COMMENT OF THE DAY: DOWNTOWN ORTHODONTIA 
“I think it looks like the goal is to create a cluster, rather than a monolith. That makes sense in that part of town. As is, to me Houston’s skyline seems to suffer from a ‘gap tooth’ effect created by all of the standalone buildings. I think more blocks with multiple height buildings on them would make our skyline look more interesting. If everything stands out, nothing stands out . . . they can’t all be masterpieces like Pennzoil or Transco (Williams).” [DBG, commenting on A First Look at Some of the 33-Story Apartment Tower Hines Wants To Build in Market Square] Illustration: Lulu
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THE NEW HOSPITAL-ADJACENT STEAKHOUSE IN MEMORIAL CITY 
And far below that lit-up crown that you can’t enter, there will soon be a steakhouse you can: Culturemap reports that construction is coming along at the mixed-use Gateway Memorial City development on Vallone’s, the red-meat-and-red-wine concept from the folks who feed you on a first-name basis at Tony’s. General manager Scott Sulma says that they hope to open here on Gessner Rd. and the Katy Fwy. in October. [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Vallone’s
FEARING THE YOGA DADS THE NEW HEIGHTS HIKE AND BIKE LINK WILL BRING 
The Houston Chronicle reports that the Bayou Greenways project is paying for a new 1.35-mile section hooking up the existing White Oak Bayou and Heights hike and bike trails. Part of completing this stretch will require replacing the bridge shown here, a burned-out trestle that butts up to the former Eureka Railyard. Psyched about this new link that, when completed in 2014, will get cyclists from Downtown all the way out to Antoine Dr., Houstonia’s John Nova Lomax still seems more than a little ambivalent about losing the blackened thing: “The eastern foot of that bridge has been a meditation zone / power spot of mine for the last few years, my own trash-strewn bayou-pungent pre- and post-work Eden. No more — soon it will teem with with yoga dads and crossfit maniacs and their occasionally ill-behaved pooches.” [Ultimate Heights; Houstonia; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Patrick Feller [license]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE WORD FROM SOMEWHERE WAY ABOVE WESLAYAN 
“Yes [it] is an awesome building. You just see a mock up pic. I’m working here. And I see no back yards. Only empty concrete back patios, lol. Anyways, you people in this area drive nuts. That’s the reason for the congestion! Stop slowing us down. 30 weeks of heavy noise to go.” [Rudy, commenting on The Numbers on That 35-Story Tower Planned for Weslayan and West Alabama] Illustration: Lulu
CHUNK OF CHANGE DELAYS DEER PARK PRAIRIE DEADLINE 
Apparently, the owner of that would-be-sold-and-developed 53-acre patch of prairie in Deer Park has been persuaded to give the Bayou Land Conservancy 3 more weeks to come up with the rest of the money to buy it. A $2 million donation from Terry Hershey helped the conservancy bring in $3.2 million in less than a week; still, $800,000 more is needed before Sept. 10, or the owner will sell to a homebuilder planning a subdivision. If it can close on the prairie, the conservancy says it “will place a conservation easement over the property to permanently protect the land — which would disallow the 250 houses currently planned for the acreage and any other future development.” [Bayou Land Conservancy; previously on Swamplot] Image: Bayou Park Conservancy
‘SPORTS BAR WITH CLASS’ REPLACING SPORTS BAR ON WASHINGTON AVE 
The prophecy foretold by that plagiarized message put up in July on Sawyer Park’s marquee has come to pass: A new “sports bar with class,” Social Junkie, will be opening here on Washington Ave on Sept. 13, reports Culturemap. Social Junkie’s owned by Saleem Fernandez, who also owns Roosevelt Bar and 5th Amendment in Midtown. Fernandez tells Culturemap that this bar, like his others, will have a pretty strict dress code — and lotsa sports: “‘Tuesdays we will have a live video broadcast with a Texans player . . . . We will also have a live radio broadcast here — an a.m. sports radio station.'” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
ANOTHER HIGHRISE SQUEEZING INTO THE MED CENTER? 
Real Estate Bisnow’s Catie Dixon reports that this 2-acre parcel on the edge of the Med Center, overlooking Brays Bayou and being overlooked by the 40-story condo tower The Spires right next door, might become the site of another highrise. ARA, which is marketing the property here on the corner of Cambridge and Holcombe Blvd., tells Dixon that though the site is not yet on the market, there has already been interest in it both from an apartment builder and a hotel developer. [Real Estate Bisnow] Image: ARA
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WITHOUT THIS KIND OF JEWELRY, THE HOUSE WOULD BE NAKED 
“You have to look at Lick & Stick stone from the perspective of ‘given the low budget, what would have been an alternative?’ and most of the time it would be nothing, just bare stucco. So, on some level it’s better [to have] something than nothing.” [commonsense, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Ragged Left] Illustration: Lulu
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
USING PICTURES TO PICTURE USES FOR BUFFALO BAYOU’S BASEMENT 
There’s still no real plan for that 1927 underground reservoir along Buffalo Bayou near Sabine St. But, reports the Houston Chronicle’s Lisa Gray — one devoted parishioner of this “accidental cathedral” — there’s now a new technology in place that might help would-be entrepreneurs visualize the possibilities: “SmartGeometrics, a company whose main business is creating super-precise 3-D digital models of real places . . . will show video-game-like digital models to the public . . . and will explain how, soon, the data will be available to anyone who wants to plug it into his design software. . . . ‘This is a starting point for us,’ [Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Guy Hagstette] says. ‘We’re trying to decide on the big picture. What should the concept be? Is it environmental art? A giant nightclub? A parking garage?” [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Photo: SWA Group
COMMENT OF THE DAY: KEEP HOUSTON OBLIVIOUS 
“In a real way, Houston is way more weird than Austin. Austin has a younger, more counter-culture population but all that has become mainstream anyway. Houston, on the other hand, is weird as in strange or unique in its ability to freely and quickly remake itself based on economics, not by committee. But instead of Houstonians embracing this uniqueness, we groan how we should be like Boston, NY, etc. and moan about not preserving buildings (I am in this group), this one going up in an inappropriate spot etc., that one not being architecturally congruent. But it’s like we’re living in a huge sand painting with things we see getting constructed and others destroyed constantly, which is the beauty, reality and terror of existence, the wabi-sabi beauty of impermanence. Austin is a peace symbol, Houston is actual war.” [Dana-X, commenting on Comment of the Day: Why Montrose Ain’t the Worst Place for a Bar from Austin] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY MONTROSE AIN’T THE WORST PLACE FOR A BAR FROM AUSTIN “[I]s there some magical mysterious essence of Houston that a person from Austin couldn’t possibly understand? Or vice versa? Inner loop Houston is just like inner (loopless) Austin. Suburban Houston is just like suburban Austin. You can rest assured that Doc’s, designed to appeal to the South Congress crowd in Austin, will also adequately accommodate the unique needs and wants of the Montrose crowd.” [heyzeus, commenting on Austin Bar Doc’s To Remedy Montrose Wendy’s Wreckage]
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: A RIVER OAKS HOME’S HIDDEN HOLLYWOOD HISTORY 
“Believe it or not, somewhere in there are the bones of a 1950′s flat-roofed modern house designed for the Fondren family by Eugene Werlin. It was used in the movie The Thief Who Came To Dinner.” [BenH, commenting on Headlines: A Big New TV in Reliant Stadium; The River Oaks Mansion with the Biggest Pool in Houston] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY: TRYING TO GROK THE BIG HOUSE “The $14.5 million house only has three bedrooms in 11K square feet of house — does that mean the rest of it is the 8 bathrooms and 4 half baths? A million-gallon pool would be what kind of water bill? Their current taxes are $98K with homeowners and over-65 exemptions on an HCAD valuation of $5 million, so what would taxes be for an under 65 if they end up selling it for $10-ish million?” [Heidi, commenting on Headlines: A Big New TV in Reliant Stadium; The River Oaks Mansion with the Biggest Pool in Houston]
GREENSTREET, GETTING GOING 
Just 4 short months after that party it threw for itself, GreenStreet might start becoming something more than a new name and a few signs, reports the Houston Business Journal. Though graffiti artists worked in June to enliven some of the former Houston Pavilions infamously inward-facing spaces with murals, it seems real construction — expected to last between 6 and 9 more months — will begin in a few weeks. The thrust of the renovations? Here’s Shaina Zucker: “Changes to the 568,294-square-foot property . . . include removing existing implements to the interior corridor while creating a new linear urban park.” [Art Attack; Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: GreenStreet
