Headlines
10/19/18 8:30am

How to Fit Houston’s Growing Population; An Original Allen Brothers Map Has a New Home; ‘America’s Most Expensive Foreclosure’ Is on River Oaks Blvd.

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Photo of the 59 bridge: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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10/18/18 3:15pm

State of Qatar Chips In $2.5M for Riverside General Hospital Redo

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STATE OF QATAR CHIPS IN $2.5M FOR RIVERSIDE GENERAL HOSPITAL REDO Standing alongside ambassador Meshal bin Hamad Al-Thani yesterday in the archway of the hospital’s 92-year-old nurses’ quarters, Ed Emmett thanked Qatar for its donation to help get the hospital back open. It’s the first allocation the country has made from the $30M Qatar Harvey Fund it created last September. (Its diplomatic rival the United Arab Emerites volunteered $10M the same day, according to Al Jazeera) What is it that the money will actually pay for at the Third Ward property the county bought earlier this year? TBD, Emmett tells News 88.7’s Davis Land, although he notes that the county does plan “to have Riverside provide primary and mental health care as part of the Harris Health System,” the network of publicly-owned county hospitals that provide care to under- and uninsured patients. [Houston Public Media] Photo: Ed Emmett

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10/18/18 12:00pm

Swamplot Sponsor: Preservation Houston’s 2018 Good Brick Tour

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Preservation Houston’s annual Good Brick Tour is less than 2 weeks away. And it’s Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day today. Thanks for supporting this site!

The large Craftsman-style home shown above has been a Montrose landmark since 1921, when local builder Ewart Lightfoot created a family home with many unique features — including a massive fireplace made of stones collected from the Houston Ship Channel and colorfully decorated ceiling beams. The property has never left the Lightfoot family; the house, its furnishings, and its fixtures have been painstakingly restored. (The distinctive pink on the exterior is the home’s original color.)

This home, at 3702 Audubon Pl., along with 4 other award-winning historic homes and buildings dating from 1892 to 1949, will be welcoming visitors in the 2018 edition of the Good Brick Tour. Guided tours to all the properties will take place from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, October 27, and Sunday, October 28.

Purchase advance tickets for the 2018 Good Brick Tour online for $25 per person through Thursday, October 25. After that, prices will go up: Tickets will be available for $30 per person at any tour location during the weekend. Tickets are valid both days of the tour and provide 1 admission to each location on the tour.

Preservation Houston has recognized all the properties on this tour with Good Brick Awards for excellence in historic preservation. The other locations on this year’s tour are:

  • Heights Textile Mill, 611 W. 22nd St., Houston Heights: This sprawling 1894 factory has been redeveloped; it now provides unique commercial space, studios, and offices.
  • 67 Tiel Way, River Oaks: This expansive 1949 home is one of the last two surviving MacKie & Kamrath midcentury designs on this curving street along Buffalo Bayou.
  • 2119 Lubbock St., Old Sixth Ward: This classic Victorian home built in 1892 by an immigrant German carpenter was rescued from collapse by a caring new owner.
  • 934 Louise St., Sunset Heights: This comfortable 1921 bungalow, renovated for a new owner, retains the charm of its Craftsman style design.

Show off what’s unique about Houston to Swamplot’s engaged audience. Become a Sponsor of the Day.

Sponsor of the Day
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Headlines
10/18/18 8:30am

Tracking Houston Home Appreciation; Houston’s Top ZIP Code for Millennials

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Photo of home in Riverside Terrace: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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10/17/18 4:00pm

How the River Oaks Baptist School Plans To Double Down on Space, Break on Through to the North Edge of Westheimer

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The 2 new buildings that the River Oaks Baptist School plans to start constructing side by side next month don’t have much in common with each other besides their location. The brick one — shown left to right at the video’s 9-second mark — mimics the look of the existing campus structures north of Westheimer and west of Willowick, one of which it abuts. Dubbed the school’s “Leadership Center,” it’s planned to house administrative staff along with some other adults. The taller, southern building on the other hand takes things in an entirely new direction with its multi-level, saw-tooth-edged terraces. Each one of its 4 floors will belong to a specific grade: fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth. Right now, they all share space  with pre-K through fourth grade students in the existing campus north.

By adding on 160,000-sq.-ft., ROBS will more or less double its existing footprint — reports the HBJ‘s Fauzeya Rahman — and push out to front Westheimer directly (where a new “guard entrance” will go), displacing the former Walgreens building that sits behind Pinkberry and Zoë’s Kitchen’s shared restaurant structure in the process. It’ll also make room for the school to start adding “10 students per grade level,” to what’s now an 853-kid count, Rahman writes, over an unspecified period of time. Follow along to the spot about 35 seconds in, when the camera glides into the first floor of the modern building offering a view of where its youngest tenants will congregate.

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Virtual Video Tour
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Featured Posts
10/17/18 1:30pm

On the Pearland Arby’s Menu This Weekend: Duck Sandwich Special

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ON THE PEARLAND ARBY’S MENU THIS WEEKEND: DUCK SANDWICH SPECIAL Saturday is Duck Sandwich debut day at the Pearland Arby’s on Shadow Creek Pkwy., one of just 16 locations across the U.S. chosen for the promo — a chain spokeswoman tells Nations Restaurant News reporter Bret Thorn — because of their proximity to “waterfowl migration flyways,” areas where duck-hunting is a popular pastime. “Based on past experience from similar Arby’s LTOs [Limited Time Offerings],” like the venison sandwich special of 2016 and elk offering the following year, Thorn expects supplies to sell out in “less than a day.” After arriving in-store from global, Indiana-headquartered duck supplier Maple Leaf Farms, the breasts will be seared and cooked in sous-vide (sealed in pouches and placed in hot water) before landing on a bun along with “fried onions and smoked cherry sauce.” [Nation’s Restaurant News; list of participating Arby’s] Video: Arby’s

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Demolitions
10/17/18 11:30am

Last KBR Warehouses Getting Out of East River’s Way with the Help of Teardown Crews

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A couple of drive-by shots from Clinton Dr. show the state of demolition at the former Kellogg, Brown and Root campus, part of the effort to transform it into the new shopping, eating, working, and living complex that developer Midway has dubbed East River. Since beginning Friday, the teardown work has targeted the pair of warehouse buildings at the west end of the site, where their truck-docking holes front Jensen Dr. The 2 structures are the sole remnants of a much larger warehouse complex that once sat within the bounds of the 136-acre bayou-side site. Most of those industrial buildings were demolished between 2011 and 2012, leaving a swath of open space in the middle of the property — between the complex of office buildings that borders Hirsch Rd. to the east and the warehouses that now look to be goners.

In between those 2 bookends, a new black tarp has been added to portions of the construction fence along Clinton Dr., reports a reader. That’s where a multi-block colony of townhomes is planned; they’re shown in yellow on the map Midway put out over the summer:

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Fifth Ward
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Headlines
10/17/18 8:30am

A WeWork for the Woodlands; Another In-N-Out for Houston

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Photo of Arne‘s: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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10/16/18 4:00pm

Cafe Adobe Has Called It Quits in the Marq’E Entertainment Center and Everywhere Else

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A former employee of the chain says that September 30 was the staff’s last day at the restaurant in the Marq’E Entertainment Center, where its double-decker patio — pictured above — faces off from the Edwards Cinema movie theater (and its vertical water feature faces off from the shopping center’s plaza fountain).

All other Cafe Adobe locations have closed down as well; most recently, the one in terminal B of Bush Airport and the one across Hwy. 6 from Sugar Land‘s Market at Town Center shopping center — which featured this dramatic main entrance:

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Adobe a Goner
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