COMMENT OF THE DAY: MORE SIGNS OF WHAT THEY’RE THINKING ABOUT IN MONTROSE “There are several more signs on Taft: I really want a baby, just not now. On Westheimer, there’s a sign across for Bj’s that says: I think I’m a bad artist. On Mandell, there are several more signs: I really want to win the lottery and I sometimes think about men. I have photos, just not with me.” [Candace, commenting on Wanted in Montrose: Rock Hard, Built by Apple]
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Public Art
Trying to work in a little last-minute resale shopping before Christmas, photographer Sarah Lipscomb spots a few signs that some desirable hardware is missing in Montrose:
My mom and I were on our way to the Guild Shop the other day and I noticed a couple of multi colored signs posted just before the Fiesta on Dunlavy. The first one says “WHY CAN’T YOU LOVE ME†the next one “LIKE l LOVE YOU?†I thought this was curious, my mom didn’t notice and we kept driving. We get to the Guild and it was closed for Christmas so we turned right on Welch and headed to the Blue Bird (our second choice in Resale shops.) I then see two more signs. The first one says “I WANT A ROCK HARD†next one “SIX PACK†Now I am getting really interested . . .
And where was this? From the description:
take two rails from a gas station, weld them together, dress up as a city worker, install on public land, skate for a few weeks, cry when city takes rail away
Update: Found! Bernard, in a comment, says it’s at the northwest corner of Edloe and Westpark.
- miracle rail [Vimeo]
Video: Jake Hayes
- Noticing a Billboard [Vimeo]
- here are some images from the first week of installation [Inbound:Houston]
- Six billboards in place [Houston Chronicle]
Steering his bike carefully to avoid the thousands of caterpillars covering Maury St., just off the Elysian Viaduct north of Downtown, 2-wheeled wanderer and lawn-art enthusiast Robert Boyd stumbles across the Fifth Ward workshop of Blumenthal Sheet Metal:
The official address is 1710 Burnett St., but it appears that their facility takes up a whole block–Leona on the south, Burnett on the north, Hardy on the west and Elysian on the east. Blumenthal is a sheet metal fabrication plant, which makes them on the face of it no different from hundreds of small industrial firms in Houston (the secret engines of our city’s economy). Blumenthal has been in business for over a 100 years, which definitely distinguishes them, but what also distinguishes them is that a lot of the fabrication they do is for artists.
Boyd snaps photos of a few Blumenthal constructions in the area:
And now, a rare look at the Second Ward’s indigenous Ship Channel dance ceremony, performed along the gentle banks of Buffalo Bayou and celebrating the bountiful fall harvest of crushed concrete.
- Tetsujin [Vimeo]
Video: Freneticore
Eastwood clock-watcher Spencer Howard documents the end of the line for the 1935 Sterling Laundry & Cleaning Company building on Harrisburg. Metro doesn’t have any use for the bulk of the Streamline Moderne building in the way of the new light-rail East End Line. But how about grabbing that right-twice-a-day timepiece the building is wearing? The bulky fashion accessory might go with any of several new get-ups envisioned for Eastwood Park across the street.
METRO began the disassembly of the building last week. After several days of careful planning, joints were sawed into the steel frame, stucco clad facade. By the end of the week, a large crane was delivered to the site to assist with the removal of the facade.
From Alex Luster’s documentary project, Stick ’Em Up!
Video: Alex Luster
All that uproar over the impending demolition of a favorite Streamline Moderne structure in Eastwood seems to have had an effect: Houston architect Sol R. Slaughter’s 1935 Sterling Laundry & Cleaning Company building at 4819 Harrisburg will be preserved!
Sort of. Metro has committed to saving the façade.
Well . . . maybe at least the center part of it.
Okay really, just the top part, above the door. The part with the clock.
Hey, at least it’s not going to go away!
. . . ?
Uh, well . . . architectural antique fan Spencer Howard, who helped sound the alarm about Metro’s demolition plans for the building a few weeks ago, writes in with the latest:
Deconstruction will begin in two weeks, at which point the façade will be placed in storage (yet to be located) until the permanent home is designed (yet to be funded).
But the face-saving fun doesn’t stop there. After a short but brilliant week of investigations, brainstorming, and Photoshop work, Metro has produced a series of proposals for the rescued stretch of stucco that’s likely to be studied and appreciated by historic preservation experts, redevelopment advocates, and postmodern philosophers for some time to come.
Monday’s presentation at the offices of the Greater East End Management District was simply titled “4819 Harrisburg,” but that’s just Metro being modest. Maybe when this thing is resurrected for academic conferences it can be called something like “Representations of Time: Practical Opportunities in Deconstruction and Preservation.”
Note: Story updated below.
Feel like taking a quick 16-ounce shower after your turn sweating or just watching the action at the Jamail Skatepark? It looks like Matthew Geller’s pipe sculpture at the Sabine Water Pump Station in Buffalo Bayou Park — counterintuitively named Open Channel Flow — is now will soon be open for pumping.
Here’s architect Joe Meppelink of Metalab and family taking a ceremonial first spritz over the weekend:
A small local flurry on Twitter, after abc13 reporter Miya Shay spots one of these and posts a photo:
Anyone know anything about the “Keep Houston Ugly” stickers popping up around town?
They’ve been around for a while, haven’t they? You can buy one yourself — a different version — online. Find a place to stick it, and you can push the meme further!
Nobody notices all those tiny cracks on a windshield either, until somebody does, and somebody else does, and pretty soon cracks are showing up everywhere.
This timely building at 4819 Harrisburg in Eastwood, built in 1935 for the Sterling Laundry & Cleaning Co., showed up in yesterday’s Daily Demolition Report. The architect was Sol R. Slaughter, who also designed a home on the bayou in Idylwood the same year.
The building faces Metro’s new East End Corridor light-rail line. Rice University project manager Spencer Howard writes in with a few details, but isn’t exactly sure what’s going on:
The building was renovated as an artist live/work/gallery just a few years ago.
METRO pledged to save the facade of the building with the clock on it, across from Eastwood Park. They preferred to have someone else buy it and move it, but if that didn’t happen, they were going to move it back on the property and reattach it behind the new setback. Yesterday they sent out the demolition list for next Monday and it was on it. The neighborhood has alerted their gov’t reps.
Another view:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: AND ALL CATS ARE GRAY IN THE DARK “Also, as an aesthetic aside, is it some sort of tradition, or just the mechanics of writing with a spray can, that all graffiti, no matter where, seems to have the same writing style (the font, as it were) ?” [Dave, commenting on Playing Townhouse Tag in the Near Northside]
The foundation for Open Channel Flow — a 60-ft.-tall public artwork built from steel water pipe and featuring a pump-it-yourself outdoor shower — is now in the ground at the Sabine Water Pump Station. Over the fence to the south is the new Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark. When the structure is complete, sweaty skaters — or really, anyone on the north side of Buffalo Bayou Park who’s looking for a quick wet thrill — will be able to stand over the 6-ft.-diameter stainless steel drain cover, yank the rubber handle on the adjacent pump, and get doused by “the equivalent of a few cups” of water, released from the showerhead hanging 30 feet overhead.
But dude: Don’t forget about the blinking light! A strobe at the very top of the structure will flash with each pump. Which will cue bored office workers viewing from Downtown to mark another notch in their cubicles.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THIRD WARD ARTS DISTRICT “‘So how dicey is it really and when will it become artsy and then trendy?’ Question of the day! As Montrose ex-pats now living on Dowling St. I can tell you that we have experienced NO crime in the year we have been here. As for artsy, you can walk to Rick Lowe’s Row House installation and the relocated Flower Man house, among several other art spaces, from our new home. Artsy, yes. Trendy, very thankfully no.” [Cranky Old Coot, commenting on Home Sweet Funeral Home: Washington Terrace Mortuary Seeks Residents]