01/26/16 12:30pm

Oakmoor Pkwy. at Acaciawood Way, South Main, Houston, 77051

A ‘dozer was sighted this past week roaming across the newly-cleared plains at the dead end of Acaciawood Dr. into Oakmoor Pkwy., just south of Airport Blvd. between Almeda Rd. and a disconnected stretch of Kirby Dr. (nearly 2 miles southeast of where the main section of Kirby halts, on Holmes Rd. next to the intended UT Houston campus). Workers clearing the land last week told a reader that new apartments were planned for the spot (shown above); the tract, however, is sliced up into single-family-home-sized bites in County Appraisal District records. The land sits south of the Oakmoor Apartments, which sprouted up around the end of 2006. The short neighborhood streets on the other side of Oakmoor were in place by 2008, though the homes now lining them didn’t begin too appear until 2012.

In the distance, the photo above also catches a view of the nearby Harbor Hospice Houston Inpatient Facility (to the left of center, behind a brushpile), and the Citadel on Kirby (to the right), which hosts weddings, galas, and corporate events. Across Kirby lies the Houston Sports Park — work on the first 7 fields at the Houston Dynamo’s professional training facility started at the end of 2009 and wrapped up by 2012. The Houston Parks Board is now fundraising to add an additional 11 fields at the complex, which is also open for public recreational use.

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Oakmoor Oaks No More
01/26/16 10:30am

St. Theresa The Little Flower Thrift Shop, 5334 Washington Ave, Rice Military, Houston, 77007

The business wilted several years ago, but the location of the church-run St. Theresa The Little Flower Thrift Shop at 5334 Washington Ave is getting a new tenant: a branch of Dallas’s Clutch Bar will be moving into the space. An entity associated with the thrift shop bought the property  back in 1991, and the store blossomed until the early ’10s, closing by mid-2013.

Clutch Bar’s website touts a Summer 2016 opening; as far as what will be served in the space, the site for the chain shows a large draft beer selection and mentions a weekly special on “adult milkshakes”.

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Little Flower Going Wild
01/26/16 8:30am

david-bowie-mural

Photo of David Bowie mural: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
01/25/16 5:00pm

Wright-Bembry Park, W. 23rd St., Shady Acres, Houston, 77008

This after-dark snapshot of a lone excavator hunched atop a pile of its own debris comes from Wright-Bembry Park last Friday — tear-up work at the Shady Acres greenspace, located between W. 23rd and W. 24th Sts. west of Durham Dr., began last Monday, according to a reader’s report. The work is part of a redo of the entire park, as shown in the plan below (oriented with west at the top of the frame):

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Shady Acres
01/25/16 3:45pm

Renovations at 2017 Preston St., East Downtown, Houston 77002

Greenway Coffee Co., the roasting operation behind Blacksmith’s coffee (in the former Westheimer home of Mary’s), appears to be involved in a coffee project intended for the ground floor of the 1917 Cheek-Neal Coffee Co. building. The former coffee plant at 2017 Preston St. (located across Congress Ave. from the Loaves and Fishes soup kitchen and SEARCH Homeless Services’s under-construction employment center) received little use or maintenance following the 1946 departure of coffee manufacturing operations; the building is currently being renovated after sitting vacant for years across 59 from Minute Maid Park.

2017 Preston’s new owners mentioned plans to put a coffee shop on the ground floor of the structure to the Houston Chronicle in September — and on Friday, Greenway’s David Buehrer posted a photo of the renovation’s interior progress to Instagram:

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Preston St. Coffee Buzz
01/25/16 12:30pm

Blue Mercury, 2506 University Blvd., Rice Village, Houston, 77005

The western corner space at University Blvd. and Kelvin St. in the Rice Village now has a coat of white paint over its brick facade, though the storefronts to either side have yet to follow suit. The space, last occupied by a Sprint store prior to a multi-year vacancy, appears to be setting up as the next link in the Blue Mercury cosmetics-spa chain, while street and utility work progresses at the corner.

