- 122 Lyndsey Dr. [HAR]
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Now sitting near the corner of Yoakum Blvd. and Kipling St. in place of the electronic sign for Annunciation Orthodox Cathedral: framework forming the new dome that will soon be mounted atop the structure’s sanctuary. The steel half-orb, meant to cap off a $12.5 million cathedral renovation and expansion project, has been under construction streetside since at least last week, as these pics submitted by Swamplot readers show:
Annunciation Orthodox
Here’s a view from 2 Houston Center onto the construction site where a new 13-story precast-concrete parking garage is in the early stages of assembly. The site is the west half of the block bounded by Rusk, Fannin, and Walker streets Downtown. On the eastern half: The newly opened Le Meridien hotel (partly visible in the right foreground), built in the renovated former Melrose Building; and (hidden) behind that, the 11-level 1110 Rusk parking garage. On the opposite side of Fannin St. is another recent Downtown hotel: The Aloft, at 820 Fannin (in the left foreground of the image), with BG Group Place directly behind it.
The new parking garage going up on Downtown’s Block 94 appears to be an accessory to another development not visible in the photo, however: It’s a project of developers Lionstone and Midway, to go with the companies’ Jones at Main redo of the former Gulf Building and the adjacent Great Jones building at 712 and 708 Main St. respectively, both 2 blocks away to the northwest.
The parking garage site has been a surface parking lot since not long after Memorial Day 1986, when the retail building on the site was decimated by a natural gas explosion. The replacement structure is expected to be complete by the end of next year.
- Houston: 13-Story Parking Garage Being Drawn for Federal District [Virtual Builders Exchange]
- Parking Garage to be built next to the Le Meridian [HAIF]
- Montrose Voice, No. 292, May 30, 1986 [University of Houston Libraries]
- Previously on Swamplot: Downtown To Get A Second Food Hall, This Time Above Ground; Former Gulf Building Jonesing for Throwback to the Sakowitz Days on Main St.
Photo: Eric Ramon
Block 94
- Report: Houston Rents Up 1.2% Over the Past Month [Apartment List]
- About the Same Number of Houston Apartments Were Rented in the Month After Harvey as They Are in a Typical Year [Houston Chronicle]
- Gov. Abbott’s $61B Harvey Package Includes New Houston Reservoirs, Buyouts of Thousands of Properties [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- City Council Scheduled To Vote Today To Allow Hundreds of Homes To Be Built in Spring Branch Floodplain [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Flood Recovery Czar Marvin Odum’s Rebuild Pitch Asks for 10M Volunteer Cleanup Hours [abc13]
- Housing Choice Vouchers for Flooded-Out Residents of Forest Green Townhomes Came from Oklahoma City Housing Authority [Houston Housing Authority; previously on Swamplot]
- Moody National Cos. Starts Construction on a Residence Inn by Marriott Near NRG Stadium [Houston Chronicle]
- Rolled Ice Cream Shop Chills 360 Will Squeeze Between Velvet Taco and East Hampton Sandwich Co. in Ruggles Grill Replacement Building on Westheimer at Montrose [Bisnow]
- Mayor Turner Testifies in Defense of City Ban on Temporary Structures [Houston Chronicle]
- How Philadelphia Used Tax Policy To Replace Off-Street Parking Spaces with Housing [Streetsblog USA]
- Charges Against Manafort Highlight Use of Airbnb for Real Estate Scams [Bloomberg]
Photo of Buffalo Bayou: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
The sweets of pillage can be known to no one but the demolisher; compassion for integrity is his divinest grief.
- 2121 Kirby Dr. Unit 25NW [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON IS USUALLY BETTER WHERE IT ISN’T PLANNED TO BE 
“I’m going to go ahead and disagree on the value of planning. The best parts of the city (19th St, parts of Washington, parts of Midtown) were developed before the city passed Chapter 42, and would be illegal to replicate today.
What has planning gotten our fair city over the past half-century? Here’s a partial list:
1.) Density caps inside the loop (since repealed), driving multifamily development to areas farther away from downtown, increasing sprawl.
2.) 70+ ft. right-of-ways, which, along with our 25-ft setbacks, result in an absurd 120 feet between facades. Compare that to unplanned, human-scaled environments in pre-19th century cities and the result is 25% of land completely wasted, or given over to automobiles instead of people.
3.) Parking minimums, requiring up to 75% of land be given over to car storage.
4.) 25-ft. retail setbacks, which, combined with parking minimums, essentially mandate strip-mall development.
What Houston does well is where it doesn’t ‘plan.’ We don’t segregate residential, commercial and retail. We don’t limit residential density (much) (inside the loop), we don’t cap multi-family density (any more). All those great, walkable places we travel to on vacation have one thing in common: the almost complete lack of planning. And where they did do ‘planning’ it did more harm than good. The gothic quarter in Barcelona is way more charming than the Eixample, and don’t get me started on how Haussmann screwed up Paris.
Lump me in with the anti-planners on this one.” [Angostura, commenting on Comment of the Day: What Parking Requirements for Bars Really Encourage] Illustration: Lulu
What’s clearly frightening about the home for sale at 806 Oxford St. in the Heights: Its listing photos, posted last week, capture the property in full Halloween dress-up mode. At front, rows of draped ghouls festoon the double-porch streetfront façade of the 3-year-old mansionette (above).
And the freak show continues inside the house, as costumed mannequins have been artfully arranged in holiday set pieces. Here, a bloody zombie sits at the head of the dining-room table, while a creepy butler stands by, ready to serve:
Trick or Treat?
Today’s sponsor of the day is Dawn in Damnation, a new paranormal Western novel by Clark Casey. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!
Tonight is Halloween! And today is the official publication date for Dawn in Damnation.
Dawn in Damnation features affordable and creative living spaces . . . in the town of Damnation, on the south side of the afterlife just short of hell. The newly gentrified neighborhood is popular with gun-slinging outlaws from the Old West, as well as werewolves and a lone vampire.
Need a better sense of Damnation? Think True Blood meets a shabby-chic Deadwood. Here’s a recent review of the book from the Vampires.com website. In Damnation, the local rooming house offers amenities such as cots and the smell of decay, while the saloon functions as a flexible workspace. The best part about Damnation is . . . it hardly every rains.
Dawn in Damnation is available today. In paperback and as a Kindle download.
Trick or treat? Become a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day.
Sponsor of the Day
A DOUBLE-DECKER H-E-B FOR MEYERLAND PLAZA 
Ralph Bivins reports that grocery chain H-E-B is planning a new 100,000-sq.-ft. store on the western edge of Meyerland Plaza, near the mall-turned-big-box-collection’s JCPenney. The company announced earlier this month that it would not reopen its store at South Braeswood and Chimney Rock, which flooded after Hurricane Harvey. Stores at Meyerland Plaza, on Beechnut at 610, were damaged by flooding as well. The new structure H-E-B is planning there, Bivins says, would be 2 stories; if the configuration is similar to the company’s new Bellaire and Heights locations, that would mean the store itself would be built on the second floor, on top of a parking-only lower level. [Realty News Report; previously on Swamplot] Photo of parking lot in front of Meyerland Plaza JCPenney: Melanie H.
MUD AND WATER AT THE PINE CREST GOLF COURSE 
Tomorrow City Council is scheduled to approve a new municipal utility district for a proposed development on the Pine Crest Golf Course at Gessner and Clay Rd. in Spring Branch that would include enough new homes to house 800 residents. MetroNational is selling the 116-acre site to Meritage Homes. “The district would be served by the City’s regional plant, West District Wastewater Treatment Plant,” reads the agenda item. “The nearest major drainage facility for Harris County Municipal Utility District No. 552 would be Buffalo Bayou, which flows into the Houston Ship Channel.” [City Council; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Pine Crest Golf Course: Meritage Homes
- New Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium Looks To Guide Regional Response After Harvey [Houston Chronicle ($); website]
- Houston Ranked Low for the Sustainability of Its Transit System in New Arcadis Report [HBJ]
- How Long Will Houston’s Post-Harvey Multifamily Market Rebound Last? [Bisnow]
- Mayor Turner: City Could Have To Make Adjustments About Granting Permits in Flood-Prone Areas [Houston Public Media]
- League City Residents Have Until Friday To Get Harvey-Related Debris on Curb for Removal [HBJ]
- National Science Foundation Grants UH Funds to Research Coastal Protection and Water Contamination After Harvey [Houston Chronicle]
- League City Has $9.6B in Flood-Control Wants [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Harvey Sparks Renewed Interest in Dickinson Bayou Flood Mitigation [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- The Importance of Design in the Rebuilding Process [OffCite]
- H-E-B Store Expected To Be Built in Parking Area of Meyerland Plaza [Realty News Report]
- Pappy’s Cafe Relocating to Former Texas Land & Cattle Restaurant Space Next Year After 34 Years in Memorial Village [Houston Press]
- Despite Rumors to the Contrary, Brasserie 19 Is Not Relocating Amidst The Driscoll at River Oaks Construction [Culturemap]
- New Houston Mod Book Showcases Work of Midcentury Architects Arthur Evan Jones and Lloyd Morgan Jones [OffCite]
Photo of Discovery Green: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Demolition can be sweet if we answer it in the affirmative, if we accept it as one of the great eternal forms of life and transformation.
- 949 Commodore Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE TRIED THAT NO PARKING REQUIREMENTS THING BEFORE, IN AVONDALE 
“The urban fantasists who don’t believe in minimum parking should school themselves on the economic concept of the free rider and the common law concept of nuisance. They should also research a little of the history behind Houston minimum parking requirements. These regs did not emerge in a vacuum.
I lived in Avondale, in Montrose, during the nineties, when it was home to no less than nine bars, multiple restaurants, and other adult businesses, all without parking and no parking requirements. Houston minimum parking requirements arose because of what was going on in Avondale and a few other neighborhoods inside the Loop.
The patrons of these bars and restaurants did not and still do not live within Avondale. They all drove to Avondale because there was and is still no other way to get there. The bar owners did not provide parking, choosing instead to impose the costs of their patron parking on the city and the residents of Avondale (free rider). The patrons parked, imbibed, and then proceeded to be drunken asses all night disturbing the peace of the neighborhood (nuisance).
Forcing the business owner to bear the costs of patron parking shifts the costs back to the business which benefits from the patronage. It is a reasonable requirement. It also alleviates the nuisance issue by keeping the drunks off the property of other businesses and residences.” [Jardinero1, commenting on Comment of the Day: What Parking Requirements for Bars Really Encourage] Illustration: Lulu
