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Awards
12/04/12 3:15pm

Another New Category for the Swampies This Year: The “It’s Alive!” Award

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So far, 3 categories in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have been been opened up for your nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, and the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic. Up next: another brand-new category, specially selected for this year’s competition: the “It’s Alive!” Award.

In a dynamic, ever-changing city, 2 opposing themes dominate: extinction and renewal. What better way to celebrate this little circle of life in Houston than with an award for things that you thought were dead and gone — but that have somehow come back. Here, we hope to recognize Houston’s living dead, its undead, and its back-from-the-dead. What, in this lively city this past year, deserves the “It’s Alive!” Award?

Send us your nominations! As usual, your spin will make the difference between a plain ol’ suggestion and a compelling choice for the award. You’ll find all the rules for the nominating process here.

You have until midnight next Monday, December 10, to suggest nominees for both categories announced today. Dig into the comments section below (or the Swamplot inbox) to submit your choices.

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Awards
12/04/12 1:20pm

Announcing the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic

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Yesterday we introduced the first 2 nominating categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Nominations will remain open until midnight Sunday, December 9, for both awards: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition.

Today, there are 2 more award categories to introduce. And they’re both new to the Swampies. The first of these we’re calling the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Traffic.

Traffic means popularity. Sure, we all like to complain about it when it gets in our way, but is traffic always such a bad thing? Is there anyone or anything that might stand to gain from it? And if a neighborhood, or a new development, or some sort of construction project were to deserve this sort of award, would it be for causing traffic, for lessening it, or for something else entirely? You tell us: What, in the Houston of 2012, deserves to be recognized for its unique relationship with traffic?

As usual, the Swampies are open to the sharp and clever formulations of readers. If you use your nomination to give this category a twist, sell your vision!

More complete instructions covering the nominating process can be found on this page. In the meantime, drive right on ahead to the comments section below to add your nomination. One at a time, please. If it gets too crowded down there, there’s an alternate route: Send your suggestions directly to Swamplot HQ, via our email inbox.

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Awards
12/03/12 4:14pm

Second Category in the Swampies: Best Demolition of 2012

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Earlier today, we introduced the first category in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, celebrating the best and most this city has to offer. And now nominations are open in a second category: Best Demolition.

Sure, demolitions are raw, physical acts, but emotional, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, sonic, and ecological aspects are often hard at work too. What property would you honor as Houston’s Best Demo of 2012 — and why?

If you’re like most people and have a little trouble remembering buildings once they’re gone, you can scroll through Swamplot’s archive of demolition stories to refresh your memory. Then add your thoughtful and well-argued nominations for this coveted award to the comments section below — or send them in a private message to Swamplot HQ. For a more thorough description of the nominating process, see these instructions.

Nominations for both award categories announced today will remain open until midnight this Sunday, December 9. But why wait until the last minute to submit your nominations? Couldn’t you knock a few out now?

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Notices
12/03/12 2:17pm

First Category: Your Nominations for Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Please

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This is how it begins. We now kick off the nominating process for the 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate with a category that’s been included in every edition of the Swampies since 2008: Favorite Houston Design Cliché. The winner has been different every year. Last year’s winner was “Lick ’n’ stick” fake-rock siding. (The runner-up: The New Charlestorleans Style.) In previous years we’ve had Lone Stars, “Lakes of” Subdivisions, and “Tuscanization” receive the award. What Houston building, shopping center, streetscape, home, interior, neighborhood, or yard cliché deserves recognition this year? Your suggestions for this award may be inspired from stories on Swamplot or from your own keen eye for overused detail.

Nominations for this category are now open to your brilliant, clever, or possibly hackneyed suggestions! Enter your choice in a comment to this post only or — more privately — in an email to the Swamplot tip line, with the subject line “Nomination: Favorite Houston Design Cliche.” Nominations will be accepted for one full week, after which the best-presented choices will be opened for voting.

You can submit as many nominations as you like in this category, but your choices will have a better chance of succeeding if you use the opportunity to make your point in a clever and convincing way. When the actual awards are open for voting — next week! — each selected nomination will be introduced with some edited bastardization of the arguments made by the readers who submitted them. So be eloquent and persuasive! If you can send your own photos in support of a nomination, that will help a lot — and it’ll likely help you make your case to voters. Send images to the Swamplot tip line, but be sure to identify them and indicate what they’re for.

Comments to this post will be counted as nominations only. Nominations may be seconded, expanded, or improved. Even simple “me too” posts could help an entry find a place on the actual ballot, but they won’t be counted as votes for the winner. The actual voting in this category will begin next week. Are you ready? Send us your favorite clichés!

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Awards
12/03/12 10:22am

The 2012 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate Begin Now

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Yes, it is that time of the year. Swamplot’s annual end-of-the-year review of the best, most, and much too much of Houston’s local real-estate scene begins this week. Are you ready to help select the winners?

All this month we’ll be hosting the fifth annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate — the Swampies. This year there will be 7 categories, honoring the designs, developments, neighborhoods, personalities, dreams, and absurdities that continue to make Houston real estate so entertaining. Today we’ll announce 2 of them; we’ll continue with the remaining categories over the rest of this week.

To make the Swampies work — and more important, to make them fun — we need your help. It’s always been our readers’ discerning vision, clever coinages, and careful consideration that have made the awards into a great local attraction. This year is no different. For each category, we need your help to come up with the right slate of official nominees. You be the judge: What was notable in 2012? What caught your eye and wouldn’t let go? What valiant efforts deserve recognition? And what brilliant comments can you add to encapsulate the story?

The Swampies belong to you. All nominations and votes will come from Swamplot readers. We hope you’ll join in the fun!

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Notices
11/21/12 3:04pm

Where Space Is Chilly and Tight

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WHERE SPACE IS CHILLY AND TIGHT From Swamplot’s (stuffed) inbox: “It’s not just housing that’s a tight real estate market. Take a look inside the average refrigerator about this time of holiday preparations as we all play another round of Turkey Day Tetris, jockeying ingredients and containers onto already full shelves. I don’t know about you, but I always forget to factor in a place for the bird to thaw! Am calling the work day done, heading to the grocery store, and wishing I were a guest instead of the host.” How about we all take another day off to recover, clean out more room in the fridge, or maybe shop for a few extra kitchen appliances? Swamplot will be back on the beat on Monday. A happy Thanksgiving holiday to you all. Photo: Debora Smail

Notices
10/10/12 3:52pm

Now Hiring at Swamplot

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Are you passionate about Houston’s peculiarities? Do you enjoy delving into the city’s neighborhoods, its architecture, its strip-mall secrets? Would you like a blogging gig that puts you in prime position to sift through, spill, and ’splain the latest local real estate happenings? Good news, then: Swamplot is looking for a reporter-writer.

We want to hire someone who can research, report, and write quickly and well; who’s attentive to detail, careful with facts, and has a good sense of humor; who can work independently and communicate well; and who can spit out accurate and entertaining posts faster than this site’s large and highly engaged audience can spit back. We’re looking for someone who understands Swamplot and how it works, and who will bring ideas and energy to make it better.

Here’s how to apply for this full-time position:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Awards
06/27/12 5:40pm

Swamplot Astrodome Photographer Comes Clean, Picks Up Web Award

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Congratulations to tipster Russell Hancock, who won for Swamplot and himself the Photo of the Year award in the Houston Press‘s second annual Houston Web Awards, announced today. Hancock’s mini photo essay about wandering off-course at this year’s Rodeo into a forlorn and mussed-up Astrodome focused attention on the empty sports venue’s state of neglect. Writes the Press‘s Craig Hlavaty: “The resulting photos revealed moldy and torn Astroturf and a litter-strewn building that looked more like a storage facility than the Eighth Wonder of the World. The covert pics also set off a media frenzy, leading first to KHOU’s sanctioned peek at the stadium and, ultimately, a 20-strong public tour for local reporters and talking heads.” Back in March, when Swamplot ran the story, Hancock didn’t want us to use his name, but he tells Swamplot he’s got no problem identifying himself as the photographer now. For taking those photos, sending them to Swamplot, and sparking an important public conversation about Houston’s best-known piece of real estate, he certainly deserves an award.

Photo: Russell Hancock

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Notices
05/25/12 10:40pm

Remembering Something

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REMEMBERING SOMETHING Oh, yeah — Swamplot will be off for the Monday holiday. Best wishes to all of you for a restful and meaningful Memorial Day, however you choose to commemorate it. We’ll be back in usual form on Tuesday, but if you’ve got something you urgently need to share, no problem: our tips line will stay open all weekend. Photo of Gus Wortham fountain, Buffalo Bayou Park: lc_db via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Notices
02/22/12 1:15pm

Photographers: Show Us What Houston Really Looks Like

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PHOTOGRAPHERS: SHOW US WHAT HOUSTON REALLY LOOKS LIKE How tough is it to get your photo featured on Swamplot? Not very: Just submit your pix to the Swamplot Flickr pool. That’s where we’ll be looking for great images to use atop our daily Headlines posts. If we like one of yours, we’ll post it and credit you. Be sure to label every photo you submit so it’s clear where it was taken and what it shows. We already have way too many glowy tall-tower shots and downtown-skyline sunsets to choose from, thanks. What we’re looking for instead: Pix that show the greater Houston landscape as it really is, or as you experience it. Everyday places that maybe haven’t been photographed so much; your little pieces of the city. Photo: Sohail Rizki [license]

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Awards
12/27/11 9:20am

Voting for the 2011 Swamplot Awards Ends Today

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Only a few hours are left! The polls for this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate will close soon: today at 5 pm. Is there enough time for a come-from-behind candidate to win? Sure, if enough supporters cast each of their 4 possible votes to sweep it over the top.

Without your votes, will the best candidates win all these categories? We need your help to make the 2011 Swampies the best they can be. Tell us who your favorites are!

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