The former Village Arcade (now being rebranded as, simply, the Rice Village) consists of the shopping centers on University on either side of Kelvin St.; the buildings were acquired from Weingarten in 2014 by Rice University, which already owned the land beneath the center and employs the same St. Joe brick in many of its campus buildings. Rice also employs development company Trademark to manage the Arcade property; the company released a few renderings of the first phase of the center’s intended makeover last fall, just before work began:

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University Redo
01/25/16 12:00pm

Juicy in the Sky with Vitamins Pineapples

Today’s Sponsor of the Day is Washington Ave juice bar Juicy in the Sky . . . with Vitamins. Thanks for supporting Swamplot, Juicy!

What’ll you find at Juicy in the Sky? Gourmet juice combos, smoothies, lemonades, and non-dairy shakes, as well as prepared vegetarian and vegan fare. Smoothies and juice combos are made with all natural, whole fruits; fresh fruit and veggies are pulverized before your eyes, then quick-chilled. 100% cacao, nut butters, bee pollen, veggie protein, maca root, chia, hemp hearts, flaxmeal, hemp, flax, and coconut oil are available as add-ins.

For Swamplot readers this week is pineapple week at Juicy in the Sky: Mention Swamplot and get a free upgrade to a tall 20 ouncer when you buy any juice made with the princely pineapple. That includes basic drinks like The Hammock (just tangerine, pineapple, and grapefruit juices) as well as more complex ones like the Vera Cruz (a blend of kale, spinach, parsley, mint, ginger, turmeric, lime, orange, and pineapple).

You’ll find Juicy in the Sky at the corner of Washington and Shepherd. The vitamin-friendly address is 4720 Washington Ave, Suite B-1.

Got a juicy special of your own to share with Swamplot readers? Our Sponsor of the Day program is a great way to share it. Contact us here for details.

 

Sponsor of the Day
01/25/16 10:15am

Former Johnny's Pizza House, 24437 Katy Fwy. Ste. 100, Katy, TX, 77494

East Coast Korean fried chicken chain Bonchon is planning a new location at 24437 Katy Fwy., between the Grand Parkway and Katy Mills Mall in the strip-center storefront previously occupied by Johnny’s Pizza House, which closed last year. The chain’s previous Dallas location, its first foray into Texas, opened to so much enthusiasm for its double-fried chicken that the location had to shut down for a week to regroup shortly after its December 2013 opening; half a year later, the location closed permanently. Bonchon’s second Texas trial will open next to Fix My Phone and Katy Peridontology and Oral Surgery.

Photo of former Johnny’s Pizza House location: Scott L. via Yelp

Fry, Fry Again
01/25/16 8:30am

Glenwood-Cemetery

Photo of Glenwood Cemetery: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
01/22/16 4:50pm

LARGEST OIL SPILL IN U.S. HISTORY WILL FUND GREENWAYS ON CLEAR CREEK Clear Creek Trash CleanupMoney from the Gulf Coast Restoration Trust Fund, set up with part of the $18.7 billion BP paid last summer to settle with the federal government over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, is making its way to Houston in the form of a $7.1 million grant supporting the Houston Parks Board’s Bayou Greenways 2020 project. Joe Martin of the HBJ reports that the money will be used to purchase and preserve parkland along the Clear Creek Greenway, which runs along Clear Creek from Missouri City to Clear Lake via Pearland, Friendswood, and League City. The 2020 plan calls for the cleanup and connection of greenspace along all of Houston’s major bayous. The 2012 RESTORE Act channels funds from the BP settlement into ecological restoration, economic development, and promotion of tourism in Texas and the other Gulf Coast states impacted by the spill, as well as scientific research on the Gulf of Mexico. [HBJ] Photo of Clear Creek annual trash cleanup: Clear Creek Environmental Foundation

01/22/16 3:30pm

First Church of Christ the Scientist, 1720 Main St., Downtown, Houston, TX 77002

Take in this nice long view of the gleaming spire atop the part-Modernist-part-Brutalist-part-Islamic-part-1960s-science-fiction sanctuary of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, which was listed on HAR and now seems to be circling in on a finalized deal.  The church received a large number of offers on the property despite a short bid period, and the Houston AIA chapter’s hopes to buy the building as its new headquarters were dashed over the weekend.

Once the church changes hands, members of the congregation will move to any of the other CS branches in the Greater Houston area (which number at least 7). While the sale wraps up, a service is still being held on the first Sunday of each month in the turquoise glow of the inner sanctum:

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Selling a Space-Age Sanctuary