Okay, tell us what was the plan for that block south of W. 8th St. along the new Heights Hike-and-Bike Trail, between Nicholson and Waverly?
This large, open space will be available for community gardens, both cultivated and natural, think edible weeds. Small animal husbandry, such as goats, chickens and rats could also be sustained. Compost houses flank the development to show clientele how their homes will indeed return to their natural state a lá the second law of thermodynamics, or something like that. Between the back row of Compost Homes are the E-condos. These models reflect real world living as they do not have plumbing or electricity.
Huh? Well, it’s not even a year since Houston Indymedia reporter Keefski tried to explain it all . . . but the Waterhill Homes at the Heights development is at last seeing some action!
What kind of action?
***
Keefski’s explanation of the . . . uh, process:
The corner home was once a Compost Home and resembled the home behind it with warped plywood and a patina of mold. It has now been repurposed with clean sheaths of Tyvek and a moisture enhancing layer of EIFS . ( . . . to speed the decomposing process so vital in nature).
Oh, but it’s not that corner home that’s coming down. It’s this one, pictured here last summer:
Then at the beginning of this month, as documented by Heights Life blogger Viula:
“As you can see from the picture,” she writes, “at the start of the month it still had a sale sign in the yard. I can’t imagine how.”
She went by the following week. Top floor gone already!
- Green Building-A Developer Gets It Right [Houston Indymedia]
- Heights Snapshot: Sad [Heights Life]
Images: Houston Indymedia (top, second, fourth, and fifth images); Heights Life (third and bottom two)
Broke or not, the developers should have to get out there and either finish or tear down these blighted townhomes. It’s not fair to everyone that lives around here that these wideopen places have become the residences for vagrants.
It’s a shame the builders didn’t take out a second with Wedge Group. The fire department would have already taken care of the problem with a couple of “condemned” notices plastered here and there.
It’s not a matter of how blighted the property is in Houston. Just a matter of how badly someone wants the land.
I agree. Waterhill should be held responsible. I’m not sure what happened here anyway. I looked at these townhomes almost 2 years ago and almost every one on the front row had been sold before they started the second row. They got greedy and added an additional one on each end which were never finished as well as the entire second row.
I wonder what type of recourse the owners have for this. I feel bad for them. Those places weren’t cheap!
Unfortunately it likely comes down to the lender on the project being overwhelmed and no one knocking on their door to try to get the units and finish them. It was one thing for lenders to try to process something like this 5 years ago when it might have been the only default on their plate, a whole other ball game now. The time is probably past where something could have been saved from the the partially built units, now the costs of taking down the partials is likely more than what the lender could get for the lot.
I’m not really sure why this development is considered “condemned” or “blighted”. This article gives no mention of financial difficulties with Waterhill or the Redus Group. As I understand it, the houses which look uncompleted are supposed to be the “compost homes” or the “E-condos”, mixed in with houses complete with modern amenities, and as far as I can tell, these houses are occupied. I’m a bit torn about the point of this project, but the need for community green space and ecological-friendly options (such as the rain-water catchments) is a demand that must be met. And as far as I can tell, this project is more about making a statement rather than providing housing, although the Redus Group claims that the properly-updated homes were included to fund the project.
Am I missing something? This is interesting, and I tried to research more but didn’t find anything other than the Indymedia article. Do tell, please!
Sara,
On my blog there is another picture of the townhomes on the back side- click here for the photo http://bit.ly/dAl7lb. They are unfinished and made of plywood. I don’t know anything about compostable homes, but these are trashed and incomplete. There are 10 of them in various states of completion, none habitable in any way.
Viula
I don’t know but you all, but are we sure this article isn’t just a piece of sarcasm (a la TheOnion.com). I mean “compost homes” and “small animal husbandry, such as goats, chickens and rats.” Does not seem believable to me.
These remind of those White Label townhomes that have sat in plywood and tyvek purgatory for the past year at Washington and Jackson Hill (by Reign Lounge).
The developer looks like they have completed two out of the four now, but I don’t see how anyone can buy these since thousands of people have driven by seeing their poor shape prior to the stucco finishing.
I hope they never tear down those townhomes on Washington and Jackson Hill. There is a port-a-pot that remains on the abandoned site that makes for a great pit stop during a long run on the weekend. At least the port-a-pot has not been repossessed by the bank yet.
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From Terry:
These remind of those White Label townhomes that have sat in plywood and tyvek purgatory for the past year at Washington and Jackson Hill (by Reign Lounge).
The developer looks like they have completed two out of the four now, but I don’t see how anyone can buy these since thousands of people have driven by seeing their poor shape prior to the stucco finishing.
yes, of course it’s sarcasm.
the city won’t let you put up a residence without electric service or running water!
the buildings that are not dried in are being ruined by rain and mold…
i wonder who owns the things now? it’s a disaster; i’m sure the developer took a huge hit.
contrary to popular belief, the developer does not make hand over fist profit on these things. out of a 4-plex, three go to pay for the project. the final sale is all the profit in the project-in the event nothing goes wrong.
Sara, I was looking for the double sarcasm but now know it does not exist when you put this project front and center on your blog with zero comment: http://saranich.wordpress.com/ Take a deep breath everyone, and reflect for a moment. On March 22, 2010 at 2:35 pm, we all collectively reached the end of the blogosphere. I thought we hit it on chron.com with the bitter single mom’s suburban dating adventures and passive agressive ex husband bashing in “Momma Drama” and with the silly Cat Blog (name i have forgotten). But now, way out at the very, very tip of the sphere, a quantum leap farther away, saranich.wordpress.com is on the receiving end of a daisy chain of concepts, aligning themseveles like a mutated game of Telephone, where humor and sarcasm have become so distorted that they have taken a shape and that shape is a rotting town home development on 8th. It is now front and center in the international climate and environmental discussion, and this rotting development in the Heights has ammassed a scale that competes with South American satellite deforestation photos.
Hey, there was the same kind of stuff on 2200-2207 Rutland for 3 or 4 years. A builder went in and finished out the houses finally, leaving neighbors to wonder: ‘what’s in those walls? Is it edible?’
I am still laughing.
Very sad story but funny writeup…compostable homes!
I believe this is the old site of Eighth Avenue Elementary School that HISD shut down and sold just a few years ago. My wife went there in the early ’80s. It was a nice little quaint, wooded lot. It’s such a shame to see it now. Really an eyesore from both the neighborhood streets and the bike trail. Sadly it looks like a scene from that “Life After People” documentary on the History Channel.
From Darbymom:
Hey, there was the same kind of stuff on 2200-2207 Rutland for 3 or 4 years. A builder went in and finished out the houses finally, leaving neighbors to wonder: ‘what’s in those walls? Is it edible?’
March 22, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Those houses are still in various stages of uncompleteness. Woe looks to be the fate of anyone who tries to get anything done there. Bill Baldwin is now the latest to try and for his sake, I hope he succeeds. But those places have been eyesores for awhile now.
Personally, I think that places like the old Eighth Avenue Elementary site and 2200-2207 Rutland serve as scarecrows of a sort, scaring off townhome developers, much like the ones at 15th and Yale used to before a community garden went in there.
What we need are pocket parks to go into these places. Talk about adding quality of life to an area.
I live near the 2200 block of Rutland and I too watched those houses sit for quite a while but I actually think they turned out kinda nice. Have you seen them lately? There may indeed be mold in the walls but at least they are pretty from the outside :)
The houses at Rutland and 22nd were at least dried in before being abandoned. Two out of the three are now complete (landscaping and all).
They will put some KILZ on the wood framing and cover it up. This is what the White Label homes looked like last summer. http://isthishouston.com/2009/08/10/see-whats-flapping-behind-the-white-label/
The one on the left now has the stucco finish complete but the inside looks terrible.
Just saw these today. Wow. Another fine “let’s see how many tall homes we can cram on one previously wooded but now stripped lot as quick as we can” project scrapped. I hope for the sake of the current owners of the completed units this is resolved quickly!