Headlines
01/15/16 8:30am

Houston’s Pothole Progress; Reagan HS Name Staying for Now

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houston-skyline

Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
East Downtown
01/14/16 5:00pm

Start and Stop on Schlumberger’s Art Deco Former Headquarters in East Downtown

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Former Schlumberger Building, 2720 Leeland st., East Downtown, Houston, 77002

2720-leeland-st-3

Take a gander at the 0ld Schlumberger building at the corner of Leeland St. and Delano. New photos of the 25,000-sq.-ft. building show a structure now slightly less windowless than back in 2013, when mobile app developer ChaiOne announced an intended Spring 2014 move to the top floor.  A reader in the area reports that work such as drywall and A/C installation appeared to be happening this past summer, but seemingly stopped again in July, with little activity visible on the property since.

Plans for ChaiOne’s renovation, designed by Austin firm Bercy Chen Studio, incorporated ground-floor retail beneath 2 floors of offices:

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Will They, Won’t They?
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Avondale
01/14/16 12:45pm

Eye Massages and Champagne Now on Offer with Your Vision Test in an Avondale Strip Center

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Focus Refined Eye Care, 515 Westheimer Rd., Avondale, Houston, 77006

Focus Refined Eye Care announced this week that the doors are open at 515 Westheimer Rd., at the far eastern end of the strip center also containing Osaka Japanese, BB’s Donuts, Nu Cuts Hair Salon, and e-cigarette shops The Vapor Lair. The storefront, next to the former home of lapsed-vegan Mexican restaurant Radical Eats, previously housed a Chartway Federal Credit Union branch.

A press release says the new shop will “eliminate the sterility of typical doctor’s visits”— the self-described ‘optometry spa’ will offer patrons alcohol in cocktail form as well as of the lens-cleaning variety, and eye-rubs will be thrown in for good measure at the start of each appointment. The spot will offer high-end tailored glasses (the combined product of new German diagnostic equipment and a fashion consultant).

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Wide Open on Westheimer
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01/14/16 12:00pm

Swamplot Sponsor: This Renovated Bungalow in Sunset Heights

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1208 Aurora St., Sunset Heights, Houston

1208 Aurora St., Sunset Heights, Houston

Swamplot today is pleased to be sponsored again by the renovated 1920 bungalow for sale at 1208 Aurora St. in Sunset Heights. We appreciate the support, ’low!

The recent extensive redo of this 3-bedroom, 2-bath home is a project of Griffin Properties, and was designed by Ellie Busker. The renovation added 800 sq. ft. of living space and a 2-car garage, as well as new electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling systems, windows, roof, appliances, fixtures, fencing, and a bunch of other stuff. Most of the shiplap is still there, though.

Downtown is just 10 minutes away; Heights shopping, restaurants, and nightlife about a mile. You can view many more photos of the property and get more info about it on the listing website; find out more about Griffin Properties and its record of area redos on the company website.

Two open houses are scheduled at 1208 Aurora this weekend: On Saturday, January 16th, and on Sunday, January 17th. Both will run from 2 to 4 pm.

Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day program is a terrific way to get a property the attention it deserves. Got something you’d like to highlight? Let’s talk.

Sponsor of the Day
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Bars and Clubs
01/14/16 10:15am

Not-on-Kirby Kirby Ice House Gets the Blues between Richmond Ave and W. Alabama

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Construction of Kirby Ice House at 3333 Eastside St., Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

Down the street from Lamar High School, the would-have-been-Little-Woodrow’s now going instead by Kirby Ice House (“A Neighborhood Pearl”) is setting up shop at 3333 Eastside St., between the parking lot used for the weekly Urban Harvest Farmer’s Market and the Bammel Park townhomes. A post to the establishment’s Facebook page earlier this week shows that the under-construction building has just finished turning an icy blue, and the accompanying caption says that work is moving into “the detail phase”.

The bar’s across-the-street neighbors include nonprofit women’s career services center Dress for Success and the main building of the Islamic Society of Greater Houston — both groups expressed concern about the bar’s location in 2014 after the president of the Bammel Park Homeowner’s Association sounded a neighborhood-wide email alarm. Dress for Success filed a protest of the ice house’s TABC license that July; the license was issued in December of that same year.

