- 153 W. Lake Point [HAR]
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A ‘FIELD GUIDE’ TO HOUSTON FOOD TRUCKS 
A new book declares which among the estimated 1,400 are the best food trucks in Houston: Houston Chronicle food writer and UH marketing professor Paul Galvani tells a 392-page story of what he calls “the food truck movement,” providing maps and reviews of his 100 favorites, like Good Dog Hot Dog and The Modular, which gave rise to the recently opened Downtown ramen shop Goro & Gun. Houstonia food writer and El Real Tex Mex co-founder Robb Walsh doesn’t seem to think this is a book meant for the coffee table, blurbing, “I plan to carry a copy in my car as a field guide . . . .” [Houston’s Top 100 Food Trucks; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Houston’s Top 100 Food Trucks via Swamplot inbox
Hey! What happened to that neon sign at Huston’s Drugs? Artist Chris Bramel, who’s working to renovate the former pharmacy on Washington in the Old Sixth Ward into a space where he can live and work, explains: “The sign was claimed by the original owner and he’s going to hang it at his house or ranch.” To deal with the emptiness, Bramel is having a replacement sign built for him, he says, “and I will have that thing lighting up the street every night.”
- Previously on Swamplot: The Fate of the Neon Sign at Huston’s Drugs, Artist Renovating, Moving Into Washington Ave.’s Old Huston’s Drugs
Photos: Allyn West
There they go: The Maryland Manor Apartments received their demolition permit on Friday, clearing the ground for the Ashby Highrise. Salvaging work inside these 10 structures at 1717 Bissonnet St. is reported to begin today, prepping the fought-over Boulevard Oaks corner for the 21-story, 228-unit residential tower. The final few tenants were seen moving out of Maryland Manor at the end of March.
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Oh, and a few more little somethings to clear:
- Water Rescues, Downed Power Lines Follow Heavy Saturday Storms [Houston Chronicle]
- CarShare Program Launches in the Energy Corridor [KUHF]
- Los Angeles-Based Laurus Buys Gateway I and II Complex Near IAH [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Plastic Domed ‘Luminarium’ Sets Up on Jones Lawn at Discovery Green [Culturemap]
- Galveston Still Healing 5 Years After Hurricane Ike [KUHF]
- Festival Highlights Texas City’s Million-Dollar Push to Revitalize Sixth St. [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Permits for New League City Homes Up 91 Percent over This Time Last Year [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- $3M Texas City Water Park Gearing Up for Memorial Day Weekend Opening [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Galveston Loses Kerrville Bus Company’s Daily Shuttle to Houston [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- La Marque To Consider ‘Quiet Zones’ for Union Pacific Railroad on Hwy. 3 [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Mayor’s Westmoreland House Was Once Home to Rice Students [Houston Chronicle]
- 80 Floating Water Lilies Light Up at Hermann Park Reflection Pond [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of Midtown Sears: Pete Molick via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Updates introduced to this 1950 home in Idylwood over the past 5 years played up its midcentury roots. Listed Thursday, the compact-but-complete property is asking $223,900. Brays Bayou is a block or so up the street. Gus Wortham Golf Course and the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word’s Villa de Matel (and its chiming carillon) are also nearby.
Another win for Komatsu: This vacant 30,000-sq.-ft. office building in the shadow of the Houston House apartments was reduced to rubble this week on the Downtown lot bound by Fannin, Main, Leeland, and Pease, where construction on the 24-story, 336-unit residential tower SkyHouse is just beginning. (The parking lot in the foreground of the photo at the top is now a hole in the ground.) The project at 1625 Main was announced in March by Atlanta developer Novare Group, which has put up a similar tower in Austin.
- Opening Spring 2014 [Simpson Property Group]
- Previously on Swamplot: Where Downtown’s New Residential Tower Will Go
Photos: Swamplot inbox (demolition), Allyn West (building)
A poster on HAIF has leaked this rendering that might show what Southwestern Energy is planning to build to consolidate its employees in Springwoods Village. It was first reported to be a 10-story office building on 22 acres at I-45 and the future Grand Pkwy., just south of the ExxonMobil campus.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: MY CENTRAL SQUARE DORM DREAM “When I was at school at UH-D, I would take the rail up to campus everyday and see those two buildings there. To best contribute to the urban fabric, I often would imagine that someone would redevelop them as dorms, and the block that is between it and the rail line could be repurposed as a plaza with a few cafes that would link the building to the rail. The private dorms could serve UH-D, HCC Central, South Texas Law, the medical schools, and even UH and TSU once the University line is complete. Having students commute from the various schools to this central location would add vibrancy to the area and could bring about good academic fellowship. Not sure of the economic feasibility, but it would wildly popular (if the dorm fees were reasonable). Since it’s college kids, renovations need only consist of low cost furnishings, concrete floors, bare ceilings, and maybe a gym and cafeteria. Gotta dream big.” [VMel, commenting on New Owners of Central Square Plaza Want To Make Something of It]
A rep from Edge Realty Partners says that that new retail center that’s now under construction at Westheimer and Dunlavy will have 2 tenants. The primary one, occupying 3,600 sq. ft. of the new building’s proposed 4,800, will be a well-bread pastry cafe from Roy Shvartzapel, the globe-trotting chef profiled recently in Eater Houston. A TABC permit application, filed April 17, suggests that the cafe will be called Leaven & Earth.
And the other tenant? The Edge rep says that names can’t yet be named, but that a lease is all but complete for a “boutique” retail shop that’s already in Montrose to relocate inside the remaining 1,200-sq.-ft. suite that’s depicted in the rendering here as right next to Agora.
- Pastry Chef Roy Shvartzapel Reveals Plan to Bring World-Class Cafe to Montrose [Eater Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot: Dirt and Flour Moved To Create New Place To Drink at Westheimer and Dunlavy, Burned Building Next to Agora on Westheimer Returns — As a Backpack, No, Dunkin’ Donuts Is Not Coming to the Corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy, The Commotion at the Corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy
Images: Edge Realty Partners (rendering); Allyn West (building)
How do you move a historic cottage from one location to another? Well, carefully: This video uploaded this week from the Heritage Society chronicles the easy-does-it, steady-as-she-goes relocation of a Fourth Ward cottage from its perch in Sam Houston Park. The Heritage Society says that the house, originally located on Robin St. in Freedman’s Town, dates to at least 1866. It’s been in the collection since 2002, temporarily sited on Dallas St., while the society awaited the funds to move it to its permanent home beside to the Jack Yates House in that architectural promenade on the park grounds along McKinney St.
- Invesco Puts in $480M Bid for Downtown’s BG Group Place, Reports Real Estate Alert [Prime Property]
- Development Negotiations To Continue as Related Chapter 42 Reforms Move Forward [Houston Chronicle ($);Â previously on Swamplot]
- City Approved More Than a Dozen Demo Applications for Houses in Oak Forest, Garden Oaks Last Week [abc13]
- University of Houston Bans Smoking on Campus [KUHF]
- Bloomberg Ranks Houston Among the Fastest-Growing Metropolitan Areas [Bloomberg via Houston Business Journal]
- Property Value Increases Should ‘Touch Nearly All Homeowners’ Over Next 2 Years [abc13]
- Gulf Freeway HOV Lanes Opening Next Month for Weekend Use [The Highwayman]
- Will Seawall Parking Program Cover Its Own Startup Costs? [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Environmentalists Want Public Input on Memorial Park Reforestation Plan [Houston Chronicle ($); previously on Swamplot]
- Pepper Jack’s Closes in Old Cabo Space Downtown [Eating Our Words]
- Bobcat Spotted Near Buffalo Bayou in George Bush Park [Click2Houston]
- 8th Wonder To Host First Tour of EaDo Brewery This Saturday [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of building being torn down at Town & Country Way and Attingham: Robert Boyd via Swamplot Flickr Pool
The rather restrained and carefully appointed front lawn of this 1980 brick-box home makes the barely tamed nature center installed on its back lot an unexpected twist. A series of wooden decks, patios, terraces, garden follies, and walkways meander through the half-acre ravine property like a theme park’s winding queue, peppered with distracting greenery. The outdoor ensemble overlooks Spring Branch Creek, beyond which a detention pond and the Katy Freeway feeder road lie:
