TRICON HOMES STILL TRASHING THE JOSEPHINE 
Demolition crews turned the Josephine Apartments into a dusty pile of rubble yesterday (as seen in Swamplot’s on-the-spot report), but Tricon Homes cofounder Tristan Berlanga threw in a little trash-talking of his own about the condition of the 2-story Art Moderne complex, which went down in a heap, original steel-frame windows and all: “This, in fact, was a building in very poor structural condition which would have been practically impossible to save, both for safety and economic reasons,” he says to the Chronicle’s Erin Mulvaney. He goes on to tell the reporter he doesn’t like to see buildings demolished, especially those with “architectural or historical significance,” but appears to lay blame for the building’s demise on a lack of city regulation: “Most cities have zoning laws and designated historical areas that help preserve buildings like this,” he says. “Without that, it is hard to do more . . .” Tricon plans to replace the 8-unit building from 1939 with 4 new townhomes, which are still being designed. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo:Â Swamplot inbox
Sign up for the Newsletter
HOW LIBERTARIANS DESCRIBE HOUSTON, PLAYING THE NEW YORK CARD, AND THE SUE ELLEN MISCHKE OF METROPOLISES 
Cort McMurray stuffs more colorful Houston-in-a-phrase quips into his latest in-search-of-the-city essay than will fit in this little lookie-here linkpost, but a few are worth drawing out: “There is a wide difference of opinion on whether [Houston’s] messiness is a good thing. Some of us find it distressing. Tory Gattis and the other evangelists of ‘Opportunity Urbanism’ disagree, painting Houston as a sort of libertarian paradise, a place where fully actualized men and woman can work out their destinies through grit, brains, and good ol’ trial and error. Master plan? We don’t need no stinking master plan.
Surveys indicate that the majority of Houstonians are quite content to live in this Sue Ellen Mischke of metropolises: we love ‘the whole free-swinging, freewheeling attitude’ of the place, a city that offers us the strange comfort of knowing that no matter our neighborhood, we’re never more than 37 seconds away from a gas station, a Taco Bell, or an all-night tattoo parlor.
Eventually, all the world will be Houston, endless rings of toll roads forming concentric circles around some increasingly distant downtown, endless vistas of cars and Costcos and ‘lifestyle environments,’ worlds without end. This sprawl is ‘vibrant,’ and suburban ‘opportunity zones’ (opportunity is a key word for these people) are the inevitable result of vibrant, opportunistic people searching for better schools, better shopping environments, and better quality of life. In the Opportunity Urbanists’ perfect world, the Houston exurbs would stretch from the Sabine River to somewhere around Fort Stockton, and any suggestion otherwise amounts to a betrayal, a ‘de-Houstonizing’ of Our Fair City.” Another, more realist vision of Houston from McMurray’s grab bag: a spread-out, risk-graded, need-more-freeways array of poors-filled “gray zones” and haves-filled “safe zones.” [Houstonia] Photo: Candace Garcia
We gather for destruction not the worst of what is out there, but what is most available.
- The Woodlands, Katy Fwy. Score as Top Office Submarkets in Houston for Construction, Leasing [Houston Business Journal]
- David Weekley Homes Building Westview Manor, a Gated Collection of Townhomes and Patio Homes in Spring Branch [Prime Property]
- Microsoft Store Opening in Baybrook Mall on Nov. 6 [Prime Property]
- Pappas Plans to Rebuild Burned-Down Bar-B-Q Restaurant on Little York near US-59 [Culturemap]
- Unnamed Izakaya Planned for Former Farrago Space in Midtown at 318 Gray St. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Parents, Alumni Protest Preliminary Design for $59.5M Jack Yates High School Building in the Third Ward [Houston Chronicle]
- Sunday Streets Events Return on October 5, Somewhere in the ‘East End and Fifth Ward’ Area [The Highwayman]
- Artist Rick Lowe, Founder of Project Row Houses, Wins MacArthur Fellowship [Houston Chronicle]
- Do Houston’s Sprawl and Its Diversity Go Hand-in-Hand? [Houston Chronicle]
- Slideshow: Houston’s Weirdest and Funniest Clusters of Street Names [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Houston Police Officers’ Memorial, Memorial Dr.: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Sources have indicated to Swamplot that all 102 separately owned units of a townhome development behind the Park Towers office complex on the West Loop have been sold. The 5.3969-acre site currently occupied by the Post Oak Park Townhomes (shown in the photo above) had been marketed for sale by CBRE. One source tells Swamplot the buyer of the condo development is a “foreign investor,” and that unspecified highrise buildings are reportedly planned for the property.
Condo Selloff
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FULLY QUALIFIED TO BRING YOU BEER BY TRICYCLE WHILE YOU SHOP 
“I submitted my résumé for the position. As an expedition touring cyclist I think I’m qualified to make a few rounds within 55k sq. ft. toting clanging bottles of beer. Instead of wearing weather resistant gear I think I’ll gladly don tweed knickers and a driving cap to look the part. Here’s to 1mph in the meat section. Wish me luck Houston. I ride with the wind.” [Rider of Rohan., commenting on Galleria Whole Foods Market Opening November 6, Will Include Austin-Import Beer-on-a-Trike] Illustration: Lulu
PENNZOIL PLACE’S STICKY DAMAGE CONTROL PLAN 
Chronicle real-estate reporter Nancy Sarnoff has answers to a couple of questions Pennzoil Place tenants, visitors, and passers-by might be asking right about now: 1) Why is this iconic double-towered downtown office building at 711 Louisiana St. downtown now covered with small, round yellow stickers? and 2) If the building gets scuffed up during the implosion of the remaining hulk of the Houston Club Building across the street, how will property managers be able to distinguish new nicks and scrapes from all the old ones? [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photos: Nancy Sarnoff
The 75-year-old art moderne brick steel-windowed structure at 1744 and 1748 Bolsover St. known as the Josephine Apartments is coming apart in a cloud of (watered down) dust this morning. The 8-unit structure at the corner of Ashby St. 2 blocks north of Rice University was designed in the late 1930s by architect F. Perry Johnston, but demolished by contractors under hire by Tricon Homes, which purchased the property earlier this year.
Boulevard Oaks Rubble
- Construction Starts on Petroleum Club’s New Downtown Digs on Top Floor of Total Plaza at 1201 Louisiana [Prime Property]
- Video: Touring Avera’s Massive 225 RailPort Tilt-Wall Building Under Construction in Pasadena [Prime Property]
- Belmont Village Senior Living Opening Second Houston Location with Galleria-Area Hunters Creek Property [Houston Business Journal]
- B&R Butchers Steakhouse and Butcher Shop Opening in Dittman Building on Washington Ave by January [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Co-Owners of Real Estate Firm Carnan Properties Now Suing Each Other for Breach of Contract on Magnolia Construction Project [Houston Business Journal]
- Houston Bus System ‘Reimagining’ Plan Will Go Before Metro Board Next Week [The Highwayman; previously on Swamplot]
- City Council Set To Approve Purchase of 95K Recycling Bins To Cover City’s Remaining 90K Homes Without Curbside Recycling [Houston Chronicle]
- Water-Filled Sandpit Behind the Autumn Run Subdivision Near FM 529 and Barker Cypress Going from ‘Large, Unsightly Nuisance’ to ‘Danger’Â [Click2Houston]
- League City’s Relocated Century-Old Ghirardi Oak Showing Signs of the Deadly Hypoxylon Canker Tree Disease [Houston Chronicle]
- Researchers Will Bale Galveston Sargassum Seaweed Like Hay, Investigate Ways To Make It Edible [TAMU Times, via Houston Press]
- Documenting the Abandoned Shopping Carts of Houston [Not of It]
Photo of I-10 near Allen’s Landing: Christof Spieler via Twitter
Headlines
If you’re wondering what an expanse of fake grass is doing in the back yard of a $1.345 million home around the corner from Antidote, Premium Draught, and the Sonoma Wine Bar in the Heights, the architect of the 4-bedroom, 3,769-sq.-ft. structure has an answer for you: “The synthetic grass was the owner’s idea, which had my full support,” Cameron Armstrong tells Swamplot, after an email from a reader alerted us to the astroturfing issue. “It’s 100% recycled material, and significantly reduced our landscape irrigation needs,” the architect notes, “which gained the project some points during LEED certification (Silver).”
Ouch! Does learning that last bit give you a brain cramp? If so, you’re not alone:
No Mow
GALLERIA WHOLE FOODS MARKET OPENING NOVEMBER 6, WILL INCLUDE AUSTIN-IMPORT BEER-ON-A-TRIKE 
The long-awaited BLVD Place Whole Foods Market will finally open on November 6, reports the HBJ‘s Jenny Agee-Aldridge. And the grocery juggernaut has fed her another notable market-marketing nugget: Shoppers at the new 55,000-sq.-ft. store at 1700 Post Oak Blvd. will be able to make beer orders and receive deliveries while shopping — from a beer-toting store employee riding a tricycle around the market. The non-motorized alcohol delivery setup, Agee-Aldridge notes, is an Austin import. But the beer source is a Houston first: The store will be the first Whole Foods’ anywhere to have its own brewery on the premises, and will feature beer-themed breads and desserts as well. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Russell Hancock
Metro has posted the latest designs for the enormous Hughes St. overpass along Harrisburg Blvd. on the far-east segment of the East End rail line. The $27-to-$42-million bridge is meant to carry cars and Green Line passengers over the Union Pacific East Belt freight rail line that runs north-south just west of Hughes St., between the soon-to-open East End line’s between the future Altic and Cesar Chavez stations. The posted design concepts, Metro notes, combine a “garden” wall and a wall noting a few 4-digit numbers important in the history of the neighborhood with a ribbon of white LED lighting above and blue accent lighting underneath and along the columns:
At the End of the Green Line
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
The earth must be turned regularly if it is to remain fertile.
