06/08/10 4:15pm

Got an answer to either of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

  • Montrose: A reader wants to know if anyone has heard of any plans for the site of Mary’s Lounge at the corner of Westheimer and Yoakum — as well as the parking lot between it and Burger King. The famous Montrose club shut down last year.
  • Riverside Terrace and beyond: When strangers just love your style!

    My partner and I are renovating our house in Riverside Terrace, and the other day a well-mannered gentleman rang our doorbell requesting our permission to photograph our house. While we’d like to presume that his request was a compliment that our hard work is paying off, we didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of a stranger snapping photos of our house. Not knowing his true intentions, we politely declined.

    Otherwise who knows where your stuff would show up?! So . . . what’s the question?

    However, I know that applications such as Google Street View capture images from the public domain and make them readily available via the internet. Are there any restrictions to what we can or cannot photograph in Houston?

Photo of 1022 Westheimer Rd.: Swamplot inbox

04/07/10 12:46pm

Robert Boyd snaps this photo of the new mural on the side of the parking garage for the Fountains at Memorial City condos. The 13-story building is under construction at Gaylord and Bunker Hill, next to the new Cemex headquarters building just east of Memorial City Mall. Writes Boyd:

The mural . . . is nothing especially clever or innovative, but it looks nice and it’s a lot more than most builders do for their parking garages. And it works well with the real trees in front of it.

Photo: Robert Boyd

03/24/10 5:15pm

A reader sends photos of this construction site on Ovid St. in the First Ward, two blocks west of Houston Ave. . . . along with questions:

Can you pls tell me what is going into 1611 Ovid St? . . . It’s been an abandoned warehouse belonging to Bradford Warehouse. Construction began last summer n has been ongoing. I heard a rumor that it’s being converted to lofts, which I am excited about. But have been unable to verify. I’m hoping it’s not [starting] up as a warehouse. . . . Wondering what is fact.

The long view:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

03/03/10 4:10pm

Homebuilder Bob Perry, who’s spent a lot of money and energy during his 42-year career trying to get laws passed that prohibit large jury awards, got a big one levied against him earlier this week: a Fort Worth jury ordered his Houston-based company, Perry Homes, to pay $51 million to a couple in Mansfield, Texas, who bought a Perry Home in 1996 and have been trying to get Perry Homes to fix all the problems with it ever since.

Outside of Texas homebuilding circles, Perry is well known as the chief financial backer of the 2004 “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” PR campaign directed against presidential candidate John Kerry. He’s also well known to members of the Texas Supreme Court — because he’s contributed substantially to the election campaigns of every justice who sits on it.

Those same justices may have thought they were helping Perry in 2007, when they overturned a “binding arbitration” award that required the homebuilder to pay $800,000 to the Culls — and sent the case back to district court. But that decision only set the stage for Monday’s much larger jury award.

How much of the $58 million awarded them ($7 million in actual damages and $44 million in punitive damages, plus another $7 million from the Warranty Underwriters Insurance Company) will the Culls see?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/17/09 1:43pm

We’re down to just one award category still open for your nominations in this year’s Swampies. That would be the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate, 2009. You can help make this award great by contributing your suggestions! But we’ll need to receive them before the crack of dawn tomorrow.

Yesterday we announced the official nominees and opened the voting for the “Only in Houston” Award. We’ll be doing the same for our neighborhood categories Most Underappreciated Neighborhood, Most Overappreciated Neighborhood, and Neighborhood of the Year — next. They’ll be followed by Grocery Store of the Year.

The rules for voting and voting a second time have been posted. Here’s a list of all the categories that are now open for voting. If you’ve already voted, you can still help your favored candidates along by telling your friends about the contests!

09/25/09 1:14pm

Those rumors earlier this summer that Galveston’s Flagship Hotel would soon be sold to an unnamed buyer didn’t pan out. And now it looks like Landry’s Restaurants may also be backing away from its earlier backup plan to tear down the hotel and build a “pleasure pier” in its place. A Landry’s official tells the Galveston County Daily News‘s Laura Elder the company now plans to repair and reopen the hurricane-ravaged hulk-on-a-pier at 25th Street and Seawall Blvd.:

The city built the Flagship in 1965 as a show of confidence after Hurricane Carla struck the coast.

If Landry’s developed an entertainment complex, it would return the 25th Street pier to its roots. In 1943, the city built the Galveston Municipal Pleasure Pier.

At 1,130 feet long, the pier held a dance hall, a 2,000-seat open air arena, restaurants and concessions, according to the “Galveston Architecture Guidebook.”

Landry’s officials declined to divulge what their specific plans were.

The company is assessing the price of repairs, [Landry’s VP Steve] Greenberg said.

Photo: Ellen Yeates

08/13/09 11:48pm

Do we have a winner of that free one-year individual membership in the Rice Design Alliance?

Oh, yes we do!

Your guesses in this week’s game were all over the place: “south of Rice University between Holcombe and University, either side of Greenbriar,” Montrose, Fondren Southwest, Briargrove, “outer Memorial toward the Energy Corridor,” Nottingham Forest, Westchester, Meyerland, “along Long Point,” “off Navigation,” the neighborhoods north of Channelview,” Flintstone, Jersey Village, greater Champions, Clear Lake, “around Westpark, just outside the Loop,” “HBU/Chimney Rock vicinity,” Southwest Houston, Alief, Sharpstown, Bellaire, Deer Park, Richmond, near Pecan Grove, “290 and Beltway-ish,” Spring, Tomball, Conroe, “Spring Branch West, in the area bordered by Hammerly, I-10, Gessner, and the Beltway,” Magnolia Park, Baytown, Galena Park, “off Hempstead Highway,” Montgomery, Hempstead, “around Stuebner Airline,” “the near Southeast side,” Champions/1960, Hobby Airport area, and Pasadena.

The winner — for the second time this year — is MariaO, for this entry:

Definitely this monstrosity must be on a busy street, in an area that saw some building in the early 60s and then they kept on adding “features” throughout the decades. And it is not in an expensive area, or they would have redone the metal staircase in the entry. And several other things.
I’ll guess the northwest side, perhaps off Hempstead Highway?

Got a friend or family member you’d like to have join you as an RDA member, MariaO?

So many colorful guesses this week! This remarkably accurate one from elnina earns a close second place:

I think this is modern two story residential building from the 60’s. The house is large, and the owner, maybe in construction/remodeling business converted part of it to office space, maybe with a separate apartment and rented out.
Upstairs area looks definitely more contemporary, with updated windows and new floors, light and bright. But the remodeling is still in progress – the big room has new pergo floors but still old wood paneled walls in different color.
The sliding door from the living room upstairs leads to big terrace, and maybe to the partially enclosed whirlpool.
The other part of the house is more traditional, with lots of paneling and mirrors, brick wall accents, stone fireplace, old fashion wet bar and tile/terrazzo floors. The bathroom is a headache – he can’t decide which direction he wants to go (lol)
Definitely outside the loop but inside the Beltway, probably in semi-residential area.
It could be around Montgomery, Hempstead or Stuebner Airline – just a wild guess.

Also very close: Jeff, who went with “290 and Beltway-ish,” then added:

I think they pieced together remnants of several homes left in their yard after Hurricane Ike.

A special commendation goes to Porchman, who wrote to Swamplot with the actual listing, then threw out only this note of encouragement to fellow players:

Hard to believe it’s one house!

But it is! Well, sorta . . . kinda . . . maybe . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

07/02/09 11:49pm

Now who won that box of Crave Cupcakes?

Someone who played this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game — and made one of these guesses: The Woodlands (there were 5), Kingwood (also 5), Tanglewood (3), “somewhere along Buffalo Bayou” (3), Tomball (3), Champion Forest (2), Conroe (2), Magnolia (2), Cypress (2), near Kingwood Country Club (2), Spring, Sherwood Forest, Hunter’s Creek Village, “the area around Briar Forest and Gessner somewhere along Buffalo Bayou,” near Memorial and Voss, “the Wirt/Westview area,” “north of The Woodlands, maybe on the east side of I-45 near the Crighton Ridge neighborhood off Crighton Road, south of Conroe,” Bayou Woods, Memorial “just off one of those small streets east of Gessner,” “between Kirby where it veers east into Allen Parkway and Shepherd,” near the Raveneaux Country Club, near Lake Houston, near Briar Forest and the Beltway, “inside the Beltway along Memorial Dr. between Voss and Gessner,” Lakeside Forest, Ponderosa Forest, “somewhere off Cypress Creek,” Clear Lake, Brook Forest, Lakewood, Friendswood, Broad Oaks, Briar Manor, Crestwood, Glen Cove, “around a bayou,” “on Saddlebrook, right off Memorial east of Chimney Rock,” “Waller/Tomball somewhere nestled along Spring Creek,” “the Hudson area off Memorial,” Lake Livingston, Panorama Village, Hunterwood, Splendora, “in them thar hills to the north and west of Tomball proper,” “in the Hirsch-Little York-Homestead-Tidwell box near Tidwell Park,” Saddlewood, Sandalwood, “down Baytownish,” “in the back of The Woodlands,” Spring Branch, Hilshire Village, near Memorial and Piney Point, Rivercrest north of Briar Forest, Briargrove Park, near the Lakeside Country Club, off Briar Drive next to Tanglewood.

Whew! That’s a lot of househunting. This week’s winner is the mysterious IHeartSwampLot — for this entry:

This sucker is on a MONSTROUS lot with tons of pine trees. That could be just about anywhere in the northern fringes of the metro area. How we gonna narrow this down? Well, the furniture and kitchen just SCREAM 80s and the windows, they lead me to believe there’s quite a sight to behold out in the backyard, such as a lake but the trees are too close for that. Creek? Big hill? It also would appear that it is either a two story or the back of the house is raised. Maybe it is just a hill. Can’t be the Woodlands…the setting feels to secluded. Magnolia probably was still waaaaay too far out back in the 80s. Conroe area is kinda trashy, and this is a nice house. Could be non-lakefront property near Lake Conroe, but again, the seclusion would indicate otherwise. Tomball doesn’t seem right either, flat as a pancake out there. Time for the maps…where do we have hills and pine trees, and possibly a water feature on the fringes of 1980s Houston civlization? Kingwood comes to mind, but it isn’t terribly hilly. Further up the road we have Splendora but that seems kinda far out. Panning back to the west it would appear that there’s creeks in them thar hills to the north and west of Tomball proper.

Congratulations! A dozen cupcakes from Crave Cupcakes in Uptown Park will soon be on their way to you! (Thanks to Crave Cupcakes for sponsoring the prize this week.)

Also in the neighborhood: runners-up elnina, CK, and Jessica1. Great work!

A special commendation goes to Cynthia, who knew the home, wrote in with the listing, and then posted this deceptive guess:

Oh, I love it! It reminds me of my grandparents’ patio home built in the 80s out near Briar Forest and the Beltway…all that modernism mixed with wood and stone but more traditional, yet stylish, furniture.

BUT this is what they dreamed of owning. It’s definitely bigger than a townhome, with more greenery, and requires much more $$$.

I’m guessing my grandparents’ dream house is more inside the beltway along Memorial Dr between Voss and Gessner.

Did that knock you off track?

And where is this place?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

04/21/09 11:46am

Wondering what the prize is for the Neighborhood Guessing Game this week? It’s an overnight stay for two at the Hotel Sorella!

The Hotel Sorella is a brand-new 244-room luxury hotel from Houston’s Valencia Group, set to open in July in the new mixed-use CityCentre development at I-10 and Beltway 8 — on the former site of the Town & Country Mall. The winner of this week’s game will receive overnight accommodations at the Hotel Sorella and two welcome cocktails at monnalisa, the property’s European-style bar and lounge.

Does that sound like something you’d like to win? Here’s how you do it: Study the photos in this post. Then guess what neighborhood the pictured home is in. If you guess correctly, you get the prize! If more than one person guesses the right neighborhood, the player who gives the best explanation for the guess wins.

Except: If you already know this property, or if you come across it while we’re playing, don’t just post the answer — you’ll disqualify yourself, and make a lot of other players very upset. Instead, send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing, so we know what you’re doing. Then post an incorrect guess, but make a case for it — to try to throw the other players off track. If you do this well, you’ll win special recognition when we post the answer. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, you could win the prize!

More photos, please . . .

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

01/21/09 8:39am

“The LER performed flawlessly in front of the President,” tweets NASA. And so it did, at the very end of the inaugural parade: dropping off a passenger dressed appropriately for the weather — who then walked off with the flag.

Here’s video of the Johnson Space Center’s new Lunar Electric Rover in action yesterday:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

12/29/08 3:39pm

The winners of the Swampies will be announced . . . soon! While you’re waiting for the results, here’s a quick reminder: Swamplot wants you to send in tips!

What makes a good Swamplot tip? Information you have that other Houston real-estate- or design-crazed readers would love to hear about! See something unusual in your neighborhood? Snap a photo and send it in! Got the scoop on a super-secret project? Drop us an email.

Swamplot has a strict policy: We never identify our sources — unless a tipster specifically requests otherwise. Your secrets won’t be safe with us, but your identity will!

12/22/08 1:32pm

Nominees for all 10 categories of the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have been announced, and voting has begun!

Where can you find them? Where can you vote? They’re all on this page. Or you can get to them individually from this handy list of links:

Already, more than 200 votes have come in. And yes, it’s a slow week. But there’s still time for come-from-behind candidates to win their categories! All it takes is a little campaigning. The deadline for the votes you bring in: midnight this coming Sunday, December 28th.

11/17/08 10:31am

Readers obsessed with the Katy house designed by Wylie W. Vale that was featured in last week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game will be interested to see these additional views of the 1952 home — in all its original “little bit country, little bit Mod” glory. They were taken by architectural photographer (and yes, game winner) Ben Hill on a quick visit early last year.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

10/31/08 4:42pm

Hike-and-Bike Trail Construction Along Nicholson St. Between 21st and 22nd Sts., Houston Heights

Martin Hajovsky notes progress on the long-promised hike-and-bike trail along Nicholson in the Heights. The path: South from W. 27th to W. 7th, then east to Downtown along the former Katy/MKT railway.

Photo of construction on Nicholson St. between 21st and 22nd Sts.: Martin Hajovsky

06/23/08 8:39am

Discovery Tower, Downtown Houston

New drawings and details appear of Discovery Tower, the 30-story office building now under construction at the northwest corner of Discovery Green Downtown.

The wind turbines at the top of the building are still there. The brochure also mentions solar panels on the south face of the building, a green roof on top of the entrance pavilion, 2 stories of retail, as well as some old Houston favorites: 2 floors of underground parking (151 cars), and a 10-story, 1,350-space parking garage one block north, connected by . . . . an air-conditioned (phew!) skybridge!

After the jump, more green-hot Downtown tower architectural rendering porn!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY