COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SECRET LONELINESS OF THE ‘CHEF’S KITCHEN’ 
“It seems like the standard marketing protocol in homes like this is to always refer to the kitchen as a ‘cook’s kitchen’ or ‘chef’s kitchen.’ Maybe I’m just being pedantic, but a home cook/chef really doesn’t need all of the bells and whistles (48-in. gas range with double ovens, huge built-in fridge, pot filler, 2 dishwashers, prep sink, wine fridge, etc.) to produce a great end result for (presumably) just their own family. It’s almost like saying, ‘If you don’t have a kitchen like this, you must not be a very serious cook!’ I know it’s just salesmanship, but rubs me the wrong way nonetheless.
That, and I think deep down inside that there might be a little bit of an inverse relationship between the price tag of the kitchen and the amount of cooking that actually gets done in them. It’s kind of like calling a four-car garage a ‘mechanic’s dream’ even though it’s really most likely that it’s going to be holding a couple decades’ worth of crap that no one wants to get rid of. Maybe a car or two.” [Balthazar, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Eat in Kitchen] Illustration: Lulu
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The new mini-doc We Are the Fire (above) describes the rationale behind recent efforts to rip out the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center’s invasive understory of non-native plants. Like watching short films like this about Houston-area wildlife and semi-wildlife? Here’s another one, from the Texas Parks and Wildlife department, on urban pocket parks. 13 more movies — on topics ranging from red-cockaded woodpeckers and sea turtles to area tidal wetlands — will be included in the first annual Wild About Houston mini film festival, being put on by a collection of local wildlife and conservation organizations for 2 hours on the evening of August 23rd, at the Cherie Flores Garden Pavilion at the McGovern Gardens at Hermann Park.
- Wild About Houston Short Film Screening [Coastal Prairie Partnership]
- We Are the Fire [Vimeo]
- Urban Pocket Prairies – Texas Parks and Wildlife [Texas Parks and Wildlife]
Wild About Houston
THE END OF THE GREENSPOINT MALL IS UPON US 
Greenspoint Mall may close its doors for good in as little as 60 days, a source tells Click2Houston reporter Sophia Beausoleil — after news broke late Friday that the hobbled 42-year-old shopping center at I-45 North and Beltway 8 is under contract for purchase by an investment group headed by Chinese investor Gao Feng. Global Plaza Union says it is still considering several different redevelopment concepts for its newly acquired property. Not included in the purchase, but expected to be added to it for any transformation to take place: the 3 independently owned anchor store sites within the property. The Sears store at the southeast corner of the property closed 7 years ago; the Macy’s, in the northwest corner, shut down earlier this year; the Dillard’s in the southwest corner, closest to the freeway interchange, is one of only 2 anchors still operating in the mall. (The other is a Palais Royal.) [Click2Houston; Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Photo: Colliers International
- Australian Developer Caydon Property Group Buys Midtown Parcel Next to the Old Greensheet Building [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Industrial Market Full of Long-Term Holders [HBJ ($)]
- Housing Assistance Scarce for Houston’s Lowest-Income Renters, Finds Federal Report [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- East End Rebranding Itself as Hub for Entrepreneurs, Millennials, and Tech Start-Ups [Houston Public Media]
- Dick’s Sporting Goods Opens in Galleria; Westlake Marketplace Location Next [HBJ ($)]
- Japanese Restaurant Kukuri from Michelin-Starred Chef Shimao Ishikawa Makes Houston Debut on Wash Ave [Eater Houston]
- Dallas-Based Sweet Shop Milk & Cream Opening First Houston Outpost at 9630 Clarewood [Eater Houston]
- Texas Department of Criminal Justice Buses 1,000 Inmates from Sweltering Wallace Pack Unit to Air-Conditioned Facilities [Houston Chronicle]
- The Connection Between Streetlights and Crime in Houston [The Urban Edge]
- Another Video of Market Square Tower’s Glass-Bottomed ‘Sky Pool’ Goes Viral [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
Photo: o texano via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Demolition exerts hidden power, like the moon on the tides.
- 2004 Wroxton Rd. [HAR]
If a year or so from now you find yourself holed up in acute or intensive care in the North Campus Tower of the Houston Methodist hospital in the Texas Medical Center and for some reason start to wonder how that bathroom behind you was constructed, have we got a video for you! (It’s posted above.) It’s a time-lapse showing how workers from interior finishes contractor Marek pieced together 207 prefabricated restroom pods in the McCorvey Sheet Metal Works warehouse at 4800 Fidelity St. (just southeast of the intersection of I-10 and the East Loop), then shrinkwrapped and transported them, 1 or 2 at a time, to 6551 Bertner St., where they were they were lifted and dollied into place and hooked up to the building’s plumbing.
How’s construction on the $700 million, 960,000-sq.-ft. 22-story north tower Med Center expansion going so far? Here are a couple of views from today — from construction cams trained on the project:
Warehouse Built
COMMENT OF THE DAY: PARKING REQUIREMENTS FOR SELF-PARKING CARS 
“I think the live load requirements for a parking structure are actually a little higher than a residential building, but the bigger misconception is that shared autonomous cars don’t need to park. The fleet of autonomous cars will have to be sized to meet peak demand, which happens for a few hours in the morning and a few in the afternoon. Outside of those hours, a large proportion of the fleet will need to be stored somewhere.
Overnight, that somewhere can be a non-central location, since presumably many people will still live in suburbs. But during the day, surplus vehicles will be most efficiently stored somewhere close to where their passengers will be in the afternoon.
The real advantage is that the car storage won’t have to be so closely tied to the destination, so a parking structure every few blocks should be adequate, rather than each building needing its own dedicated (usually surface) parking. It’s more likely that this garage will stay a garage, but nearby surface lots can be developed into actual buildings.” [Angostura, commenting on How To Design a Parking Garage That Won’t Become Useless Once Cars Get Restless] Illustration: Lulu
Today, Swamplot is brought to you by Houston’s own Central Bank. Thanks for being a Sponsor of the Day!
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Is it your turn? Become a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day.Â
Sponsor of the Day
The new Holiday Inn Express about to begin construction at 3401 N. Main St. in the Near Northside will have some consistently quiet neighbors and some occasionally very loud ones — with the steady drone of the adjacent North Fwy. available to somehow bridge the gap. The 1.44-acre site, where the Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant stood until it was torn down 2 years ago (and Stuarts Drive-In before it), sits across N. Main St. from the Hollywood Cemetery (yes, the same cemetery featured in Wes Anderson movie Rushmore). And it’s just a bit more than a quarter-mile up N. Main from the White Oak Music Hall complex, whose outdoor concert habit spurred nearby residents kept up late at night by the noise to file suit against the venue — and later, the city of Houston — for failing to follow (and enforce) local sound ordinances.
Late last month, crews removed the concrete paving left behind after the Casa Grande demolition (see photos above). Just this week, a city permit was granted for a 58,929-sq.-ft., 95-room Holiday Inn Express on the site — up 10 rooms from the 85 promised a couple of years ago, when the developers submitted these drawings as part of an application for a variance that would allow them not to have to extend or widen Norma St., on the north end of the lot:
Near Near Northside
- Parent Company Plans to Close 105 to 135 Applebee’s, 2 Dozen IHOPs, Open 125 New Restaurants [USA Today]
- Find Some of the Highest Rents in Houston at New Hines Residential Tower The Southmore, Now 39% Leased [Houston Chronicle]
- Justin Yu’s Oxheart Replacement Theodore Rex To Open Later This Month [Eater Houston]
- Aqui, Paul Qui’s First Houston Restaurant, Opening in Montrose This Weekend for a Preview [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Near Northside Gastropub Edison Receives Cease and Desist Order To Stop Using the Name Edison [Houstonia]
- Bond Package Before City Council Contains $2.2M Funding for Houston Bike Plan, Possibly Enough for 10 to 24 Miles of Bike Lanes [Houston Press]
- City Clears Out, Cleans Up Midtown Homeless Camp Underneath the Southwest Fwy. Between San Jacinto and Almeda [KHOU]
- Activists Call for Independent Testing To Confirm Fifth Ward Superfund Site Was Thoroughly Cleaned Up [Houston Public Media]
Photo of the Williams Tower: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the demolition.
- 219 Heritage Oaks Ln. [HAR]
Forget all the crazy rumors and stories you’ve heard about the Galveston Kettle House. The actual most likely true story of how the unusual Galveston West Beach-area landmark known as the Kettle House came to be — and what’s about to happen to it — has at long last been revealed by the builder’s daughter (and current owner), Mary Etheridge-Rachels, to Dallas-area writer Linda Armstrong.
Among the shocking revelations — well, okay, interesting facts — included in Armstrong’s account of the steel bowl’s history, pieced together from her interviews with Etheridge-Rachels:
Legends in Steel
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HYDE PARK SALES AND CLEARANCE RUSH 
“My family moved out of Hyde Park four years ago, and it’s incredible how much the neighborhood has changed in that time. Yes, I know change is inevitable and can be for the better, but this neighborhood has changed at a breakneck pace. I’m pretty sure at least half of the houses/buildings along Commonwealth and Waugh have been torn down since we left (admittedly some of them really needed to go, given the terrible shape they were in). I guess this will be added to the heap.” [Courtney, commenting on Corazon Now Being Removed from Its Big Red Dot Spot at Waugh and Fairview] Photo of Corazon, 2813 Waugh Dr.: Margo
