COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT MADE THE GEOGRAPHY THAT MADE HOUSTON 
“Air conditioning had little to do with it. Chicago out-paced Houston because of its location as the geographic nexus of industrial transportation during the industrial revolution. It connected to the east through the Erie Canal and Great Lakes and to the west with the ever-growing railroads. A linchpin city grows. A growing city builds. Houston had no such geographic importance — and had a hurricane not made Galveston nonviable, Houston would probably still be a modest town. We had to build our port to earn any geographic value. It’s impressive that we did so. Houston shouldn’t exist. We made it exist. Now that’s cool.” [Matt, commenting on Comment of the Day: When Houston Chilled Out and Grew Up] Photo of Houston Ship Channel: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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The current East Downtown home of startup kickstarter Start Houston is on the market at the moment, as the organization looks for a new space to host its growing techie crowd. A rep tells Swamplot that the group can’t say yet where the new digs will be — but the old digs at 1121 Delano St. are currently listed for sale at around $795,000. The 1963 building’s features include the human-robot peace wall facing Dallas St.:
Starting Again Elsewhere
Today’s sponsor: The renovated and expanded home at 1638 Harvard St. in the Houston Heights. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!
This home in the Houston Heights Historic District East began its life in the 1920s as a 1,180-sq.-ft. bungalow. A redo completed 2 years ago for the seller by Brickmoon Design and Bill Baldwin Restoration removed the aluminum siding and expanded the property into a 3-bedroom, 2-and-a-half-bath home measuring 3,046 sq. ft. (672 sq. ft. of that in a garage apartment). It was featured in the Houston Heights Association’s spring home tour last year.
A restored front porch (pictured at top) faces the street; in back, a new combo family room–kitchen (above) includes French doors facing a back porch and pool lined with an outdoor kitchen. At right in the photo above, at the end of the dining room, is a custom wine wall that provides storage for up to 180 bottles. Through the opening adjacent to the refrigerator at the center background of the same photo is a breakfast area; beyond that, past a barn door with a stained-glass insert, is a purple-hued master suite — and a pool bath next to the mud room and utility room, which links to the back-alley-facing garage. The garage apartment above is a 1-bedroom standalone suite with kitchen and a full bath with stacked washer-dryer.
To get a better idea of the  scope of renovations to this property, you’ll want to take a look through the 28 photos of the redone home available on the property website.
Got a home with some history you’d like to highlight? Contact us about becoming a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day.
Sponsor of the Day
The fire that started late yesterday afternoon at the Holmes Road Recycling Center (just west of 288 south of 610) is still on the Houston Fire Department’s list of active incidents at the moment, after about 19 hours.  KHOU reports that the firefighting has been complicated by the need to cool off the heat-retaining piles of burning scrap metal on the scene, as well as a lack of water supply in the industrial patchwork around Pierce Junction. Hazmat crews reportedly say there’s no out-of-the-ordinary chemical concerns related to the smoke this time, though HFD captain Ruy Lozana did note to KHOU last night that the smoke’s strong smell and darker color is probably from leftover fluids in crushed cars catching fire.
Wind coming primarily from the south and southeast pushed smoke and haze from the fire across 610 all the way to the Texas Medical Center, some 3 miles north. Nearby Rice University sent out an alert around 4:45 warning folks with respiratory issues to stay indoors for a bit — below is a view (from several hours after that warning) of the haze from the Rice campus parking lot on Greenbriar, east of the stadium:
Blowing In the Wind
- Inside the Menil Drawing Institute, Less Than a Year Out from Planned Opening [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Thompson & Knight Law Firm Subleases 70K SF in BG Group Place Building Downtown [Realty News Report]
- More Specs on Leafy Mimosa Terrace Condo Midrise, Planned for Glendower Court Area [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston Home Listings That Have Energy-Saving Measures Priced $60,900 More Than Homes That Don’t, Finds Zillow [HBJ]
- Hotels Planned or Underway in Galveston Will Push Island Room Count Past 5,000 [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- How Older, Inner-Ring Suburbs Like Near Northwest Are Reinventing Themselves [The Urban Edge; previously on Swamplot]
- More Parking and Mobility Infrastructure Planned for Montrose [Houston Chronicle]
- City Comes to Agreement for Ride-Sharing Companies To Operate in Houston [Houstonia; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Four Leaf Towers: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Heaven knows that I have done all that a mortal could do, to save the buildings, and the failure was not my fault, but the fault of others.
