Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
The sixth building of the old Medical Center Charter School is coming down, plus a few further fateful falls.
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- 47 Hallbrook Way [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A TALL TALE OF A THIRD WARD 6-PACK 
“I’m one of those townhouse dwellers in the Third Ward, and one of my six-pack neighbors got around the problem of obstructed views in a literal sense: She built an observation deck on top of her house that’s only accessible by a ladder. Good for views . . . bad for late-night, outdoor drinking.” [Evan, commenting on Comment of the Day: Jockeying for Position in Houston’S Vertical Future] Illustration: Lulu
The metal arm of a future traffic signal is now reaching out of the ground across a few westbound lanes of Allen Pkwy. at the intersection with Dunlavy St. The new crosswalk will protect foot traffic on the way to bayou-side party-venue The Dunlavy and to the Adath Yeshurun Cemetery next door.
The stoplight fits into the larger plans to revamp Allen Pkwy., in part intending to dial down the road’s speeds from not-quite-freeway to next-to-a-park levels. The redo also aims to make it simpler for both cars and people trying to make their way to all the new park infrastructure and improvements along Buffalo Bayou.
A drawing from early last year shows the plan view of the finished intersection at Dunlavy:
Crossing Over
TEXAS A&M WEIGHS HOUSTON EXPANSION AS UT COLLECTS LAND FOR ITS PLANNED CAMPUS 
Following the University of Texas’s recent start on buying up that land in southwest Houston for a proposed campus of yet-ambiguous-purpose, Texas A&M is now sizing up the city as well, writes Benjamin Wermund of the Houston Chronicle. A&M president Michael Young suggested that those watching the university’s plans for the Houston area “stay tuned” as the school weighs strategy. UT’s November announcement that it would buy around 300 acres at W. Belfort Ave. and Buffalo Spdwy. triggered responses from University of Houston supporters including Texas senator John Whitemire. Whitmire’s December letter to UT chancellor Bill McRaven cited fears that a new UT Houston campus would pull resources and top-tier faculty away from U of H, in part due to the structure of the state’s Permanent University Fund allocations (which go only to UT and A&M campuses). Young, however, suggested that backlash over UT’s ongoing purchases south of Reliant was premature (as, perhaps, was UT’s broadcasting of its plans): “I guess I’m a little confused about the spat at the moment, because I don’t know that UT has really said what they’re going to do,” Young told the Chronicle. “So far it’s a land deal, and I must say an amusing one, because I didn’t know you announced you were going to buy property before you actually bought it.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Conceptual rendering of UT Houston campus: Houston Public Media
- Northwest Suburbs Brace for Growth with Opening of Latest Grand Parkway Section [Houston Chronicle]
- Enjoy a Free Ride on the Grand Parkway from U.S. 290 to I-45 Until Feb. 15 [Houston Chronicle]
- Multi-Million-Dollar NRG Stadium Will Have a Tough Time Winning a Third Super Bowl Against New Crop of Billion-Dollar Stadiums [Houston Chronicle]
- A Growing Katy ISD Breaks Ground on New Football Stadium [Your Houston News]
- A Quick Update on Salt N Pepper Group’s Operations, for ‘Industry Insiders and Swamplot Obsessives’ [Culturemap]
- The Apartment and Condo Guide to Houston [Houstonia]
- How Houston Became the Country’s Most Welcoming City for Refugees [Houstonia]
- 10-Acre Buffalo Bayou Nature Park Opening Near Port of Houston This Wednesday [HBJ]
- Remembering Jim Goode, Founder of Goode Company Restaurants [Houston Chronicle]
- What Houston Can Do to Make Public Bike-Sharing Feel Safer [The Urban Edge]
Photo of Amegy Bank’s new headquarters: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
These will be all over before you know it.
- 13619 Alchester Ln. [HAR]
Update (2/9): The entire beacon fixture has been replaced. See this story for details.
The rotating spotlight on top of the 64-story Williams Tower in the Galleria area has been back on for a few weeks, following an autumnal hiatus. According to a representative of the tower’s property management office, the beam stayed dark during difficulties finding the correct kind of bulb for the fixture. A reader sent a report this week from a bedroom window overlooking the Galleria area:
Twinkle, Twinkle, Giant Bulb
COMMENT OF THE DAY: KEEP CALM WHILE WAITING FOR FINAL GRADES ON MULTIFAMILY HOUSING 
“Yup. I saw another apartment crisis coming in Houston, and true to form, it’s here. . . . If you managed to keep your job, you’ll find that you can now afford a better apartment for the same rent due to concessions. But it could be a terrible, awful thing for older Class D apartments and the neighborhoods around them. Tenants in Class B apartments will find that they can now afford a Class A apartment, and so on down the line. The Class D apartments that lost their good tenants to Class C apartments will have nowhere to turn. Crime on the property will skyrocket as they give up on what little tenant screening they had. Maintenance will be deferred even more as they try to control the financial bleeding. Worst case scenario, the two problems will feed each other until the complexes are totally derelict and need to be condemned. Granted, this is just a worst case scenario. The damage could be limited to only a handful of complexes. Fingers are crossed.” [ZAW, commenting on Houston’s Multifamily Problem; River Oaks District Apartments Open for Business] Illustration: Lulu
BUILDING AROUND 1 CEMETERY AND POSSIBLY OVER ANOTHER IN CYPRESS’S ALDEN WOODS 
“I said to the county attorney’s representative, this looks like the spot, this looks like a cemetery,” University of Houston anthropology professor Ken Brown told ABC 13’s Ted Oberg, discussing a visit two years ago to the land currently being developed as the Alden Woods subdivision. Darling Homes is developing the 70-acre tract off Huffmeister Rd., just north of the intersection with Maxwell Rd. in Cypress, into a gated community of 3,000-to-5,000-sq.-ft. homes with interior courtyards. Brown investigated another old cemetery on the land for the Harris County Historical Commission; neighbors took him to a site on the other side of the project area rumored to be the burial ground of the slaves held by nearby landowners (some of whom are thought to be buried in the graveyard Brown was sent to check out). The landowner’s cemetery got legal protection from development with the help of the county attorney’s office and still sits in a forested area in the subdivision. The slave cemetery site was not further investigated archaeologically, despite the alleged presence of an employee of the attorney’s office on the site with Brown as he identified groups of east-west-oriented depressions which “[suggested] family type plots within a cemetery.” A statement from the Harris County Attorney’s Office to ABC13 says that the office will now work with the subdivision’s developer to investigate the site. [ABC13] Alden Woods site plan: Darling Homes
Please welcome today’s sponsor: This house at 410 Emerson St. in Montrose. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!
Patrick Banks with Coldwell Banker United has listed this colorful 1905 Victorian. Located within the Westmoreland Historic District in Montrose, the 2-story, 3,541 sq.-ft. home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms — and much more.
You’ll find original ornamental Victorian architectural elements throughout. Many of the original windows, with their unique glass patterns, are intact. Three 4-ft.-by-8-ft. sliding pocket doors connect the living room to the dining room and first-floor study. The study and first-floor sitting room both feature original corner fireplaces.
The second floor includes a kids’ play area with floor-to-ceiling shelving. A cozy reading nook connects to the child’s bedroom (pictured above); inside, a petite “Alice in Wonderland”-style door leads to a large closet. The large second-floor master suite features a vaulted ceiling, a private sitting area, and a private screened porch. The 9,375-sq.-ft. lot has covered parking for 2 vehicles, a tree house in a live oak and a large separate art studio in the back yard.
Check out more details about 410 Emerson St. on the property website; an extensive walk-through video is also available. Or see it all in person on Valentine’s Day: An open house is scheduled for Sunday, February 14th, from 2 to 5 pm.
Got a special someone you’re trying to reach among Swamplot’s more than 100K monthly readers? Becoming a Sponsor of the Day on this site is the perfect way to send a not-at-all secret message.
Sponsor of the Day
Cleanup and updates are planned over the next month for Fitzgerald’s, as owner Sara Fitzgerald returns to management following the previous operator’s recent eviction. Fitzgerald told the Houston Press that the venue at the corner of White Oak Dr. and Studemont St. will be redoing its back patio with an eye to making it food-truck-friendly, as well as painting and cleaning the space. Fitzgerald also says the venue will have to get its liquor license reinstated, and that the bar might have to “give something away” during shows they hold in the interim; the venue will likely not fully book until the cleanup and changes are complete.
The venue’s newest former management team left the space earlier this week, kicking up a cloud of photos purportedly documenting the satanic-graffiti-and-toilet-paper-heavy aftermath of a farewell gathering of the former tenants the night before their planned exit date. The termination of the tenants’ relationship related at least in part to a rent disagreement: Freshly-ex-GM Josh Merritt told the Houston Press that the rent rates being charged were unfair given the building’s condition, while Sara Fitzgerald maintained that the rent was merely unpaid. Merritt emphasized that the former tenants wouldn’t have done anything to the building that would jeopardize their $50,000 security deposit.
Party Like a Rock Star
- Grey House, the Apartment Complex with Direct Views of the River Oaks District, Now Open for Leasing [Houston Chronicle]
- Apartment, Townhome Complex Going Up Near Main Entrance to UH Will Naturally Be Geared Toward Students [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
- Houston Multifamily Destined for Negative Absorption in 2016, Predicts Colliers [Realty News Report]
- Equus Capital Partners Adds 2 Buildings at 5300 Memorial and 10497 Town & Country Way to Its Houston Office Portfolio [Houston Chronicle]
- What KPRC’s New Building Under Construction 15 Feet from Its Existing One Will Look Like [Houston Chronicle]
- Hillary Clinton Campaign Sets Up Shop in Former Labor Union Hall in South Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- Underground Food Hall Conservatory Debuting March 1 Downtown [Houston Chronicle]
- First Houston Cabela’s Opening March 17 at 2421 S. Gulf Freeway [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
- Cataloguing the Empty Lots of Lower Westheimer [Houston Streetwise]
Photo of the Southwest Freeway: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
We’re rounding up some fierce properties to flatten.
