Montrose

Demolitions, Montrose

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The yellow excavator pictured above showed up yesterday in the driveway behind 912 Marshall St., a roughly 100-year-old home that’s been empty since its previous owners moved out December, according to a neighbor. Its new owner, an entity known simply as Montrose & Marshall LLC, also holds the deed to the vacant third-of-an-acre field next door that ends at the corner of — as you might expect — Montrose Blvd. and Marshall St.

Formerly home to a lowrise building, the deserted lot more recently served as a parking lot and is now doing time as a grassy backdrop for Bacco’s Wine Garden’s boozy patio next door:

912 Marshall St.

77006, Audubon Place, Demolitions, Montrose

Demolitions

12/24/18 10:15am

The Collection of Gray Bungalows Around the Menil Collection Is About To Be Down One

Lancaster Place, Montrose

5 Comments

For the past 2 weeks, workers have been gutting the gray-painted 1940s bungalow at 1408 Sul Ross St., opposite the Rothko Chapel. In some cases, they’ve chucked the removed house parts in the dumpster that’s parked in the driveway.

In other cases, they’ve been saving them for reuse by stockpiling them inside:

Special Exhibition

77006, Demolition, Historic Buildings, Lancaster Place, Montrose

Buying and Selling

12/04/18 3:15pm

Your Chance To Own Half of Chapultepec Lupita and All of Its Richmond Ave Next-Door Neighbors

Montrose, Retail

5 Comments

Nearly the entire block-face of Richmond Ave between Roseland and Stanford streets is now up for sale; altogether: just over 19,400 sq.-ft. for $4.2 million. The offerings include the 2-story former Drew’s BBQ house pictured above, the residential lot behind it, the eastern half of the Chapultepec Lupita restaurant next-door to it (the portion of the restaurant with a red awning has a different landlord), and the former notary shop between the restaurant and the Koelsch Gallery on the corner of Stanford St.

The restaurant’s lease on its building at 817 Richmond — shown below — runs until next April:

Fitze Homestead

77006, Buying and Selling, Fitze Homestead, Restaurants, Retail, Roseland Estates

Buying and Selling

10/12/18 10:00am

Hines Picking Up Less Than an Acre Across from Montrose Whole Foods Parking Lot

Montrose, North Montrose, Quicklink

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HINES PICKING UP LESS THAN AN ACRE ACROSS FROM MONTROSE WHOLE FOODS PARKING LOT The developer entered into an agreement earlier this year to buy the property at the corner of Waugh Dr. and Dâ€™Amico St., reports the HBJâ€™s Olivia Pulsinelli in her round-up ofÂ recent North Montrose land sales. On-site that nearly three-quarter acre parcel right now: a parking lot, driveways, and 2-story dingbat office building that backs up to the adjacent strip housing Pimlico Irish Pub and others. To the east, BMW-focused auto shop Bavarian Machine Specialties buffers the tract from whatâ€™ll soon be Stages Repertory Theatreâ€™s new theater and green space on Rosine St. [HBJ] Photo: LoopNet

77019, Buying and Selling, Montrose, North Montrose, Office Buildings, Quicklink

Apartments

10/05/18 5:15pm

What’s Staying Put in a Westmoreland House of 7 Units After It Finds a New Owner

Avondale, Buying and Selling, Montrose

12 Comments

A few of the tenants inside this 7-unit, now-up-for-sale apartment building on Hawthorne St., 2 blocks from Spur 527 appear to be on the same page design-wise. The photo above shows the living room inside one of the building’s 6 one-bedroom apartments done up with a Persian rug, atop which sits a glass tabletop covered in curios surrounding a floral centerpiece.

Now, compare that to that to the living room the building’s sole 2-bedroom unit, shown below:

429 Hawthorne

77006, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Montrose, Westmoreland

Apartments

08/27/18 2:00pm

Khun Kay Thai Cafe’s Second-Gen Owner Now Tracing Out 20-Story Highrise in Its Place

Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment

18 Comments

The outline of a 20-story apartment building called Montrose Gardens made its first public appearance late Friday in the city’s planning commission agenda, where its footprint covers over that of the Khun Kay Thai Cafe on the corner of Montrose Blvd. and W. Clay St. Only 9 of those stories will be for living, so what’s going into the rest? According to the building’s engineer: “A variety of retail stores, restaurants, and coffee shops” — all 24,000 sq.-ft. of which would be buffered from the 150-or-so upstairs apartments by 9 stories of resident-only parking. Underground, a separate 2 floor garage will gobble up retail traffic from an opening on W. Clay.

Also present on the 19,900-sq.-ft. site where the apartment’s staking its claim: the restaurant’s 2 parking lots. The northern one ran over the duplex-turned-psychic-shop directly south of it after the structure — memorialized in the aerial below — was demolished in 2016:

Montrose Gardens

77019, Apartments, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail, Variance Requests

Audubon Place

08/23/18 12:15pm

Bacco’s Montrose Patio Gets Plastered with Hundreds of Wine Bottles To Celebrate Its TABC Approval

Bars and Clubs, Montrose, New Construction

6 Comments

The aftermath of Bacco’s Wine Garden’s latest design choice at 3611 Montrose Blvd. has the place looking a little less like a homeless shelter and more like a bar.Â Empty bottles were as close as the venue could get to the real thing before its TABC license got approved on Tuesday. Now that that’s all squared away, real booze will be stored inside.

It’s a marketing strategy similar to the one Postino employed with the bright yellow wine promos hung up on its Heights Mercantile patio before it opened. Except by the looks of their attachment, these reds, whites — and even a few proseccos — are here to stay.

They line the bar’s fencing all the way out to the sidewalk:

The Pre-Game

77006, Audubon Place, Bars and Restaurants, Montrose, New Construction, Patios

08/15/18 12:15pm

All Systems Are Go Inside the New White Stucco Spaceship Building on W. Alabama

Modern Design, Montrose, New Construction, WAMM

3 Comments

Everything is operational now at the Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology‘s hulking white headquarters north of the Menil — which took the place of a house earlier this year. The organization’s mission is to study the role of art in everyday life by supporting “experimental work at the intersection of art and anthropology.” It’s one door down from the intersection of W. Alabama and Yupon St., next to the Neon Gallery bungalow partly visible in the photo above.

Inside, a first floor gallery is divided by a central stairway that climbs up to a roof deck and garden:

Transart Foundation

77006, Gallery Spaces, Modern Architecture, Montrose, New Construction, WAMM

08/09/18 2:15pm

Vibrant Trades Up Its New Fairview St. Trees for Even Newer Replacements

Hyde Park, Landscape, Montrose, Montrose, Restaurants

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A Swamplot reader sends a photo (top) of the trees that appear to have grown up outside the former McGowen CleanersÂ real fast since plant life was first added to the bedÂ (above) earlier this year. That’s because the crew now converting the place into a restaurant called Vibrant tore out the bushier trees just over a week ago and replaced them with a row of taller new cedars.

The swap-out left the bed short on plant life last Wednesday and Thursday:

Growth Spurt

77006, Adaptive Reuse, Hyde Park, Landscape, Montrose, Renovations, Restaurants

07/23/18 12:30pm

New Sign Heralds Pending Rothko Chapel Renovations, Across-the-Street Add-Ons

Lancaster Place, Montrose, Renovations

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A Swamplot reader sends a photo of the big white public hearing notice now up outside the Rothko Chapel; it’s the first sign of the work chapel management has planned for both the octagon and its surroundings. The proposed replat detailed by the notice would take 6 originally single-family deed-restricted lots occupied by the chapel, adjacent administration bungalows, and their surroundings — and merge them into a single parcel.

It’s all part of the prep work for modifications planned next spring that’ll alter the chapel’s skylight and tweak its acoustics, HVAC system, weatherproofing, and entrance vestibule. New York–based firm ARO — hired in 2016 — is overseeing all those changes, as well as plans for the 4 additional lots the chapel owns on the north side of Sul Ross St.

Now occupied by a few Menil-gray-colored houses — ~~including one on the corner of Yupon St. home to the Da Camera music society~~ — those properties are slated for their own consolidation under the proposed replat. Planned to rise afterward: a visitor welcome house (gift shop included) and energy building including a backup power station. Later on, a new administration and archive building with adjacent community engagement center will also move in on that side of the street.

Previously on Swamplot: New York Firm Picked for Rothko Chapel Redo

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Gift Shop Incoming

77006, Lancaster Place, Montrose, Renovations

Apartments

07/19/18 10:00am

Excavators Sink Their Teeth into River Oaks Shopping Center’s CafÃ© Ginger Leftovers as Part of the Buildup to 30-Story Highrise Replacement

Demolitions, Montrose, North Montrose, Retail

12 Comments

It’s crunch time at the vacated original CafÃ© Ginger in the northern portion of the River Oaks Shopping Center, where a new 30-story apartment tower dubbed The Driscoll is planned to rise up over W. Gray St. Views from beyond the blaze orange barricades scattered around the parking lot since site work began in March show the crushing scene.

Since yesterday, the building’s been spilling its guts out onto the pavement in this particular area:

The End of the Endcap

77019, Apartments, Demolitions, Proposed Development, Retail

Bayous and Waterways

07/05/18 4:00pm

What Johnny Steele Dog Park Looks Like Completely Submerged Again

Flooding, Montrose, North Montrose, Parks

15 Comments

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On-the-ground footage from KHOU reporter David Gonzalez shows just how much water the Johnny Steele Dog Park — redone and reopened 3 weeks ago following its last flood — took on yesterday. By the end of the downpour, floodwaters had risen up a few steps from where the park begins at the foot of the staircase leading to Allen Pkwy., as shown in the photo above.

That left these 2 out of luck:

Bayou Spillover

77019, Bayous and Waterways, Dog Parks, Flooding, Parks

06/13/18 12:45pm

Builders Get Go-Ahead on Colombe d’Or’s 34-Floor Backdoor Tower Set To Peek Over Hanover Montrose Next Door

Montrose, New Construction, WAMM

19 Comments

Permits were approved yesterday for construction on the 285-unit apartment tower Hines and TH Real Estate plan to build behind the La Colombe d’OrÂ mansion-turned-hotel on Montrose Blvd. The rendering at top views allÂ 34 floors of the new building — designed by Houston architectural firmÂ MuÃ±oz + Albin — from above Harold St. (opposite the recently re-domed Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral). That puts it 4-stories higher than the adjacent and somewhat stockier Hanover Montrose apartments shown greyed-out on the right.

Dubbed the Residences at La Colmobe d’Or, the tower takes the place of the once-adjacent Le Grand Salon de la Comtesse ballroom erected and decked out by the hotel’s owner Steve Zimmerman. It’s shown here in the Colombe d’Or’s backyard, before crews stripped it down and demolished it in March:

18 Hotel Rooms Included

77006, Montrose, New Construction, WAMM

06/05/18 10:30am

Turkish Restaurant Transformation Now Taking Place Across Westheimer from Agora