Headlines
08/02/17 8:30am

Tip-Off for Apartments by the Toyota Center; Details of the Coming Canino Farmer’s Market Redo

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Photo of Elysian St. Viaduct Bridge demo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
Bayous and Waterways
08/01/17 3:00pm

Comment of the Day: Might Upset Houston’s Delicate Waterway Ecosystem

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: MIGHT UPSET HOUSTON’S DELICATE WATERWAY ECOSYSTEM “. . . I suppose all those cars need to come out of the bayou, but I fear that will really mess up the fishing.” [Txcon, commenting on Comment of the Day: Aside from These 2 Issues, Fishing in Brays Bayou Is Enormously Appealing]    

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CityCentre
08/01/17 1:15pm

Taking the Edge off Town & Country V

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Here’s an interrupted last look at the Town & Country V office building at 908 Town & Country Blvd., which is clearly in the way of the CityCentre expansion.

The 6-story building is the last of a group of 4 being removed from the growing mixed-use district’s northern border. Earlier last month, crews were eating at the structure from the I-10 side:

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Now You See It
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Featured Posts
08/01/17 12:00pm

Construction on the MFAH’s New Glassell School Is Ramping Up

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From the skies above Montrose Blvd. just north of Bissonnet, here’s a view from late last week of progress on the Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s new Glassell School of Art. The new building, designed by Steven Holl Architects, is under construction across the street from the Glassell Junior School building (in the foreground, with the curved roof) — and on the same site where the original Glassell School, designed by Houston architect S.I. Morris, was demolished in 2015. Morris’s Glassell School featured exterior walls of glass block; the primary exterior materials of Holl’s replacement building are sandblasted panels of precast concrete, assembled to shape an inclined plane along the long edge of the building’s L shape.

If that part of the building is starting to look like it’ll form a giant ramp, it’s because it will: Models of the structure show an outdoor amphitheater at the ramp’s base; a rooftop public path will ascend beyond it to a sculpture garden on the roof of the building’s northern leg. An addition to the existing sculpture garden to the south will extend into the courtyard shaped by the building’s two wings, fronting Montrose Blvd. The space designated for the garden is filled with construction materials in the center of the photo above; it’s pictured in a more completed state in this rendering by the architect:

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A View from Above
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Headlines
08/01/17 8:30am

Vivacity’s First Taker; Another Go at 1001 Studewood; Metro Rethinking Shared Rail Lanes Downtown

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Photo of Vistas de Sevilla, Cottage Grove: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
Featured Posts
07/31/17 4:45pm

At 707 Euclid, the New Driveway Courtyard Landscaping Is In

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The landscaping promised for the courtyard area that doubles as a driveway in back of the newly expanded and renovated home at 707 Euclid St. in Woodland Heights is now installed. We know this because a Swamplot reader was kind enough to send in the above photo of the scene. It provides an update to the photos in the listing (below), which show only unplanted planting beds in the driveway, before the most recent additions:

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Garage Front
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Bayous and Waterways
07/31/17 2:30pm

Comment of the Day: Aside from These 2 Issues, Fishing in Brays Bayou Is Enormously Appealing

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: ASIDE FROM THESE 2 ISSUES, FISHING IN BRAYS BAYOU IS ENORMOUSLY APPEALING “The problem: I don’t think I would trust any of those fish to eat. Sure, you can catch and release, but I also don’t see the appeal of standing on the banks of a concrete ditch.” [Heightsresident, commenting on A Fishing Guide to Concrete-Lined Brays Bayou] Photo: Payton Moore

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Bars and Clubs
07/31/17 1:30pm

The Bit of Cross-Strip-Center Commerce Coming Soon to This Spring Branch Mini Mall

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“We will not have a kitchen ourselves,” writes the proprietor of Cobble & Spoke, the new craft beer bar planned for space H, almost to the corner of the 1900 Blalock strip center at the northeast corner of Blalock St. and Campbell Rd., in response to a reader query earlier today on Facebook. “However there is a restaurant on site that you will be able to order with right at the bar & have the food delivered right to your table!” That restaurant is Simply Greek, just 6 storefronts down the L, past Precisions Research, a couple of vacant spaces, Ideal Furniture, Creatures of Yoga, and Senpai’s Cards.

