COMMENT OF THE DAY: DEMOLITION FOR A BETTER FUTURE 
“When we do not preserve our past, we are able to have a wide open future. A future with more efficient, ecologically congruent buildings. Buildings with modern HVAC, windows, flood control. Tearing down old cool looking buildings is just that. We lose cool looking buildings from another time. I personally live in a renovated old house, and before that lived in another cool-looking old house. I preserved each. I don’t think renovating/preserving has anything to do with the future of either location. So, while the Deco style is great and would be fantastic if someone saw the residual value, it’s not crucial to anything. The market has spoken. If they build an unappealing, out-of-touch new building — the buy side will also speak, and not reward the owner with their business. This is how the world should work. Forcing a property owner through regulation to appreciate the styling of yesteryear is anti-productive. I have a heart a for gray area on this when it comes to public buildings. Then it is owned by the public, and needs to be considered more broadly on how the tax-paying public feels about the continued use/retention of a historic or interesting-looking, dated building. Think City Hall.” [Bo Darley, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Fannin Flames] Illustration: Lulu
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Both Pi Pizza and Star Fish have been locked out of their leases in the Washington Heights shopping center building on Heights Blvd. just south of White Oak Bayou and roughly across the street from the Art Car Museum, leaving the strip absent its 2 endcap tenants. Star Fish picked up where Bradley’s Fine Diner left off in the building’s north side about a year and a half ago, and the pizza parlor took over from Funky Chicken on the south end of things in 2016.
Pictured below is the notice a Swamplot reader found stuck to Pi’s storefront right around lunchtime:
Off the Menu
Magnolia’s Ice Cream & More is now grooming the former Park Place Pharmacy building 2 blocks west of the Gulf Fwy. for what’ll be its second creamery. Although the pharmacy building lost its original signage — pictured above in 2012 — sometime before MMA gym Metro Fight Club took it over a few years ago (to be followed briefly by Friends Lifestyle Lounge), the rest of the exterior has remained more or less frozen in time since its construction in 1950.
Already the corner of the building has earned its stripes (and drive-thru window) as part of its entry into food service. In its final form, the structure will also feature a new ice cream sign in place of the former RX mark:
The Best Medicine
SOUTHWEST KEY SAYS EMANCIPATION DETENTION CENTER NEARLY READY TO WELCOME KIDS, CITY SAYS NOT WITHOUT PROPER PAPERS 
The nonprofit looking to house unaccompanied children who crossed the border illegally in the complex at 419 Emancipation Ave. tells the Chronicle‘s Lomi Kriel and Mike Morris it’s only seeking one more permit — okaying a commercial kitchen — before it plans to open the East Downtown facility. And even if that paperwork doesn’t arrive, company officials say, they could just open up anyway with food procured by some other means. But according to city officials, 2 permits the building received back in June — a certificate of occupancy and safety survey — are void because both came through based on the structure’s designation as a “shelter.” Houston’s fire chief now says the complex is more of a “custodial care facility” — a classification with different requirements for city sign-offs since “the occupants are not going to be free to enter and exit as they wish.” His recommendation: start the application process for those 2 documents over from scratch. [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Photo: LoopNet
- Two Westlake Park in the Energy Corridor Nearing Default on Its Loan [HBJ ($)]
- Austin’s GVA Real Estate Group Picks Up Huntington Glen Apartment Complex in Alief [Realty News Report]
- MS Warehousing Expands Lease at 2015 Turning Basin in East Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- G.T. Leach Constructors and Arel Capital Both Suing Each Other Over Delays on River Oaks Condo Project [HBJ]
- Houston Renters Able To Save $66 on Average a Month, Finds PropertyShark and RentCafe Report [Culturemap]
- Millennials Looking to Settle Down in Cy-Fair, Says Realtor [Community Impact Newspaper]
- Renters Living in Bear Creek Post-Harvey Causing Tension with Homeowners [Houston Public Media]
- Downtown Restaurants Massa’s South Coast Grill and Blue by Massa’s Struggling with Downtown Changes [Culturemap]
- Ice Cream Shop Twisted Love Coming to Dun Huang Plaza [Eater Houston]
- The Architect Behind the Double Helix-Shaped Park at TMC3 [TMC News; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Studemont Junction: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
A raw deal for a New Deal building downtown, and other local guttings of the day:
Dump trucks are now filing onto the barricaded block once home to the Houston Chronicle building — and more recently a parking lot — at Texas and Travis to start laying the foundation for Hines’s new 47-floor tower and soon-to-be new global headquarters. The photo above views the traffic from way up on the 31st floor of the site’s catty-corner northeast neighbor Aris Market Square — which the new building will overtop along with pretty much everything else nearby except the Chase Tower directly south of it. Law firm Vinson & Elkins will occupy the building’s top 7 floors.
A series of glassed-in atria shown in the rendering above from architecture firm Pelli Clarke Pelli hang out along the structure’s edge facing Milam St. Viewed from closer up, you can even see some people and trees inside them looking out on what’s below:
Dump Truck Parade
After and before views show off the dramatic change of face that’s transformed 311 Travis St. as part of the prep-work for its new Tiki-themed bar occupant Kanaloa. The monochrome makeover began on the lower façade a few weeks ago before proceeding upstairs where it wrapped up last week. “We want this to be a hidden oasis in downtown,” the venue’s owner told Eater in March, hinting at plans to renovate the 126-year-old Alltmont Building. Its canopies, window arches, and pediment are pretty well-hidden now — though the building does seem to stand out a bit as a whole amid the row of adjacent lighter brick structures fronting Market Square Park.
When Kanaloa opens, it will pick up where Market Square Bar & Grill — pictured below — left off last year:
Tiki Torched
There’s now some still life clinging to the Kirby Grove office building across from Levy Park where Slowpokes plans to debut its second location sometime this fall. Already open in the 16-story building’s ground floor: Kiran’s Indian restaurant and a branch of PlainsCapital Bank — whose ATM you can make out to the left of the exhibition wall in the photo above.
From their current vantage point, each of the 3 framed faces — mainstays at the cafe’s original Garden Oaks location — will have a good view of the park across the street as they wait for the new restaurant to take shape:
Garden Oaks to Kirby Grove
“BEYONCE! MED CENTER! CLOSE TO EVERYTHING!” proclaims the listing for 2414 Rosedale St., the singer’s early childhood home in Riverside Terrace. Matthew and Tina Knowles bought the house in January, 1982 back when Beyoncé was just shy of 5-months old. Located 2 blocks north of Southmore Blvd. and one east of Hwy. 288, it hit the market a few weeks ago for $500,000.
Stepping through its front entrance portal puts you in the foyer, next to the staircase:
Destiny’s Infant
- Former Walmart Supercenter in Northwest Houston Being Converted into Mixed-Use Project [HBJ]
- 50M SF of Office Space Is Vacant in Houston, According to NAI Partners [Realty News Report]
- Permit Delays Postpone Projected Stability of Tower Planned at River Oaks Shopping Center [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Finalized Plans for Downtown Post Office Include Food Hall, Music Venue, Coworking Space, Rooftop Park [HBJ ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Slideshow: Where Home Prices Have Increased and Decreased the Most So Far in Houston in 2018 [HBJ]
- Can Houston Support Another Food Development That’s Car-Centric in Railway Heights Market? [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Snooze, An A.M. Eatery Opening Next Year in Former Arcodoro Space at Centre at Post Oak [HBJ]
- The Grove Do-Nutz Owners Bringing Breakfast Spot Toast to Sugar Land [Eater Houston]
- JLL: An Average of 31.6% of Houston Workers Reverse Commute for Their Jobs [Houston Chronicle]
- Levy Park in the Running for Urban Land Institute’s Urban Open Space Award [HBJ]
Photo of Waugh Bridge: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
To make way for the Houston of the future, we’re clearing away these remnants of the past:
- 5026 Big Meadow Ln. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NEW ART SUPPLY WILL CROP UP SOMEWHERE OFF MAIN ST. AHEAD OF PLANNED HIGHRISING 
“The owners of Art Supply are moving to a new location. This is a successful store, and the owners have no intention of closing up and retiring. In addition, this building has been used as studios for artists for decades as well as a location for art classes. Their new location will also have art studios.” [Robert Boyd, commenting on Australian Developer Now Has All 3 Midtown Blocks Lined Up for Incoming Highrise Trio] Photo: Keaton Joyner
