Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
You always lose by holding back, so let these go at full force.
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The forecast for Monday is only scattered showers, but Swamplot will be skipping town for the holiday weekend just in case. See you back here bright and early on Tuesday! Photo of rain traffic on US 59 at Shepherd Dr.: Bill Barrfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
And We’re Off
- 5635 Willers Way [HAR]
The land at the northeast corner of Shepherd Dr. and Bissonnet St. (not far down the street from closing-this-weekend Kay’s Lounge) has been sold to an entity using the La Porte corporate address of traditionally freeway-hugging Gringo’s Mexican Kitchen. The mid-1980s convenience store (formerly a Sunrise Grocery) and its 0.35 acre property were put on the market at the start of the summer; the sale closed a little over 2 weeks ago. Word through the NextDoor grapevine is that the building won’t be a Gringo’s, but might be replaced with a 3-story retail-office-space combo once the convenience store’s lease runs out around Halloween.
2132 Bissonnet
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW HOUSTON LEARNED IT’S NOT FLOOR COUNT, IT’S HOW YOU USE IT 
“Competing for the tallest building is the civilizational equivalent of comparing certain body part sizes. Houston may have been ‘robbed‘ of it back when it was a headstrong teenager, but with maturity comes the realization that it’s really not necessary to spend ridiculous amounts of money just to have the tallest, shiniest building on the block.” [meh, commenting on ExxonMobil Backs Off Property Tax Dispute; Fiesta Wayside’s New Look]
METRO is currently seeking some public input on replacing the Reliant Park light-rail stop’s outdated moniker. The agency’s preface to the poll notes that the naming rights to the station itself were never a part of Reliant’s $300-million park-branding deal back in 2002, and  says any new name “needs to be reflective of the area, but should not include any reference to a corporate entity which might require another change in years to come.”
Setting aside any potential consideration of that plan from a reader to go ahead and get nearly 30 potential future name changes over with at once, the nominated names currently in the running are (drumroll):
Saving NRG
An excavator was spotted bowing its head yesterday afternoon in the freshly cleared spot at 12740 Memorial Dr., until recently populated by the likes of Baskin Robbins,  Anne’s Salon, and A-1 Cleaners. Per an associated leasing flier for the property, the newly blanked space looks to be slated for drive-thru bank-dom, with a place next door for a retail friend.  The land sits immediately next to a Bank of Texas branch (visible over the fence on the left), itself across W. Bough Ln. from a freestanding Chase. Heading south down Memorial Dr., a Prosperity Bank keeps watch over the next Memorial Bend bend with help from the strip-center BBVA Compass branch across the street.
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Memorial Dr. Baskin Robbins Strip’s Planned Departure Could Make Bank, Retail, Parking Spaces
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Making Bank
- Houston Will Lead Nation in Retail Space Construction This Year With More Than 3.2M SF Completed [Realty News Report]
- ExxonMobil Moves To Dismiss Its Own Property Tax Lawsuit with Appraisal District [Houston Chronicle]
- 98.3% of Houston Homes Have Positive Equity in 2016, Finds Fannie Mae, CoreLogic Report [HBJ]
- Fiesta Mart Reopens Redesigned Store at 800 S. Wayside Drive [HBJ]
- Pappasito’s Opening Woodlands Cantina Technically in Shenandoah on Sept. 13 [Houston Chronicle]
- Inside Vitol’s New Kirby Grove Office Space Designed To Look Like a Museum [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- How Houston Was Robbed of Its Tallest Skyscraper [Houston Chronicle]
- Hurricane Evacuation Main Topic at First-Ever Galveston County Transportation Summit [Houston Public Media]
- Harris County Public Health Director Calls On EPA To Remove Toxic Waste from San Jacinto River [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of EaDo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Today’s finishes are tomorrow’s rubble.
- 15520 FM 912 [HAR]
Is there a connection between where you live and your likelihood of getting arrested for weed in Houston? A map from January Advisor’s (and Sketch City‘s) Jeff Reichman adds a few data points to that conversation this afternoon, though he doesn’t appear to push any specific conclusions in his how, what, and why writeup. Reichman gathered data on the folks that Harris County’s public jail records system says were arrested over the first half of this year for minor marijuana possession offenses (instead of just being given a citation for the same offense). The red dots on the interactive map show the arrestees’ home addresses (scootched around a bit to somewhere within the dot’s 300-meter radius, for the sake of anonymity).
The other data layer (in shades of blue) shows census blocks with median income over $80,000 (marking roughly the start of what the US census measures as the top quarter of household earnings in the US, Reichman notes). The blue areas, which get darker as income gets higher, appear relatively arrest-free, though a 2012 study from the NIH suggest that more frequent weed use may be linked to higher socioeconomic status.
- Mapping Low Level Marijuana Arrests [January Advisors]
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Friendly Local Bot Now Continuously Tweeting About Houston’s Elevated Air Toxin Levels;Â Where the Tickets are Thickest and Other Parking Violation Fun;Â Where Houston’s Trump and Sanders Supporters Are Clustered
Map: Jeff Reichman
Mapping the Green
... "Pin It")
The skirt of first-story glass now appears to be in place along the northern side of Rice University’s in-progress Moody Center for the Arts, per the shot above from Allyn West this week. The second photo, taken a few weeks before as part of a sunset set, shows the facade looking a little bit blue — the magnesium oxide coating covering the building’s exterior bricks picks up different colors in different light conditions, as Molly Glentzer notes, contrasting with the pinkish St. Joe bricks used throughout most of the rest of the campus (as demonstrated by the nearby Shepherd School, shown here peeking through the sculptural hole and pipeburst on the end of its new artsy neighbor).
The $30-million center should be done in February, according to last month’s announcements, and the building is starting to look a lot like the renderings released by Michael Maltzan Architecture:Â
Changing Campus Colors
CROSSWALKS GIVE RED LIGHT WALKERS THE FINGER IN MIDTOWN, EASTWOOD 
The DON’T WALK hand at the corner of Holman and San Jacinto streets has been straightened out after a post-paint spree of flipping the bird to pedestrians, Steve Romo reports this week. The offending intersection is home to a number of HCC buildings and the parking lot behind recently departed Adkins Architectural Antiques, as well as a retail strip;  Romo notes that his news team tracked down at least one other similarly altered sign over at the intersection of S. Lockwood Dr. and Leland St., near the Learn & Grow Academy daycare and Houston Fire Station 18.  The city tells Romo it’s not the first time this kind of paint job has shown up around town (nor is it a uniquely Houston occurrence), and that the graffiti is a quick fix but diverts city resources, adding that folks should let 311 know if any more intersection signals are rude to them. [ABC13] Photo of signal at Holman and San Jacinto streets: Kate Erin C.
Swamplot’s sponsor today is the 4-5-bedroom, 4-bath single-family home at 1704 Kipling St. in Winlow Place. Thank you for supporting this site!
The duplex that originally stood on the northwest corner of Kipling and Dunlavy was built in 1930, but it had been vacant for 20 years before Houston architect Donna Kacmar renovated and converted it, in 2007, to this single residence. Kacmar recycled some of the materials from the house for its own rejuvenation: Termite-ridden oak planks on the first floor were replaced by shiplap — removed from the interior walls, milled, and turned into wide-plank flooring. New cabinet pieces were fabricated from the home’s longleaf pine door jambs. Interior doors are refinished originals, but all windows and exterior doors were replaced, soapstone countertops inserted, and a new garage constructed.
The renovation efforts resulted in a Good Brick Award from the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance (now known as Preservation Houston) in 2008. But the home has more to offer than its rehab pedigree: There’s also the central Montrose location. Coffee, croissants, and company are just a short walk away. The 3,552-sq.-ft. home is just a couple blocks south of the storied corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy.
1704 Kipling St. is listed for sale by New Leaf Real Estate, which offers unique savings programs for both sellers and buyers. You can see more photos of the renovated home — including the back porch and brick exterior — and get more info about it on the property website.
Great properties deserve their moment in the spotlight. Talk to us if you’d like to learn more about Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day program.
Sponsor of the Day
Word comes from Westheimer Rd. and Stoney Brook Dr. that the corner outpost of Alvarez United Transmission has now fallen beneath the canine-themed banner of Texas Direct Auto’s expansion. The shop is slated to be repurposed as a Sell Us Your Car! center, adding to the collection of Direct Auto facilites now guarding nearly all major highway ingresses to the city along with the Mars-themed Downtown locale. A rep for the company says the shop should be converted and ready to open later this fall; other United locations will retain their current allegiance and continue to operate.
County records pin the building at 7730 Westheimer to 1965, though signage at the site claims the business itself has been in operation since 1960:
Transmission Transition
