11/22/13 5:00pm

11 Wild Ginger Ct., Grogans Mill, The Woodlands, Texas

11 Wild Ginger Ct., Grogans Mill, The Woodlands, Texas

Too late: Someone has already scooped up this house on Wild Ginger Ct., where the founder of The Woodlands, oilman George Mitchell, lived with his wife Cynthia Woods Mitchell from the the time it was constructed in 1983 until his death earlier this year (she died in 2009, but her pavilion lives on). The Grogan’s Mill property overlooking a portion of the golf course at the Woodlands Resort and Conference Center went up for sale quietly earlier this week and was put under contract Thursday. But the property’s still worth gawking at, if only to note our own reactions to a not-so-pretentious 2-story home nestled in the trees — and what it implies about the way the north-of-Houston community’s founder envisioned life there.

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Empty Life Forms
11/22/13 4:30pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON DOES BETTER WORK UNDERGROUND Houston Power“It is always a bit embarrassing that the city that is at the forefront of some of the greatest energy industry construction and engineering marvels in world history (fracking, diagonal drilling, deep water drilling, etc.) stumbles, fumbles and bumbles with every big public infrastructure/amenity project that comes up. Rail from downtown to an airport? Crazy talk. Innovative repurposing of an iconic sports arena? Why not a cheezy convention center thingy instead or just blow it up? Why can’t all the amazing ingenuity, innovation and leadership that is prevalent in the energy industry have some spillover into our public spaces?” [Old School, commenting on How Metro Let an International Design Competition for Houston’s New Central Station Go Down the Drain] Illustration: Lulu

11/22/13 2:15pm

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When a shutterbug crosses a picket line, the results could look like this white-fenced, louver-loving 1920 cottage in Woodland Heights. The well-porched property is on its third run at the market in 5 months. This round, initiated earlier this week by a new agency, sets the price at $550,000. An initial listing of the corner lot cottage in July 2013 was priced at $635,000, though the ask was reduced to $599,000 a month later. A relisting in September floated a $575,000 price tag, but only for a month. (Way back in 1997, the home sold for $229,900.)

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The Louvered Life
11/22/13 12:15pm

River Oaks Plant House, 3401 Westheimer Rd., River Oaks, Houston

River Oaks Plant House, 3401 Westheimer Rd., River Oaks, HoustonThe River Oaks Plant House — also known as the greenery purveyor that regularly festoons the corner of Westheimer and Buffalo Speedway with dancing bears and other fake topiary — will be closing up shop at the end December. Headmaster Mark Desjardins writes in an email that St. John’s School notified the owners of the more-than-30-year-old store in September that its lease would be terminated by December 31. The prep school had purchased the property from the Henry J. N. Taub family, along with the land under Blanco’s Bar & Grill, in a 13-acre deal completed exactly a year earlier.

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Leaving Soon
11/22/13 10:30am

Snohetta Design for Central Station Canopy, Main St. at Capitol, Downtown Houston

Wondering whatever happened to the competition entries from architects competing for the new Main St. light rail station planned for the block between Capitol and Rusk streets downtown, where the new East End and Southeast Lines cross the existing rail line? After a long silence about the project, Metro board members voted yesterday to scrap the plan for a signature station at that location, and to spend $1.05 million to build a standard canopy there instead.

The winner of the invitation-only competition — which included SHoP Architects, LTL Architects, and Neil Denari from New York as well as Houston’s Interloop—Architecture — was New York and Oslo firm Snøhetta. But who’d have known it?

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No Snøhetta for Main St.
11/22/13 8:30am

Fountain at Waugh and Allen Parkway

Photo of the Wortham Fountain at Waugh and Allen Parkway: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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11/21/13 3:00pm

Demolition of Former Elgin-Butler Brick Co. Building, 2619 Westpark Dr., Upper Kirby, Houston

Behold the final moments this afternoon of the Goode Company building at 2619 Westpark, just west of Kirby Dr. A reader sends in these images of the once-swank former Elgin-Butler Brick Company Building, built in 1966 with a fine sampling of the company’s glazed wares attached to its facade and converted in 1988 to an office building and commissary for the extended Goode Co. barbecue-seafood-taqueria-armadillo empire. In this hallowed hall — and the attached warehouse building, totaling more than 14,000 sq. ft. altogether — many a brick was spec’ed and many a pecan pie was congealed. But it’s all going away now.

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Goode Riddance
11/21/13 1:00pm

Katy Contemporary Arts Museum, 805 Ave. B at First St., Katy, Texas

Where is the new Katy Contemporary Arts Museum? “In the heart of Katy’s Museum District,” boasts the brand-new institution’s website. That appears to be shorthand for “right across from the Katy Railroad Park and Tourist Center“; the Katy Heritage Museum and Park and “G.I. Joe” Museum are a half-mile northeast. The white concrete-and-brick building at 805 Ave. B, at the corner of First St., was originally built in 1953 for the Katy Lumber Company. The museum chose the structure for its easy access to I-10, among other features. Like its more sophisticated metal-clad sorta-namesake in Houston, admission is free; but art blogger Robert Boyd notes there are plans to expand the 5,000-sq.-ft. facility to house an actual permanent collection:

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Trains, Guns, and Art
11/21/13 11:30am

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Among the cheek-to-jowl townhomes in the Willow Walk development, a 1983 Tudor-ed up unit exhibits blonde ambition in its choice of interior paneling, flooring, and trim (above). The 1-and-a-half-story Spring Shadows home squeezed its way into the market late last week. Its asking price is $275,000. (That doesn’t include any greens fees at the Pine Crest Golf Course across the street.)

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Golden Glow
11/21/13 10:30am

5010 Dincans St., West University, Houston

Sign, 5010 Dincans St., West University, HoustonA city permit was approved last week to convert a portion of the building that once housed the A&M Pet Clinic at 5010 Dincans St. into a wine bar. The 2-story building is across the street from the new apartment block Hanover is completing between Bissonnet and North Blvd. just west of Kirby Dr. The Swamplot reader who visited the closing-after-New-Year’s West U recycling center just to the north of the property finds the posted TABC notice, which identifies the applicant as Catering Plus. Ray Memari, co-owner of the Antica Osteria Italian Restaurant on Bissonnet just west of Greenbriar, purchased the building last year.

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Bottle District?
11/21/13 8:30am

Houston downtown skyline

Photo: Curt Littlejohn via Swamplot Flickr Pool

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