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1407-Ave-C-01

1407-Ave-C-02

Down-home and modern, kicky and a bit sweet, a colorized slice of old Katy living — with a century’s-worth of “updates” — popped up on the market yesterday. Asking price: $300K. The 1910 expanded foursquare has prevailed within Katy’s N. Thomas Addition, a neighborhood located well west of the Grand Pkwy., north of U.S. 90, and past the Pin Oak Rd. exit of I-10. The owners revamped the AC, electrical, and plumbing systems, but it’s more fun to check out the checkered kitchen (above). Plenty more punch is served inside . . .

Punch Bowl

77493, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Katy

Brand New Design for a 33-Story San Felipe Residential Tower Now Ready To Be Admired Onscreen

18 Comments

Proposed 33-Story Residential Tower for San Felipe St., Houston

Proposed 33-Story Residential Tower for San Felipe St., Houston Are we once again entering the “mightaswell” stage in the Houston real estate lifecycle? You know — the season for architecture firms near and far who’ve given up most hope that that bold, sorta-hush-hush, but definitively conceived-in-boom design they’ve been slaving over for the last several months will ever actually get built to come to terms with the idea that putting the pretty renderings on display for fans to gawk over what might have been isn’t such a bad consolation prize?

If so, these drawings of a 33-story residential tower on San Felipe — just west of Voss Rd., commenters on the HAIF message boardÂ figure — appear to be right on queue. They now appear in some of the new marketing materials of Dallas architects Humphreys & Partners, with no mention of a client. But a few details do come with:

Going Somewhere?

77063, Highrises, Memorial, Proposed Developments

Daily Demolition Report

01/30/15 9:45am

Daily Demolition Report: Henry Clay

6 Comments

2923 Drexel Dr., Highland Village, Houston

Landing a big one in Sherwood Forest. And Dairyland is no more.

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Headlines

01/30/15 8:30am

Online Home Searches by Commute Time; Freedmen’s Town Bricks Dispute Goes to Mediation

by Meredith Deliso

8 Comments

$el-real-tex-mex$

Camden Property Trust CEO Says Financial Backers Now Redlining Houston Area Because of Downturn [Houston Chronicle]
$8M in Renovations of Galleria Office Tower I and Galleria Financial Center Currently Underway [Prime Property]
Luxury Homebuilder Gracepoint Homes Awaiting ‘Flood’ of Exxon Employees for Its New Developments North of Houston [Houston Business Journal]
New ‘INRIX Drive Time’ Feature on Redesigned HAR.com Lets You Search for Properties by Hoped-For Commute Time [Houston Business Journal]
Slideshow: Houston Houses Under 1,000 SFÂ [Houston Chronicle]
Arturo’s Uptown Italiano in Uptown Park Negotiating Possible Deal To Close, Make Way for Tex-Mex Restaurant from Lasco Enterprises [Culturemap]
Galveston Historical Foundation Restoring Pre-Civil War Cottage in Its Warehouse; Will Serve as Museum [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
Preservationists, City Prepare To Mediate Dispute Over Historic Freedmen’s Town Bricks [Houston Public Media]
City Program To Replace Broken and Dangerous Sidewalks Near Schools and Disabled People’s Homes Has 557-Person Waiting List [Click2Houston]
Shanghai Company 3D Prints 6-Story Apartment Building and Home Using Recycled Construction Materials [3DPrint]

Photo of El Real Tex Mex, 1201 Westheimer Rd.: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

Home Design

01/29/15 4:00pm

A Glassy MC2 Tiltwall Mansion in Pine Wood Estates’ First 100 Days on the Market, All at $4.99M

21 Comments

8730-memorial-02

8730-memorial-01

Which way is the view? From the balcony beneath the cantilevered section that marks the entry of the Modern mansion on nearly an acre inÂ Pine Wood Estates?Â Through a pair of driveway gates off Memorial Drive, right where it makes its first bend west of the West Loop? Via butt-jointed glass walls, which open up further an already open floor plan (above)? MC2 ArchitectsÂ (pronounced Emcee Squared; publications have problems lifting their digits) designed the minimalist-but-luxÂ tiltwall assembly for a client in 2012. It was first offered for sale 100 days ago, forÂ $4.99 million.

Modern on Memorial

77024, Homes for Sale, Houston Architects, Interiors, Memorial, Memorial Drive, Modern Design, Pine Wood Estates

Demolitions

01/29/15 3:30pm

Back of Richmont Square Now Erased for New Menil Drawing Institute

3 Comments

Cleared Portion of Richmont Square Apartments, 1400 Richmond Ave., Montrose, Houston

The back third of the Menil-owned Richmont Square Apartments has now been cleared away. Left to dispose of: a below-grade swimming pool in the middle of the lot, plus a garage apartment behind the DaCamera building at 1427 Branard St., next door to the Menil’s Cy Twombly gallery. Swamplot reader and artist Bob Russell takes a break from creating his own satellite-imagery-inspired drawings to send in the above quick ground-level panorama of the sketchy spot where Johnston Marklee’s low-slung $40 million Menil Drawing Institute will be mapped out and filled in.

Johnston Marklee Going Here

77006, Demolitions, Menil Collection, Montrose, Museums, Proposed Developments

Art

01/29/15 1:15pm

Third Ward Fans Are Throwing a Party To Destroy the Flower Man’s Toxic and Art-Filled House, and Y’All Are Invited

13 Comments

Former Home of Flower Man Cleveland Turner, 2305 Francis St., Third Ward, Houston

Where else but Houston will you ever come across a day-long urban celebration that brings together demolition, visionaryÂ art, inventive gardening, a stirring memorial, water infiltration, and toxic mold? These core elements of the city’s essential funkytown identity and more will be highlighted in the Third Ward on February 7, when Project Row Houses, the owner of the last of 3 homes the late Cleveland Turner serially transformed into environments festooned with yard art and brightly painted junk, ceremonially rips apart the rotting property at 2305 Francis St. on account of they discovered a month or 2 ago that it (along with many of the works stuffed inside) was contaminated “beyond any chance of salvation” with varying dark hues of dangerous and smelly mold spores.

It’s a Houston Thing

77004, Art, Demolitions, Historic Preservation, Houston History, Houston Landmarks, Third Ward

Daily Demolition Report

01/29/15 9:15am

Daily Demolition Report: Twin Falls Down

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1119 Twin Falls Rd., Hidden Valley, Houston

Crushing blows available for any occasion, especially these:

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Headlines

01/29/15 8:30am

Renting Out the ExxonMobil Tower for Police Business; Houston’s Arts and Culture Rack Up Sales

by Meredith Deliso

21 Comments

us-59-at-610

Kimco Realty Corp. Has Acquired 64 Acres Near Grand Parkway Extension for 400K-SF Retail Power Center [Houston Business Journal]
City Considering Moving Its Police and Courts Operations into Former Exxon Tower Downtown [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
Houston Metro Area’s Arts and Culture Industry Generated More Than $993M in Taxable Sales in 2013, Finds State Report [HBJ]
El Tiempo 1308 Cantina To Leave 1308 Montrose at the End of March for New Home at 322 Westheimer [Food Chronicles]
BBQ Restaurant The Republic Smokehouse and Saloon Opening in Former Blackfinn Space in MidtownÂ [Culturemap]
Gallery She Works Flexible Now Open in Space Formerly Occupied By Domy Books and The BrandonÂ [Houstonia; previously on Swamplot]
The Winners of the Urban Land Instituteâ€™s 2015 Development of Distinction Awards [Prime Property]
City Council Approves Budget for Uptown Bus System Along Post Oak [Click2Houston; more here; previously on Swamplot]

Photo of US-59 at 610: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

Homes for Sale

01/28/15 4:30pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Dream Team

77026, Commercial Properties for Sale, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Kashmere Gardens

9 Comments

Interior, 5509 Wipprecht St., Kashmere Gardens, Houston

5509 Wipprecht St. [HAR]

Homes for Sale

01/28/15 3:30pm

Catch All the Angles on a $1.1 Million House on a St. George Place Corner

9 Comments

5366-lampassas-01

5366-lampassas-02

If you’re feeling a little tipsy as you tour this 1998 custom home on Lampasas St. in St. George Place (the Galleria-area neighborhood formerly know as Lamar Terrace) you might catch the kind of views of it that are featured in its listing, lending a bit of a Fun House vibe to the stately corner property.

Tilt

77056, Home Staging, Homes for Sale, Interiors, St. George Place

Apartments

01/28/15 2:30pm

The Kirby Court Apartments Have Been Emptied Out, but Hanover Says Purchase of Site for Tower Has Stalled

13 Comments

Kirby Court Apartments, 2612 Steel St., Upper Kirby, Houston

The end of the year marked the end of residency for all tenants of the Kirby Court Apartments. Renters of the 2-story 1949 townhouse-style units fronting oak-lined Steel St. across Kirby Dr. from the Whole Foods Market were required to move out no later than December 31st. Houston-based Hanover Co. had a portion of the complex under contract, and was planning to complete the transaction early this year.

But funding for the apartment tower Hanover had planned for that parcel (marked down to 30 stories and 300 units at last report) fell through sometime in December, a company rep tells the Houston Business Journal‘s Paul Takahashi; since then, the company has been “scrambling to find new investors.” Hanover has now postponed completion of the purchase until August. The architect, Solomon Cordwell Buenz, is still reportedly working on the design.