTRIC CUSTOMERS ARE ON A RECORD-BREAKING POWER USAGE SPREE Texas customers shattered the state’s previous all-time 71,110 megawatt high for power usage last Wednesday and Thursday,Â reports theÂ Chronicleâ€™s L.M. Sixel. And today, they’ve done it again:Â 73,217 megawatts is the current demand, according to ERCOT, the operator that supplies most of the state’s energy. (It’s expected to increase through the late afternoon, peaking at around 5 p.m.) That’s enough juice to power, well, the entire state of Texas during a heatwave. But is it enough to overwhelm the state’s proudly independent power infrastructure? Unlikely, says at least one expert at UT’s Energy Institute. Although 2 NRG subsidiaries did send out emails last week pleading with their customers to ease up on the A/C and take other watt-saving measures. [Houston Chronicle] Photo of electric lines between 59 and Westpark Dr.: Swamplox inbox

Electricity, Quicklink, Utilities

07/23/18 12:30pm

New Sign Heralds Pending Rothko Chapel Renovations, Across-the-Street Add-Ons

Lancaster Place, Montrose, Renovations

4 Comments

A Swamplot reader sends a photo of the big white public hearing notice now up outside the Rothko Chapel; it’s the first sign of the work chapel management has planned for both the octagon and its surroundings. The proposed replat detailed by the notice would take 6 originally single-family deed-restricted lots occupied by the chapel, adjacent administration bungalows, and their surroundings — and merge them into a single parcel.

It’s all part of the prep work for modifications planned next spring that’ll alter the chapel’s skylight and tweak its acoustics, HVAC system, weatherproofing, and entrance vestibule. New York–based firm ARO — hired in 2016 — is overseeing all those changes, as well as plans for the 4 additional lots the chapel owns on the north side of Sul Ross St.

Now occupied by a few Menil-gray-colored houses — ~~including one on the corner of Yupon St. home to the Da Camera music society~~ — those properties are slated for their own consolidation under the proposed replat. Planned to rise afterward: a visitor welcome house (gift shop included) and energy building including a backup power station. Later on, a new administration and archive building with adjacent community engagement center will also move in on that side of the street.

Previously on Swamplot: New York Firm Picked for Rothko Chapel Redo

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Gift Shop Incoming

77006, Lancaster Place, Montrose, Renovations

07/23/18 9:45am

Pasadena’s Tallest Abandoned Building Could Soon Come Crashing Down

Modern Design, Office Buildings, Pasadena, Quicklink

14 Comments

PASADENA’S TALLEST ABANDONED BUILDING COULD SOON COME CRASHING DOWN “A fitting symbol of Space Age industry and finance” — that’s how highly one First Pasadena State Bank brochure spoke of the firm’s new 12-story headquarters on Southmore Ave. after its construction in 1962. (Other local institutions agreed: for a while, its likeness showed up on Pasadena school report cards, reported Lisa Gray) Now, with the bank and all subsequent tenants long gone, the City of Pasadena is insisting in a lawsuit that the building’s owner tear the place down, or reimburse the city for doing so itself, reports the Chronicle. More than 10 year’s worth of code violations testify to theÂ MacKie & Kamrath–designed structure’s unsoundness, claims the city. And a pile of citations issued over a slightly shorter period adds up to more than $65,000 (which officials seek to supplement with $1,000 per day as long as the building’s still standing in its current state). Inside the 2-story lobby, a fountain surrounded by curved glass walls has run dry. But on the outside, it’s still the tallest vacant building in town. [Houston Chronicle; more info]Â Photo of 1001 East Southmore Ave.: Patrick Feller [license]

Demolitions, Historic Preservation, Office Buildings, Pasadena, Quicklink

07/20/18 5:00pm

Woody Wylie Vale Mod off Old Katy Rd. Wants $700K

Homes for Sale, Katy

2 Comments

There’s more than enough wood to go around outside and within the 1953 single-story at 1002 East Ave., 2 blocks up from Old Katy Rd. Architect Wylie Vale — the force behind many more homes in River Oaks and Memorial — designed the place for former Katy mayor Arthur Miller and his wife Madalyn. It hit the market yesterday at an asking price of $699,900.

Inside, the front living area provides the keynote:

Former Mayor’s Pad

77493, Homes for Sale, Katy, Mid-Century Modern

East Downtown

07/20/18 2:00pm

Latest Plans for Former Houston Post Complex: New Entrance Block on St. Charles, Rest of Double Block Mostly for Parking

Mixed Use, Redevelopment, Renovations

8 Comments

Lovett Commercial won’t be building that new northwest corner structure on the former Houston Post site previously slated to house a Sprouts Farmers Market at Emancipation and Bell avenues, but it does plan to move ahead with this blocky new entryway housing an elevator and stairway on St. Charles St. — that is, if Houston’s city planning commission gives it the go ahead. The developer fired off an application asking the commission for permission to plant the cube (shown in yellow above) right at the property line, as opposed to 10 ft. from it as would typically be required, but then postponed its consideration for 2 weeks during which it plans to gather more supporting information. The structure would go right outside the existing 3-story building between Emancipation and St. Charles St. that Lovett plans to preserve.

