Featured Posts

09/13/16 5:30pm

Post-Rehab Glenbrook Valley Mod Gets A Makeover, Prepares To Open Up to the Public

Glenbrook Valley

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8008 Colgate St., Glenbrook Valley, Houston

That recoveredÂ 2-story mod at 8008 Colgate has been gettingÂ further retouchingÂ byÂ the newest owners, Sandra Cook writes in this month’s Houston House & Home. The previously dilapidated house made HoustonMod’s Mod of the Month list back in 2014 after it was rehabilitatedÂ to a poop-and-mold-free 5,870 sq. ft. (scooping in a few upstairs patios behind new walls in the process). Above is a comparison of the main entrywayÂ — the top photo shows the space’s trendy newÂ white outfit, while the same wall appears in blue below that following the 2014 redo. (The lower left side shows the space midway through those earlier reconstructive procedures.)

The house will be receiving visitors during the Glenbrook Valley Home Tour in October; here’s a few peeks atÂ some of the new retro-ish finishes, if you can’t wait until then:

Re-Re-Mod-eling

77061, Events, Glenbrook Valley, Mid-Century Homes, Mid-Century Mod, Remodeling, Tours

09/13/16 1:15pm

Your Guide To Being Seen In Front of Houston’s Artsiest Walls

Maps

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Some of the bloggers and photographers at clothing and trendy-places-to-go blog Wear+Where+Well (based in but not exclusively on Houston) have pulled together a long list of the mural walls foundÂ around town, complete with titles, artist names, photos, and the interactive map above. The list is annotated with an eye for photography conditions, as well as info on parking and on the likelihood of “indigents asking for spare change” nearby. The authorsÂ say the listÂ will be updated frequently; info on how to submit new spots you think should be included can be found at the bottom of the document.

Map of Houston murals: Wear+Where+Well

Mural Mapping

Graffiti, Maps, Murals, Photography

09/13/16 11:15am

Big Ass Showroom To Butt Into Spring Branch Office Park, Tell Everyone To Chill

Spring Branch

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1224 N. Post Oak Rd., Spring Branch, Houston, 77055

Comically largeÂ ceiling fixture purveyor Big Ass Solutions (the Kentucky-rooted parent companyÂ ofÂ exactly-what-they-sound-like Big Ass Fans and Big Ass Lights) will beÂ opening its first not-on-the-internet retail spaceÂ in the West Loop II office-warehouse strip at 1224 N. Post Oak Rd., Mike D. Smith reports. A statue of the company’s donkey mascot will markÂ the company’s territory in Suite 120, between Yellow Rose Distilling’s whisky operations at the west end of the building and Appliance Parts Depot to the far east. The 1980s office park (pictured above in listing photo form) is nestled in among the cluster of business spaces and warehousesÂ to the northwest of the West-Loop-I-10 junction, across N. Post Oak to the northeast of the all-in-a-row Edwards Marq*E complex, Awty International School, and Beth Yeshurun cemetery.

Here’s a quick peek from last week at work going on inside of the showroom-to-be, currently getting prettied up for the public:

Cooling It on N. Post Oak

77055, Appliances, Interior Lighting, Office Parks, Retail, Spring Branch East, Warehouses

Ellington Field

09/12/16 4:00pm

A Look at Where the New Lone Star Flight Museum Is Landing at Ellington

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The exterior of the Lone Star Flight Museum’s new building is now taking shape at Ellington Field-slash-Airport-slash-Spaceport, per an update this morning from Ed Mayberry. The museum posted the construction photo above late last month, showing some of the walls now in place on the 130,000-sq.-ft. structure rendered below:

Blown Inland by Ike

77034, Airplane Hangars, Airports, Ellington Airport, Ellington Field, Ellington Spaceport, Museums

09/12/16 1:45pm

Church Expansion Plan Casts Out Frenchy’s from Original Scott Spot

Third Ward

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Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Master Plan excerpt The gospel-soundtracked video above, showing Wheeler Avenue Baptist’s plans to plant a larger sanctuary next door to its existing facilities,Â appears to showÂ that new structure landing on top of the original Frenchy’s location at 3919 Scott St. The creole chicken chain, which announced last year that it would be pushing for national expansion to 500 locations, also previously announced plans to tear downÂ the original spot and rebuild bigger, though the exact location of that rebuild wasn’t specified. (Just up the street,Â meanwhile, a Frenchy’s-connected entity called 3919 Scott Street appearsÂ to have purchased the entire city block southwest of the corner of Scott St. and Hadley back in 2009.Â )

