Notices

We’re on the home stretch! Yesterday we opened two more categories for nominations in this, our second-annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Here’s the list of categories introduced so far: Most Overappreciated Neighborhood, Most Underappreciated Neighborhood, The “Only in Houston” Award, Best Teardown of the Year, Best Vacancy, and Favorite Houston Design Cliché. To make these awards as smart and razzle-dazzly as they can be, we need you to add your suggestions!

And now our next category: Neighborhood of the Year. What qualifications does a neighborhood need to meet in order to be declared Houston Neighborhood of the Year? You tell us — as you make your nomination! Of course, a neighborhood might be considered for Swamplot’s Neighborhood of the Year award for vastly different reasons than another one might be considered for an award of the same name from, say, the GHBA.

Please note that entrants in this category — as well as all the others — need not be located strictly inside Houston’s municipal boundaries. As longtime Swamplot readers will note, we try to track the idea of Houston as it regularly travels outside the city limits. Who’da thunk it, but last year’s “Only in Houston” award, for example, went to a rollercoaster-and-residence combo in Kemah.

Add your nominations in the comments below, or send us an email. If you need more guidance, consult the official rules. Who are the contenders?

• Previous award categories: Your Nominations for the Most Overappreciated Houston Neighborhood, Which Houston Neighborhood Is the Most Underappreciated?, Your Nominations for the “Only in Houston” Award, Best Teardown of the Year? Make Your Nominations!, Your Nominations Please: Best Vacancy, Now Accepting Nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2009: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2009 [Swamplot]

It’s neighborhood day here at Swampies Nominations Central! This morning we introduced the 5th category in the second annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Here’s the complete list of our categories so far: Most Underappreciated Neighborhood, The “Only in Houston” Award, Best Teardown of the Year, Best Vacancy, and Favorite Houston Design Cliché.

Now it’s time to gather your nominations for category number 6: Most Overappreciated Neighborhood. If recognition breeds attraction, which breeds appreciation, and which in turn often breeds a different kind of appreciation, what changes will a neighborhood go through during the process? In which neighborhood are property owners are most likely to be shocked by reappraisals? Which area best fits the Most Overappreciated label?

Refer to the official nominating rules here if you need them. But we need your smartly worded suggestions for this category! Add them below — or email them to us privately.

• Previous award categories: Which Houston Neighborhood Is the Most Underappreciated?, Your Nominations for the “Only in Houston” Award, Best Teardown of the Year? Make Your Nominations!, Your Nominations Please: Best Vacancy, Now Accepting Nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2009: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2009 [Swamplot]

Yesterday we announced a couple more categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. That means 4 categories are now open for your nominations: The “Only in Houston” Award, Best Teardown of the Year, Best Vacancy, and Favorite Houston Design Cliché. We need your suggestions for all of them!

Now we have our next category: the Most Underappreciated Neighborhood. We Houstonians show our appreciation for different neighborhoods in various ways. And when the timing and the market are right, neighborhoods often respond in kind — with some appreciation of their own. Sadly, many fine parts of this city simply miss out on one type of appreciation, the other, or both — when clearly they deserve some. Here’s our chance to recognize and cheer on these underperformers! Which neighborhood in this town is most suited to the Most Underappreciated title — and why?

This is a brand-new award category for the Swampies, and we’ll need your smart nominations to make it work. Tell us which neighborhood should receive this singular honor — in a comment below or in a private message. Consult the official nominating rules if you like. What’s your choice?

• Previous award categories: Your Nominations for the “Only in Houston” Award, Best Teardown of the Year? Make Your Nominations!, Your Nominations Please: Best Vacancy, Now Accepting Nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2009: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2009 [Swamplot]

So far, we’ve begun accepting nominations for 3 categories in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Vacancy, and Best Teardown. Up next: a very special prize that celebrates the unique character of our very special city — it’s called the “Only in Houston” Award.

You may have noticed a few differences between Houston and many other places — especially when it comes to this city’s real estate landscape. This award is meant to celebrate an event, circumstance, development, or phenomenon of the past year that could only have manifested itself hereabouts. Or somewhere around hereabouts. Or maybe, okay, it happened somewhere else too, but it really seems like a Houston thing, anyway.

As usual, your spin can make the difference between a possibly dull and obvious entry and a compelling choice for the award. So think hard, reframe the ordinary to make it seem extraordinary (and consult the nominating guidelines if you need to). Then submit your nominations!

• Best Teardown of the Year? Make Your Nominations! [Swamplot]
• Your Nominations Please: Best Vacancy [Swamplot]
• Now Accepting Nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché [Swamplot]
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2009: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]

Yesterday we introduced the first 2 nominating categories in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Nominations will remain open until the crack of dawn next Monday for both awards: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Vacancy.

Today, there are 2 more award categories to introduce. And the first is one you’ve been waiting for: Best Teardown of 2009. What property would you nominate for this singular honor — and why?

Sure, teardowns are raw, physical acts, but there are emotional, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, sonic, and ecological aspects to consider too. 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. If you’d like a more complete description of the nominating process, see these instructions.

It’s time to knock out the nominations for this category. Give us what you’ve got!

• Your Nominations Please: Best Vacancy [Swamplot]
• Now Accepting Nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché [Swamplot]The Swamplot Awards for
• Houston Real Estate 2009: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2009 [Swamplot]

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

Mind the gaps! For Houston, 2009 was a year full of them. New empty lots took up residence where older buildings and newer but suddenly unfunded dreams once resided. Gaping holes in balance sheets swallowed up banks, homebuilders, and development schemes, leaving new but incomplete neighborhoods, vacated and foreclosed homes, unsold condos. So many holes, big and small! Which Houston vacancy of the last year most deserves recognition — and why?

You can help your nominee win this award by introducing your choice well. If you’d like to make a nomination, we suggest reading the brief instructions summarized here. The comments (and the Swamplot tip line) are now open for your nominations in this category.

• Swamplot Award Nominations 2009 [Swamplot]

It’s time to begin the nominating process for the second annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. The awards cover the best and most of Houston Real Estate over the past calendar year. To make these awards the best they can be, we need your input!

Our first category this year: Favorite Houston Design Cliché. Last year’s winner, you’ll recall, was “Tuscanization,” with home turrets coming in a close — and only partially redundant — second place. What Houston building, shopping center, streetscape, home, interior, neighborhood, or yard cliché deserves recognition this year? Your suggestions may be inspired from stories on Swamplot or from your own keen eye.

Nominations for this category are now open! Enter your nomination in a comment to this post only or — more privately — 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 may submit as many nominations as you like in this category, but your choices will have a better chance of succeeding if you use your nomination 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 readers made in the nomination — so be eloquent and persuasive! Submitting photos in support of your nomination is encouraged — illustrations will likely help make your case to voters. Send them to the Swamplot tip line; 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 will 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. Stay tuned!

• Swamplot Award Nominations 2009 [Swamplot]