- More Than 25,000 New Apartment Units Will Become Available in the Houston Area Next Year [KHOU]
- 2 Years Into City Tax Incentive Program, 4,200 New Apartment Units Coming to Downtown Will More Than Double Its Residential Population [WSJ]
- Lit-Up ‘H’ Sign Visible in Future Bovine & Barley Space at 416 Main St. Downtown [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Crime Calls from Galveston Walmart on Seawall Diverting Police from Higher Priority Incidents, Chief Complains; League City Police Deploying Movable Surveillance Towers to Walmart Parking Lots [Click2Houston]
- Proposed Neighborhood Greenways Would Connect Residents of Southeast Houston, Near Northside to Bayou Trails, Hike and Bike Trails [Houston Chronicle]
- A Review of the Major Real Estate Deals and Projects Announced for the Grand Parkway Last Year [HBJ]
- Hear Our Houston Program Now Has 80 Narrated Local Tours Available for Download [Houston Public Media]
- Lockwood Nature Garden Preserve Attracting Pollinators to Former Used Car Lot at Corner of Harrisburg and Lockwood [Houston Public Media]
Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
“I’m also a big Life Forms fan, I own and live in one in the Woodlands. So happens I’m an architect, too. Life Forms is the only company I know that has built suburban tract homes which are innovative, spatially unique, extremely livable, and which complement the landscape. Truly American, as I would like to say it. Many of Life Forms homes were also created for a price point that allowed normal folks like us to experience unique and honest architecture. I do that every day now. Scott Mitchell deserves unique credit as an exceptional architect, a brilliant home builder, and a true innovator.
Most American architecture amounts to mindlessly recompiled ‘tradition,’ endlessly mundane and pretentious. No where is this more evident than in American tract homes. Bad copies of architectural forms and inspiration: selectively applied pastiche . . . that is the norm. As the ‘home of the free and the brave,’ as social and technological pioneers, we Americans ought to pride ourselves on our residential buildings, too. Life Forms challenged the organization, layout, forms, spaces, use of light . . . just about everything that’s bad about the typical american home. Sure some of the details may look dated to us now, and not all the experiments they did were successful. But many of them were. . . .” [
This final unveiling caps an almost month-long process that began with calls for nominations in 7 separate award categories. 
“The Houston market had a few easily identifiable problems even before the drop in oil prices.
1) Older homeowners with paid off or mostly paid off homes are asking unrealistically high prices for fixer uppers or tear downs. That’s slowing down new home purchases and new builds. That was a problem at $100 oil. Well priced homes moved and unrealistically high priced homes sat. People wanting $300K for a total fixer upper inside Beltway 8 or $400K for a lot near the 610 loop are just completely slowing down the revitalization process as those houses/lots sit for months on end while everyone thinks the sky is falling.
2) Near loop new construction is priced exclusively for people making $200K and up. A family of two earners making $50K (teachers, cops, firefighters, non O&G professionals) can only afford to live out west in the burbs, but many are choosing to rent rather than go west. There’s no attempt at affordable housing inside the beltway. When oil goes down, the engineers stop buying in Houston. The aforementioned buyers would be happy with smaller houses they could afford to get into but the developers are chasing the biggest gains possible on each new build.
The real estate market will ultimately be fine for people who didn’t overpay but it would be nice to see changes that reflect reality now that oil is not at $100.” [
