06/08/12 11:21am

L.A. architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee will be the designers of the Menil Collection’s new Drawing Institute building, the organization’s board announced late yesterday. Their firm, Johnston Marklee, beat out Tatiana Bilbao, SANAA, and David Chipperfield Architects for the commission. The exact location for the building hasn’t been decided yet, though a Menil spokesperson previously told Swamplot the southern portion of the campus (depicted above in a Johnston Marklee graphic) was likely, and the Menil’s description of the LA firm’s design proposal makes it clear it’ll be long and thin: “a single-story, metal-roofed structure . . . built around a trio of courtyards.”

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06/01/12 8:43pm

Do you miss the old Galerie Mado Chalvet building at 1706 Westheimer? And, um . . . another question: Do you need a backpack? Designer Julia Gabriel has just the thing for you, then: Your very own handmade 1706 Westheimer Rd. backpack, modeled after photos she took of the hulking duplex-turned-antique-store after it burned last July. It’s since been torn down — along with the neighboring structures on the corner of Dunlavy and Westheimer — for a new development. The HSPVA grad watched the building’s demolition from across the street at Domy Books, but she’d already decided to memorialize the building as a backpack. Yeah, she does that sort of thing: “My backpacks are what I imagine these abandoned buildings were like in their prime: fresh and new with a dash of color,” she writes. “They include a stitched map that shows the buildings original location so it can always find its way home.”

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05/21/12 11:45pm

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]

05/01/12 10:51am

For almost 2 years after it caught fire in October 2008, the 2-story home at 803 Kipling St. in Audubon Place stood vacant on the property as a burnt skeleton. Now the recent purchaser of the lot that remained after the property was demolished has plans to turn the land into a community garden.

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04/26/12 10:27am

Fresh off its work transforming the former Monarch Cleaners/Fox Diner/Cafe Serranos Cantina/Crome/Pravada building on Shepherd into Triniti Restaurant (with the help of some colorful perforated metal), Houston’s MC2 Architects is now designing its second restaurant — this time from scratch. It’s a “contemporary building with a rustic farmhouse feel” that’ll take the place of the shuttered and soon-to-be-dismantled Ruggles Grill at 903 Westheimer, just east of Montrose. Inside will be a new (yes) rustic American restaurant for the same owners — called Brande, Triniti chef Ryan Hildebrand announced yesterday. All that rusticity will take time, of course: The scheduled opening season is a far-off fall 2013.

Photo: Candace Garcia

04/24/12 9:26am

NO, DUNKIN’ DONUTS IS NOT COMING TO THE CORNER OF WESTHEIMER AND DUNLAVY Did yesterday’s announcement that Dunkin’ Donuts plans to open 16 new franchises in Houston over the next 5 years add fuel to the persistent rumor that one of them is headed for the recently cleared northwest corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy in Montrose? A leasing agent who says he’s negotiating with “a couple of very strong retailers” to get them into the new 4,829-sq.-ft. center planned for the site by owner SFT Investments is ready to quash it. “I will tell you that at no time were we in negotiations with Dunkin Donuts,” Jed Mandel of Edge Realty Partners tells Swamplot. “I do not know how that rumor was started but I still get phone calls on the property begging us not to put them in.” [Swamplot inbox] Rendering: Edge Realty Partners

04/18/12 1:56pm

ANOTHER TURNOVER IN THE HOUSE OF LA STRADA The Don Julio’s in Montrose will serve its last margarita this Sunday before retreating to a new but more familiarly suburban location in Missouri City, reports b4-u-eat. The Mexican restaurant took over last year from Caffe Bello, which took over the previous year from La Strada in that restaurant’s custom-built building at 322 Westheimer, at the corner of Taft St. Taking over this summer at the same spot, reads the report: “a steak house.” According to Eating Our Words, though, it should be a “high end Mexican” steakhouse, run by Don Julio’s investors. [b4-u-eat; Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Don Julio’s

04/16/12 4:58pm

The antique-bearing bungalow at the northwest corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy was demolished over the weekend. Due to replace it — and the site of the former-duplex-turned-art-gallery next door, which was destroyed in a fire last summer — a 4,829-sq.-ft. retail center. The planned new building will hold the same front sidewalk line along Westheimer as its neighbor, Agora. That’s likely a plus for fans sidewalkable Montrose. But will Westheimer get a front door? Edge Realty Partners is leasing the space for developer SFT Investments; the company’s brochure shows the 36-car parking lot tucked behind the building, facing Dunlavy:

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04/13/12 12:34pm

Where exactly on the Menil Collection campus in Montrose will the new 18,000-sq.-ft. Drawing Institute building be built? That’s for one of 4 architecture firms to decide. The organization announced late yesterday that Mexico City architect Tatiana Bilbao, LA’s Johnston Marklee, 2010 Pritzker Prize winner SANAA from Tokyo, and Menil master plan designer David Chipperfield Architects are the finalists to get the commission. Chipperfield’s 2009 plan for the campus doesn’t dictate a particular site for the new structure, which will combine exhibition areas, offices, storage, and conservation space for the Menil’s growing collection of drawings. But a Menil spokesperson tells Swamplot that the southern portion of the campus is a likely location, and that the building’s footprint “will be similar to that of the Twombly Gallery.”

Photo of Richmond Hall and Richmont Square Apartments on Richmond Ave: Raj Mankad

04/12/12 5:25pm

MONTROSE DISTRICT BATTLE HEADS TO COURT The owner of a 6-unit apartment complex in Montrose has filed suit against the Montrose Management District, hoping a court decision will help shut down the taxing entity. A petition calling for the dissolution of the district was delivered to the organization’s managers last September. It contained 988 signatures — accounting for more than the required 75 percent of the district’s assessed property values, according to district opponents. But the district says the 75 percent threshold hasn’t been met, because its count includes the value of residential properties in the total. The lawsuit says including residences to figure the 75 percent threshold is “perverse,” since the district can only assess taxes on commercial property. [Houston Chronicle; more info; previously on Swamplot] Map: Stop the District

04/11/12 11:13pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SETTING THE STANDARDS TOO HIGH “Have people gone from midgets to monsters in the few years that this place went from being fully occupied to empty? Before it closed were people banging their heads on the roof? did any of the previous tenants died of melanoma due to asbestos? Should we blow up any building that has asbestos in it? Do you realize that would be just about every building in the city? I realize the ceilings are lower than what is considered to be in style today, but that doesn’t mean the place needs to be torn down. The price of the building, plus the cost of demo, is much higher than the land alone was worth. There is no way that the value of the structure doesn’t warrant it being saved. If you clean the place up and turned it into offices, it would be full in about 15 seconds. Low ceilings and all. It’s not the asbestos or low ceilings keeping it from being taken care of and fixed up. It’s unrealistic expectations of what the building needs to be in order to be considered satisfactory to the city.” [Codys bar, commenting on Will 3400 Montrose Rise from the Dead?]

04/10/12 10:58am

WILL 3400 MONTROSE RISE FROM THE DEAD? On assignment a couple of months ago to document the office building at 3400 Montrose that once housed Scott Gertner’s Skybar, photographer Patrick Bertolino wrote that the 10-story vacant structure across Hawthorne St. from Kroger reminded him “of what a building might look like after a zombie apocalypse, minus the zombies.” But, um, zombies always come back, don’t they? And now here’s a hint that something might be stirring: Workers were giving the parking structure behind the building a new coat of paint yesterday, reports Swamplot picture-snapper Candace Garcia. Photo evidence above. [Patrick Bertolino; previously on Swamplot] Photo of parking garage: Candace Garcia

03/23/12 12:43pm

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

03/20/12 1:32pm

Unverified rumors from 2 sources that appear to be separate have now made their way to Swamplot, but we have no details or confirmation. The first is that Fiesta Mart is considering taking the Randall’s Flagship location at the corner of Westheimer and Shepherd Dr.; the second is that Fiesta actually will move into the space — from the West Alabama and Dunlavy location now slated for an apartment building. If you’ve got more of the scoop, let us know!

Photo of Randall’s Flagship Shepherd Square: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston