It’s not exactly over the rainbow, but a tinted-window office over the garage of a 1959 property in Silber Terrace does catch a groovy UV glow. The ranch-style home morphed at some point into a live-work spread on an oversized, unrestricted lot fronting Antoine Dr.’s southbound lane north of I-10. Beyond the back yard’s treeline, Woodlawn Cemetery extends westward views. This mid-November listing comes with a $775,000 asking price.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: READY TO POUNCE ON ANY LIFE FORMS DETECTED IN THE WOODLANDS 
“I live in a neighborhood in The Woodlands that was built out 100% by Lifeforms (Mitchell’s son was an architect there at the time). The finishes can be a bit dated, as the area was built in the ’80s, but the design and layout of the homes in the neighborhood are unique and in high demand. The homes are comfortable and ‘livable.’ Lifeforms architecture has a cult following . . . there is a fairly substantial group of people circling like sharks waiting for a house to come on the market in my neighborhood . . . additionally, I think I have more respect for a billionaire who was content in a modest home designed by his son as opposed to a man who needs to build a ‘gorgeous spread’ just to impress . . .” [Jeff, commenting on A Look at George Mitchell’s Decked-Out Home in The Woodlands, All Cleaned Up and Cleared Out for Sale] Illustration: Lulu
Architect Rob Rogers tells The Architect’s Newspaper how the Mid Main apartment-and-retail development he’s working on for the 3500 and 3600 blocks of Main St. in Midtown will break the mold behind the typical garage-wrapped-with-apartments scheme, which he calls the “Houston Wrap”:
Craig Hlavaty rounds up more detail on plans to implode the Astrodome’s 4 exterior ramp towers, which brought to the monolithic stadium structure a more castle-like appearance when they were added for upper-deck and wheelchair access in the late eighties. Cherry Demolition will knock the circular structures down after dark, beginning just after 9 pm on Sunday, December 8, though the weather may require changes to the schedule. Only 3 of the towers will be dynamited and dropped, however; the fourth tower will be brought down piece-by-piece with demo equipment. There won’t be a Texans game going on in Reliant Stadium, so viewing vantage points may be hard to come by.
Photo of David Adickes’ Beatles statues on Summer St. near Sawyer: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Is the weight of the holiday season and its accompanying festoonage taking a toll on this updated 1929 home in East Montrose? Or was the polished-up property just under a lot of pressure (top) during its listing photo-op? The 3-bedroom, 2-and-a-half-bath property popped up on the market Sunday with a straight-up $840,000 price tag.
GETTING OUT OF THE PLACE? 
A flyer distributed over the weekend to the front doors of a seventies-era apartment Castle Court complex that hugs the Southwest Fwy. warns tenants that plans are afoot to demolish the property next year. Greystar took over management of The Place Apartment Homes, down a driveway at 1341 Castle Ct. in Montrose, in late October. The new unsigned notice, which is clearly not from the management company or the property’s owner, claims eviction notices have been sent out to “tenants who are just one day late (from the grace period) paying their rent,” and asserts that all apartments will be vacated by the end of April: “We recommend ensuring your rent is payed on time and carefully reading any addendum to a current leasing agreement that is presented by the new management,” warns the anonymous pamphleteer. “The purpose of this notice is to inform tenants of recent developments, hopefully allowing tenants to protect themselves.” [Swamplot inbox] Photo: Rent.com
Just what is it with these Atlanta developers and their ground-floor retail? More than a dozen years ago, Atlanta’s Post Properties interrupted Midtown’s otherwise consistent record of first-floor parking, gated windows, and shrubbery with a shopping street along its Gray St. apartment development. And now comes the same city’s Novare Group with plans to wrap the base of its Main St. and Leeland frontage of its 24-story SkyHouse Houston apartment tower downtown with a trio of shop spaces — including more than 2,300 sq. ft. on the ground floor of the building’s separate parking garage.
THE END IN SIGHT FOR RANDALLS 
The Randalls grocery store on the southeast corner of Westheimer and Wilcrest is a goner, reports Catie Dixon. And she tags the chain itself as the likely next casualty in the region’s ongoing grocery wars. Landlord Weingarten Realty, which also manages the Whole Foods Market across the street, sent out notice earlier this month that the space occupied by the former top-performing Randalls in the Westchase Shopping Center is now available for lease. But other new grocery stores are coming to the area: another 60 in the next 18 months, keeping up the recent pace, says broker Jason Baker — who also notes Trader Joe’s is experiencing “challenges” with its new store on S. Voss near Woodway. [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Randalls at 11041 Westheimer Rd.: Weingarten Realty
Craig Dykers of Norway-and-NYC architecture firm Snøhetta tells Chronicle reporter Dug Begley his firm has been working for more than a year on its own and with local contractors to lower the construction costs on his firm’s competition-winning design for Metro’s Central Station canopy — in between its work, that is, on a little reconstruction project for New York called Times Square. Snohetta’s design for a canopy made of thin layers of concrete was meant to highlight rainfall, making falling water “a feature of the design.”
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Let’s get in a bit more wood-chopping before the holiday.
Photo of Lockwood/Eastwood Green Line Station, Harrisburg Dr.: Spencer Howard