- 1604 Nantucket Dr. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN HOUSTON CHILLED OUT AND GREW UP 
“I have 3 words that explain why Chicago developed as a ‘modern city’ well before Houston: ‘winter’ and ‘air conditioning.’ Think about it . . . Heating a big tall building to make it comfortable is easy. In contrast, cooling that same building is not so easy — especially in the post Civil War and 1890-1920 time frame. Now, the development of commercially viable air conditioners in the 1920-30’s was an expensive luxury. Then the WW2 years and rationing, and voilá — [only] modest growth of ‘big city’ until the late 1940’s and 1950’s. So when did Houston really start to grow? Yup, you guessed it: post WW2 and the 1950’s, when most middle class people could afford air conditioning in their homes and businesses. So if you want cool ‘old’ pre-war buildings, go north and east towards cooler weather. But if you want a modern or post-modern or even contemporary building, just look at Houston, or Atlanta, or Los Angeles, or Las Vegas. (And thank Mr. Carrier for his invention of air conditioning as we know it.)” [In the Doghouse, commenting on A Brief History of Houston’s Future Historic Preservation Culture] Illustration: Lulu
Some grooming is going on this week in the trio of lots at 907, 903, and 817 Westheimer, formerly home to Ruggles Grill and its fellow departed companion structures just east of the corner with Montrose Blvd. Back in 2012, the folks who developed Triniti were planning a casual-ish burger restaurant on the spot, but chef Ryan Hildebrand told Phaedra Cook this past August that Triniti’s owners later decided a single restaurant wasn’t the best use of the land. That burger restaurant is headed to Shepherd Dr. at Washington Ave. instead, and the Westheimer lot will get a retail project — with some flavor of restaurant included.Â
Permits were issued last month for a new shell on the site, and a reader reports some mowing and general cleanup on Monday, from a vine-and-wire-crossed vantage point in the surrounding urban jungle:
Montrose Mission Modification
Swamplot’s sponsor today is the 4-bedroom, 5-and-a-half-bathroom home at 11323 Surrey Oaks Ln. in Piney Point Village — built by Jamestown Estate Homes. Thank you for supporting this site!
This 4-bedroom, 5-and-a-half-bathroom home was designed by Todd Rice and recently completed by Jamestown Estate Homes. The home, which measures 5,058 sq. ft., is sited on a 9,366-sq.-ft. lot — with an outdoor loggia and room for a pool. With yesterday’s price reduction, this property now ranks as the lowest-priced new home in Piney Point Village.
The home’s first floor features an open-concept combo great room–kitchen–breakfast room, a wood-paneled study, a formal dining room, a combo butler’s pantry–wine room with ice maker (pictured above), a flexible sun room, and a utility-craft room. The kitchen’s suite of Thermador appliances includes a 48-in. refrigerator-freezer, a 48-in. range, and separate steam oven, microwave, and dishwasher. The study has its own full bath — which means it could serve as a fifth bedroom. Upstairs are 4 bedrooms, a game room with a bar, and an additional utility room with hand-painted floor tiles. The master bathroom has a marble dual-entry shower, a burnished chrome freestanding slipper tub, and separate his and her closets and water closets. The home also includes an elevator.
Energy features include double-pane low-E windows, foam insulation in the attic, tankless water heaters, and high-efficiency air-conditioning units. Projected energy bills (for both gas and electric) are expected to average just over $220 per month.
Check out the property website to see more photos of this home. If you’d like more information, please contact Victoria Hawes with Jamestown Estate Homes (email; 832-296-1663) or listing agent Cathy Craig (email; 832-449-2320).
Get your fine property properly showcased: Become a Swamplot sponsor.
Sponsor of the Day
CITY TRACKING DOWN THE LEAD IN CITY HALL’S DRINKING FOUNTAINS, EYEING OTHER DOWNTOWN FAUCETS 
The city is planning to check in on the water at other buildings downtown, Scott Noll reports, in the wake of those lead tests KHOU did on drinking water from just City Hall and the City Hall Annex buildings last week. Those tests turned up lead levels so high above federal limits in at least 1 fountain that the city has shut them all off (and cleaned out the ice machines) while more extensive testing is done on the system. City spokesperson Janice Evans says city testing a few years ago didn’t show concern-worthy lead levels, but the fountains will stay off while the source of the current problem is traced out: “Is it the pipes? Is it the drinking fountains? Is it water coming into the building? It could be [any of the 3] options. There’s a lot of deferred maintenance in this building.”  [KHOU; previously on Swamplot] Photo of City Hall: City of Houston
- Sugar Land Annexation of New Territory and Greatwood Gets Final Approval, Will Add 30,000 Residents [Houston Chronicle]
- Apache Industrial Services, McCord Development Relocating Headquarters to 250 Assay St. in Generation Park [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- How Houston’s First Agrihood Harvest Green Is Coming Along So Far [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- First Phase of Fairfield Town Center in Cypress To Wrap Up Just in Time for Black Friday [HBJ]
- Heights Theater Renovation Nearly Complete Ahead of Friday’s Reopening [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Hopdoddy Burger Bar Planning Third Houston Location in Vintage Park with Spring 2017 Opening [Culturemap]
Photo of Bellaire: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Why build later when you can smash right now?
- 2200 Willowick Rd., 5CÂ [HAR]
Fresh off the email from Swamplot’s anonymous tunnel correspondent: the latest dispatch from the downtown underground, including word (and photo) of a second Hot Toppings in the works:
The remainder of the space that used to be a Ninfa’s at 919 Milam is scheduled to become Hot Toppings Pizza. (The other portion of the space was taken over by Bullrito’s in March.) As part of the conversion to a pizza joint, it look’s like they’re modifying the wall where the Ninfa’s entrance used to be (that’s the plywood covering in the left of the photo).
Plus, bonus shot of the almost-ready Houston outpost of Argentinian-Chicagoan 5411 Empanadas, now moving in beneath nearby 811 Louisiana and reportedly planning to open on Monday:
Tales from the Tunnels