Other portions of that 1944 building already toe the line in similar fashion along St. Charles and Emancipation. They were grandfathered in to the current setback rules, along with the entire north faÃ§ade of this slightly smaller, abutting structure that lines Polk St.:

East Downtown

77003, East Downtown, Mixed Use, Redevelopment, Renovations

Downtown

07/20/18 10:00am

Brasa’s Steakhouse Will Debut in Abandoned Kaleidoscope Theater on Capitol

Quicklink, Renovations, Restaurants

No Comments

BRASA’S STEAKHOUSE WILL DEBUT IN ABANDONED KALEIDOSCOPE THEATER ON CAPITOL Recent permit filings show that the abandoned Kaleidoscope Theater on the Capitol-St.-side of the St. Germain Lofts at 705 Main St. is about to be reborn as a steakhouse. Founded by 2008 American Idol contestant Colton Berry 6 years ago, the theater played host to cabaret-style productions during its time in the space. But in the summer of 2016, Berry told the audience at a production of “PEOPLE” that the theater company was shutting down and splitting from the building, reported the Chronicle. That left a roughly 8,000 sq.-ft. hole in the north side of the residential structure — pictured above from the corner of Main and Capitol where the theater is survived by another, once-neighboring ground-floor tenant, Flying Saucer Draught Emporium. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Realtor.com

77002, Downtown, Renovations, Restaurants

07/19/18 5:00pm

New Laundry Tag Could Soon Hang from Gibbs Boats’ Redone Building as a Sign of Its Pre-Nautical Past

Montrose, North Montrose, Redevelopment, Renovations, Retail, Signage

12 Comments

Next Saturday, Houston’s historic commission is set to consider a request that new old signage be installed on the former Gibbs Boats building at 1110 W. Gray as part of the renovation to turn it into a new shopping center dubbed RÃªve Montrose. The QUALITY LAUNDRY lettering is a nod to theÂ 1936 structure’s original tenant — pictured above — which turned the place over to Gibbs in 1958. According to the rendering above, the replica sign and accompanying pyramidal support structure are set to be installed in the same location as the originals.

Since the Oxberry Group announced its redo plan for the building in March, some of its W. Gray faÃ§ade has been scratched off, revealing traces of the original brick underneath where the G in Gibbs used to front the street:

W. Gray and Montrose

77019, Historic Preservation, Montrose, North Montrose, Redevelopment, Retail, Signage

Adaptive Reuse

07/19/18 2:00pm

Meet Railway Heights: The New Wash Ave Food Hall and Beer Garden with a 600-Car Automated Garage Out Back

Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Timbergrove, Warehouse Space

16 Comments

The owners of the 22,860-sq.-ft. warehouse at the bend where Wash Ave becomes Hempstead Rd. have plans to refashion the building as Houston’s latest food hall, complete with 25-plus restaurant tenants, a few grocery and trinket vendors, and an adjacent beer garden — all fronting 22,000-sq.-ft.-worth of park space. Aside from homonymous salad bar concept Let Us, no specific tenants have been announced for the space yet — formerly home to the Emmett Perry oriental rug store and Sugar Creek Interiors’ design studio. But the developer hints that most food stalls at Railway Heights will be of the fresh-never-frozen variety, staffed by “the farmer who reared the animal, the fisherman who caught the fish, the baker who baked the bread.”

Later on, plans call for a 600-car automatic parking garage (about 2-and-a-half-times the size of that other robo-valet proposed next to Tacos A Go Go on White Oak) to be added on to the site at 8200 Washington, along with a complex of “container apartments” in the southeast corner of the things. Along with the food hall, they’ll all go in the area marked red in the map above, across the train tracks from InTown Homes’ forthcoming Cottage Grove Lake community.

The map below shows how the site will layout in greater detail:

On the Timbergrove Menu

77007, Adaptive Reuse, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Timbergrove, Warehouses

Apartments

07/19/18 10:00am

Excavators Sink Their Teeth into River Oaks Shopping Center’s CafÃ© Ginger Leftovers as Part of the Buildup to 30-Story Highrise Replacement

Demolitions, Montrose, North Montrose, Retail

12 Comments

It’s crunch time at the vacated original CafÃ© Ginger in the northern portion of the River Oaks Shopping Center, where a new 30-story apartment tower dubbed The Driscoll is planned to rise up over W. Gray St. Views from beyond the blaze orange barricades scattered around the parking lot since site work began in March show the crushing scene.

Since yesterday, the building’s been spilling its guts out onto the pavement in this particular area:

The End of the Endcap

77019, Apartments, Demolitions, Proposed Development, Retail

07/18/18 10:30am

Tree Trio Makes Last Stand on Richmond Ave Esplanade Across from 11 and 9 Greenway Plaza

Greenway Plaza, Trees

8 Comments

A Swamplot reader sends photos of a few trees recently marked for chopping on the Richmond Ave esplanade across from 11 and 9 Greenway Plaza, between Timmons Ln. and Edloe St. Pictured at top are the western 2 of the 3 trees total that now stand with white death warrants tacked to their trunks.

The third — shown below — sits closer to Edloe: