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Soil-1-FB

How many colors worked their way into thisÂ room-sized scene, titled “Yamatane” (mountain seed) and now playing in the Rice Gallery? And from where around town did the surprisingly diverse brown hues originate? Here’s the key:

Mud Mural

77005, Art, Art Galleries, Rice-University, Soils

Homes for Sale

10/14/14 3:00pm

Katy Home Listing Photo of the Day: Twice the Work

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Home Office, 22615 Crescent Cove Ct., Grand Lakes, Katy, Texas

22615 Crescent Cove Ct. [HAR]

77494, Grand Lakes, Home Offices, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Katy

This $1.23 Million Lakeside Island Home Sits Atop an Industrial Strength 10-Car Garage on the Banks of Buffalo Bayou

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107-big-hollow-30

107-big-hollow-01

With space for a 10-car fleet in its garage, parking (top) shouldn’t be a problem at this 2008 custom home in Lakeside Island, a niche neighborhood east of Wilcrest Dr. near Terry Hershey Park. The home lies at the end of a suspended walkway parallel to the driveway’s slope (above) on a ravine lot.Â More stilts and steel shore up the back of the tri-level home, which looks across Buffalo Bayou. The propped-up property’s initial asking price when listed last Friday was $1.249 million, but the price had dropped to $1.229 million by Monday’s weigh-in.

Park City

77042, Garages, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Lakeside Island, Ravine Lots

Buildings for Sale

10/14/14 11:45am

Longtime Heights Cafe Java Java Now Trying To Sell Its Grounds

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LONGTIME HEIGHTS CAFE JAVA JAVA NOW TRYING TO SELL ITS GROUNDS Java Java Cafe, 911 W. 11th St., Houston Heights A reader notes that the owner of Java Java Cafe on 11th St. and Herkimer has placed the building at 911 W. 11th St. and its adjacent parking lots up for sale. Java Java is still open for business, however. Pay $1.25 million and you’d get close to 17,000 sq. ft. of land with street frontage on 3 sides, along with the 2,450-sq.-ft. building, which dates from 1940. But you’d need to fetch your own coffee. [HAR]

77008, Buildings for Sale, Cafes, Land for Sale, Restaurants

Midtown’s Van Loc Will Lock Up for Good This Friday

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MIDTOWN’S VAN LOC WILL LOCK UP FOR GOOD THIS FRIDAY Van Loc Restaurant, 3010 Milam St., Midtown, Houston Those of you lamenting the closure of 28-year-old Midtown institution Van LocÂ may want to note this latest update on the Vietnamese restaurant: There’s now an actual deadline for you to get your orders in forÂ duck & bamboo soup, garlic tofu, or No. 46. The restaurant will serve its last meals this Friday, October 17th. What will become of the place then? Separate rumors floated to a Reddit thread include new apartments and a 16-story office buildingÂ with — wait for it — ground-floor retail. The restaurant at 3010 Milam St. sits on the southern half of a 50,000-sq.-ft. block, one block north of Elgin.Â Feel free to contribute your speculation, intel, or final orders below. [Reddit; Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West/OffCite

77006, Midtown, Openings and Closings, Redevelopment, Restaurants

Daily Demolition Report

10/14/14 9:30am

Daily Demolition Report: Weber Grilling

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1905 Shearn St., Shearn, Houston

Queue these up and we’ll roast â€™em one by one:

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Headlines

10/14/14 8:30am

Woonerfs for the Energy Corridor’s Grisby Square; Light Rail Ridership Gains

by Meredith Deliso

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west-loop

118-Acre Conroe Waterfront Center Between The Woodlands and Camp Strake Property To Include Hotel, Residential, Office, Retail Space [Houston Business Journal]
Texas Childrenâ€™s Pediatrics To Open in Spring in Spring 2015, Adjacent Elite Care ER To Follow That Fall [Prime Property]
$300K Woonerf Project Planned for Energy Corridor’s Grisby Square Will Serve as Pilot for Future Streetscape ImprovementsÂ [Houston Business Journal]
Smashburger Opening 17th Houston-Area Location October 29, in Deer ParkÂ [MyFoxHouston]
MF Sushi Says It’ll Reopen Again in Houston at a New Location — at Some Point [Eater Houston]
Light Rail Ridership Increased More Than 12% from October 2013 to September 2014 after North Line Extension; Bus Numbers Slightly Down [Houston Public Media]
EPA Begins Cleanup of Smelly CES Environmental Facility on Griggs Rd., Should Finish By February [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
What Itâ€™s Like To Live in Houston’s Four Seasons HotelÂ [Houston Business Journal]
How Sanborn Maps Reveal the Evolution of Cities [CityLab]
A Preview of the Norhill Historic District’s October 18 Bungalow Home TourÂ [Home in the Heights]

Photo of the West Loop: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

Brunner

10/13/14 5:15pm

Meat Market Mansion in Magnolia Grove Now Available for $2.1 Million

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701-patterson-01

701-patterson-07

Not many homes come with their ownÂ meat locker (top), but this one has kept its cooler from a previous life as a meat market and corner store. Located in the townhomey Magnolia Grove neighborhood of Brunner, south of Washington Ave. and east of N. Shepherd Dr., the former Laurnicella Meat Market (later Snow’s Corner Store) had living space upstairs for the proprietor. A 3-year renovationÂ with various reconfigurations by the current owners (on top of efforts by their predecessors)Â converted the 1921 building into a tin-roofed home (middle) with back yardlet (above). Its listing, posted last Thursday, asks $2.1 million.

On the Corner

77007, Adaptive Reuse, Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Magnolia Grove, Renovations, Washington Corridor

Construction Problems

10/13/14 3:15pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Roofers

77077, Construction Problems, Homes for Sale, Lakeside Place

2 Comments

Roof, 1326 E. Vistawood Dr., Lakeside Place, Houston

1326 E. Vistawood Dr. [HAR]

Attractions

10/13/14 2:15pm

A San Antonio Architect’s Vision of a Better Saturn V Shelter for Rocket Park

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Proposed Building for Saturn V Rocket, Rocket Park, Houston

The Saturn V rocket originally planned to boost a never-happened Apollo 18 spaceflight has been lying on its side near the corner of Saturn Ln. and 2nd St. and aimed at Lake Jackson since 1977. An air-conditioned, metal-framed structure was built around the Smithsonian-owned hulk 10 years ago to protect it from the elements, but it makes it difficult for visitors to appreciate just how hulking the rocket is. And recently the new structure has begun to look a bit dilapidated as well. Unprompted by any government agency or basketball team, San Antonio architect Brantley Hightower has been floating a proposal to wrap a more permanent structure around Houston’s most prominent rocketship — one that would restore the drive-by view of its full length (above) that the existing enclosure ruined, and make it clear just how big the Saturn V was:

77058, Attractions, Johnson Space Center, Proposed Developments, Space Center Houston

Houston Rockets

New Spec Office Building on Montrose Blvd. Will Sit Atop Southwest Fwy. Wall Vines

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Proposed Bridgeview Crossing, 4503 Montrose Blvd., Montrose, Houston

Here are a few views of the 11-story spec office building planned for the north side of the Montrose Blvd. bridge over the Southwest Fwy., across the street from Kam’s Fine Chinese Cuisine. And yes, it appears developers Griffin Partners really do intend to call the inside-the-Loop project Bridgeview Crossing. The design by Kirksey Architecture includes a single 1,500-sq.-ft. retail space facing Montrose, but the rest of the building at 4503 Montrose Blvd. is all business: 5 floors of office space sitting on top of a 6-level parking garage.

The design’s surface treatments, however, play down that simple offices-over-cars division, presenting instead a glassy-and-griddy front to Hwy. 59 on the south: