Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
I never see what has been demolished; I only see what remains to be demolished.
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- 21806 Alta Peak Way [HAR]
Study the photo at top carefully and you’ll see 2 eye-catching features that were installed in November: the gaping, cycloptic sculpture at the entrance to the parking lot outside 7800 Washington, as well as new lettering spelling out THE STUDY on the warehouse’s awning. Developer Levcor bought the 66,000-sq.-ft. brick building — at that time home to Brian Thomas Display & Packaging — last year and filed construction permits in September to begin renovating it into a space for offices, furniture showrooms, and a restaurant.
Before and after views show how the building’s front side on Washington, just northwest of the Katy Fwy., will be transformed:
Cottage Grove
BROADACRES HOA TAKES DOWN ITS ESPLANADE NO-PHOTOSHOOT SIGNS 
The Broadacres Homeowners Association has removed all signs posted on the esplanades along North, South, and West boulevards welcoming visitors and telling them photoshoots are prohibited. As to whether the esplanades are public or private property — that’s still up in the air: “The homeowners association said the property was deeded to the group in the 1920s, and is looking for the documentation to enforce its ban.” The HOA initially placed the 11 signs on the esplanades last Thursday. [abc13; Previously on Swamplot]Â Photo: Swamplot inbox
- Capital Retail Properties Developing the Shops at Spring Village Near the ExxonMobil Campus [Realty News Report]
- Investors Acquire Former Weatherford Campus North of Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- San Antonio-Based Valcap Group Acquires Multifamily Community in Katy [Realty News Report]
- Houston ISD Proposes Tearing Down 4 Elementary Schools Damaged by Harvey [Houston Chronicle]
- Kroger Marketplace Opening Jan. 26 Within the Grand Central Park Master-Planned Community [HBJ ($)]
- Inside WeWork’s 4-Story Galleria Location Opening Next Month [HBJ ($)]
- Viking Restaurant Ship & Shield That Took Over Byzantio’s Space Blames Closure on Harvey [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Emmaline Replaces Former Teala’s Mexican Restaurant on West Dallas [HBJ]
- Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café Set To Open Locations in La Centerra at Cinco Ranch, The Woodlands Next Year [Houston Chronicle]
- City Considers Repurposing Part of Metro Property on McKee St. as Temporary Homeless Shelter [Click2Houston]
- Judge Signs Emergency Order Against Montrose Management District [Houston Chronicle]
- Can Mattress Firm Survive the Correction of Its Aggressive Growth? [Bisnow]
- Where Lyft Took Riders the Most in 2017 [abc13]
- Massive Mural of Underwater Sea Life Unveiled in Magnolia Park [Houston Public Media]
Photo of Mytiburger, 2211 W. 43rd St.: thranth via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
It is not enough to know your demolition craft – you have to have feeling.
- 10227 Altonbury Ln. [HAR]
WHO OWNS THE ESPLANADES ON NORTH AND SOUTH BOULEVARDS? 
The president of the Broadacres Homeowners Association, Cece Fowler, tells the Houston Chronicle’s Diane Cowen last weekend that the neighborhood’s esplanades, as well as the park along Parkway Dr., are owned by the HOA. However, Cowen says that according to the City of Houston, the esplanades are part of the city’s Adopt-An-Esplanade program, making them public right-of-way. The dispute continues: “Fowler said that she and her board are conducting a title search to prove their ownership. She said the neighborhood has maintained and financed the esplanades and green space from the beginning.” That maintenance took a new turn last Thursday when 11 signs prohibiting photoshoots were erected on the esplanades. According to Fowler, the gatherings had become more than a nuisance: “up to 40 to 50” were occurring per week beneath the canopies of oaks that line the boulevards between Mandel St. and Parkway Dr. The 26 homeowners that make up the community discussed mitigation strategies like putting in speed bumps, adding a gate to the neighborhood, or hiring full-time security personnel before settling on the signs as a more cordial means of discouraging shutter-happy visitors. Now that they’re up, residents hope they’ll keep out flashbulbs as well as the props that sometimes come with them: “Fowler said some have brought in sofas and bookcases and one group drove a Jeep onto the esplanade, damaging the grass, brick sidewalk and sprinkler system. They throw confetti onto the ground and release Mylar balloons into the trees. And all bring photography equipment and crews that hang around for hours.”  [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
A new banner just tacked to the forehead of the building on Richmond Ave., barely east of I-610 announces what’s due to move in: a second Galleria-area showroom for Nazar’s Fine Jewelry. The photo at top, sent in by an on-the-spot Swamplot reader, shows workers getting a boost to place the sign at sundown on Sunday. The northeast crotch of the 59-West Loop interchange is visible south of the building at 4901 Richmond.
Interior renovation permits for the 25,890-sq.-ft. building — formerly home to Morton Kuehnert Auctioneers & Appraisers, and, even more formerly, to Parvizian Signature Rugs — were filed in September. Before it closed down in October 2016, the auction house’s windows were covered with photos of artifacts:
Richmond Riches
- The Industries That Will Hire in Houston Next Year [HBJ ($)]
- Inside the 3,000-SF Suite at Hotel Sorella CityCentre in West Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- El Tiempo Cantina To Open Webster Location This Week [HBJ]
- Buffalo Bayou Brewing Co. Starts Crowdfunding Campaign for New Brewery and Restaurant in Washington Ave. Arts District [HBJ]
- Viral Tweet Spurs Business at La Casa Bakery and Cafe North of Downtown [abc13]
- Greater Houston Partnership: Harvey’s Impact Will Guide Development in Houston [AP]
- How One Tax Firm’s Federal Tax Refund Program Gives Residential and Business Owners Relief After Harvey [Realty News Report]
- Extra Dredging Required to Deepen Houston Ship Channel and Galveston Bay After Harvey [NPR]
- What the Dutch Can Both Teach and Learn from Houston on Designing for Flood Resilience [OffCite]
- After Harvey, Houston Residents Must Challenge City’s Preference for Growth [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of 3102 Norhill Blvd.: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
And now’s the time, the time is now to demolish these places.
- 4706 Andover St. [HAR]
Number 4 on the list of Downtown food halls, one of which has actually been built: Lyric Market, a 31,000-sq.-ft. multi-restaurant space that plans to move in just north of the Lyric Centre on Louisiana St. Houston’s first food hall, Conservatory, opened 5 blocks east on Prairie St. last year. Both Bravery Chef Hall and Finn Hall are expected to open within the same 7-block sector of downtown as Lyric Market.
Work to build the blocky white parking garage shown above began on the site of a surface parking lot last October. The structure’s street level, allocated to retail, will now be occupied entirely by Lyric Market. The food hall will span Preston St. between Smith and Louisiana and connect directly to the adjacent Lyric Centre, shown looking ghostly in the rendering above. A new plaza with outdoor seating will go between the end of the food hall and David Adickes’s self-playing-cello sculpture at the corner of Smith and Prairie streets.
The floor plan below shows how the restaurants will lay out:
Lyric Market
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE NORTH AND SOUTH BLVD. PHOTOSHOOT BATTLE IS JUST WARMING UP 
“As a close relative of a Broadacres resident I will report what I know. Yes, the esplanades are privately owned and maintained by the homeowners and the signs are legal. The reason for the signs was the volume of people taking pictures. I have lived there for 15+ years and it has never been this bad. In the evenings you will have 2, 3, or 4 groups of people on each block taking pictures and it’s not just people that are the problem, it’s all of the props (sofa, chairs, tables, GLITTER, lighting) that they bring with them too. As some commenters have pointed out, some homeowners have approached those taking pictures and gotten back a lot of attitude and some form of “This is public property.†Err, well, no it isn’t actually. The signs were a compromise to discourage further pictures and serve as an initial educational campaign. If it backfires or the signs are ignored there will most likely be some sort of security enforced permitting in place or, the nuclear option, buying out the streets from the city and gating the neighborhood.” [BroadAcres Brat, commenting on New Signs Declare Photo Shoots Will No Longer Be Allowed on North and South Boulevards] Photo: Swamplot inbox
WHAT IT TAKES TO JACK A HOUSE 
“Adam Bakir, a Houston builder and remodeler, does one or two home elevations a year. The job is akin to major surgery. Workers tunnel under the house, Bakir said, then raise the whole thing on jacks—the slab and the house that rests on it. Since Harvey, Bakir has received more than 20 inquiries about home elevation. If potential customers ask for a cost estimate, he’ll tell them: between about $75 and $100 per square foot. ‘If you have a 2,500-square-foot house, which is typical,’ he said, ‘the upper end of it would be about $250,000. The lower end, around $180,000.‘” [CityLab] Photo: Arkitektura Development
