Hyde Park

Art
06/20/13 2:00pm

Randy Twaddle’s Decorative Thievery at the Mirabeau B.

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Condos, Green Design and Development, Hyde Park, Interiors, Montrose
21 Comments

The Mirabeau B. condos apartments in Hyde Park take a lot from the city: The sales center, for example, comprised a pair of recycled shipping containers that were powered by the sun. And now atop the building at 2410 Waugh a photovoltaic canopy is hoarding juice for each of the 14 units; cisterns are stealing rainwater that’s then used on the landscaping and rooftop greenery. Even the development’s moniker has been plagiarized. And so it makes a lot of sense that one of the building’s interior features is inspired by something just as local: a transformer box and a snarl of wires. Houston artist Randy Twaddle, for whom power lines have become something of a muse, installed 65 of these gypsum cement tiles in a 7 ft. by 25 ft. wall at the building’s entrance inside its parking garage. Each 40-pound tile, fabricated by Dallas firm Topocast at a lab at UT Arlington, features a 3D reproduction of one of the particularly twisted scenes that Twaddle can’t seem to help noticing.

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Home Design
08/03/12 12:05pm

A Hyde Park Resale Repeater

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Homes for Sale, Hyde Park, Interiors, Montrose
3 Comments

The new kid on this otherwise out-of-the-Twenties block of cottages in Hyde Park is on the block again. Built in 2008, the property west of Montrose Blvd. and south of West Gray St. sold in March 2009 at $629,450 and again in September 2011 at $725,000. Last month, the HardiePlanked home on a 4,800-sq.-ft. lot popped up as a new listing one more time, asking $819,000. The house sits behind a fence with an automated gate across a double-wide driveway. Three crisply trimmed dormers rise above the 2-car garage and a recessed, at-grade porch like whitecaps on water. Just a few doors down at Montrose, there’s a convenience store and that 10-year-old, 14-unit, 4-story stucco condoplex known as the Renaissance on Montrose.

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Buying and Selling
07/05/12 1:46pm

Giving Up the Ghosts of Hyde Park

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Crime, Homes for Sale, Hyde Park, Montrose, Redevelopment, Townhomes
10 Comments

For the last 7 or so years, the atomic-ranch-era front of this 1929 bungalow at 1710 Welch St. served as the Scott Childress Studio, a hair salon. If you recognize that name, you likely know at least the outline of the rest of the story that goes with it: Childress was found on the floor of the property one Friday morning this past January, beaten to death with a pipe wrench; his roommate, Reginald Eaglin, was charged with the murder. The home was listed for sale in late February, but there’s a contract pending now. How that ends likely depends on a planning commission hearing scheduled for this afternoon. Up for approval: plans by Carnegie Homes to replace the modern-front house and the 2 apartments behind it — all on 7,500 sq. ft. — with 4 townhome lots along a central drive.

Photo: HAR

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Demolitions
06/29/12 12:11pm

Seen from the Street: Sunset, Sunrise

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Hyde Park, Lancaster Place, Lower Midtown, Montrose, Renovations
2 Comments

“I like how this view makes it look like Fiesta is exploding,” writes engineer and Metro board member Christof Spieler of this photo he snapped last night at dusk. No fire clouds are expected, but the Montrose Fiesta Mart will be closing for good on July 15th — to make way for a Finger Companies apartment complex on the site. Spieler’s photo was taken from the shelter of the half-year-old H-E-B across Dunlavy, just south of West Alabama.

More building-turnover photo fun:

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Demolitions
06/27/12 1:09pm

A Brief Illustrated Guide to Bungalow Removal

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Hyde Park, Montrose
23 Comments

Courtesy of a Swamplot reader who watched some of Houston Habitat for Humanity’s work dismantling the 1925 bungalow at 1310 Welch St. in Hyde Park, here’s an abbreviated photographic guide to the process. Above: the home on June 7th. And here’s how it looked just last weekend, with all the work complete:

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Comments
05/21/12 11:45pm

Comment of the Day: Feral Cats, the Scourge of Hyde Park

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Critters, Hyde Park, Montrose, Quicklink
21 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: FERAL CATS, THE SCOURGE OF HYDE PARK “Okay, I have been dealing with ferals for about 3 years, ever since moving to Hyde Park. They drive me nuts, but you can get the population reduced by spaying all the females. If you neuter or remove a male, another will come in. I still have problems with neighbors who don’t completely understand the gravity of the situation — ie, they mean well, but they don’t help. I have worked extensively with a neighborhood friend to help reduce the numbers and have been very successful. And for those who don’t think ferals are a problem: 1) They crap EVERYWHERE and are a potential source of disease. 2) Toms are aggressive towards our dog and us. 3) They kill songbirds, A LOT of them. 4) They get run over on a regular basis — perhaps Darwinism at work, but a potential serious accident waiting to happen for those trying to avoid hitting them, and a nasty mess in the street when they die. 5) They come into your yard and are aggressive to your cats who have every reasonable right to be in your yard. 6) They are a nuisance. Sure, kittens are cute, but they can have a litter of 4 in about a year. Guess how many cats can be produced in just 7 years from one pregnant female and her offspring? 370,000. Staggering. Of course, you aren’t realistically going to see those numbers, but you get the idea. If you can trap them — trap them humanely. Take them to the SPCA, or to BARC. If you can afford to get them spayed or neutered, do so and get them back in the same neighborhood. I know this sounds silly, but even if you got rid of 99% of a colony in your neighborhood, you will wind up with them being replaced. If you spay or neuter, it seems to stabilize. And trust me, doing that is easier than convincing some neighbors to help stop the cycle.” [Bruce, commenting on Cats Still Hanging Around West U Apartments, Unaware of Redevelopment Plans]

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Hyde Park
05/07/12 2:05pm

Minding the Gaps in Hyde Park

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North Montrose, Streetscapes
19 Comments

Thanks for your continued concrete vigilance, Swamplot pedestrians. The mysterious unpavednesses documented in this catalog of sidewalk lunch breaks in Hyde Park and North Montrose appear to have raised a couple of (tiny) red flags. On Welch St., at least. In case you’re updating your own dogwalking map, you’ll find these walkway gaps on (clockwise, from top left): Van Buren between Peden and Bomar; Welch between Waugh and Van Buren; West Pierce between Eberhard and Marconi; and Peden between Montrose and Van Buren.

Photos: Hal Werner

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Economic Conditions
03/23/12 12:43pm

Bike Racks for Inner Loop Eateries

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Hyde Park, Montrose, Quicklink, Restaurants, Transportation
24 Comments

BIKE RACKS FOR INNER LOOP EATERIES Buried in Anvil owner Bobby Heugel’s long complaint about Houston Press coverage of possible neighborhood opposition to an application for an on-street valet parking zone for the Hay Merchant and Underbelly in the former Chances Bar space on Westheimer at Waugh: News of a new initiative sponsored by OKRA, the restaurant advocacy group he helped found. “We’re going to start providing complimentary bike racks to small restaurants and bars inside the loop, at our cost, to encourage alternative transportation in Houston. This is for OTHER restaurants and bars, not our own, which already have bike parking.” [Eating Our Words] Photo of Underbelly, 1100 Westheimer: Vinson

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Condos
10/25/10 1:31pm

Mirabeau B. Condos in Montrose Don’t Owe Anything to Anybody

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Financing, Hyde Park, Montrose, New Construction
2 Comments

Just what is it that’s allowed construction on the Mirabeau B. condos on the corner of Hyde Park and Waugh to go forward when so many other projects have stalled? How about a little thing called . . . zero debt. After flirting with turning the building rental last year, developer Joey Romano now says he’s back to the original plan of selling all 14 units in the 4-story building — though he’ll also consider leases with purchase options “on a case by case basis.” Construction began in May; Romano expects the building to be complete by next July.

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Home Design
10/21/10 12:45pm

As Seen on Swamplot, Houston Homes Now Open for Inspection

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Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Montrose, New Construction: Residential, Winlow Place
8 Comments

Included among the 9 new or newish architect-designed homes on this year’s AIA home tour this weekend: 3 properties that made recent cameo appearances on Swamplot. Shown here: the one-room-deep one-bedroom home Kay O’Toole had built behind her “antiques & eccentricities” store at 1921 Westheimer, next to Winlow Place. Did you know it was hiding back there? The design by Murphy Mears Architects — with interiors by the owner — showed up in Veranda magazine and (far more notably) in one of those extensive Cote de Texas posts earlier this year.

What about something a little more Modern-looking? And maybe a little more . . . available?

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Home Design
09/24/10 4:40pm

John Zemanek’s Next Home Will Be Just Down the Street

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Homebuilding, Houston Architects, Hyde Park, Montrose, New Construction: Residential
19 Comments

A reader IDs this construction site at the corner of Van Buren and Bomar in Montrose as the latest project of longtime UH architecture professor and serial homebuilder John Zemanek. The 1,400-sq.-ft., single-story home is just steps away from the architect’s current home on Peden St. (pictured below), which was featured on Swamplot last year. We’re told Zemanek considers that house too big for him now, and plans to move into this one when it’s complete. Writes our tipster: “We’re eager to see how this concrete bungalow(?) turns out… and hey, we’re wondering if he’ll put the old place up for sale or not. We get first dibs if he does . . .”

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