08/29/14 3:30pm

101-Westcott-01

101-Westcott-02

Other than flyovers by the occasional drone or maybe a high-flying bird or 2, there aren’t too many privacy breaches that might threaten the penthouse level of Bayou Bend Towers, a tony, 1981 condoplex. A 3-level unit — featuring an expansive rooftop terrace and cushy private poolscape (top) — arrived on the market a week ago with an asking price just shy of $5 million. Showings won’t begin until after the holiday weekend, but here’s a preview of the palace-like place and its 180-degree views that sweep from downtown, over River Oaks (and its golf course), to the Galleria:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Luxury Living
08/29/14 1:00pm

VACANT-LOT VEGETABLE GARDENS FOR HOUSTON GARDENS A little more than halfway through its 2-month-long Indiegogo fundraiser, a Houston company’s plan to grow vegetables on vacant urban lots has chalked up a little more than half of the $35,000 it’s hoping to raise to begin the project. Edible Earth Resources, the landscape-gardening firm that created the gardens at restaurants Coltivare, Haven, the Brooklyn Athletic Club, and Pax Americana (among other spaces), says it will soon have official approval from the city’s Land Assemblage Redevelopment Authority to plant production gardens on tax-delinquent lots leased from the citywide program. With $35,000 in startup capital, the company says on its fundraising page, Planted:Houston would begin its urban farming efforts on an acre of land available in Houston Gardens, a “rurban” neighborhood northeast of the intersection of the 610 Loop and the Eastex Fwy. — including a spot at 7414 Sandra St. The for-profit enterprise would sell its produce to various restaurants in the city and to individuals through a subscription program that includes a donation component; 10 percent of crops would remain in the neighborhoods where the gardens are planted, either through donations or discounted sales to local stores. [Indiegogo; more info] Video: Planted:Houston

08/29/14 11:15am

METRO ADJUSTS ITS REIMAGINED BUS ROUTES Metro Reimagining Map WeslayanSo the reviews of the proposed “System Reimagining” of Metro bus routes are in and . . . generally positive, but a big bunch of letter-writers hated what the new layout might or might not do to public transit along Weslayan, Jones Rd. and Jersey Village, and the Louetta and Vintage Lakes area. So the newly revised map, which Metro unveiled at its board meeting yesterday, recommends some adjustments to proposed service changes in those areas. The new 48 line, for example, which formerly was planned to run straight down Weslayan to the South Loop, would now connect the Northwest Transit Center to Greenway Plaza, the Rice Village, and the Med Center; the new 10 route down Kirby Dr. would now extend further south to S. Main St. Don’t like these changes to the changes? A few alternative route adjustments were presented as well. If the new plans are approved at next month’s meeting, the new bus routes and schedules should go into effect next June. Here’s the whole revised reimagined network map in one big PDF. [Metro; previously on Swamplot; all plan materials]

08/29/14 8:30am

Construction of Aura Memorial Apartments, Memorial Dr. Between Dairy Ashford and Eldridge Pkwy., Houston

Photo of Aura Memorial, on Memorial Dr. between Dairy Ashford and Eldridge Pkwy.: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
08/28/14 4:30pm

5718-indigo-01

5718-indigo-02

Too late. The mid-summer rental-rate reduction to $4,495 per month for this renovated 1967 Meyerland home expired with today’s re-listing of the property. The ask is back up to the $4,600 per month of its original rental listing, dating from early July 2014. Or you could flat-out buy the place. The for-sale listing, pegged at $657,500, also popped up on the market today.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Love It or Lease It
08/28/14 2:45pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WELCOME TO HOUSTON! WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE WHILE YOU’RE HERE? Drawing of Tourist“Sorry, I think there is a big difference between ‘tourist’ and ‘visitor.’ ‘Tourist’ makes me think of someone on vacation, while ‘visitor’ as someone stopping by on his way to someplace else, or visiting for business and leaving ASAP. Who on earth would see Houston as a tourist destination?” [GlenW, commenting on Dumping Suburban Water Features; Houston’s Growing Tourism Haul] Illustration: Lulu

08/28/14 1:15pm

White Stripes on Parking Spaces at Shoppes at Memorial Heights Shopping Center, 920 Studemont St., Memorial Heights, Houston

White Stripes on Parking Spaces at Shoppes at Memorial Heights Shopping Center, 920 Studemont St., Memorial Heights, HoustonWas it something you said? A couple readers have informed Swamplot that the stenciled nametags that appeared recently apportioning every single parking space in the lot in front of the Shoppes at Memorial Heights shopping center to one of the resident businesses at 920 Studewood St. have just as suddenly been covered over. Stripes of white paint have now been painted on top of the stenciled signs throughout the parking lot. Which means that next time you’re visiting Hair Desire, Absolve Wine Bar, Urban Cleaners, or (more likely, apparently) Beer Market Co., you will no longer have to check underneath or behind your car to make sure that you’ve parked in a space appropriate to your shopping-center visit.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Here Come the White Stripes
08/28/14 11:45am

Demolition of 2414 Capitol St., East Downtown, Houston

Demo crews are clearing away a metal warehouse building and chopping up the surface concrete on the block surrounded by Dowling, Rusk, Capitol and St. Charles streets, across Dowling St. from BBVA Compass Stadium in East Downtown. Last year, Mill Creek Residential announced and then canceled plans for a possibly mixed-use apartment development it was calling EADO Station on that block and the one immediately north, facing Texas Ave.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

JLB in East Downtown
08/28/14 8:30am

LAZ Parking on Congress near Austin

Photo of LAZ Parking on Congress near Austin: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines
08/27/14 4:15pm

105-avalon-07

105-avalon-02

Is this Avondale property a home, a compound, or a discrete semi-plex? From the street, at least, the exterior remains discreet about its reworked interior space. And the downstairs does maintain much of the home’s original flow, heavy-with-trim formal rooms, and many of the 1940 structure’s early features (top). The same is true upstairs, though a section on that floor functions as an extensive separate suite. An aerie on the third floor adds even more living space. The property in the Avondale East Historic District appeared as a listing yesterday — with a $579,000 asking price.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

4 Quarters