At the opposite end of the center is the Stop n’ In convenience store paired with the pair of gas pumps that front the parking lot. Cobble & Spoke promises a selection of wines and craft ciders as well. Neighborhood riders who want to lock up their bicycles will be accommodated too, the bar’s owner notes: “We will have a bike rack out front & even some dedicated space inside.”

Photo: Silvestri Investments

Craft Beer and Imported Food
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07/31/17 12:00pm

Swamplot Sponsor: 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth

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Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day today is the Oak Forest and Garden Oaks-area retail development known as 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth — bringing you some news about the project, which is currently under construction. Thanks for sponsoring this site!

Here’s the first bit of news: Popular Montrose Vietnamese café Les Ba’get will be opening its second location — at 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth! Café owners Peter “Cat” Huynh and Angie Dang have signed a lease for a new Les Ba’get at 1717 W. 34th St. This space will be around 3,000 sq. ft. (The couple’s current location, at 1717 Montrose Blvd. — yes, with the same street number — measures only 1,450 sq. ft.)

Les Ba’get is known for its phở, its bánh mì Vietnamese sandwiches, and its own twist on Vietnamese-style steak and eggs. The café bakes its own bread daily. For dessert, there’s ice cream made in collaboration with Lee’s Creamery (from Lee Ellis, aka the guy behind Lee’s Fried Chicken & Donuts, Pi Pizza, Petite Sweets, and and other Cherry Pie Hospitality restaurants).

33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth is going in at the southeast corner of 34th St. and Ella Blvd. The buildings on site will feature 110-year-old reclaimed brick from Cleveland, Ohio. The building pictured above under construction is the freestanding structure facing 34th St. Les Ba’get will be in the end cap of the development’s main building, in a space being designed by Austin-based Design Hound. It’ll feature beams made of Alaska Cypress. The 2.5-acre development, a project of Crescere Capital Management, was designed by Gensler. 

The second bit of news about 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth is the Willie Nelson painting artists, shown above, the just completed on the traffic signal control cabinet close to the sidewalk on the corner. It’s part of the City of Houston’s “mini murals” program — and another way for 33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth to express the recorded-music theme expressed in its name.

33 1/3 @ Thirtyfourth will be ready for retail tenants to move in this fall.

A great way to let neighborhoods know about great things coming their way: Being a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day!

Sponsor of the Day
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Bayous and Waterways
07/31/17 11:15am

A Fishing Guide to Concrete-Lined Brays Bayou

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A FISHING GUIDE TO CONCRETE-LINED BRAYS BAYOU What kind of fish can an enterprising angler find in the wilds of inner-loop Brays Bayou? Episcopal priest and urban fly-fishing evangelist Mark Marmon tells the Chronicle‘s Shannon Tompkins he’s caught 18 different species in Brays Bayou alone, including largemouth bass, crappie, catfish, sunfish, Rio Grande perch, longnose gar, spotted gar, and white bass. But that’s just counting the natives. The biggest draws — and what you’re most likely to find — are the alien invaders, which include mullet, the aquarium-fugitive armored catfish known as plecostomus, tilapia, and grass carp, aka “Bellaire bonefish.” But you’ve got to know where to look for them: “They, like most fish in the bayou, tend to cluster around the mouth of ‘feeder’ creeks,” Tompkins reports. “They also like structure anomalies that create accelerated current or breaks in the current; in Brays Bayou, these are created by breaks or buckles in the otherwise smooth concrete lining of the bayou or maybe an abandoned shopping cart that has found its way into the bayou. (Anglers call those shopping carts ‘Brays Bayou mangroves.’)” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Payton Moore

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Headlines
07/31/17 8:30am

Houston Center Up for Sale; Truth Barbeque Coming to Wash Ave; 4 Frenchy’s Chickens Going Catfish

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Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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