TheÂ property at 3919 ScottÂ St.Â wasÂ bought over the summer byÂ the church; the renderings in the video (posted just this week) more or less match up to a few older depictions featured onÂ Harrison Kornberg Architects’s website for the project:

Third Ward Chicken Prophecy

77004, Churches, Houston Landmarks, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Third Ward, University of Houston

09/12/16 10:45am

Poolside Freeway Billboard Comes Down As Westmoreland Queen Anne Redo Wraps Up

Homes for Sale, Westmoreland Historic District

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Redo of 3618 Burlington St., Westmoreland Historic District, Houston, 77006

3618-burlington-29 What’s that — up in the air, over Westmoreland and Spur 527? According to a reader, it’s the skeletal remnants of 3618 Burlington St.’s sideyard billboard, which has been coming down since some time late last week. The sign structure is shownÂ on itsÂ last leg in the snapshot up top from Saturday morning (that’s out ofÂ 3 legs originally, as seen in the listing photo below that from the 2015 sale). PerÂ the newest listing, the full interior and exterior blankout and makeover of the 3-story Westmoreland Historic District home should have finished up around last Friday.

Previously on Swamplot:Â Freewayside Queen Anne Now Getting Whitewashed, Rearranged, Flipped for $2.4 Million in Westmoreland Historic District;Â This $1.8 Million Queen Anne Mansion on the Edge of Westmoreland and the Downtown Spur Comes with Its Own Pool and Billboard

Photos: Swamplot inbox (top), HAR (bottom)

Sign of Steel

77006, Demolitions, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Remodeling, Westmoreland Historic District

Adaptive Reuse

09/09/16 1:00pm

First Ward Tattoo Removal Space Now Fully Blanked Out, Covered Over as Coffee and Wine Bar

First Ward, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail

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Cafeza at 1720 Houston Ave., First Ward, Houston, 77007

As of tomorrow morning, any missed-the-memo visitors to the former Blank Slate Laser Tattoo Removal space at 1720 Houston Ave.Â will at least have the option to drink to forget (assuming that’s not what got them into trouble in the first place). Spanish-Latin-American-themed cafeÂ CafezaÂ will open to the public around 6 a.m. with coffee, food, and wine on the menu. The shop isÂ tucked into northern storefront ofÂ the 1925Â building at theÂ corner withÂ Crockett St., with Belgium-minded companion Cafe Brussels occupying the adjacent space next door.Â The view above is from the Crockett side, where the scribbles-welcome Grateful Heart chalkboard hangs out these days:

European Influences on Houston Ave

77007, Bars, Coffee Shops, First Ward, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

09/09/16 11:15am

Hardy Yards Signs Back Up, Hardier Than Ever

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 letters strung out under the Red Line overpass at Burnett St. and N. Main to label the area as Hardy Yards are now back in place onceÂ again, Chris Andrews notes. After a fewÂ ups and downs earlier this year the letters were removed altogether for a bit; they’re now back in place, standing on what appear to be some slightly buffed-up legs. The ones shown above are on the north side of Burnett; here’s the southern companion piece, with the stairs leading to the Burnett Transit Center visible on the left:

Knocked Down, But Up Again

77026, Hardy Yards, Industrial Properties, Mixed Use, Near Northside, Signs

09/08/16 5:30pm

Contaminated Heights Site on W. 24th Looking Green, Getting Prepped for Next Gig

Houston Heights

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Former Site of National Flame and Forge, Ashland and 24th St., Houston Heights

The field above, on the block between W. 24th, W. 25th, Ashland and Rutland streets in the Heights, will be the subject of aÂ public meeting next month, a reader who got a letter about it from the city notes toÂ Swamplot. The land (an also-ran in the Best Teardown category for the 2010 Swampies) was previously the site of some ofÂ National Flame & Forge’s operations, whichÂ extended into the double blockÂ immediately to the north (now sprouting the townhomes visible in the distance). The owners have spent some time in the last few years taking stock ofÂ someÂ industrial leftoversÂ on the property, and are now seeking aÂ Municipal Settings Designation for the land, which will legally nix any future use of the site’s chromium-and-trichloroethylene-spiked groundwater for drinking purposes.

The letter, addressed to nearby property owners and water-well-havers, emphasizes that no city water sourcesÂ are affected by the contamination, and adds thatÂ the city is alsoÂ legally requiredÂ to send theÂ meeting inviteÂ to anyone who owns a water well within 5 miles of the site.Â TheÂ map belowÂ is included withÂ the application from NFF RealtyÂ for the no-drinking label;Â theÂ aerialÂ shows the roughÂ boundaries of areas where water sampling over 2014 and 2015 showed more-than-you-want-in-your-coffee levels of chromium (in red) and trichloroethylene (in yellow):

Forging Ahead

77008, Groundwater, Houston Heights, Industrial Pollution, Industrial Properties, Townhomes

09/08/16 1:00pm

Gardens of Bammel Lane’s Glass Conservatory Won’t Be Shattered by the Condo Highrise Planting Process

Greenway Plaza

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Looks like the glassy structure above will be jumping gardens, per the announcement last week from the wedding venue formerly known as the Gardens of Bammel Lane (which took the new name Gardens of River Oaks late in July). The conservatory building will head north to the Gardens at Madeley Manor in Conroe once the Bammel Ln. venue shuts down in December. The rest of the garden’s structures and landscaping will likely be removed by less delicate means to make way for the planned 26-story Villa Borghese highrise, depicted below with Downtown peeking over its shoulder from the east:

Conservatory Conservation

77098, Buildingmoving, Condos, Event Spaces, Greenway Plaza, Highrises, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments

09/08/16 10:30am

Memorial Towers Apartments Going Blue In the Face During Mid-Century Makeover

Rice Military

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5400 Memorial Dr., Rice Military, Houston, 77007

5400 Memorial Dr., Rice Military, Houston, 77007 The sides of the 1965 Memorial Towers highrise apartment complex are currently getting the blues as part of a period remodel,Â a reader reports.Â Serial multifamily fixer-upper The Barvin GroupÂ bought the property in May.Â The side of the complex pictured above (also shownÂ pre-paintÂ for comparison) faces west down Memorial Dr. toward the recently flattenedÂ former roost of Pollo Bravo (occupied before that byÂ Hartz Chicken Buffet). Â A rendering of the complex’s planned new look (including a throwback cursive replacement of the signage currently pointed at east-bound drivers) is on display in the lobby:

Rice Military Remake

77007, Apartments, Highrises, Paint Colors, Remodeling, Rice Military

Boulevard Oaks

09/07/16 4:15pm

Don’t Look Now, But There’s a Crew Literally Breaking Some Ground Over at the Ashby Highrise Site

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Ashby Highrise Site, 1717 Bissonnet St. at Ashby St., Boulevard Oaks, Houston

The gates are wide open this afternoon at 1717 Bissonnet, notes Mike Bloom, who sends along a few pictures of today’s excavator-vs-concrete action at the scene. Some workers and some pipes can be seen hanging around as the operator cracks into a bit of former parking lot on the northwest corner (a survivor of the Maryland Manor demolitionÂ back in 2013).

And aÂ permitÂ related toÂ foundation and sitework were issued this week, following the smatteringÂ issuedÂ forÂ some electrical and fire lineÂ workÂ back beforeÂ June’s appeal ruling (which declared that the surrounding neighborhood can’t be awarded damages for a project that hasn’t actually been built yet.) Might some deeper digging be on the way?

Stirrings at 1717 Bissonnet

77005, Ashby Highrise, Boulevard-Oaks, Construction Sites, Highrises, Lawsuits, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments

Buildings for Lease

09/07/16 11:00am

Previously Spoken For Wabash Feed & Garden Spot Now Seeking New Relationship

Commercial Real Estate, Retail, Washington Ave

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A sign of possible second chances for anyone looking to make a play for the former Wabash Feed & Garden Store building at 5701 Washington Ave: the leasing noticeÂ now up out front, shown here as spotted by a reader yesterday. Onion Creek owner GaryÂ Mosley bought the land early this year and announced plans to turn the buildingÂ into a restaurant and bar called Driftwood once the garden store headed out to itsÂ new spot. At that time, the moveout was planned for June; Wabash owner Betty HeackerÂ tells Landan Kuhlman this month that the new location in the former Mechanical Plumbing, Inc. warehouse atÂ 4537 N. Shepherd should finally be ready to goÂ by late October.

Options on Wash Ave

77007, Bars, Buildings for Lease, Commercial Properties, Industrial Properties, Restaurants

Commercial Real Estate

09/06/16 3:30pm

East Montrose Texas Junk Company Booted 2 Hours West