Featured Posts

Manchester, Maps, West Oaks

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Houston Map of risk management plan facilities from UCS/tejas

The little and not-so-little red dots on the map above show off sites on the EPA’s list of plants and refineries required to have a Risk Management Plan due to their potential for accidental hazardous chemical releases — with the larger dots showing the places that have already had an accident (or, in some cases, as many as 43). Clicking each dot will tell you what the facility’s name is, as well as how much toxic or flammable material it stores on site (to the nearest thousand pounds or so).

The Union of Concerned Scientists and t.e.j.a.s. put together the interactive map as part of a report released late last week, which compares the EPA’s data on air quality and cancer rates in a few neighborhoods on the west side of town (specifically in Bellaire and in the West Oaks and Eldridge area, just inside Hwy.6 near the Barker reservoir) with the same data in a couple of east side spots (Galena Park and Manchester).

Sniffing It Out

Bellaire, Chemical Facilities, Galena Park, Industrial Accidents, Manchester, Maps, Pollution, Refineries, West Oaks

Downtown

10/28/16 3:30pm

A Preview of Lyric Centre’s Non-Faux Retail Parking Garage Plans

Parking

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Lyric Center garage site, 440 Louisiana St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

lyric-centre-cellist-sculpture A few readers note that work is underway on the site of the newÂ parking garage planned next to music-themed office highrise Lyric Centre at the corner of Louisiana and Preston streets (catty-corner from Market Square Tower’s newly-filled sky-high resident display tank).Â The top photo above shows the crews digging around on the former surface parking lot as of yesterday afternoon; the city issued a permit for work on the building-to-be’s exterior shell earlier this month. Â A glass-skinned design forÂ the structureÂ can be seen in the rendering above, which peers at the site from the north along Smith St., looking past the skybridge between the Wortham Theater and the Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance. The drawing showsÂ folks making use of the ground floor of the structure, which is intended to house retail (in contrast toÂ the garage going up a few blocks north at Milam and Franklin streets, which is intended to look like it could house retail).

The floorplan included with the listing for that 41,000 sq. ft. of space shows a ramp for the garage hitting Smith St.:

Sowing Downtown Parking Space

77002, Downtown, Mixed-Use Developments, Office Buildings, Parking-Garages

10/28/16 12:45pm

Leafy Galleria Shake Shack Spot To Open Next Friday, Serve Other Houston Restaurants’ Food

Galleria, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

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Rendering of Shake Shack Houston, 5015 Westheimer Rd., Uptown, Houston, 77056

The first Houston Shake Shack will beÂ opening on November 4th nearÂ the mall’s new parking lot jewel boxÂ pad site, a rep for the New York burger chain announced this morning. On the menu, on top of the usual fare: a handful of concretes made withÂ donuts from Morningstar on N. Main, Houston roasterÂ Greenway Coffee‘s coffee, and baked goods from Fluff Bake Bar on the western edge of Midtown. On the exterior: aÂ living moss wallÂ created by Austin-based Articulture Designs, as seen in the rendering released back inÂ January. The firm designed a plant-coveredÂ wall for the Shake Shack that opened in Austin last year as well — here’s a shot of howÂ that one turned out,Â with an accompanying succulent planter out front:

Side of Greens

Galleria Mall, Landscaping, Openings and Closings, Plants, Restaurants

10/27/16 3:30pm

Living Room Pools and Other Places To Swim in a $4.5 Million Hunters Creek 80’s Mod Mansion

Homes for Sale, Hunters Creek Village, Interiors

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214 Voss Rd., Hunters Creek, TX 77024

The 5Â master suites in this 6-bedroom home in Hunters Creek Village are tucked out of sight ofÂ the pool-surveying viewpoint above, onÂ the second of 4 floors (plus or minus some splitting of levels). The listing for the 1980 home popped up yesterday sporting a $4.496-million asking price and no exterior photographs of the13,963-sq.-ft. structure, which sits on 1.3 acres of well-treed lot backed up against the Houston Racquet Club’s land to the east.

The downstairs wet bar is within easy striking range of the hot tub partitioned away from the main pool:

High But Not Dry

77024, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Hunters Creek Village, Modern Architecture, Pools

Buffalo Bayou Park

10/27/16 1:45pm

Sedated Allen Pkwy. Double-Crossed by Crosswalk to New Buffalo Bayou Park Parking

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Crossing at Gillette St. and Allen Pkwy., Fourth Ward, Houston, 77019

Courtesy of a stripe-skeptical reader, here’s a partial walkthrough tour of the new parking scheme along Allen Pkwy. west of Downtown — these days looking a lot more like the flyover videosÂ releasedÂ of the planned changes last year. Those changes, including a lower speed limit for the rest of the roadway and and some strategic tree deployment, are intended to make the pseudo-highway into a “more urban environment” and to slow traffic down toÂ next-to-a-park speeds.Â Also included in the deal: a series of crosswalks, like the over-then-over-again setup now striped into place at Gillette St. (seen above posing with the Federal Reserve Bank building, with the former city garbage incinerator site out of the frame to the left).

The new setupÂ divvies up much of the turf formerly occupied by Allen Pkwy.’s westbound traffic lane into angled spaces — some almost long enough to “put 2Â normal sized cars in each spot,” the reader claims:

Stripe Scrutiny

77019, Buffalo Bayou Park, Parking, Speed Limits, Urban Planning

10/27/16 11:00am

Black Page Brewing in the Works Upstream from White Oak Music Hall’s Outdoor Stage Scramble

Near Northside

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210 Glen Park St., Near Northside, Houston, 77009

A few twists and turns up Little White Oak Bayou from N. Main St. and the White Oak Music Hall complex, work is underway on a bayou-side brewery on another piece of land owned by W2 development (and going by the name Black Page Brewing Co.) The city issuedÂ a few more permits for the brewpubÂ this week (fast on the heels of the permit issued Tuesday for the music venue’sÂ permanent outdoor stage — a few days after construction allegedly got rolling, though not quite in time for tonight’s planned outdoor The Head and The Heart concert). Owner Anthony Heins tells Swamplot the pub is just leasing the land from W2, which country records show bought the property in April of last year. And builder KUEHN Inc. has been snapping photos of progress at the former warehouse, which sits near the stretch of waterway where an area resident took those videos ofÂ chainsaw aftermath back in May; that area is down beyond the orange fencing below on the left:

Near Northside Neighbors

77009, Adaptive Reuse, Bars, Bayous and Waterways, Breweries, Food Trucks, Near Northside, Redevelopment

10/26/16 4:30pm

Now On View: Inversion House Duo’s Latest Work in Copper Foil and Doomed Sharpstown Bungalow

Sharpstown

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'Sharp' by Havel Ruck Projects, 6822 Rowan Ln., Sharpstown, Houston, 77074

The now-glimmering interior of theÂ former house at 6822 Rowan Ln. in Sharpstown is open to the public as of this weekend, and will be for the next 2 months — up until the scheduled demolition of the heavily fire-damaged 3-bedroom structure. Demolition artists Dan Havel and DeanÂ Ruck (who these days sign their work as Havel Ruck Projects) recently converted theÂ condemned building into another tunnel-through-the-living-room-style temporary art piece, though with much sharper lines than their previous Inversion House. Last Saturday’s opening reception for the newÂ place (which is actually called Sharp) is part of theÂ October-November-straddling Sculpture Month Houston campaign (which is setting upÂ promotional events forÂ other art installations around townÂ through November 19, if you’re interested).

The pentagonal hole in the front of the structure matches the outline of the knocked-out front windows, as seen in these pre-conversion-but-post-fireÂ listing photos of the demo-bound house:

Condemned Open House

77074, Art, Demolitions, Sharpstown

Downtown

10/26/16 1:30pm

Fake Storefronts Help Downtown Parking Garage Get City’s Historical OK

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Crews are digging in at the northeast corner of Milam and Franklin streets, a reader notes, where a 10-story parking garage is planned. The rendering up top (labeled as Powers & Brown’s) made a recent appearance at a city historical and archaeological commission meeting,Â following several months of deferrals and redesigns — including the addition of some ground-floor canopies and simulated window frames (which will have no glass “for flood reasons”). The application says the features are meant help the structure blend in with the surrounding buildings in the Main Street Market Square Historical District, including the Magnolia Ballroom across Milam, the Cotton Exchange building across Franklin at Travis St., and the Bayou Lofts building one block to the east.

Here’s the garage design originally submitted back in June:

77002, Downtown, HAHC, Historical Preservation, Main Street Market Square Historical District, Parking-Garages

Ground Floor Faux Retail

10/26/16 11:30am

Tiny Hills Now Rolling in Levy Park’s Triangular Dog Park in Upper Kirby

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Nestled inÂ near theÂ Seuss-ical spirals and curves of Levy Park’s under-construction pathways and playgrounds is theÂ lumpy triangular dog-park-to-be above, now partitionedÂ off byÂ its metal rod setup (seen here facing northwest up Eastside St. toward the corner with Richmond Ave.) Â A reader trekked around the site yesterday and snapped some updates; first, here’s how the dog park fits into the most recent set ofÂ plans for the site:

West of Eastside

77098, Levy Park, Upper Kirby

Bunker Hill Village

10/25/16 6:00pm

Price Drops Again on Houston’s Only Frank Lloyd Wright House and Backup House Add-On

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12020 Tall Oaks St Bunker Hill, TX 77024

12020 Tall Oaks St Bunker Hill, TX 77024 The house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright forÂ insuranceÂ company exec William Thaxton is back on the market again as of Friday,Â now listed at justÂ $2.795 million.Â Wright designed the triangle-and-diamond-themedÂ home with no air-conditioning system in 1954, though Thaxton and the builder eventually snuck some ducts into the red concrete floor; the mid-century space laterÂ got aÂ classically-inspired makeover and circled the market drain toward lot-value sale and presumed teardown. But an early 1990’s buyer saved the property from demolition and removed the pineapple-shaped finialsÂ — while adding a high-ceilinged, right-angled extension which enclosed the almost-a-parallelogram pool in more of a central courtyard. (That extension contains a living room, lofted entertainment space, bedrooms, and a kitchen, meaning the occupant doesn’t have to spend time in the angularÂ Wright portion of the building if they don’t want to. )

