Photo of construction of Alexan West University Apartments at Bissonnet and Law: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
It looks like these 4-story townhouses are filling out a bit here on the corner of E. 2nd and Heights Blvd., where in late April their stick-frame precursors fell over in a wind-aided collapse. Fortunately, no one was hurt, though the garage doors of several finished and already occupied neighboring units were damaged. Keystone Classic Homes is the builder of this 8-pack located just south of White Oak Bayou.
Though we still don’t know exactly what’s replacing it, the Macy’s on Main is now well on its way to becoming nothing. The Downtown block where the Kenneth Franzheim brick box stands is bound by Main, Dallas, Travis, and Lamar. That’s now owned by 1110 Main Partners, an entity connected to Hilcorp; a source there told Swamplot about a month ago that Hilcorp employees had been shown a rendering of a “a regular looking office building tower over 20 stories high†to be built here, but that rendering hasn’t surfaced — so far. This photo shows part of the former Foley’s overhang as though bitten into by a wide-mouth excavator. And a few more shots of the demolition:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ASHES TO ASHES, DUST TO DUSTING 
“Looking at that house on Deal, I think, as I often do with the daily demolitions: that looks so wonderfully easy to keep clean. You’d have a little time to sit and drink iced tea on that side entry porch. Where others see a space to fill — and I realize that’s the better impulse, ultimately, to want to build something, even something as hideous as the house across the street — I just see time. That’s the direction my thoughts take 7665 days of housework later.” [luciaphile, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Deal and No Deal] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY RUNNER-UP: HOUSTON HAS ITS COMMUTER RAIL ALREADY, AND IT’S SPELLED H-O-V 
“(1) We have one of the best suburb-to-downtown commuter transit systems in the country in the form of the HOV buses, which METRO has invested a lot of money into (the HOV lanes and transit centers cost $1 billion or so to build, and the service is more expensive to operate per rider than either rail or local bus.) 50% of the people who work downtown and live in the areas served by the park & rides already take transit. Commuter rail would be slower, less frequent, and less convenient. The 290 study showed that a $300 million commuter rail line could actually decrease transit ridership. So why should we build commuter rail in corridors that already have park & ride?
(2) Grade separated rail is great, but it’s not cheaper — cost is twice or more of at grade. Subway is 4 times or more. So the question is not if grade separation is good; the question is if grade separation is worth the extra cost. And nobody — not even Chicago — is building elevated rail above city streets, so if you want to grade separate you either need to be lucky enough to have an old rail line or a freeway exactly where people want to go or you need to pay for a subway.” [Christof Spieler, commenting on Comment of the Day: Developing at the Speed of Light Rail] Illustration: Lulu
COMMENT OF THE DAY SECOND RUNNER-UP: NO ZONING MEANS WE’LL ALWAYS HAVE TRAFFIC SURPRISES “If there was only a way to plan for traffic and infrastructure by knowing the density that a site will have in the future . . . Oh yeah, its called Zoning. Then you know the worst case development scenario. And if you ever want to build bigger than you have to upgrade the infrastructure first. Nah, why do that, we can just let people build as big as they want and try and fix the problems later. Unless you are for zoning and rules than you can’t complain about traffic. They are the same. [DD, commenting on A Second Midrise Alexan Planned Right Beside the First One on Yale]
A pair of Houston artists have really spruced up what’s left of the interior of this former beauty parlor on Dowling St. in the Third Ward. Funded in part by the Houston Arts Alliance, reports Glasstire, Robert Hodge and Phillip Pyle II bought secondhand furniture, wallpaper, knick-knacks, framed photographs of JFK, MLK, Jr., and JC (Jesus Christ, that is) and a rug for this crumbling shell of a building at Dowling and Stuart near the Project Row Houses, turning it into an temporary installation they’re calling “Beauty Box.”
A reader sends photo of the construction progress of the replacement McDonald’s near the corner of Elgin and Cullen on the University of Houston campus. The McDonald’s that used to stand here was torn down in early June. A regional rep says that this new one should be ready by the time classes resume.
Photos: Thomas Heinold
A development report from Hines includes this rendering of what appears to be the new Apache Corporation headquarters planned for mixed-use BLVD Place just north of the Galleria. The report names the wafer-like building “Project Alpha” and describes it as 34 stories and 750,000-sq.-ft. of office space with a fitness center and cafeteria. Currently, Apache is headquartered at Post Oak Central.
Rendering: Hines
How about a little clubbing in the night? — and perhaps a few more Houston pastimes we can turn into things of the past.
A SECOND MIDRISE ALEXAN PLANNED RIGHT BESIDE THE FIRST ONE ON YALE 
The Leader reports that notices have gone out to Heights neighborhood groups indicating that Trammell Crow is planning a second Alexan-brand apartment complex on Yale. This one, writes Cynthia Lescalleet, would also be 4 stories set atop 2 levels of parking. It would sit on a 4.9-acre lot on Yale between 5th and 6th, immediately south of the 3.5-acre lot targeted for the proposed Alexan Heights — the rendering for which is shown here — bound by 6th, Allston, Yale, and the Heights hike and bike trail. Lescalleet quotes from the notice sent around by city council member Ellen Cohen: “TCR has the site under contract and is currently performing preliminary due diligence, and they expect to close the purchase of the property by the end of the year. Once TCR establishes a site plan and unit count, they will perform a new traffic study that will include roadways and intersections included in their previous TIA, while also including new intersections on Yale St., Heights Boulevard, and I-10, as well as pedestrian counts.†[The Leader; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Trammell Crow Residential
Even without the billowing sailcloth and Seussian shrubs accenting the double-height ceiling, a penthouse-level unit in downtown’s St. Germain condo mid-rise is a lofty space. Developer Randall Davis converted the former 1913 Kress & Co. building back in 1999. This bi-level corner unit appeared on the market in June with an asking price of $315,000. It last sold in June 2010 at $259,900.
