COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOUR HOUSTON TOWNHOUSE IN 2050 “. . . Imagine your typical 100 x 100 ft lot, shared driveway down the middle, with 3 fee-simple townhouse units on each side. Now, imagine them 40 years from now, when the post-tensiooned slabs have failed, roofs are worn out, window/roof leaks have caused rot, etc. It is hard to imagine the scenario in which one of the middle units could be replaced with something new. It is going to be very difficult. So somewhere down the road, it may be necessary for a new entity to come in and buy all six units and replat them for the land to find some other productive use. And that doesn’t sound all that easy, does it? This doesn’t seem to be a problem that afflicts every townhouse project, but the ones with the internal shared drives, party walls and continuous slabs sure seem vulnerable. I see the potential for future slums.” [Mies, commenting on Up and Down in Hyde Park]
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Construction Problems
THE GOLDEN AGE OF FORT BEND COUNTY HOUSE CONSTRUCTION IS OFFICIALLY OVER Damn! Y’all are ruining the last bastions of suburban homebuilding freedom. Could be worse, though. They could have made it so you don’t get to hire your own inspectors: “As of April 1, Fort Bend County residential home builders are required to report inspections for new construction within unincorporated areas of the county. A minimum of three inspections during construction will be required and include inspection of the following: the foundation, before the placement of concrete; the framing and mechanical system stage before drywall; and the final inspection once construction is complete.” [Fort Bend Now]
BREAKING FIRE STATION NEWS The upper floor of the fire station at the corner of Richmond and Dunlavy in Montrose buckled today and the building is close to collapsing, a source with second-hand knowledge of the situation tells Swamplot. Problems with the foundation of the 1979 structure were reportedly complicated by the removal of a building column some time in the past. An engine, ladder, 2 ambulances, and an EMS supervisor are being relocated to nearby facilities and the station will be “closed indefinitely,” reports the source. Station 16 covers the greater Montrose area, roughly from Kirby to Spur 527 and from Bissonnet to West Dallas. [Swamplot inbox]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE RUTLAND ST. SCARECROWS “Those houses are still in various stages of uncompleteness. Woe looks to be the fate of anyone who tries to get anything done there. Bill Baldwin is now the latest to try and for his sake, I hope he succeeds. But those places have been eyesores for awhile now. Personally, I think that places like the old Eighth Avenue Elementary site and 2200-2207 Rutland serve as scarecrows of a sort, scaring off townhome developers, much like the ones at 15th and Yale used to before a community garden went in there. . . .” [Martin Hajovsky, commenting on Heights Home Composting: The Amazing Disappearing Waterhill Townhomes; previously on Swamplot]
Okay, tell us what was the plan for that block south of W. 8th St. along the new Heights Hike-and-Bike Trail, between Nicholson and Waverly?
This large, open space will be available for community gardens, both cultivated and natural, think edible weeds. Small animal husbandry, such as goats, chickens and rats could also be sustained. Compost houses flank the development to show clientele how their homes will indeed return to their natural state a lá the second law of thermodynamics, or something like that. Between the back row of Compost Homes are the E-condos. These models reflect real world living as they do not have plumbing or electricity.
Huh? Well, it’s not even a year since Houston Indymedia reporter Keefski tried to explain it all . . . but the Waterhill Homes at the Heights development is at last seeing some action!
What kind of action?
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: MAKING OLDER HOMES SAFER “Ironically, all of the lawsuit-limiting legislation passed at the request of the home-building industry makes Texas one of the few states where a pre-existing home is a more secure investment than a new home. When the market begins to reflect this, which it will eventually, new home builders will regret it.” [jlawrence, commenting on The $58 Million Perry Home]
A reader writes in to complain about the not-quite-complete renovation of the former Sterling Bank building overlooking I-45 South at 4600 Gulf Fwy. The building was stripped down to its structure and is being reborn as the largest Planned Parenthood administrative headquarters and healthcare facility in the nation.
Is anyone else really bothered by the fact that on the stair-stepped portions of the curtain wall the spandrel glass doesn’t line up with the spandrels on the rest of the building? I mean if you’re going to design a facade that’s all about geometry, shouldn’t the geometry work? There had to be better ways to do this, really.
A close-up view:
You know you want to see it: Yesterday’s “controlled demolition” of the hobbled 31-story Ocean Tower condo at the northern end of South Padre Island. Controlled Demolition’s dynamite work took down the tallest reinforced-concrete structure ever to be imploded.
A few more videos below. South Padre sure knows how to party!
Here’s a little drive-by tour with expert commentary on the lost and leaning Ocean Tower on South Padre Island, slated for implosion this Sunday at 9 a.m. The condo tower has supposed to have 31 levels, but accumulated many more stories: Construction was halted last year after one side of the building sunk more than 14 inches into the sand.
Three months after topping out the tower last spring, developer Antun Domit sent a letter to buyers noting that a problem of “differential settlement” had occurred:
Unfortunately, there is a layer or stratum of which the engineers tell us is “expandable clay”, meaning that it is a clay stratum that compresses [when] weight is placed upon it. Although our foundation is engineered to a depth above that stratum, the weight pressing on the stratum has caused sinking of the building on it.
But there’s a fix for that!
BRICK ON THE INSIDE Before his dog Teddy runs off with it, new Norhill resident John Whiteside finds a convenient doorstop solution: “None of the doors in my house close. Well, the closets do. But the actual doors into rooms – no. . . . It is a little more crooked than most Heights houses (which are always a little crooked, unless they’re new, in which case they will be crooked soon as the shitty modern constructions settles in). I would like it if the doors latched, but I’m not going to deal with that until I am sure there are no additional foundation repairs in the offing. This is normally fine because it doesn’t really bother me if I’m peeing and suddenly the door comes in and Teddy strolls in. ‘Hey, whatcha doin’?’ However, on Saturday I had people over for a little housewarming open house, and I realized on Saturday afternoon that guests might not enjoy Teddy visits during personal moments quite as much. What to do? Why, a doorstop seemed like the ideal answer. I looked around the house for a suitable heavy object. Then I had a great idea; there’s been a pile of red bricks sitting outside next to the air conditioning unit since I moved in. Solid, compact, easy to slide over in front of the door, and kind of rustic – the perfect doorstop!” [By the Bayou]
A First Ward resident wants the scoop on a nearby development that’s “really going to pasture” on the 1500 block of Bingham, just west of Houston Ave. and across from Brock Elementary.
It is a townhouse project that got started 1-2 years ago, was never finished, and is now becoming a huge eyesore (broken doors, windows, garage doors…they got as far as putting mesh siding but stopped short of actually getting the stucko on there).
I have lived in the first ward for about 2 years in a renovated bungalow. it makes me sick to see all these properties built on spec to make a quick buck that are becoming abandoned, and only after demolishing what was there in the first place.
A few more photos our reader sent in:
Swamplot reader Scott Broschart sends in a photo he took last Monday from the roof of the Herrin Lofts in East Downtown, looking west toward the GRB Convention Center. “Take a look in the windows of the yellow town houses across the street,” he says.
Okay . . .
A “DEEP RENOVATION” GONE WRONG A building collapse this afternoon killed at least one worker and seriously injured 2 others at Brays Crossing, a 6-building, low-cost apartment project being fashioned from the former HouTex Inn on I-45 just north of Griggs Road, near Forest Park Cemetery. “The two-story building collapsed as construction workers were replacing joists and the structure began to shift, said Richard Cole, chief of the fire department’s rescue team. The original building was a wooden frame building and had no steel beams for the support needed, he said. . . . New Hope Housing, the city’s partner on the 149-room apartment complex, bought the inn and hired Camden Builders to rehab it beginning in January. When it’s finished, small, single room occupancy apartments will be rented to the newly homeless, said Richard Celli, the city’s director of housing and community development.” [Houston Chronicle; schematic diagram (PDF)]
Allen Stanford’s international “banking” empire is falling apart. How’s his work as a Houston real estate developer holding up?
Stanford Development Corporation still owns a couple of units on the top floor of the Stanford Lofts, the 5-story East Downtown condo building topped with a starred tiara that the company completed in 2002, just a few blocks east of Minute Maid Park. But owning the condos didn’t prevent the condo owners association from filing a construction-defect lawsuit against the Stanford Lofts developers and builders in 2007, charging Stanford Development with “breach of contract, Deceptive Trade Practices, breach of warranty, fraud, and negligent design, construction, and supervision.”
The summary of problems with the building included in the original complaint is 9 pages long, and includes failure to meet building codes, wall cracks and leaks, structural movement, and a series of defects causing continuing problems with water infiltration. The repair estimate: more than $2 million.
The case has dragged on for some time. Attorneys for the Stanford Condo Owners Association complained that Stanford Development was dragging its feet, arguing last year in response to a stay request:
