Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
There comes a time in the life of every building to come apart.
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- Two Galleria Westin Hotels on the Market with Combined Total Value of $210M [Houston Business Journal]
- Falcon Group Planning Kirksey-Designed Gated Community on Galveston’s East End [Houston Business Journal]
- 35,000 Households To Receive Single-Stream Automated Curbside Recycling in Late July [Houston Chronicle]
- 515 Post Oak’s $7.5M Renovation by Ziegler Cooper Now Complete [Prime Property]
- Clear Lake Regional Medical Center Finishes $92M Expansion [Prime Property]
- Grand Parkway, I-10 Connector Linking Katy and Cypress on Pace for December Opening [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- To Accommodate Future Growth, Hitchcock Investing in City Technology Upgrades, Water Storage Tanks, New Water Lines [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Heights Blvd. ‘Yarn-Bomb’ Installation Destroyed By Vandal [abc13]
- League City Votes To Expand Skate Park [Galveston County Daily New ($)]
- Houston’s First Confirmed West Nile Virus Mosquito Sample Found in Northeast Harris County [Click2Houston]
- The Sixth Ward House, Addition Connected by a See-Through Floating Dining Room [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Buffalo Bayou at West Loop: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Houston builders Westin Homes seems to be expanding into the luxury replica spaceship playhouse market — at least this summer, anyway, hooking up with HomeAid Houston to imagineer something like what you see here and display it this June and July at Minute Maid Park. (That’s Astros mascot Orbit peeking out, as though a tad reluctant to deboard.) Of course, the playhouse isn’t just for show: It’ll be raffled off, with proceeds going to HomeAid, and it’ll eventually find its way to someone’s backyard, where the lucky winners will enjoy its
. . . space-themed amenities such as a cockpit complete with swivel seats, ‘rocket booster’-framed windows, a 32†wall mounted LCD TV, an XBox, an MP3 player, an iPod docking station with speakers and interior detailing . . . air conditioning and electricity.
It doesn’t appear that the playhouse will be suitable for actual space travel — but there’s always next year. (As Astros fans well know.) Most recently, the nonprofit HomeAid started construction on those 8 single-mothers’ duplexes on W. Bellfort in Meyerland on St. John’s Presbyterian property.
- 2013 Project Playhouse [HomeAid Houston]
- Westin gets on board to build HomeAid Project Playhouse [Westin Homes]
- HomeAid Houston and Westin Homes launches Project Playhouse [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Meyerland Duplexes for Single Mothers
Rendering: Westin Homes via HomeAid Houston
Queen Anne reigns in many of the original elements remaining in an updated 1906 Houston Heights cottage and its lookalike shingle-tipped garage. They share a short-sheeted lot across from Harvard Elementary School and a bit north of the hike-and-bike trail. Listed Monday, the property is asking $294,600.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE PRINCIPLED LOGIC BEHIND THE BATHROOM BOOM “Easy explanation. In high-end homes, builders want every [bedroom] to have its own [bathroom] . . . assuming no one wants to share a bathroom, and you don’t want to roam down the hall at night in your jammies. Plus, you need extra baths (or half-baths) in the public areas (living, dining, etc.). It’s always desirable to have at least one bathroom per floor to avoid sending guests too far from the action (and keeping them from “roaming at will†to snoop through the closets or jewelry drawers. With these new rules, you can easily have many more bathrooms than bedrooms, especially as houses are getting taller in the urban areas.” [Beaker, commenting on Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Flue Shot]
- 7205 Chimney Rock Rd. [HAR]
This is where Houston’s food trucks will come to loiter — er, idle: The so-called Houston Food Park is opening in about a week here at 1504 St. Emanuel in East Downtown, in the parking lot beside the vacant Meridian Sports Bar. You might recognize the weedy lot bound by Leeland, Bell, St. Emanuel, and Chartres from its cameo in Alex Luster’s street-art documentary Stick Em Up. (And this is also catty-corner from the human espressos and doggie hemp treats served at The Green Bone on Leeland.) According to Alison Cook Syd Kearney, the Food Park will celebrate its opening with a festival this Saturday, and regular lunch service from 11 to 3 will begin June 24. Co-owner Ponce Tirzo tells Cook Kearney that there’s room here for 8 or 9 trucks, but they’re hoping to use some of the other vacant lots nearby, too.
It looks like the 10.53 acres behind this sign where the Spring Branch RoomStore stands have been fosoldale, and the buyer has said it plans to build some rental townhomes. Broker David Littwitz says that the RoomStore here at 1009 Brittmoore Rd. facing the Katy Fwy. closed about a year ago, after the Richmond, Virginia, company filed for bankruptcy near the end of 2011. Real Estate Bisnow’s Catie Dixon reports that the buyer, a joint venture called Houston Texas Properties, intends to tear down the showroom to develop what they’re dubbing Arabella, desribed by Dixon as a “240-unit, upscale rental townhome community.” And they’re not wasting time: Dixon adds that the RoomStore should be coming down within the next few weeks.
- Energy Corridor Land Sells [Real Estate Bisnow]
Photo: Real Estate Bisnow
The Menil Collection has picked a landscape architecture firm, and the museum says that the long-awaited master-planned reshaping of its 30-acre Montrose spread will get going this September. The firm belongs to Michael Van Valkenburgh, who’s done some tinkering previously at Harvard Yard and Pennsylvania Avenue. Apparently, the first item of business he’ll tackle here is the parking lot off W. Alabama: “[It] really needs attention,” Menil director Josef Helfenstein tells the Houston Chronicle. “It’s the first thing you see.”
- Urban Land Institute Report Calls for More Green Space, Affordable Housing, Walkable Connections Downtown [KUHF]
- New BBVA Compass Plaza Perks Include Internet-Equipped Gym Equipment, Cafeteria, City Views [Culturemap]
- Heights Ford Dealership Undergoing $12M Renovation, But Not Changing That Oil Derrick Sign [Houston Business Journal]
- Hotel Galvez’s Old Bernardo’s Restaurant Now Open with New Name, Look, Menu [Galveston County Daily News ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Billionaires Open Drive-Thru Donut Shop on Westheimer in River Oaks [Culturemap]
- Residents Ask Conroe Not To Annex Them [Courier of Montgomery County]
- Fracking Beginning Today at Cleveland Oil Site [Cleveland Advocate]
- 25 Years Ago, Moody Gardens Brought White Sand to Galveston [Houston Chronicle]
- A Little Visual History of the Shamrock Hotel [Prime Property]
- Redux: Houston’s Top 10 Small Churches and Temples, Architecturally [Art Attack]
Photo: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
It’s not a James Turrell skyspace, but an updated midcentury home in Meyerland incorporates skylights, transoms, and other architectural cutouts to have some fun with the light and shadows within and around it. The 1959 property showed up on the market Tuesday, asking $499,750.
THE WOODLAND PARK THINNING STORY THICKENS 
The backlash to the clearing of Woodland Park vegetation behind the 7 townhomes he’s building on Wrightwood St. seems to have encouraged first-time developer Bill Workman to make hardhat-in-hand rounds this week with local media: He’s given similar statements regretting the snafu to Hair Balls, KUHF, Click2Houston, and abc13. But more details are coming out that complicate a situation that Workman maintains resulted from a miscommunication with a subcontractor hired, he says, only to grade the site: Debris from what’s been reported to be 3/4 of an acre of parkland has been pushed down to the banks of Little White Oak Bayou, presenting a possible drainage problem — which, of course, the grading was undertaken in the first place to solve. And the claim that only invasive species had been removed doesn’t seem to be the case, either, reports the Houston Chronicle: “The Parks Department reported that the cleared property included some healthy trees,” write Erin Mulvaney and Mike Norris. (As many as 100, estimates abc13.) “Reforestation and replanting will be necessary, and erosion control and possible regrading of the site may be required, officials said. A debris pile will also need to be removed. Workman said a large amount of bamboo and an undergrowth of vines were removed in the clearing.” [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot] Photo: Andrea Greer
COMMENT OF THE DAY: SIGNS THE NON-PLAN FOR WASHINGTON AVE MIGHT HAVE BEEN A FLOP “To be clear, I don’t think it will turn into a dump. I just think the area has plateaued and will hold steady. Proximity to Memorial Park isn’t that great unless you live right by the park and walk. Otherwise, it still requires getting in a car and parking. As the thrown-up townhomes age and the scene has moved elsewhere, people are going to question whether living in a hood with narrow streets, rare parking, older townhomes, a train track through the middle, and awkward access into Downtown is really worth $400k+. Those with that kind of money to spend on a townhome are going to want to be near the action.” [Brian, commenting on How About Washington Ave Jitney Rapid Transit?]
- 2323 North Blvd. [HAR]