A rendering of the building’s exterior shows the ice house standing next to a townhouse-free field:

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Ice on Upper Kirby
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Headlines
01/14/16 8:30am

Houston Home Sales Continue To Tumble; One More Link in the Grand Parkway

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houston-aquarium

Photo of the Downtown Aquarium: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
Downtown
01/13/16 4:58pm

A Quick Houston Ghost Story, Before 509 Louisiana St. Gives Up the Ghost

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509 Louisiana St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

517 Louisiana St. is down — the former haunt of the Longhorn Cafe (509 Louisiana, to the right of the hole in the above photo) was still standing as of 2 PM this afternoon, along with the pecan tree in its once-secret  courtyard. Both have permits lined up to follow 517 into the Great Beyond, to make room for surface parking on the block.

The hidden pecan tree is purported to harbor a ghost, rooted deep in some Republic of Texas history:

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Louisiana St. Demolitions
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Bayous and Waterways
01/13/16 4:00pm

The 9 Zoomiest Images in West 8’s Master Plan for the Houston Botanic Garden on Sims Bayou

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Renderings of Houston Botanic Garden at Glenbrook Park Golf Course, Glenbrook Valley, Houston, 77017

Bright and shiny renderings from the recently-released master plan for the Houston Botanic Garden show that design firm West 8 is aware of the challenges involved in straddling a world-class park across Sims Bayou, on the site of Glenbrook Park Golf Course just across I-45 north of Hobby Airport.  The Dutch firm, known internationally for unusual bridges and unconventional landscape design, has planned for many of the Garden’s displays to flood at will; the shores of Sims Bayou on the Garden’s property will also be resculpted. And to combat Houston’s just-shy-of-year-round heat, shade trees would be preserved or planted throughout the park, including the towering cypresses depicted in the bayou-side wetland gardens shown above (parts of which will be explorable by kayak).

Meanwhile, the more formal garden spaces planned for the park are shown with their own built-in shade (complete with custom ceiling fans): Colonnade structures (like the ones picture below) will ring each of the major collection gardens, which are designed to be “entered, enjoyed, and contemplated from the comfort of the shaded perimeter”:

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Glenbrook Valley Garden
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Comments
01/13/16 1:15pm

Comment of the Day: Archiving Houston’s Past for Future Affectation

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: ARCHIVING HOUSTON’S PAST FOR FUTURE AFFECTATION Paradise Motel, 8405 Hempstead Rd., Hempstead Industrial District, Houston, 77008“I am going to put together a coffee table book called ‘When Houston Sucked’ that will document Houston’s former lack of glory. There will be photos of a half-empty Town and Country Mall . . . a picture of the 10k running route map in the old downtown YMCA that warned women not to run on the bayou trail under Memorial Drive at night . . . a map showing the work of serial killers and arsonists in the Heights . . . and lots of pictures of strip malls and garden-style apartment complexes. All the yuppies, hipsters, and millenials need to understand that Houston used to really suck, so they can feel guilty about the ugliness we lose every day . . .” [Old School, commenting on Paradise Lost on Hempstead Rd.]

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Featured Posts
01/13/16 12:30pm

Galleria Shake Shack To Be Served with a Side of Leafy Greens

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

Shake Shack’s planned Galleria location made an appearance at the company’s quarterly investor presentation yesterday — the new rendering scraps the outdoor patio present in the previously released depiction, and an exterior wall appears to be covered in greenery. The Shack currently anticipates a late-2016 opening, depending on progress of the surrounding Galleria redo.

Rendering of Shake Shack planned for 5015 Westheimer: Simon Property Group

 

5015 Westheimer Rd.
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Featured Posts
01/13/16 10:00am

West 8’s Botanical Mile To Fly High Over Sims Bayou, Funnel Visitors into Garden Parking Lots

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Renderings of Houston Botanic Garden at Glenbrook Park Golf Course, Glenbrook Park, Houston, 77017

Now available: Dutch landscaping and design firm West 8’s master plan for the Houston Botanic Garden, complete with preliminary renderings of the future-former Glenbrook Park Golf Course (south of Park Place Blvd between I-45 and Galveston Rd.). The drawings include details of the so-called Botanical Mile walk-and-drive-way (shown above posing in Downward Dog over Sims Bayou): an arboreal bridge along the single-file parade of exotic trees is intended by the designers to serve as a new symbol for the city of Houston, better known currently for its general aversion to being outdoors.

According to the master plan document, the Botanical Mile will stretch along the western side of the garden and serve as the main entrance: visitors will enter the park from Park Place Blvd. and drive the length of the property to the parking lots, in the process crossing onto and back off of the large island created by a meandering limb of Sims Bayou:

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Rooting Over Glenbrook Valley
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