March 12, 2010 – 11:02 am
So much vacant freewayside selling space, there for the taking! At least temporarily. Alas, no pieces were sold in last weekend’s guerrilla furniture sale — an all-day event staged on the abandoned concrete campus of Landmark Chevrolet at 9111 North Freeway near West Gulf Bank. But wacdesignstudio’s Scott Cartwright and Jenny Lynn Weitz-Amaré Cartwright came prepared for their Sunday digs:
Because the space was not rented, Scott and Jenny brought an envelope full of cash to pay off potential security guards (there were none), as well as food for any wandering homeless people. The crowd was a mix of architecture students, writers, and curious locals from the adjacent Hidden Valley ranch-style development located behind the dealership.
Well, you know those kinda folks are just showing up for the ambience and cheese anyway. Did you really think they’d be buying up the prototypes in your new furniture line? But hey — marketing is marketing! And look at some of the pix you’ve got to show for it:
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Read more about: 77037, Auto Dealerships, Furniture, Hidden Valley, Landscape, Vacant Buildings
What will we cut out this time? How about a few of these fine structures?
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Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
Determining the winner of this week’s game was tough! But the judges have awarded first prize to Sara — and a very close second place to KimmerTX. Congratulations to you both!
We also acknowledge the solid head-fake thrown by kimberlee ann, who knew exactly where this home was, wrote in to say so, then sent gullible readers a-wondering if it might be somewhere along . . . Navigation?
Nope!
So where might it be?
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Read more about: 77019, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Montrose, Neighborhood Guessing Game, Temple Terrace
March 11, 2010 – 12:39 pm
“What’s sad is that River Oaks is losing the land versus house battle . . . What made River Oaks so elegant, really, was the amount of land on each lot which was probably 1/3 house to 2/3 land in most cases. Now it’s more like 2/3 house to 1/3 land. Many are nothing more than enormous townhouses with front yards.” [Matt Mystery, commenting on Down and Out in River Oaks]
Read more about: 77019, Comments, Demolitions, Home Design, Landscape, River Oaks
March 11, 2010 – 11:01 am
Just around the corner from all those Colquitt galleries behind Kirby, the art traffic gets a little heavy:
Over the weekend, Dimitri and I were driving home on Ferndale as we passed by two guys walking across the street with a very familiar piece of art. I said “Wait a minute, back up- I know this work!” So Dimitri backed up for me to ask “Hey is that a “Floyd Newsum?” They happily confirmed yes- this was sure enough a Floyd Newsum piece of art. It was such a coincidence because I have been working on some promotional photos/collages of Floyd and there he is again right in front of me on my very own street.
Photo: Sarah Lipscomb
Read more about: 77098, Art, David Crockett, Ferndale, Streets
March 11, 2010 – 10:05 am
Must be tough out there for a little old 1940 cottage in a rough-and-tumble teardown town like West University Place. And so we have this elective-surgery survivor, which showed up on the MLS just yesterday. The listing mentions a 2002 Kitchen update, a roof dating from 2007, and new bathrooms in 2009. HCAD lists a renovation in 2001. Would never have guessed you had work done, really! You look fabulous!
Okay, we’ll show you a few pics of the inside. But really, you’ve already seen the best photo.
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Read more about: 77005, Home Additions, Homes for Sale, Real Estate Marketing, Remodeling, Renovations, West University
In this episode: More apartments depart. Plus the end of the Grand Room.
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Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
Suddenly, 2 of Metro’s 5 planned new light-rail lines are looking a lot less inevitable: “Parker said members of her transition team have ‘drilled down’ into Metro’s finances and she now feels comfortable only with the funding plans of three rail lines: the East End, North and Southeast. Construction on those lines is under way.
Parker’s goal is to make sure those three lines are built “very, very rapidly,” she said. The other two, the Uptown and University lines, ‘are lines that I want to see built, but until we can finalize all the numbers, and some of them are still moving, I’m not going to commit to whether that is possible.’” [Houston Chronicle]
Read more about: Financing, Light-Rail, Metro Rail, Proposed Developments, University Line, Uptown Line
If H-E-B can figure out a way to keep this sort of thing going even after the new store is built, that Fiesta won’t have a chance: “The Montrose Land Defense Coalition will hold a rally this weekend at Menil Park to raise awareness of H-E-B’s plans to build a new store on the site of the long-gone Wilshire Village apartment complex. The group will walk from the park to the property at the southwest corner of West Alabama and Dunlavy on Saturday around 1:30 p.m.
Last week, H-E-B confirmed that it’s under contract to buy the nearly eight-acre site across from a strip center anchored by a Fiesta.
Resident Maria-Elisa Heg recently formed the Montrose Land Defense Coalition to call attention to the property and attract investors who might be interested in buying it with the city of Houston for use as a public space.” [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
Read more about: 77098, Grocery Stores, Lancaster Place, Land for Sale, Neighborhood Disputes, Parks, Proposed Developments, Wilshire Village
“I have come to believe that what is nearby means nothing at all to a lot of people. The Heights just east of Shepherd was, just a few years ago, mostly shotgun shacks and run down rentals. That stopped nobody from building half million dollar plus homes. Now- that doesn’t mean this place isn’t overpriced - a comp is a comp. I’m just saying that there are apparently many people who love being the castle surrounded by the serfs.” [finness, commenting on Swamplot Price Adjuster: Brookesmith in the 200s]
Read more about: Comments, Home Prices, Houston Heights, Real Estate Marketing
March 10, 2010 – 11:43 am
Did that more-than-half-off sale on the Piney Point Village bayou-front estate of Doug and Melanie Johnson work any magic? The cozy 8-bedroom, 10 full- and 3 half-bath playhouse recently disappeared from the MLS, but a Swamplot reader suspects something’s up:
I don’t think it sold because I watch it and I never saw it go into sale pending. I think they gave up trying to sell.
The 21,640-sq.-ft. home at 11682 Arrowwood Circle debuted on the market as a $19 million divorce listing back in 2007. According to a Chronicle blog post last year written by Shelby Hodge, that price was set by now-bankrupt broadcast executive Doug Johnson (his company, Johnson Broadcasting, is the “debtor in possession” of local TV station KNWS). After a couple of uneventful years at the top of the listings, the home’s price was eventually cut to $9.5 million — and the commission doubled to 12 percent — after Melanie wrested the right to control the sale herself.
What does it matter that it’s out of the listings? Really, don’t you think a quirky little property like this would do better in a . . . uh, private offering?
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Read more about: 77063, Bankruptcies, Buffalo Bayou, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Piney-Point-Village
We just know you’ll be wanting to get in one last snoop-through of that 5,701-sq.-ft. 1928 mansion on Chevy Chase that received its demolition permit yesterday. And who is Swamplot to deny you?
Who’da thunk that — try as he might, River Oaks society architect Charles Oliver still couldn’t design something as attractive as the four-fifths-of-an-acre lot he placed it on?
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Read more about: 77019, Demolitions, Home Design, Houston Architects, Interiors, River Oaks
Now we’re getting down to business — by knocking these businesses down! Plus one little River Oaks Mansion:
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Read more about: Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
It’s time for yet another Neighborhood Guessing Game, in which Swamplotters compete for fabulous prizes — or, as is the case this sponsor-free week — for uh, fame and glory.
How can you win your moment in the sun? By going inside this home, poking around, then telling us all where it’s located. If more than one of you pinpoint the correct neighborhood, we’ll declare the player who provided the best explanation for the guess the winner.
This is, of course, a guessing game. If you’re not guessing — if you know this house already, or if you come across it searching online — please don’t blurt out the answer and ruin the game for everyone else. Instead, how about having a little fun with it? Send Swamplot an email with a link to the listing, then submit an incorrect guess — the kind that’s likely to throw other players off track. If you do this well, you’ll get special recognition when the winner is announced. And if nobody guesses the actual neighborhood, that winner could be you!
And now, the rest of the photos:
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Read more about: Interiors, Neighborhood Guessing Game
Comment of the Day: The River Oaks Middle Age Spread
“What’s sad is that River Oaks is losing the land versus house battle . . . What made River Oaks so elegant, really, was the amount of land on each lot which was probably 1/3 house to 2/3 land in most cases. Now it’s more like 2/3 house to 1/3 land. Many are nothing more than enormous townhouses with front yards.” [Matt Mystery, commenting on Down and Out in River Oaks]