Houston Heights residents: This is what an apartment complex looks like. The city issued construction permits today for the Retreat at the Heights.
Read more about: 77008, Apartments, Houston Heights, New Construction, New Construction: Residential
This, reports Houston Architecture Info Forum member Porchman, is a drawing of the $30 million, 195-unit, five-story apartment complex about to go up on the former site of the Kaplan’s Ben Hur department store on Yale, which was demolished back in June. Except it’ll be different: That giant yellow steel Y bracket you see won’t be there. And the retail indicated on the building’s ground floor is apparently just for show.
The Retreat at the Heights, the newest “Retreat” development from Allied Realty Services, will reportedly feature an equal mix of one- and two-bedroom units, a pool and fitness room, residents willing to shell out an average of $1500 a month, and a two-level parking garage. One of those levels will be below grade (detention-pond parking, anyone?) and each will be accessed from a separate street.
Notable: Top floors are shown with metal siding, a nod to the many simple metal warehouses that littered the Heights before they were replaced with historic homes.
Porchman adds:
Another developer is going to put 4 townhomes on the lot west of Long John Silvers, which is currently being currently being used as the construction lot. They’re targeting the fried fish lovers market . . .
Read more about: 77008, Apartments, Construction Materials, Houston Heights, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Proposed Developments
The movement to rid the Heights of dilapidated old houses and replace them with far more appropriate historic structures continues. The latest contribution: a demolition permit obtained for the Doyle Mansion at 945 Heights Blvd., which was built by William Wilson (who later founded neighboring Woodland Heights) in 1898, and which somehow managed to sneak onto the National Register of Historic Places about 100 years later.
Harry James has been buying properties all along Heights Boulevard, tearing down homes and replacing them with what he calls “Victorian Classics.”
And now it will happen to the Doyle Mansion too.
A “Preservation Alert” notice sent out by Historic Houston’s Lynn Edmundson reveals a meeting with James last week didn’t go so well:
Despite its deteriorated condition, it is architecturally and historically a very significant residence on Heights Boulevard that could and should be saved.
Unfortunately, the builder now appears unwilling to entertain any offers.
James features several Victorian Classics (the new kind) on his website, along with a childhood story that reveals something preservationists won’t want to hear: the homebuilder doesn’t mind getting his ass kicked if it means he gets to build what he wants:
Needless to say, my dad wasn’t very happy! I remember he gave me a gentle kick across my backside as I scurried back to the house with my head hung down. It seemed like he was mad at me for months. Years later, when I reflect, I realize that what my dad failed to see was the level of skill and craftsmanship that was used in the construction of this secret door into his garage.
Photo of 442 Heights Blvd.: Harry James Building & Design
Read more about: 77008, Demolitions, Historic Districts, Historic Houston, Homebuilders, Houston Heights, Preservation
Commenting on an article describing plans for a 40-unit condo building on the site of the former Ashland Tea House in the Heights, with another 40 townhouses and “garden villas” to be sprinkled around it later, Chronicle blogger Martin Hajovsky writes:
I remember when the Ashland Tea House, the McDonald Home, was demolished in 2005, the plan at the time was for a Victorian-themed restaurant to go there. The mere idea that someone would tear down a Victorian-themed restaurant to build a Victorian-themed restaurant struck me as the height of irony.
That memory came back reading the article because there’s a beautiful old magnolia on that site right now. It’s a perfect example of the species. Wonderful, fragrant, old and stately. If that tree survives the building of the “Magnolia Lofts,” it would be a miracle. Once again, irony triumphs.
Construction is expected to begin in August or September. The Magnolia Lofts will feature a tiny ground-floor commercial space—at 750 sf, even smaller than the average condo size of 900 sf—and two stories of parking, one of which the article describes as
“partially submerged” so the building would only appear to be five stories tall.
Maybe the developers should claim that the bottom level of parking is really at a normal level—although it’s underground, it is in the Heights.
Architect Tim Cisneros’s vague storybook sketch of the facade, though, has aroused the ire of Heights resident Mark White:
“While the description provided by the architect sounds like the building’s proposed style is in keeping with the Victorian-era architecture of the Heights, the initial drawings suggest a more ‘updated’ factory-turned-condo facade,” he said. “We would ask that the developer consider making a few changes to the style to make it more consistent with the architecture of the time period represented by the Heights neighborhood.”
By our estimate, that time period would be approximately 1891 to 2007, with the average construction date moving toward the present at a pretty steady clip.
Read more about: 77008, Condos, Historic Districts, Houston Heights, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking
Here’s a building method that seems well-suited for Houston: It’s fast, it’s temporary, and it involves both shipping containers and fine art. Remember the demolition permit for the site on 11th Street in the Heights we mentioned a few days back? By Friday, it’ll have a completed building on it, according to ’stina, who wrote in her LiveJournal Wednesday:
Today, the shipping containers will be delivered and installed to the new site of the 1400 square foot gallery, and you can see for yourself what this form of construction looks like. They started this morning with merely a few spread footings and grade beams and they’ll finish this evening with all the containers set and a good portion (if not all) of the roof in place.
It’s the new Apama Mackey Gallery, pieced together out of three shipping containers by Numen Development. The gallery will occupy the site for a few years, until the landowner is ready for a more permanent development in that location. Then Mackey will be able to move the gallery to a new lot she hopes to find in the meantime.
Some of the project’s green features, according to ’stina’s report:
- From conception of the idea in March, it has been three short months to a nearly final product!
- The Mackey Gallery is built to be moved and reassembled with less than 5% waste.
- Custom panelized roof and floor system utilizing Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs are extremely energy efficient and virtually eliminate the need for traditional framing while dramatically reducing waste and build time.)
- Clerestory panels and office windows made from Polygal. (An insulated polycarbonate that is more energy efficient than glass, yet less expensive and more secure.)
- The job site for the Gallery will need NO dumpsters because the building process has so little waste.
- Even the parking lot will be made of Permeable Paving squares which are green, and reusable.
Photo: Flickr user Ross Dunn
Read more about: 77008, Demolitions, Development Strategies, Galleries, Green Design, Green Development, Houston Heights, Shipping-Containers
Coming down soon . . . in a neighborhood near you! It’s our daily report of sold demolition permits. Our list of casualties approved Friday begins after the jump.
Read more about: 77005, 77008, 77019, 77025, 77051, 77098, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions, Houston Heights, Montrose
Just in case you require more evidence the Heights has changed forever, here’s a two-bedroom, one-bath 1930 bungalow for sale with a small freestanding workshop in the back. Sounds like the old Heights, right? Except that the workshop has been converted . . . into a pub. Seats three!
This is a little confusing. Weren’t backyard workshops for drinking anyway? And is this the part of the Heights that’s still dry?
After the jump, pics of the secret backyard get-out house.
Read more about: 77007, Bars, Bungalows, Outhouses, The-Heights
