Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Another week, another bunch of bashes.
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Demolitions
If they look this good now, just wait to see how they look when we’re done with them.
How much more efficient this would be if all these properties were adjacent to each other:
PAINTING HOUSES IN THE HEIGHTS 
Another Houston artist has turned to demolitions for inspiration. Though Ken Mazzu has spent the past decade driving all over the city and studying the twisted remains of iconic buildings like the Downtown Y and the Ben Milam Hotel, 15-year Heights resident and painter Cary Reeder seems to want to stay closer to home; Martin Hajovsky reports that Reeder’s paintings portray the last days of doomed bungalows she sees in her dramatically changing ‘hood: “Reeder’s [upcoming show at the Lawndale Art Center], in effect a different sort of home tour, will focus specifically on houses in the Heights that are endangered for demolition.” [Home in the Heights; previously on Swamplot] Image: Cary Reeder
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Ready to crunch. Then chew. Then spit.
Now that Cafe Adobe is coming down on the corner of Westheimer and S. Shepherd, Hines says it is going to start building this apartment complex later this month. A Hines rep tells Swamplot that this rendering of the so-called 21 Eleven at — wait for it — 2111 Westheimer is current — though it doesn’t appear to be all that different from the one published back in April that Hines said wasn’t. At any rate, the complex is planned to hold 215 units in 5 stories that will sit atop 2 levels of “podium parking.” And no ground-floor retail.
- Hines breaks ground on next Houston multifamily project [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Adobe Creative Cloud, Westheimer Rd. Cafe Adobe Closing on Mother’s Day, Hines Replacing Cafe Adobe With Apartment Building — Just Not This One
Rendering: Hines
Mark your calendars! The implosion of the big brick box that used to shelter Macy’s and Foley’s has been scheduled bright and early: It’ll go down at 6:10 a.m. Sunday, September 22. The Kenneth Franzheim-designed department store at 1110 Main St. has already suffered some selective chunkage, and it looks like serial crusher Cherry Demolition will be in charge of setting off the final charges.
Though Cherry is pretty experienced with this sort of thing, the building’s proximity to the light rail line seems to have spurred Metro into some serious contingency planning: Internal documents show that Metro has set up alternative service for anywhere from 2 days to 3 weeks in case something goes wrong.
Here’s the plan: The trains will stop running on the evening of Friday, September 20, to give Metro plenty of time to remove poles, wires, brackets, supports, etc. A contractor has been hired to “Utilize Containers,” says those documents, and build a wall around the water spouts and decorations at the Main Street Square station catty-corner from the building. Meanwhile, Metro will be double-checking its insurance policy.
Harris County Commissioner Jack Morman and Judge Ed Emmett are already saying that, were that $217 million bond election to turn the Astrodome into a convention center (as shown in the rendering above) to fail this November, then the Dome would probably be torn down — but will that be stated clearly on the ballot? So far, that doesn’t seem to have been decided — or even mentioned as a possibility. What is clear is that the November vote is being touted as a this-or-nothing proposition. The Houston Chronicle’s Kiah Collier reports:
[Emmett and Morman] said Tuesday they see no other alternative than to demolish the former ‘Eighth Wonder of the World,’ which has sat vacant since city inspectors declared it unfit for occupancy in 2009. . . . ‘If it does not pass in November, then that should be the death knell for the Dome,’ Morman said.
- Astrodome renovation project officially ballot-bound [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Voters to decide on $217 million plan to revamp Astrodome [KHOU]
- Astrodome coverage [Swamplot]
Rendering: HCSCC
Some shady operations planned, but they should achieve the expected results.
It’s one thing to see Houston’s demolitions cleaned up and presented in a tidy list every morning; it’s another to gawk at the raw carnage — or sit through a video of it, at least. Swamplot reader Kevin Jackson posts this 10-minute chronicle of destruction of 332 E. 25th St. in the Heights, doomed in the Daily Demolition Report on Friday.
- 332 E 25th St Demolition — Houston, TX [YouTube]
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: Crossing Off Potomac
Video: theoriginalkj