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Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Galveston

08/20/18 6:00pm

Galveston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Box Seats

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5111 Avenue P Â½ [HAR]

77551, Galveston, Homes for Sale

Buying and Selling

08/20/18 5:30pm

Midtown Kirby Mansion Sold to Midtown Car Dealership Owner

25 Comments

The Tudor-revival mansion that sits along the bend in I-45 at 2000 Smith St. has been sold to the owner of several car dealerships, including Central Houston Nissan on the S. Loop off the S. Main/Buffalo Spdwy. exit and Central Houston Cadillac off McGowen St. between Travis and Main. Prior to the closing earlier this month, Preservation Houston reported that the buyer didn’t plan to keep the house standing.

Nine blocks away from it, the new owner Ricardo Weitz also has all 3 of the parking lots that surround his Cadillac dealership to the north, east, and west. He purchased the mansion through an entity he owns called Central Houston Auto Properties II.

Previously on Swamplot: What Chance Would the Kirby Mansion Stand To Stay Standing Under New Ownership?

Photo: Preservation Houston/The Heritage Society

The House off I-45

77002, Buying and Selling, Midtown

Demolitions

08/20/18 4:30pm

Crews of Excavators, Flocks of Birds Now Have Exxon’s Empty Katy Fwy. Chemical HQ in Their Claws, Talons

11 Comments

A Swamplot reader noticed that demolition crews are now trashing the conference center at the abandoned ExxonMobil Chemical Company headquarters next to Terry Hershey Park, leaving a grizzly roadside scene along Memorial Dr. “More concerning,” writes the reader, “is that they drained the ponds and did not relocate the waterfowl.”

At least it’s still theirs to call their own — until PM Realty finds new tenants to replace the Exxon employees that left the property starting in 2014. Without anyone around to disturb the wildlife for now, “They are swimming in the tiny little bit of water left and otherwise just hanging out,” like so:

Exxon Exodus

Demolitions, Energy-Corridor, ExxonMobil, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Renovations

Downtown

08/20/18 2:30pm

New 22-Octave Musical Work Premiers at Jones Hall, Drawing Full-Block Lines Between Texas Ave. and Capitol St.

5 Comments

The title of artist Joan Dodd’s new composition 88 Keys undersells it — it’s actually 275 keys, more than 3 times the amount found on a piano. Installation artists laid them down along the rounded ~~east~~ west side of Jones Hall over the weekend. Constructed from 900 pounds worth of temporary marking tapeÂ — the kind commonly used on highways — they now span the entire block of Louisiana between Texas Ave. and Capitol St.

That material choice means they can really take a pounding from anyone who feels like stomping out a silent melody with their feet while heading south to check out the Bank of America Center’s ongoing renovations. Or those lured in by the glow of the Lyric Center parking garage’s new lighting, pictured off in the distance below:

Sidewalk Chromaticism

77002, Downtown, Public Art, Sidewalks

08/20/18 10:45am

Kicked Off the Midtown Benches They’d Clung To, Evicted Planters Leave Behind a Messy Goodbye

16 Comments

Vanished from the Midtown benches along Main St. are the potted plants that recently sat on them. The 3 sets of 3 plants each — at Holman St. and on both sides of Main at Winbern — appear to have all been yanked off by force.

Their adhesive residue shows just how attached they were in the first place, with 4 points of contact leaving their marks in place of each pot.

Weeded Out

77004, Landscape, Midtown, Pedestrians, Walkability

Headlines

08/20/18 8:30am

Lessons from Hurricane Harvey; New 600-Home Community for Katy

by Meredith Deliso

6 Comments

The Median Sale Price in Houston in July Was $242,500, According to Redfin [Houston Chronicle]
Friendswood Development, Pulte Homes To Build 175-Acre Community Katy Crossing Near Grand Pkwy. [HBJ ($)]
6 Ivy Point Apartment Complexes for Residents Ages 55 and Up Planned for Outer-Loop Neighborhoods [Houston Chronicle]
League City Kingâ€™s Bierhaus Looking at Fall Opening [Galveston County Daily News (($)]
What We’ve Learned Since Harvey [The Urban Edge]
Residents of The Pines Condominium Complex Still Weighing Whether To Rebuild or Move On Post-Harvey [Wall Street Journal ($)]
Why Workers Put Christmas Trees Atop Under-Construction Buildings [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of Travis St. at Preston St.: Tom Rusteberg via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Headlines

Daily Demolition Report

08/20/18 8:00am

Daily Demolition Report: Larston Translation

by Swamplot

No Comments

Swamplotâ€™s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.

A time to build up, a time to break down:

Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions

Homes for Sale

08/17/18 4:30pm

Sugar Land Home Listing Photo of the Day: The Hard Stuff

2 Comments

534 Fox Briar Ln. [HAR]

Driveways, Homes for Sale, Sugar-Land

08/17/18 2:30pm

New Skin, No Regrets Tattoo Removal Leave OST Plaza Strip Looking Refreshed

1 Comment

Don’t be fooled by the old marquee fronting the OST Plaza strip near Scott St. — the property is turning the page with a new front facade and a new forward-thinking tenant to go inside it. No Regrets Tattoo Removal parlor is the first business to arrive following renovations to the building, completed August 1. Didjah Tax Insurance, Motherland African Hair Braiding, and the On The Rocks bar all held out during the work. But everyone else took a hike before it got started, including Guarantee Loans. (Despite the honorable mention, it dropped the “s” and opened a new location at 4310 OST a few years ago.)

New wood paneling now tops the storefronts where the awning went away as part of the redo. And in place of all that yellow, stone walls fill in around the doors and windows:

Clean Slate

77021, Renovations, Retail, Riverside-Terrace

08/17/18 11:30am

What’s Next Now That This Empty Macaroni Grill’s New Owner Has Secured Its Perimeter?

4 Comments

Pictured above is the first action this shuttered Macaroni Grill by the Galleria has seen since changing hands last October: the erection of new green fencing around its empty stone and stucco building. Its new-ish owner is Hillstone Hospitality, the group behind the Houston’s restaurant chain as well as several other single-location eateries across the country.

Hillstone has been in the neighborhood even before getting its hands on the empty restaurant, however; the nearest Houston’s is just west on the corner of Fountain View Dr.:

New Westheimer Barricades

77057, Galleria, Renovations, Restaurants

08/17/18 10:00am

Montrose Shake Shack Construction Is About To Begin