Recent Comments

14 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SO CONDOS ARE FOREVER? Condos “My condo complex sits on about 6 acres of land on the western edge of River Oaks. Weâ€™ve been approached a few times by developers, but our bylaws require 100% owner approval to terminate the condo regime. There was a reported offer of $39M, which comes to about $270,800/unit (not accounting for differences in common ownership). That wouldnâ€™t buy squat inside the loop today, so we will probably never get every owner to sell. Fine by me!” [roadchick, commenting on Randall Davis Trying To Buy an Entire Westhaven Estates Townhome Complex, in One Fell Swoop] Illustration: Lulu

Buying and Selling, Comments, Condos

Conroe

04/18/14 2:30pm

Conroe Home Listing Photo of the Day: Pilot Light

No Comments

Bedroom, 11969 White Oak Run, Conroe, Texas

11969 White Oak Run [HAR]

77385, Conroe, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, White Oak Estates

Apartments

04/18/14 12:30pm

This Skinny 39-Story Apartment Tower Will Squeeze in Next to the New Marriott Marquis Downtown, Behind Discovery Green

10 Comments

Proposed 39-Story Residential Tower on Crawford and Walker Streets, Downtown Houston

It looks like engineers have begun soil testing the thin strip of land left along Crawford St. downtown between the Hess Tower parking garage and the surface parking lot where the new Marriott Marquis hotel is about to go up. Conveniently for the rendering above showing Ziegler Cooper Architects’ design for a 39-story residential tower on that 72-ft.-wide site, there’s nothing there yet to block the view of the building’s lower portions from Discovery Green — but without the hotel in place the skybridge drawn in at the second level connecting across Crawford to the nonexistent second story of a parking lot does look a little strange.

The new apartments are being developed by Trammell Crow. They’ll sit on a 12-story garage podium. Some of its 314 units will have views of the Texas-shaped “lazy river” on the Marriott Marquis’s upper deck, but they’ll also have their own pool piece above the garage, with this view of Discovery Green and the George R. Brown:

Trammell Crow Downtown

77010, Apartments, Discovery Green, Downtown, Highrises, Proposed Developments

A $279K Updated Shepherd Forest Mod, at a Crossroads

16 Comments

2218-stonecrest-08

2218-stonecrest-01

Corner windows sharpen the edges of a buffed-up 1956 home with mod-fied interior (top) located on a corner lot in Shepherd Forest. The walkway across the lawn (above) leads to the street that determines the property address, but the tomato-red front door faces the cross street. So does the double-bay garage tucked closer to the utility easement running behind the fully fenced property.Â Earlier this week, the sideways-sited home landed on the market. Its $279,000 asking price is just over $100K more than when it last sold, back in August 2011.

Corner Pocket

77018, Home Decor, Home Staging, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Shepherd Plaza

Daily Demolition Report

04/18/14 9:15am

Daily Demolition Report: Viking Defeat

No Comments

13906 Britoak Ln., Nottingham, Houston

All these will come crashing or splashing down.

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Headlines

04/18/14 8:30am

Houston’s Zombie Lots; Woodland Park Looking More Park-Like

by Meredith Deliso

2 Comments

Daniel Anguilu mural at White Oak and Harvard

Some of the 6,000 Empty Lots Across Houston Abandoned After Housing Crash Show Signs of Life [Houston Chronicle ($)]
New Hoarding Ordinance Allows Police Easier Access to Apartments, Townhomes, and Condos Where Hoarding Affects Neighbors; Up to $500 per Day Fines [Houston Chronicle]
‘Geeky Bar’ Named After 19th-Century Physicist Niels Bohr Now Open on Walker Near Chartres [Eater Houston]
DoÌˆner Kebap Chain Verts Opening Second Houston Location in a Month on April 23 in River Oaks [Eater Houston]
Trees, Bushes, Flowers Now Cover Woodland Park Cleared by Developer Last Summer [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]

Photo of Daniel Anguilu mural at White Oak and Harvard: Molly Block via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

Demolitions

04/17/14 5:00pm

Rice U. to Menil, Tin House Fans: Here’s That Art Barn We’ve Been Carefully Dismantling for You

14 Comments

Demolition of Former Rice Museum, Martell Building, Rice University, Houston

A funny thing happened on the way to carefully disassembling the former Menil Museum on the campus of Rice University so that it could be rebuilt somewhere in the Fourth Ward with the help of a Brown Foundation grant: After workers spent a week or so carefully removing the corrugated galvanized but weathered panels on the building, an excavator began summarily demolishing the rest yesterday. Or almost the rest — work had to be stopped after crews hit a power line, Molly Glentzer at the Chronicle reports.

So by midday today the scene near Rice University’s University Dr. entrance looked something like this:

Oops, Did Somebody Want This?

77005, Art, Demolitions, Houston History, Institutional Buildings, Rice-University

Garden City Park

04/17/14 4:00pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Stage Left

9 Comments

3301 Proswimmer St., Garden City Park, Houston

3301 Proswimmer St. [HAR]

77088, Garden City Park, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Northwest Houston

Condos

04/17/14 3:00pm

What Lurks Beneath the Gargoyles of a Randall Davis Condo? Could Be You, for $5.5K a Month

12 Comments

354_hr3355893-19

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Metropolis Lofts, 1914 W. Gray St., Houston Do people in buildings Downtown spy on the Gargoyle-capped midrise on West Gray St. — or vice versa? ThisÂ furnished,Â second-floor, 2-story condo in Randall Davis’ 1997-built Metropolis LoftsÂ building is available for lease, asking $5,500 per month.

Winging It

77019, Condos, Condos for Lease, Gargoyles, Homes for Lease, Interiors, Metropolis, Randall Davis

Comments

04/17/14 2:00pm

Comment of the Day: Where History Was

Comments, Historic Preservation

3 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHERE HISTORY WAS Historic and Gone “. . . The loss of historic architecture does not mean that the area is no longer historic; however, signs could be posted that say something to the effect of, â€œthis historic area used to contain significant architecture that was so undervalued that it was demolished to make way for new, soon to be historic architecture.â€ [Higher Density, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Kickerillo Down] Illustration: Lulu

Buying and Selling

04/17/14 1:00pm

Randall Davis Trying To Buy an Entire Westhaven Estates Townhome Complex, in One Fell Swoop

10 Comments

Townhomes at 5918 San Felipe St., Westhaven Estates, Houston

Developer Randall Davis has been trying to buy an entire 16-unit townhome complex at the corner of San Felipe Dr. and Nantucket Ln. “They have tried multiple times to purchase,” a source tells Swamplot, noting that the offers have been rejected so far. In September of last year, Davis sent an offer of $400,000 for each unit at 5918 San Felipe St., sweetened with a $50,000 discount off the purchase price of a unit in the condo building Davis intends to buildÂ in their place. “They needed a unanimous decision” from all 16 owners, the source notes, “which did not happen.”

The Big Buyout

77057, Buying and Selling, Randall Davis, Townhomes, Westhaven Estates

A Look at Memorial Hermann’s New Parkside Trauma Building, Coming Soon to the TMC

3 Comments

Proposed New Trauma Building, Memorial Hermann Hospital System Texas Medical Center Campus, Cambridge St. and Taub Rd., Texas Medical Center, Houston

Included in the $650 million expansion and renovation of its Texas Medical Center campus approved by the Memorial Hermann Health System last month: the new, presumably 16-story patient care building across the street from Hermann Park and the Houston Zoo shown at the lower left of the rendering above. It’ll be on the corner of Cambridge St. (renamed from North MacGregor Dr. a while back, while you weren’t paying attention) and Taub Rd. Partially hidden behind it in the image above is a new parking-and-mechanical structure to go with it.