- 3828 Bellefontaine St. [HAR]
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They’re both Pearls. But one of these Morgan Group renderings is destined for a lot in Midtown; the other for Greenway Plaza. Can you tell which is going where?
Note: Story updated below.
This mud pit on Rustic St. is not long for the world; eventually there will be a 3-level parking garage here at very congested HCC Southeast. The East End campus is pressed up against the back of a strip center that faces the I-45 feeder road between Woodridge and Wayside. To make room for the garage, appearing to allow students and faculty to enter from both Rustic and Garland, the 100-seat Carlos Garcia Theater and some inadequate surface parking had to go. This is an otherwise expanding campus: last summer saw the opening of a brand-new Workforce Building (shown here), a 3-story, 60,000-sq.-ft. Brave Praxis Brave Architecture job where many of the campus’s vocational programs — including HVAC, cosmetology, massage therapy, and accounting — are now based.
- President’s Mission [Houston Community College]
- Project Update: HCC Southeast College Workforce Building [Brave Praxis]
Photos: Brave Praxis (academic building);Â Allyn West (site)
- Houston Attorney Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for $7.8M Real Estate Scam [Hair Balls; previously on Swamplot]
- $888K Preservation Renovation of 1933 Art Deco 500 Fannin Building Complete [Prime Property]
- Branch Water Tavern Owner Looking To Relocate, Find Brick-and-Mortar Locations for Fusion Taco Food Truck [29-95]
- Underdogs Owner Hears That Pearl Bar Shut Down for Tax Delinquency, Says ‘It’s Bad Up and Down Washington Right Now’ [Rocks Off]
- Map Shows Houston’s Car Accident Hotspots [Click2Houston]
- TxDOT Looking at Better Signage To Keep Oversized Trucks from Hitting Bridges, Causing Traffic Delays [KUHF]
- The Zip Codes Where Houston’s Getting the Flu [KHOU]
- Much Remains T0 Be Learned About Cancer Risk from Chromium in the Air Near Houston’s Metal Recycling Companies [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- 7 Things We Don’t Want You To See When You Come to Houston [Hair Balls]
- White House Says No to Texas Secession [TM Daily Post]
Photo of Battleship Texas: Candace Garcia via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHAT’S IN THAT WONTON? “. . . The gates these days on apartment complexes are an elaborate way to keep the Chinese restaurant menus off the door handles. However, the Chinese restaurants are getting more crafty, employing some Ninja tactics and Trojan Horse ploys. The war goes on.” [commonsense, commenting on Hanover Reaping More Rice Village Property, Garden Gate Shutting]
Last March, this all was an empty lot. The owner’s home at 1648 Vassar had been destroyed by an electrical fire. Given a budget restricted by the insurance company’s payout, Scott Strasser and Dave Guthrie thought they’d build a replacement clad in untreated cedar.
A NEW MOON TOWER PHASE 
It just takes awhile to remake a potty-mouthed wild-game hot-dog shack, but East Downtown’s Moon Tower Inn has finally reopened after 15 months — with some historical upgrades to the decor at 3004 Canal: “The new tap wall, kitchen and brewhouse are made from shipping containers and reclaimed building materials. For example, [Co-owner Brandon] Young says that the metal siding used to be a barn on the Stephen F Austin University campus, and there are wooden planks from a Louisiana slaves’ quarters.” [Eater Houston] Photo: Marty E.
BREAKING UP WITH THE ART GUYS 
Will the newest installation at the Menil Collection be a hole in the ground? The Art Guys were told last week that the museum intends to remove the live oak they “married” in 2009 in “The Art Guys Marry a Plant,” a public ceremony at the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden at the MFA,H. The museum acquired the tree in 2011 and held another public ceremony when it was planted in Menil Park on Branard St.; the little site (shown at right) backs up to the bamboo grove walling off the park from the Rothko Chapel and Barnett Newman’s “Broken Obelisk.” [Houston Press] Photo: Robert Boyd
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Now ready for your custom touches:
- East Montgomery County Improvement District Now Talking with Developers About Building Grand Texas Theme Park Near New Caney Dinosaur Theme Park [Tomball Potpourri; previously on Swamplot]
- Investcorp and Griffin Partners Buy Pin Oak Park at Loop 610, Bellaire Blvd. for Undisclosed Amount [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Chuy’s Opening in Sugar Land’s Telfair Development Later This Year [Prime Property]
- Dickinson Partners Removing 56 Trees To Add 400 Single-Family Lots to Bayou Lakes Subdivision [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Galveston Home Sales Rose 9.1 Percent Last Year [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- 2 Years Behind Schedule, Project to Widen I-45 in Conroe Nearly Complete [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Flood-Risk Status of 20 Percent of Galveston Has Changed [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- Texas Needs $19M Or Up to 20 State Parks Might Close [Star-Telegram]
- Menil Collection Given AIA’s 25-Year Award [Architect Magazine]
- Touring the ‘Really, Really Weird’ Bas-Reliefs of Rice University, Med Center, Hobby Airport [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Half the $70K Raised To Get David Adickes-Designed Bill Hicks Statue Near Old Comedy Workshop at Shepherd, San Felipe [KUHF]
- Houston One of the Times’ 46 Places to Go in 2013 [New York Times]
Photo: Candace Garcia via Swamplot Flickr Pool
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A BIG DIG FOR EAST DOWNTOWN “What needs to happen to connect Downtown with the East End/EaDo is TxDOT needs to put 59 in a tunnel from just south of 45 up to Commerce Street. Above ground create a mile long linear park. Instead of the elevated freeway discouraging pedestrian activity, a underground freeway below with a fantastic linear park above would draw in visitors in hordes. Who wouldn’t want to be around or live near a mile long urban park jewel? The value added is enough in itself to justify such a project for the betterment of the city.” [Thomas, commenting on Adding to Convention Center District Easy as 1-2-3 . . . 4-5-6-7]
Last year, the Urban Land Institute Houston gave one of its Development of Distinction Awards to Gulfgate (shown here). Near Telephone Rd., one of the city’s first malls was upgraded to an outdoor strip center with a few restaurants and many links of chain retail: Old Navy, Staples, Ross, Best Buy. (The other 2012 “for-profit” award went to a fancier version of the same: CityCentre.) Typically, a jury selects the winners; but this year the ULI has introduced a new People’s Choice category. Now you can vote for all your favorite developments, such as . . .
Welcome to the new Houston Club: this rendering shows Gensler’s renovation plans for the lobby near the top of the 50-story One Shell Plaza, where the city’s oldest social club is merging with the not-as-old Plaza Club and moving in. Since 1955, the club met at 811 Rusk (shown at right); but Skansksa bought the 18-story building last year, hastening the move. Swamplot reported in early January that much of 811 Rusk’s contents are being auctioned off tomorrow — the less club members will have to drag up 49 floors to their new fancy digs:
