Upper Kirby

Home Decor, Interiors, Upper Kirby

6 Comments

“Brown finds itself at the epicenter of two major design styles that [have] swept the country,” declares Cote de Texas’s Joni Webb. And those would be? “The Belgian and Industrial looks.”

In Houston at least, Jill Brown appears to have cornered the market on large lantern-style lighting fixtures and European instructional charts. On separate recent visits to her last-name-only shop on the corner of Ferndale and W. Alabama, Webb and fellow design blogger Paloma Contreras documented the finds:

77098, Ferndale, Home Decor, Interiors, Lighting, Prints, Shopping, Teaching Charts, Upper Kirby

Quicklink

11/11/08 1:03pm

A Long Holiday Break for Kirby Construction

Streets, Upper Kirby

7 Comments

A LONG HOLIDAY BREAK FOR KIRBY CONSTRUCTION Good news! The drainage work that’s turned Kirby Dr. between Westheimer and Richmond into a dusty obstacle course is almost over — for the year, at least: “Construction work will pause from Nov. 21 through Jan. 2, said Travis Younkin, capital projects coordinator for the Upper Kirby District. Work along side streets will continue, though. ‘We can’t have construction crews working on the street during the busiest shopping season of the year,’ Younkin said. The $18 million project, managed by the Upper Kirby District Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, is scheduled to be completed by next November.” [Houston Chronicle, via BlogHouston]

77098, Streetscapes, Upper Kirby

Condos

08/27/08 1:50pm

2727 Kirby: Enough with the Crane

Highrises, New Construction: Residential, Upper Kirby

7 Comments

Condo Tower at 2727 Kirby Dr., Under Construction The crane at 2727 Kirby is coming down today and tomorrow, reports a reader who’s been watching the construction.

A larger version of this up-to-date photo showing the incredible shrinking construction crane — and a rendering of the completed condo tower — are waiting for you after the jump.

2727 Kirby, 77098, Condos, Highrises, New Construction: Residential, Upper Kirby

Leasing

08/01/08 10:31am

Avalon Drug: Gone in 2 Weeks

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Upper Kirby

7 Comments

Avalon Drug Store and Diner, 2417 and 2427 Westheimer Rd., Houston

No word yet about the diner next door, but the West U. Examiner reports that the Avalon Drug Store on Westheimer just east of Kirby will be calling it quits in 2 weeks:

Pharmacist Bill Morris, who has run the independent pharmacy for 36 years, said â€œa confluence of eventsâ€ prompted his recent decision.

Morris is 67 years old â€” for one thing â€” and insurance â€œhas made it harderâ€ on independent pharmacy operations, which have low profit margins.

He also pointed to leasing rates that are rising due to the plethora of new construction in the Upper Kirby area.

Update: As owner Coy Ramsey notes in the comments, Avalon Diner is not going anywhere. More from the River Oaks Examiner and Houstonist.

Avalon Drug closing in 2 weeks [West University Examiner]

Photo: Flickr user Houstonian [license]

77098, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Upper Kirby

Neighborhood Disputes

07/29/08 9:12am

Those Aren’t Live Oaks on Kirby Anymore

Quicklink, Streets, Trees, Upper Kirby

2 Comments

THOSE AREN’T LIVE OAKS ON KIRBY ANYMORE “Overnight, crews cut down dozens of trees lining Kirby between Richmond and Westheimer as part of a controversial construction project.” With chainsaws and backhoes in the middle of the night — what excitement! [11 News, previously in Swamplot]

77098, Kirby Street Trees, Neighborhood Disputes, Streetscapes, Trees, Upper Kirby

Trees

07/16/08 2:21pm

The Kirby Street Trees Are Officially Toast

Upper Kirby

5 Comments

Street Trees on Kirby Dr. Between Richmond and Westheimer

At last — maybe now we’ll actually be able to see the store signs on Kirby between Richmond and Westheimer:

TIRZ President Buddy Bailey said the new high-rise oaks, which can reach a height of 40 feet, â€œgrow straight up and straight down,â€ which will reduce problems with root systems and underground infrastructure.

The plan calls for the exiting 135 trees to be replaced with 148 trees.

â€œWe will match the old trees caliper for caliper,â€ he said.

Preliminary Upper Kirby construction under way [West University Examiner]
Kirby project starts Monday [Houston Chronicle, via Off the Kuff]
The next Kirby [Houston Chronicle]
Previously on Swamplot: Kirby Casualty Forecast: 161 Street Trees, 1 Realtor, Kirby Tree Compromise: Only Three to Five Feet To Be Lopped Off Using Gentle Saw, Kirby Oaks Dress Up for Street Fight

77098, Kirby Street Trees, Streetscapes, Trees, Upper Kirby

New Construction

05/12/08 9:39am

Via Las Vegas: New West Ave Spa, Italian Style

Retail, River Oaks, Upper Kirby

View of West Ave from Second Story

More imports for West Ave! A tidbit from the Chronicle:

Rome, a resort-style day spa and salon, plans to open at West Ave. in the summer of 2009. Conceived by Las Vegas-based spa operators, Resources & Development, the spa will encompass more than 10,000 square feet in the mixed-use development at Kirby and Westheimer.

Real estate transactions [Houston Chronicle]
West Ave Food and Drink Details: Imported Beers and Restaurants [Swamplot]

West Ave rendering: Urban Partners

77098, New Construction, Retail, River Oaks, Theming, Upper Kirby, West Ave

04/08/08 12:17pm

West Ave Food and Drink Details: Imported Beers and Restaurants

Mixed Use, New Construction, Restaurants, Retail, River Oaks, Upper Kirby

View of West Ave, Kirby and Westheimer, Houston, by Looney Ricks Kiss, Architects

Houston restaurant reporter Cleverley Stone has names and details of four new restaurants and a bar slated to open at West Ave, the multistory mixed-use development now under construction on the corner of Westheimer and Kirby. All are culinary imports from Dallas, San Antonio, or California, though one has already moved nearby:

Cru, a wine bar with food, was founded in Dallas but already has a location open in The Woodlands.

With the ambience of a European cafÃ©, indoor and alfresco options will be available with dining areas separated by a wall of French doors. The dÃ©cor will incorporate custom built wine racks and handpainted fresco wine labels on canvas. The menu will offer a contemporary collection of French-Continental, Asian Fusion and Wine Country
The Social House, a gastropub that will actually call itself a gastropub. Presumably this will be much like the Syn Group’s Social House in Dallas, although here it will be in West Ave, not in West Village.
Pie Bar, a 1,500-square-foot gourmet pizza place — also from the Syn Group — that’s also a bar and will stay open until 2 a.m. On the second floor.
Swig, a cigar-and-martini bar with locations in San Antonio and Memphis.
Wildfish Seafood Grille, an upscale seafood and steak house, already has locations in San Antonio and Scottsdale but was founded in Newport Beach by the owners of Eddie V’s and the Roaring Fork.

Though a number of the 390 luxury apartments upstairs are scheduled to become available this August, the restaurants and stores below them in West Ave’s first phase won’t open until August 2009.

After the jump, two more newish images of West Ave from the architect’s website.

77098, Apartments, Bars, Mixed Use, New Construction, Restaurants, Retail, River Oaks, Upper Kirby, West Ave

02/05/08 1:02pm

Obstacle to Building More Apartments in Houston: Distinctive Details

Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Upper Kirby

How poetic is it that the lone holdout in a 2-acre plot on West Alabama that Gables Residential wants to tear down so it can build up to 150 more apartments — and maybe some street-level shops — is called . . . Distinctive Details?

Little Woodrow’s will be shutting down March 2nd, but Distinctive Details, which rents linens and party supplies, wants the Atlanta REIT to triple its $150K lease buyout offer.

Holding out in River Oaks [Houston Business Journal]
More units coming to the Gables Upper Kirby complex [Houston Chronicle]

77098, Apartments, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Upper Kirby

Streets

01/29/08 1:21pm

Kirby Casualty Forecast: 161 Street Trees, 1 Realtor

Trees, Upper Kirby

Green Ribbons on Kirby Dr. Trees

A real estate agent writes in to report that the grand compromise to save all those Live Oaks lining Kirby Dr. between Richmond and Westheimer isn’t going to save anything:

Despite a compromise that reclaimed 7 feet of paved width from a plan to revamp Kirby Drive, it now appears that all of the trees between Richmond Avenue and Westheimer Road will be lost to construction.

Houston foresters told a group of about 30 residents Thursday that after walking the site Dec. 7, it was determined that even with a roadway that is 73 feet across, the majority of trees will be unable to survive.

City Forester Victor Cordova said only eight trees within the area have a â€œrealistic chanceâ€ of surviving, and that is because they are relatively small rather than in a viable location. He called moving those trees â€œa very expensive venture.â€

Our agent-informant is aghast, and tells us that either the trees stay or she leaves Houston. That sounds kinda drastic, and doesn’t give much credit to the real improvements to Houston’s quality of life the Kirby Dr. reconstruction will likely achieve:

The City insists that the street be widened not to increase capacity but to increase the lane widths. A Public Works engineer told me recently that drivers of Hummers and some large SUVs find the current Kirby lane width â€œuncomfortable.â€

Kirby treesâ€™ chances cut down [River Oaks Examiner]
Kirby trees doomed, forester says [Connections]
Previously in Swamplot: Kirby Tree Compromise: Only Three to Five Feet To Be Lopped Off Using Gentle Saw

77098, Kirby Street Trees, Streetscapes, Trees, Upper Kirby

Streets

10/15/07 10:00am

Kirby Tree Compromise: Only Three to Five Feet To Be Lopped Off Using Gentle Saw

Trees, Upper Kirby

The wisdom of King Solomon lives on! The promised grand compromise on the Kirby Dr. street trees has been officially unveiled: Many of the oaks lining the busy street will get to keep most of their roots! The street surface will be expanded

to a standard of 73 feet, widening to 74 feet for left-turn lanes without signals and 77 feet at intersections with stoplights. Kirby is currently 66 feet wide.

That means up to five-and-a-half feet of trimming.

In order to protect trees during construction, a process called â€œwater sawingâ€ will be used to trim roots away from the construction area.

It won’t hurt a bit!

Kirby compromise â€” â€˜Thatâ€™s as well as we can doâ€™ [West University Examiner]
Earlier in Swamplot: Kirby Oaks Dress Up for Street Fight

77098, Kirby Street Trees, Streetscapes, Trees, Upper Kirby

09/26/07 9:52am

From New Orleans, with Love: Le Maison on Revere

Development Strategy, Flooding, Hazards, Lofts, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Upper Kirby

Le Maison on Revere Apartments

Worried that there still aren’t going to be enough places to live near the corner of Westheimer and Kirby after all the construction is done? Relax. The Texas division of Orlando, Florida’s ZOM Development just got a slew of construction permits approved yesterday for their next fancy apartment complex just a few blocks to the east of that busy intersection, at the corner of Revere and Cameron, at 2701 Revere St. (Cleverly, the address on the permits is listed as 2727 Revere. Why would they give it that number?)

Going up: Le Maison on Revere, 431 rental units on a just-under-six-acre site, a five-story mix of “flats and high-end loft units.”

But it looks like there’s more to it. Not satisfied with the Beaux-Arts-meets-the-Alamo stylings of the Bel Air Apartments they recently developed and filled up not too far away on Allen Parkway, the sleek modern look of the 2727 Kirby tower now going up across the street from their new development, or the apparent Superman-in-Gotham City theme of West Ave on the other side of Kirby, ZOM has apparently decided that their new complex will, at last, point out the absurdities of the area’s stylistic hodgepodge.

How? By theming the building with a higher, more symbolic purpose in mind.

That’s right: The Le Maison on Revere apartments will be marketed and dressed up to look like “New Orleans garden style apartments,” and thereby perform the public service of reminding residents of the former glory of their neighboring city and the dangers of living at low elevations in a high-water town.

Expect the top floors to fill up first.

Le Maison on Revere (see “projects under development”) [ZOM Living]
The Bel Air [ZOM Living]
2727 Kirby [MDA Holdings]
West Ave: Shiny, Happy People Holding Shopping Bags [Swamplot]

77098, Apartments, Development Strategy, Flooding, Hazards, Lofts, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, New-Orleans, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Style, Theming, Upper Kirby

Landscape

09/11/07 9:37am

Kirby Oaks Dress Up for Street Fight

Neighborhood Disputes, Trees, Upper Kirby

Green Ribbons on Kirby Dr. Trees

The oaks along Kirby Dr. between Richmond and Westheimer have spoken, and they appear to be against being removed so that traffic lanes can be widened by twenty inches.

Since FEMA is providing funding to install massive 72-inch culverts under Kirby from 59 to San Felipe anyway, folks at the Upper Kirby TIRZ figured, why not go all the way and make the street safer for buses and fat-ass trucks? And while we’re at it, why not pave those intersections with giant stars? Sure, that might mean less space for trees and sidewalks, but we’ll be able to squeeze some new ones in.

None of this is making Trees for Houston, the organization that planted many of those trees umpteen years ago, very happy. But maybe they’re just not being appreciative enough of the new 14-foot-wide median they’ll be able to drop their tiny saplings into. Got it? On Kirby everything gets rebuilt.

Kirby Drive reconstruction plans pose important questions, trade-offs [Transportation Whatnot, via Off the Kuff]
Kirby Drive reconstruction (US-59 to San Felipe) [CTC Forums]
Trees for Houston letter to Mayor White [CTC Forums]
Trees for Houston vs. the Upper Kirby District TIRZ [Houston Strategies]
Upper Kirby District
Kirby Drive Starscape [Kirby Allstars]

77098, Kirby Street Trees, Streetscapes, Trees, Upper Kirby

05/21/07 9:57am

West Ave: Shiny, Happy People Holding Shopping Bags

Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments, River Oaks, Upper Kirby

View Down West Ave

The teaser website for the apartments-and-retail complex slated for that large, recently scraped site at the southwest corner of Kirby and Westheimer is up! What will you find there? For starters, a trance soundtrack you’ll have a tough time figuring out how to turn off, plus slick rendered views and a whizzy video of a dark and urban-looking streetscape where pedestrians wield shopping bags and hover precariously on balconies.

This is the former site of the River Oaks Tennis Center. The development is named West Ave, and to prove it they’re putting in a new street by the same name just west of Kirby, extending from Kipling to Westheimer. Of course the big news is the two floors of retail space facing Kirby, West Avenue, and Westheimer. On top of that: five stories of apartments, managed by Gables Residential. The parking garage is tucked in back.

After the jump: The plan and more images.