HOTEL ROOM ART FAIR IMPRESARIO SELLS UNDERWEAR, LOSES SHIRT 
Wrapping up last weekend’s seat-of-the-pants Pan Art Fair, held in a third-floor hotel suite across the street from the massive Texas Contemporary Art Fair at the George R. Brown Convention Center, blogger and fair impresario Robert Boyd notes some successes. Among the sales: A piece from artist Jim Nolan’s drawers-in-a-drawer installation, the process of failure/it’s better to regret something you have done, also known as a pair of underwear displayed prominently in one of the bedside-table drawers. Also, Boyd sold out of the small run of T-shirts he had made to commemorate the event. And he’s glad a number of local artists helped push the exhibition space into some odd corners of the hotel room. But, he writes, “I lost money on this deal. Sales were meager. I had to take two vacation days from work to do it. So naturally, it is my intention to do it again next year — even bigger, if possible. See you then.” [The Great God Pan Is Dead; previously on Swamplot] Photos of Jim Nolan and artwork: Robert Boyd
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- Transwestern Breaking Ground Next Month on 30-Acre Spec Industrial Complex in Mason Creek Corporate Business Park [Houston Chronicle]
- River Oaks District Development Resurfaces, Minus Some Retail Space, Apartments, Hotels [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Dallas-Based Cadence McShane To Build Spec Tiltwall Warehouse Facility in Central Green Business Park near IAH [Houston Business Journal]
- Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang’s Coming to Baybrook Mall [Galveston County Daily News]
- ‘No Parking’ Signs on Public Streets Near Reliant Stadium Mislead Texans Fans [KHOU]
- The Bloody History Behind Glenwood Cemetery’s Avenging Angel [Hair Balls]
Photo: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Here’s the kind of campaign true fans of demolition can get behind: That’s Houston’s Mayor Annise Parker in the driver’s seat, about to trash a balcony at the Winfield I Condominiums at 10110 Forum West Dr., near the intersection of the Southwest Fwy. and Beltway 8. In taking the ceremonial first whack at a derelict complex, the city’s honorary demolisher-in-chief is campaigning in favor of a city bond issue on the November ballot that would generate $15 million to remove “blighted properties” like the Winfield. Though Proposition E is listed as a measure for housing bonds, the mayor’s office notes, the funds would “all go toward demolishing dangerous and abandoned buildings to make way for future affordable housing.”
- City demolishes condos that are neighborhood eyesore [abc13]
- Demolition Scheduled for Neighborhood Eyesore: Owners Step up and Take Responsibility [Mayor’s Office]
- Previously on Swamplot: A Day for Houston To Celebrate Demolition, Houston’s Chief Demolition Officer Takes Her Turn
Photo: Jessica Michan
FUNERAL BARS GET THEIR DAY IN COURT 
The long-simmering legal battle between 3 bars carved out of the remains of the former Settegast-Kopf funeral home on Kirby and 51 nearby residents is scheduled to go to trial next week. The residents and association of the David Crockett subdivision, which includes Roak, Hendricks Pub and Eatery, and OTC Patio Bar within its boundaries — as well as tony Ferndale, Virginia, and Lake streets west of Kirby — are seeking to enforce the neighborhood’s deed restrictions, which prohibit alcohol sales and activities considered a “nuisance.” In a countersuit, the bar owners are alleging racial discrimination, complaining that the neighborhood has not enforced the same restrictions on the Owl Bar and Cafe Express, both of which also serve alcohol. Bar attorney Paul Pilibosian tells reporter David Kaplan that the bars’ lease will expire in a year and a half. The bars do not currently have an option to renew, but Pilibosian says they are seeking ways to stay longer in their current locations. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Roak pool: Sarah Tressler
There’s a crack team of construction professionals readying this brand-new single-story on Prince St. in Timbergrove Manor for some lucky new owner. And looky here, out of the closet: Workers are bending over . . . uh, forwards to make sure the hardwood floorboards are aligned perfectly, deep in a pantry corner recess. It’s a view of the “Open Entertainers Floor Plan” touted in the listing. Maybe this space has been transformed into a kitchen by now, but isn’t it a whole lot more fun to see an action shot of the transformation in process?
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Knocking construction sites into these homes:
- Thousands of Shoppers Show Up for Opening of Texas City Tanger Outlet Mall [abc13]
- Opening of Outlet Center Comes with Big Traffic Snarls [Galveston County Daily News]
- Sugar Land Skeeters’ Constellation Field Named Atlantic League Park of the Year [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Demand Builds for Teardowns as Residential Demolition Permits Increase 22 Percent in Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- On the Bayou, the Most Structurally Complex House that Stern and Bucek Architects Has Ever Designed [Houston Chronicle]
- Talking Master Planned Communities with Johnson Development Corp.’s Doug Goff [Houston Chronicle]
- League City’s Red Light Camera Issue, by the Numbers [Galveston County Daily News]
- Texas General Land Office Commissioner Wants To Restore Open Beaches Act [Galveston County Daily News]
- Beautifying the Once ‘Forgotten’ Woodland Park [KUHF]
- Meet Mike Garver, the Trashman of Buffalo Bayou [Houston Chronicle]
- The Homes on This Weekend’s AIA Houston’s Self-Guided Tour [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of former Ruggles Grill at Westheimer and Grant: Candace Garcia
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE APARTMENT PAMPHLETEER “Everyone who is a renter or is a landlord should know and read this.” (PDF) [denise, commenting on How Quick To Kick ’Em Out and Tear It Down?]
The conquest of a long strip of land between Travis and Main known as the Midtown Superblock was completed last month, Shaina Zucker reports in today’s Houston Business Journal. The strip center at the corner of Travis and Anita once known as Liberty Square, and more recently for tenants Escobar and the Thien An sandwich shop, was sold to the Midtown Redevelopment Authority in September. Escobar, Thien An, and a second nightclub in the building will have until the end of the year to scram. The TIRZ plans to swap the land under the strip center with Camden Property Trust, in return for a couple of properties at the northern end of the same superblock.
That’ll give the Midtown authority a tiny bit less than 3 acres of land facing McGowen St., leaving Camden with the superblock’s slightly larger southern portion. The organization plans to build a park on its end — but one that includes 8,500 sq. ft. of retail space and 250 underground parking spaces, according to Zucker:
From an upper floor to the east, looking toward Downtown: Piers are in and some column rebar bundles are up already for the BLVD Place building fronting Post Oak Blvd. (the street just beyond the construction site in the photo). According to plans posted online, an underground parking level with room for 260 cars will fit below the 48,500-sq.-ft. Whole Foods Market, with more parking behind and above the grocery-store space on 2 additional levels. Also going into the building at the corner of San Felipe St.: other retail, restaurant, and office spaces.
- BLVD Place coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
- Texas City’s Tanger Outlets Set To Open Today at 9 am [Galveston County Daily News]
- Dallas Company’s Mason Creek Spec Office Building Begins Construction in Energy Corridor [Houston Business Journal]
- Jason Chaney Closes Barbed Rose Steakhouse Replacement Coastal Crossing Grill in Alvin [Eating Our Words]
- Rehab of Vandalized Obama Mural Near Breakfast Klub Complete [KHOU; more photos; previously on Swamplot]
- Greyhound Express Adds Houston-Atlanta Route [Houston Business Journal]
- Pasadena Bus Service Cancellation Also Affects San Jacinto College Students [Pasadena Citizen]
- I-10 To Be Shut Down in Both Directions at Hwy. 99 This Weekend [abc13]
Photo of revised mural along Alabama at 3710 Travis St.: Candace Garcia
Arquitectonica’s row of contemporary townhomes has punched up a mixed-residential block in the Museum District since 1986. Remodeled in 2004, this tower-tipped end unit’s natural lighting gets a boost from a tented skylight in the roofline ridge (at right), framed-in-color glass brick accents, and expanded east-facing windows on two levels.
The property popped onto the market Tuesday, priced at $446,000. It’s been for sale before, with no luck — most recently a little more than a year ago. Back in February 2010, under a different broker from the same agency, it sported an asking price of $650,000; several reductions and 18 months later, the listing expired last September at $495,000.
Courtesy of Swamplot reader James Glassman, here’s a shot of what’s been connected so far under the Shepherd Dr. overpass as it crosses the end of Allen Pkwy. at Buffalo Bayou. Suspended ’neath the cars at this gateway to River Oaks: a new pedestrian bridge, which will link the aptly named Sandy Reed Memorial Trail along the bayou’s South bank with Memorial Dr. to the north. Here’s how it’s drawn out in the Buffalo Bayou master plan:
