Garden Oaks

Garden Oaks
10/29/13 4:00pm

A Few Months After Its 1-Hour Sale, Garden Oaks ‘Century-Built’ Home Redo Is Ready To Move

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Homes for Sale, Interiors
26 Comments

Restoration has been swift at this concrete-block home in Garden Oaks that sold quickly in June 2013 — for $225,000. When the property reappeared on the market as a new listing late last week, the asking price was up to $475,000. Houston architect Allen R. Williams Jr. designed the solidly built home back in the day, the year of which was either 1950 or 1942, depending on which records apply. This year’s updates, by serial renovator Will Martin, hew close to the home’s mod origins. The original listing didn’t feature many interior photos, but the home’s latest appearance makes up for that:

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Commercial Real Estate
10/07/13 1:15pm

Food Trucks Among the Trees in Spring Branch East

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Garden Oaks, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Spring Branch
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FOOD TRUCKS AMONG THE TREES IN SPRING BRANCH EAST Another parcel of Houston real estate is being given over to food trucks: The Mangum Food Park is set to open in Spring Branch East in about 2 weeks, reports the Leader. The new park will be located at 2924 Mangum Rd., pictured here, just east of Hwy. 290. And unlike the busted concrete, street art, and for-lease signs that lend the Houston Food Park in East Downtown an urban grit, this spot outside the Loop would seem to have more of a rural feel: “The property . . . has been in [co-owner Paige] Hughes’ family since the early 1900s and has been a dairy farm and residence. The main work so far has been clearing ‘lots of dead trees’ . . . Enviably, there’s a row of large trees still standing along the south side of the land, which, along with canopied areas and plenty of tables, will provide shaded eating . . . .” [The Leader; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 2924 Mangum Rd.: Mangum Food Park

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Garden Oaks
09/27/13 4:30pm

Within the Realm of a Garden Oaks Domain, Beyond the Turret and Quoins

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Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors
7 Comments

With its courtly interior finishes (top) and not-so ivory tower, an updated 1948 Garden Oaks home has a bit of a baronial feel. Most of the grounds, however, lie in the palatial corner property’s deep, catty-corner setback rather than its residual back yard. Garage-free, the stately brick home is located a block north of the North Loop at Lawrence St. and last sold in 2008 for $425,000. When it popped up on the market last week, the asking price had reached the princely sum of $625,000.

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Garden Oaks
08/02/13 4:00pm

Courting a Bay View in a Garden Oaks Court

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Homes for Sale, Interiors
16 Comments

Look-alike exteriors on sound-alike streets of the garden variety line the ring of roadways within Garden Oaks Court, a gated compound off 34th St. west of Shepherd Dr. Neat rows of (closed) front-loading garages have shallow setbacks and support a repeating pattern of porches, balconies — and the occasional bay window. A shingles-and-siding-fronted specimen of the latter (at right) was listed earlier this week with an asking price of $298,500. Its official description touts the home’s location within the 9-year-old development as having no railroad tracks, power lines, or neighbors behind it. With 61 homes in the niche neighborhood and a popular restaurant-bar within walking distance, however, plenty of folks are close by.

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Buying and Selling
05/15/13 2:30pm

Comment of the Day Runner-Up: Y’all Come By Now, Y’hear?

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Comments, Garden Oaks, Quicklink
1 Comment

COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: Y’ALL COME BY NOW, Y’HEAR? “I am thankful for Ben’s research and for putting me in touch with Robert who had the right buyer for my Dad’s house. I have always loved this house and have great memories here. It’s where I learned to appreciate unique architecture. I now live in NYC. I will have an open house on June 1st 10a to 4p if anyone would like to stop by, say hello — see the ‘before’ and the Texas shaped hot-tub my dad made in the back before it probably goes. If you are allergic to dust, wear a mask. PS — the boat is gone. long story.” [laura kellner, commenting on The Century Built Home in Garden Oaks That Sold in About an Hour]

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Art
05/13/13 11:00am

The Art Guys To Start Unraveling

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Bayous and Waterways, Garden Oaks, Oak Forest, Quicklink
12 Comments

THE ART GUYS TO START UNRAVELING This is the route the Art Guys say they will be taking tomorrow morning when they stage the 5th of the yearlong series of monthly celebratory stunts they’re calling “12 Events:” Titling this one “A Length of String,” Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth will unwind a spool of thread they’ve had sitting around since 1983 while walking along White Oak Bayou between W. Tidwell and T.C. Jester, just north of the Loop, and then they’ll turn around . . . and wind it back up. Last month, you’ll remember, they donned tuxedos and conducted the sounds of the Ship Channel from the Santa Anna Capture Site in Pasadena. [Art Guys; previously on Swamplot] Map: Art Guys

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Buying and Selling
05/09/13 3:00pm

The Century Built Home in Garden Oaks That Sold in About an Hour

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Garden Oaks, Houston Architects, Real Estate Marketing
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Here’s the third of 4 houses designed by not-so-famous Houston architect Allen R. Williams in the 1940s and fifties, dubbed “Century Built” homes. If the name was intended to indicate how long the concrete-block homes were all supposed to last, the record isn’t so stellar: The one off Campbell Rd. was torn down some time ago. But the others are doing fine: One in Idylwood was snatched up by an architect a few years ago, and another in Country Club Place has served as a showcase for the renovation work of its current owner, architect Ben Koush.

But this unrenovated Century Built home at 851 W. 43rd St., in the middle of Garden Oaks, didn’t last so long, either: Real estate agent Robert Searcy tells Swamplot he had it locked up in a contract very quickly earlier this week, after he made a few phone calls. Not to a builder — the sellers didn’t want the place to be torn down — but reportedly to a serial renovator interested in Midcentury modern design.

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Garden Oaks
01/30/13 4:07pm

Lining Up the Living in an Updated Garden Oaks Cottage

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Renovations
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Shadow-hued through and through, an updated Garden Oaks home has a floor plan that’s a bit like a slice of Neapolitan ice cream. Room functions — sleeping quarters, living areas, and food-related spaces — stripe the home in thirds. Compact but fully loaded, the property listed earlier this week at an even $249,000. It last sold in 2009, for $198,500.

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Garden Oaks
07/12/12 10:12am

Craft Beer To Go in the Heights, To Stay in Garden Oaks

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Houston Heights, Nightlife, Proposed Developments, Retail
14 Comments

It isn’t calling itself a bar, but the website for a new craft-beer retail outlet planned for the former site of Kaboom Books next to the Antidote coffee shop on Studewood says it’ll offer “fresh pours” of draft beer and “growlers to go.” The Twitter account for Premium Draught at 733 Studewood announced yesterday that its construction permit has already been approved.

Meanwhile, the owners of Liberty Station on Washington Ave plan to open the craft-beer-focused Cottonwood Bar in the building shown above on Shepherd at 34th St., just north of Pink’s Pizza, according to the brand-new establishment’s Twitter feed — “adding everything we wanted to do at Liberty Station but didn’t have room . . . kitchen, more taps.”

Photo: Cottonwood Bar

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Garden Oaks
06/05/12 11:08am

That Rumor About a New Central Market in Garden Oaks

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Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers
22 Comments

THAT RUMOR ABOUT A NEW CENTRAL MARKET IN GARDEN OAKS To all of you who’ve been emailing, tweeting, and speculating about H-E-B buying the Sears shopping center at 4000 N. Shepherd at the edge of Garden Oaks and turning it into a Central Market: Interesting idea. But here’s your rumorkiller: Houston division prez Scott McClelland tells Swamplot, “H-E-B has not looked at this location and we’ve had no discussions about it to date.” Photo: City-Data

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Garden Oaks
05/22/12 2:21pm

Cottage Industry in Garden Oaks

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Homes for Sale, Renovations
5 Comments

Taken down to its studs: This home’s renovation project is in the works on a quarter-acre corner lot backing up to the feeder road of the North Loop at Yale St. That’s in Garden Oaks, or so says the neighborhood signage on the property’s easement.

Listed last week at $350,000, the future version of this 1950-built cottage will have new siding, windows, plumbing, hardwood and stone floors, custom cabinetry, and granite counter tops. The kitchen is already displaying the bones of its new, barrel-vaulted ceiling:

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Garden Oaks
04/13/12 4:41pm

A Sidewalk Hazard’s Social Media Strategy

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Hazards, Quicklink, Streetscapes
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A SIDEWALK HAZARD’S SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY A coverless manhole just west of Shepherd on 34th St. in Garden Oaks has taken to Twitter to broadcast its plight. “I am a gaping hole in the city’s underbelly,” declares Gringo Trap 34, between drooling appreciations of photos of attractive manhole covers posted on other Twitter streams. By the hole’s third-ever tweet, yesterday, it had snared a response from Mayor Parker, who commiserated over problems caused by copper thieves. (“Like roaches, they mess up more than they take,” quipped the mayor.) Shout-outs to various reporters followed. But as of Friday afternoon, the square hole under the constable sign is still uncovered, and Gringo Trap 34 has posted its latest “glamor shot.” “I may be pretty,” reads the latest report, “but that doesn’t mean I won’t tear your ACL.” [Twitter] Update, 9:13 pm: The Gringo Trap 34 account appears to have been suspended, but its tweets live on in this Chronicle story. Photo: Gringo Trap 34

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Garden Oaks
04/05/12 1:43pm

Nature and Neighbors in Garden Oaks

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Homes for Sale, Interiors
9 Comments

A studio, spa, and amped-up patio share a 10,000-sq.-ft. lot in Garden Oaks with this 2-or-3-bedroom house of 1,800 sq. ft. The master bedroom’s open-ended double shower features hot tub access and views of — and from — the great outdoors. Rooms overlooking the back yard have lots of windows, too. The days of curtain-free living here may be numbered, however. A listing photo (at top) shows something under construction rising over the fence, its neighborly vantage point yet to be determined.

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