The new listing (the latest in an on-again-off-again series of market stints that started in 2010 at $3.5 million) includes a fewÂ new angles on the property, which (as seen from above) sits alongside a channelized ditchÂ draining directly south fromÂ Memorial City Mall to Buffalo Bayou. The lights aroundÂ the front door and entrywayÂ are equilateral triangles:

Mid-90s Modern in Bunker Hill

77024, Bunker Hill Village, Frank Lloyd Wright, Home Decor, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Memorial, Swimming Pools

Apartments

10/25/16 1:00pm

Thousands of Gallons of Water Now Hanging Over Preston St. from Market Square Tower’s Roof

Downtown, Highrises

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Market Square Tower, 777 Preston St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Just added: water for the cantilevered glass-bottom pool jutting out of Market Square Tower’s rooftop deck, some 41-plus-or-minus-the-penthousesÂ stories above street level. Woodway is now advertising leasing availability for November, with some of the smaller one-bedroom units listedÂ for $2,100 and up per month (and the largest of the penthouses, aÂ 3-bedroom 3.5-bathroom 3-balcony affair,Â listed atÂ $18,175) . The current floorplans available on the site now also suggest that the ground floor retail options will include a cafe, in addition to thatÂ CVS announced last month.

Those not enthused byÂ the prospect of dangling over the downtown streetscapeÂ can opt for the other pool on the 4th-floor terrace, which overlooksÂ Preston and MilamÂ St.:

Filling Up Downtown

77002, Apartments, Downtown, Highrises, Leasing, Market Square, Pools

10/24/16 3:45pm

Palace Lanes Building on Bellaire Locked Up by Landlord

Southside Place

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Former Palace Bowling Lanes, 4191 Bellaire Blvd., Cambridge Place, Houston, 77025

The Palace Bowling Lanes building on Bellaire Blvd. (which picked up the new moniker Bowl on BellaireÂ about a year ago) appears toÂ have been closed since Friday,Â saysÂ a reader who “showed up [Saturday]Â morning for the youth bowling league to find that the locks have been changed and they are not open for business.”Â Katherine Feser confirms this afternoon that the property is still closed, thoughÂ a note on the door says the tenant can have new keys if and when all theÂ delinquent rent is paid.

Southside Displaced

77025, Apartments, Bowling Alleys, Landlords, Leases, Redevelopment, Southside Place

10/24/16 12:30pm

Riel Restaurant Trying To Get Real on Fairview in Former Te House of Tea

Montrose, Renovations, Restaurants, Retail, Vermont Commons

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Riel Restaurant under construction at 1927 Fairview, Montrose, Houston, 77006

French-Canadian-Ukrainian-Texan fusion restaurant Riel is still being installed atÂ 1927 Fairview St., formerly home to Te House of Tea and Trudy’s Boutique Re Sale at the corner with Woodhead St. A reader snagged the shot above yesterday afternoon, showing the formerÂ mid-60’s retail strip dressed upÂ in green construction fencing and still sporting thatÂ above-it-all street number signage.Â Ex-Reef chefÂ Ryan Lachaine lastÂ saidÂ in September that the placeÂ should beÂ opening some timeÂ next month.

Chef Ryan Lachaineâ€™s Riel Will Blend Ukranian, French-Canadian And Texas FareÂ [Eater Houston]
Previously on Swamplot:Â What’s Brewing in the Former Te House of Tea in Hyde Park;Â McGowen Cleaners For Sale on Fairview Near Restaurant-Slated Former Te House of Tea;Â Te House of Tea on Fairview Closes Thursday, But You Can Still Buy a Piece of It This Weekend

Photo: Mosaic Clinic Dermatology

Fairview Preview

77006, Adaptive Reuse, Fairview, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Vermont Commons

Apartments

10/24/16 11:15am

Midtown Gorilla Mural Habitat Destroyed To Make Room for Pearl-Laden Whole Foods

Midtown, Mixed Use

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3100 Smith St., Midtown, Houston, 77006

The former Social Security Administration office at 3100 Smith St. and its gorilla-hawking mural wall are no more, following someÂ weekend excavator grazing. Demo permits were issued last week for structure, which sat north of Elgin on part of the planned site of developer Morgan’s nextÂ Pearl-branded apartment development (the one with theÂ built-in ground floor Whole Foods).

City permission for the planned mixed-use buildingÂ to cozy up to the street were approved in February; the project will also straddle that now-closed segment of Rosalie St.Â between Smith and Brazos onto a sectionÂ of the previously cleared block to the north. Â Here’s what the layout mightÂ look like from above, per the plansÂ included with the variance request: