Not exactly dead, but not exactly burned into our memories.
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- Deal with Patrinely Group Means New 250-Unit Luxury Residential Tower Will Replace Strip-Center Island in Uptown Park Shopping Center [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- Partners in Building Starts Building 80 $550K+ Homes in New Gated Developments Near ExxonMobil Campus [Prime Property]
- City Hopes New $11M Sewer Pipe Project Will Spur Development of 1,400 Acres Along Holmes Rd. [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Legal Expert Says Ashby Highrise Case Could Be Tied Up in Court for Years [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Fate of Astrodome Could Be Affected by Texas Historical Commission Vote on Landmark Status This July [Culturemap]
- Downtown’s Nau Center for Texas Cultural Heritage Has Nearly Doubled Its Budget, Planned Square Footage Since First Announced [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Third Ward’s Eldorado Ballroom To Unveil Its Official Texas Historical Marker This Weekend [Houstonia]
- Boeing 747 Reaches Space Center Houston After 3MPH Journey on NASA Road 1 [abc13]
- From Caskets to Construction Items, the Wild World of Roadway Spills in Houston [The Texican]
- Silsbee Bicyclist Has Installed Nearly 40 Ghost Bikes Across Houston As Memorials for Killed Cyclists [Houston Chronicle]
- What Beltway 8 Looks Like When Laid Over Other Cities [imgur]
Photo of construction at ExxonMobil Campus: Swamplot inbox
Headlines
Unlike the other townhomes in this 1992 Camp Logan 4-pak, the corner slot’s deep driveway is on the side. That frees up front-lot space for a gated entry and extra landscaping, all on view from the curvy balcony, as is Camp Logan Park across the street. The property stacks its taller portion on the back lot. Last week, the listing hit market with a $500,000 asking price.
End Cap
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT HOUSTON SMELLS LIKE 
“Ahhhh . . . the eau du Houston: a heady combination of ground level ozone, sewer methane, burnt coffee aroma (when the breeze/wind is blowing from EaDo), combined with various other odoeurs ranging from the slightly offensive to the occasional sweet smell of some heavily perfumed flower/tree/shrub . . .” [Patrick, commenting on The Sweet Smell of Houston History] Illustration: Lulu
Swamplot reader Triton reports receiving a flyer urging people to oppose a minimum lot size designation for the area just north of Downtown shown in the map at right. The authors of the bright yellow flyer, written in English on one side and Spanish on the other, identify themselves only as “a group of very concerned property owners in this neighborhood,” but the text doesn’t include the names of any organization or individuals — only a Quitman St. return address and a phone number. “If you are within the marked boundary of the map below we want to inform you that there is a minimum lot size application currently being processed by the city of Houston,” the flyer reads. It encourages readers to oppose the application, because (it claims) “your land will potentially decrease in value,” and “it scares investors away.”
Here’s the text portion of the flyer:
Bright Yellow Concerns
Chain-link fencing has gone up around the warehouse buildings at 2401 Nicholson St. in the Heights, a reader reports. There’s a total 139,126 sq. ft. of building space on the large alley-divided block surrounded by Nicholson, 24th, 25th, and Lawrence St., on 3.6 acres. JLB Partners doesn’t appear to have announced the new apartment building it’s planning for the site, but its builders received a couple of permits for a parking garage and an apartment building at 525 W. 24th St. late last year. And a TCEQ notice for the construction — identified as the Heights Block 39 Apartments, at 525 W. 25th St. — has gone up at the site as well. The block is catty-corner to the cleared National Flame & Forge site on the other side of Nicholson.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Block 39
There’s very strange vibrations, piercing right to the core. . . . Tell me why is it so? But I never can say goodbye.
- Multifamily Development Boom Expected To Transform Downtown Houston, Nearly Double Population in Next Few Years [Houston Business Journal]
- First Industrial Realty Trust Breaks Ground on Spec Distribution Center on W. Greens near Beltway 8 [Prime Property]
- Kiewit Energy Leases Majority of New Woodlands Office Building Currently Under Construction [Prime Property]
- Realtors Say ExxonMobil’s New Campus Has Strengthened the Market in the Heights, Oak Forest, Garden Oaks [The Leader]
- Retail, Restaurants Replacing Car Lots on N. Shepherd Dr. as Greater Heights Transforms [The Leader]
- A Week After Final Arguments, Judge Continues To Receive Pleas in Ashby Highrise Case [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- More Details on the Temporary and Permanent Lane Closures at Hobby Airport [Houston Business Journal]
- Sugar Land Residents At Odds with Homeowner Association’s Plan To Remove 29 Trees Along Edgewater Dr. in First Colony [abc13]
- Bystanders Take Selfies, FaceTime as Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft Makes Its Way to the Space Center [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Chinese Company Hand-Assembles 10 Small 3-D Printed Single-Story Houses in One Day [Mashable]
Photo of the Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier: Christopher Ferguson via Twitter
Headlines
Minus the air conditioning and other newfangled add-ons, an old Old Braeswood property looks every bit the manorial English estate architect Carl Mulvey intended when he designed it back in 1929. The property, located in a section of the neighborhood falling east of Greenbriar Dr., was listed “as is” last week with a $1.15 million asking price. Inside, there’s plenty of time-burnished woodwork.
Carl Mulvey’s Gables Galore
- 9 Falling Leaf Ln. [HAR]
Here’s the scene at the northeast corner of Washington Ave and T.C. Jester this weekend (the view is from Schuler St., to the north), where lots are being cleared for a new apartment complex. It’ll be called the Pearl Washington Ave, after the other Pearl-brand apartments the Morgan Group has developed around town, but not necessarily after Washington Ave’s Pearl Bar. Permits filed with the city don’t yet indicate the size of the project, but the newly assembled parcel at 5424 Washington Ave measures 3.1 acres and extends all the way to Detering St. And commenters on HAIF are noting that it’s expected to be 8 stories tall — and may include some sort of retail space. Buildings currently on the site, including Gary Fruge Automotive, are being removed.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
8 Story Apartments, with Retail?
THE SWEET SMELL OF HOUSTON HISTORY 
Embarking on a tour of Houston by means of a “site-specific narrative” created by 3 artists as part of the Mitchell Center for the Arts’ first CounterCurrent Festival earlier this month, critic Betsy Huete picks up her “survival pack” of a bottle of water, a Metro day pass, a phone charger, and a bottle of Purell hand sanitizer enclosed in a koozie, and heads to the first stop: Allen’s Landing. There she encounters one of the artists, Lacy M. Johnson: “Johnson suggested I begin reading the essays accompanying The Invisible City, a series of writings tied to specific coordinates within the city of Houston. I would have to read each excerpt at each location to fully understand the work. The writing tied to Allen’s Landing was a brief recalling of Houston’s history, starting with its birth as a settlement at Allen’s Landing and, eventually, a meditation on the city’s rabid desire to erase itself and rebuild, leaving a palimpsest of memory and history. As I descended the stairs overlooking the bayou’s lush greenery on that crisp spring morning, with an erect corporate sky line as backdrop to errant clothes and shards of glass, with the stink of urine-saturated concrete pervading my nostrils, Johnson’s statement could not have rung more true. It was beautiful.” [Glasstire] Photo: Scott Ehardt [license]
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Digestion issues? Try a little more roughage, available at these addresses:
- Dow Chemical Clearing Path for Future Expansion at Texas City Chemical Plant [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Developers Not Happy They’re Competing with the City for Downtown Post Office Site [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- City Putting Together ‘Visioning Plan’ To Guide Future Decisions on Infrastructure, Traffic, Preservation [Houston Public Media]
- Houston Housing Supply Not Likely To Improve Before September [Houston Public Media]
- ‘Exxon Effect’ Behind Enrollment Boom at Schools Around The Woodlands [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Using Google Maps’ ‘Then and Now’ Feature To See the Development Boom in Houston Since 2007 [Houston Chronicle]
- More Houstonians Opting To Live in Mixed-Use Projects Combining Residential Units and Retail Outlets That Camden Property Trust Generally Avoids [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Neighborhoods Using Billboards, Job Fairs To Attract Residents [The Leader]
- Taxidermy, Nudie Mags, Religious Icons Set the Scene in an Old-School Barber Shop in a Converted Bungalow off Washington Ave [Houstonia]
- Hobby Airport Road Closures To Begin Today as Major Expansion Continues [Houston Business Journal]
- The Route the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet Space Shuttle Exhibit Platform Will Take from Ellington Field to the Space Center, Starting Tonight [Houston Chronicle]
- Demolition Moves 290 HOV Lanes to Temporary Route Starting Today [The Highwayman]
- Nine-Foot-Long Alligator Roaming Clear Lake Neighborhood Killed [abc13]
- Houston’s Best Commutes for Development-Watching [HAIF]
- Sharon Engelstein’s New Doodle Bug Concrete Sculptures in Hermann Park Make Great Playground Structures for Kids To Climb On [The Great God Pan Is Dead]
- 30 Things You’ll Never See in Houston Again [The Texican]
- SpaceX’s Elon Musk Says Texas Spaceport Planned Near Brownsville Will Be Active in a Couple of Years [SciGuy]
Photo of Stude Park: via Swamplot Flickr Pool
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