10/31/16 12:00pm

Houston Map of risk management plan facilities from UCS/tejas

The little and not-so-little red dots on the map above show off sites on the EPA’s list of plants and refineries required to have a Risk Management Plan due to their potential for accidental hazardous chemical releases — with the larger dots showing the places that have already had an accident (or, in some cases, as many as 43). Clicking each dot will tell you what the facility’s name is, as well as how much toxic or flammable material it stores on site (to the nearest thousand pounds or so).

The Union of Concerned Scientists and t.e.j.a.s. put together the interactive map as part of a report released late last week, which compares the EPA’s data on air quality and cancer rates in a few neighborhoods on the west side of town (specifically in Bellaire and in the West Oaks and Eldridge area, just inside Hwy.6 near the Barker reservoir) with the same data in a couple of east side spots (Galena Park and Manchester).

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Sniffing It Out
10/31/16 8:30am

shell-deer-park

Photo of Shell Deer Park: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
10/28/16 5:30pm

GRASSY KNOLLS, CHILDREN’S SWAMP PART OF POSSIBLE HERMANN PARK PARKING COVERUP Existing Hermann Park MapThis week landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh has been discussing some of his firm’s preliminary designs for the next 20-year master plan for Hermann Park, writes Molly Glentzer this afternoon — including the possibility of turning the park’s central parking area, between Miller Outdoor Theatre and the Houston Zoo, into “a place where children could scamper up a knoll to a creature forest, swings and a marsh,” with parking spaces underneath. Van Valkenburgh says that a few hundred of the 1,300 spaces in the main lots may also be moved to the corner of MacGregor and Cambridge streets, and would also be covered over by ecological and built attractions. Glentzer writes that “along with the forest and marsh, the preliminary drawings for the central knoll include a sensory maze, a desert ruin and a slide bluff. The smaller knoll would have a water play dell.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Map of existing Hermann Park layout: Hermann Park Conservancy

10/28/16 3:30pm

Lyric Center garage site, 440 Louisiana St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Lyric Center garage site, 440 Louisiana St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

lyric-centre-cellist-sculptureA few readers note that work is underway on the site of the new parking garage planned next to music-themed office highrise Lyric Centre at the corner of Louisiana and Preston streets (catty-corner from Market Square Tower’s newly-filled sky-high resident display tank). The top photo above shows the crews digging around on the former surface parking lot as of yesterday afternoon; the city issued a permit for work on the building-to-be’s exterior shell earlier this month.  A glass-skinned design for the structure can be seen in the rendering above, which peers at the site from the north along Smith St., looking past the skybridge between the Wortham Theater and the Houston Ballet’s Center for Dance. The drawing shows folks making use of the ground floor of the structure, which is intended to house retail (in contrast to the garage going up a few blocks north at Milam and Franklin streets, which is intended to look like it could house retail).

The floorplan included with the listing for that 41,000 sq. ft. of space shows a ramp for the garage hitting Smith St.:

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Sowing Downtown Parking Space
10/28/16 12:45pm

Rendering of Shake Shack Houston, 5015 Westheimer Rd., Uptown, Houston, 77056

The first Houston Shake Shack will be opening on November 4th near the mall’s new parking lot jewel box pad site, a rep for the New York burger chain announced this morning. On the menu, on top of the usual fare: a handful of concretes made with donuts from Morningstar on N. Main, Houston roaster Greenway Coffee‘s coffee, and baked goods from Fluff Bake Bar on the western edge of Midtown. On the exterior: a living moss wall created by Austin-based Articulture Designs, as seen in the rendering released back in January. The firm designed a plant-covered wall for the Shake Shack that opened in Austin last year as well — here’s a shot of how that one turned out, with an accompanying succulent planter out front:

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Side of Greens
10/28/16 12:00pm

Interior, 11926 Broken Bough Dr., Bunker Hill Village, Houston

Interior, 11926 Broken Bough Dr., Bunker Hill Village, Houston

Today’s sponsor is Jamestown Estate Homes, offering the new home at 11926 Broken Bough Dr. in the Memorial Shadows neighborhood of Bunker Hill Village. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!

The first floor of this 2-story, 5-bedroom home features 2 distinct indoor living areas. The great room pictured at top, which connects to the breakfast area and kitchen; and a separate flex space that could serve as a more formal living room, gym, or music room. It opens to the outdoor living area pictured above.

The home’s front entry, through a pair of custom iron doors, is visible in the background of the top photo. The formal dining room is to your right as you enter, across from a study with a view of the tall oak on the front lawn. Tucked above the entry is a loft balcony connected to the fifth bedroom upstairs.

A secret pathway leads from the study to one of the walk-in closets in the downstairs master bedroom suite. Upstairs are 3 bedrooms (each with its own bath), plus a game room with bar that opens to the media room — through custom barn-style doors fashioned from reclaimed wood by ReCoop Designs.

The home was designed by Todd Rice and recently completed by Jamestown Estate Homes, a family business founded by Greg Hawes in 2010. All told, the home measures 6,657 sq. ft., with both a 1-car and 2-car garage attached. The 20,155-sq.-ft. lot — which has room for a pool — is walking distance from Bunker Hill Elementary and sits a little more than a mile south of Memorial City Mall and the Katy Fwy.

To learn more about the home or its energy features — or to make a private appointment to see it — contact Victoria Hawes at (832) 296-1663 or victoria.hawes@jamestownestatehomes.com. Or check out the listing for more photographs of the property. A PDF showing complete floor plans is available here. The home is also open Sundays from 2 to 4 pm.

Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day program is a great way to showcase fine properties to a discerning audience. Here’s how to get in on it.

Sponsor of the Day
10/28/16 10:15am

WHITE OAK MUSIC HALL TRUCE: REBUILD TEMPORARY STAGE TEMPORARILY, GO PERMANENT IN FEBRUARY Rendering of White Oak Music Hall, 2915 N. Main, Houston, 77009The city and the developers of White Oak Music Hall have hammered out an agreement over the outdoor stage situation, reports Erin Mulvaney: the temporary stage can come back up for the shows that have already been booked, and stay up through February. Then the freshly-permitted permanent stage will start going up — and a bunch of other conditions will have to be met, as detailed in a letter from the city to W2 partner Will Garwood on Wednesday. On the list: the construction of “38 bathrooms and 9 lavatories” (also permanent), and the use of a sound monitor at all outdoor events, which (other than next Wednesday’s planned outdoor Pet Shop Boys concert) will have to be on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Rendering of original outdoor stage plans: White Oak Music Hall

10/28/16 8:30am

san-jacinto

Photo of San Jacinto monument: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
10/27/16 3:30pm

214 Voss Rd., Hunters Creek, TX 77024

The 5 master suites in this 6-bedroom home in Hunters Creek Village are tucked out of sight of the pool-surveying viewpoint above, on the second of 4 floors (plus or minus some splitting of levels). The listing for the 1980 home popped up yesterday sporting a $4.496-million asking price and no exterior photographs of the13,963-sq.-ft. structure, which sits on 1.3 acres of well-treed lot backed up against the Houston Racquet Club’s land to the east.

The downstairs wet bar is within easy striking range of the hot tub partitioned away from the main pool:

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High But Not Dry
10/27/16 1:45pm

Crossing at Gillette St. and Allen Pkwy., Fourth Ward, Houston, 77019

Courtesy of a stripe-skeptical reader, here’s a partial walkthrough tour of the new parking scheme along Allen Pkwy. west of Downtown — these days looking a lot more like the flyover videos released of the planned changes last year. Those changes, including a lower speed limit for the rest of the roadway and and some strategic tree deployment, are intended to make the pseudo-highway into a “more urban environment” and to slow traffic down to next-to-a-park speeds. Also included in the deal: a series of crosswalks, like the over-then-over-again setup now striped into place at Gillette St. (seen above posing with the Federal Reserve Bank building, with the former city garbage incinerator site out of the frame to the left).

The new setup divvies up much of the turf formerly occupied by Allen Pkwy.’s westbound traffic lane into angled spaces — some almost long enough to “put 2 normal sized cars in each spot,” the reader claims:

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Stripe Scrutiny
10/27/16 12:00pm

aia-houston-home-tour-graphic

Our sponsor again today is the 2016 Annual Home Tour from the Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which takes place this weekend. Thanks for sponsoring Swamplot!

Each year, the AIA Houston Home Tour attracts about 3,000 people eager to view the finest in new (5 years old or younger) residences by local architects. This year’s tour takes place from noon to 6 pm this Saturday and Sunday, October 29th and 30th, and features 9 area homes selected by an AIA jury. The 2-day, self-guided tour is open to the public.

The homes on this year’s tour are:

  • Pavilion Haus, 1914 Ebony Ln., by studioMET
  • Marmo-Vaikhman House, 705 Merrill St., by McIntyre+Robinowitz Architects
  • West Eleventh Place Residence, 5 W. 11th Pl., by Dillon Kyle Architects
  • The Wroxton, 2332 Wroxton Rd., by MaRS (Mayfield and Ragni Studio)
  • Hammer Residence, 2304 Goldsmith St., by m + a architecture studio
  • Merrick House, 3614 Merrick St., by studioMET
  • Oberlin, 4153 Oberlin St., by Natalye Appel + Associates Architects
  • Winslow House | Perched, 517 Winslow Ln., by JT ARC STUDIO
  • Soothing Santa Barbara, 4810 Braesvalley Dr., by MASA Studio Architects

Tickets for the tour are $25 each — or $20 for bike riders — and can be purchased in advance online or at the AIA Houston office (Downtown, at 315 Capitol St. Suite 120). They let you into all 9 houses, on both days of the tour. You can also purchase tickets at any of the participating houses during tour hours. Single-house tickets are also available, for $10 each, but only during tour hours at the homes themselves.

For more information, check out the tour website, where you’ll also find more photos of each of the featured homes. This press release provides a lot more detail about each property. There’s a map to the homes here. To purchase tickets online, click here.

Need to get the word out about important local events? Find out more about becoming a Swamplot Sponsor of the Day!

Sponsor of the Day