New Construction
07/17/13 12:00pm

Bigger Ed: How UH Is Shaping Up

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There’s more going on at U of H than that new McDonald’s, apparently: A reader sends these photos of many of the construction projects scattered across the campus. This photo shows the pylons of the still-unnamed bowl with a Downtown view that’s replacing Robertson Stadium, demolished back in December. And in the background of the photo you can see the new Cougar Place apartments. KUHF’s Jack Williams reports that the new stadium is already about a third done; more photos after the jump illustrate the below-grade playing field.

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Land Development
07/17/13 10:00am

The Spur-Side Lot on W. Alabama Primed for Packed-In Homes

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Note: Read more about that tree here.

The sign shows that a variance is pending to reduce the setback here along Spur 527 — at left in the photo above — the better to fit 15 single-family lots on the less-than-an-acre property between W. Alabama and Marshall St. in the Westmoreland Historic District. A site plan included in the variance application for the subdivision Carnegie Oaks at Westmoreland shows that the 0.83-acre lot would be parceled out, with driveway access to the north from Marshall and to the south from W. Alabama. The lot’s right across the street from that fixed-up former Skylane complex the Spur. A city rep says that the planning commission will decide on the variance next week.

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Headlines
07/17/13 8:30am

Headlines: Fresh Market’s Texas Entrance; Greenspoint’s New Office-Friendly Image

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Photo of the Club Quarters Hotel at 710 Fannin: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Museum Park
07/16/13 5:00pm

Who’s Gonna Get These Museum Park Blues?

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A builder working on these bungalows at 4204 and 4208 Crawford St. says the owner is freshening them up into rental properties. The Museum Park pair sat side by side on the market for about a year until they were purchased back in April, county records show. Dating to 1929, the roughly 1,100-sq.-ft. houses each have 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. They sit 2 blocks north of Wheeler at Crawford and Eagle St., near where the Southwest Fwy. vaults over Midtown.

Photos: Allyn West

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Bellaire
07/16/13 4:00pm

An Eighties Townhome Tucked Inside the Bellaire Border

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Among the townhome clusters built off Newcastle back in the eighties is this full-of-shutters one with front-loading driveway on one of the development’s interior, double-ended cul-de-sacs. Zoned to Bellaire schools, the 1981 property popped up on the market last week with a list price of $325,000.

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Afton Oaks
07/16/13 3:00pm

So Long, Old Apartments Almost in Afton Oaks

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Seems the end is coming at the end of the summer for this 1955 12-plex just inside the Loop on Oakshire Dr.: A rep from the city says that the planning commission has approved a subdivision of the 0.4-acre property underneath it into 7 skinny single-family slots. And the Swamplot reader who has been keeping us updated now and again about the building located just south of W. Alabama near Afton Oaks writes in with what might be the last word: “I just heard from a resident who is still there that they are planning on starting the tear-down August 1st.”

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Comments
07/16/13 2:00pm

Comment of the Day: When Houston Buildings Weren’t So Shy of the Street

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN HOUSTON BUILDINGS WEREN’T SO SHY OF THE STREET “The main reason these old buildings are so charming is their zero-foot setback from the front property line, which results in a much more pedestrian-friendly streetscape. Ever since the City created the Chapter 42 development requirements, with 25-ft setbacks along major thoroughfares (of which Washington is one) and minimum parking requirements, retail development shifted from pedestrian-friendly zero building line (e.g. 19th St or Rice Village) to strip centers with two rows of parking in front. After all, if you can’t build within 25 feet of the building line, you might as well put cars there.” [Angostura, commenting on A Restaurant Renovation in the Old Sixth Ward] Illustration: Lulu

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Houston Heights
07/16/13 12:00pm

City Traffic Operations Building New I-10 Facility Much Closer to City Traffic

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Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that the city would relocate its traffic operations to this building; that assertion is in error. The new Patterson St. building is replacing an older structure, and it will serve in addition to the primary traffic operation offices in the Public Works Building Downtown. The story has been corrected. Swamplot regrets the error.

Going up: This building at 2001 Patterson St. On the north side of I-10, the 40,000-sq.-ft. building designed by Kirksey will house the city’s traffic operations offices, warehouses, and sign- and signal-making shops. A smaller pavement-marking shop will be built here too. Fittingly, the buildings will stare across the freeway at David Adickes’s recently installed spelled-out declaration of Houston love.

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Conroe
07/16/13 10:00am

Boy Scouts Sell Camp Strake in Conroe To Master-Planned Community Master Planners

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Camp Strake, owned by the Houston arm of the Boy Scouts of America since the 1940s, is now under contract to Johnson Development, responsible for communities like Sienna Plantation in Missouri City and Imperial Sugar Land, to name just a couple. Nevertheless, Johnson Development declined to reveal any plans for the 2,083-acre lake-dotted property along the San Jacinto River and not quite 10 miles north of the new ExxonMobil headquarters. For what it’s worth, Jones Lang LaSalle did market the property to buyers as a master-planned community called Grand Lake Park, a plan for which you can see after the jump.

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Headlines
07/16/13 8:30am

Headlines: Picking a Buyer for Choice HISD Campus; Reviewing Houston’s ‘Big, Vulgar’ Street Art

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Photo of River Oaks Country Club: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

Montrose
07/15/13 5:00pm

Dunkin’ Donuts Won’t Open Montrose Location for Another Week

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DUNKIN’ DONUTS WON’T OPEN MONTROSE LOCATION FOR ANOTHER WEEK You might have read here or here that the first one to open inside the Loop of those 24 new Dunkin’ Donuts locations would be ready tomorrow at the former Arby’s on the corner of Fairview and S. Shepherd. Well, it won’t be. A company rep writes in an email that the S. Shepherd team won’t be making (or selling) the donuts until next Monday, July 22. A grander opening will follow on July 30. (You can head to the new one in Westchase if you can’t wait.) [29-95; Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Land Development
07/15/13 4:00pm

What’s Going On Beside the Hermann Dr. Highrise?

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A reader wants in on the scoop with this swath of fenced-in property, bound by Ewing, Jackson, and Hermann Drive in Museum Park: “There has been a lot of surveying and staking of the empty lot . . . between The Parklane highrise and The Plaza Museum District condos. Off-and-on for a month, Bury Partners personnel have been surveying both the perimeter and interior of the property as well as inspecting the sewer access on Hermann Drive. Any thoughts on what this means?”

Photo: Allyn West

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