07/16/12 12:56pm

It turns out the construction work Swamplot readers noted last week on the vacant lot at 1401 Binz St., catty-corner from the Children’s Museum, is for a 4-story structure combining ground-floor shops, 2 floors of medical office space, and a top-floor residence — all in less than 30,000 sq. ft. A small courtyard will separate the building from a linked multilevel 160-car parking garage. Half the office space, reports the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff, will be taken up by medical clinics operated by UT dermatologist Stephen Tyring; he also owns the property and is an owner of the development firm, Dermedica Property Group. Bailey Architects notes on its website that the building “will reflect the architectural fabric of Houston’s premier museum district buildings.” Sarnoff’s translation: It’ll look Modern. Contractor Arch-Con expects construction to be complete early next year.

Rendering: Bailey Architects

07/16/12 11:54am

Developer Gerald Hines added a lake to a 32-acre slice of woodsy Memorial back in 1978. Around it, he built Ethan’s Glen, a townhome community with 288 units divided into 2-building clusters of quadplexes. One of the enclave’s larger units came on the market earlier this month, asking $275,000. The 2-story townhome, which has east and north exposures, retains some of that seventies style, such as rough-hewn cedar siding outside and a living room with walls of rustic planks installed in a herringbone pattern. But it also has new paint, new bathrooms, and new, as in last month, carpet upstairs.

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07/16/12 8:30am

Photo of David Adickes sculptures: paramourblue via Swamplot Flickr Pool

07/13/12 11:49pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SELL THE STREET, SLOW THE TRAFFIC “Agreed that we need more “super blocks” about as much as an aneurysm. Why is the Galleria area traffic such a cluster? Because they took the streets out. Why does downtown usually flow pretty well? Because they left the streets in, in a nice neat grid pattern that is only confusing if you try to get too hung up on true north, south, east, and west.” [mollusk, commenting on Finger Minute Maid Apartments To Hang Low, Cut Off Leftfield Block]

07/13/12 1:54pm

A bit more detail on those new Downtown apartments developer Marvy Finger wants to build on the site of the Ben Milam Hotel designed in 1929 by architect Joseph Finger, a block beyond the leftfield fence of Minute Maid Park. The long-vacant hotel, which sits past the foul line at the corner of Texas and Crawford, is toast, Finger tells the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff. But the demo site will make up only a portion of the property.

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07/13/12 12:50pm

Like a beret worn jauntily, an angled steel roof provides a little attitude, a stab of color, and some tilt to an otherwise monochromatic and perpendicular property on a lot-and-a-half in the Melford Heights area of the Heights. That’s near 14th St. west of Studewood, 2 blocks from the Fiesta. The much-discussed 2006 home has a block-on-block facade, light-and-shadow fencing, and landing-pad pavers. But for a boldly toned painted wall here and there, the inside repeats the exterior’s shades-of-gray grid:

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07/13/12 8:30am

Photo of yesterday’s flooding in Cypress: Ralph and Valerie Thrasher/KHOU

07/12/12 3:21pm

CHUY’S ENCHILADAS TO DEVOUR, SHARE For $10.49 plus tax and tip, you could order the Elvis Presley Memorial Combo at one of the 7 Houston-area Chuy’s. Or for $11 to $13, you could buy a share of the restaurant’s stock at its impending IPO (if you can get in, of course). The regional Mexican-restaurant chain, which was bought in 2006 by a New York private-equity firm, grew from 8 locations in 2007 to 32 this year. The company plans to use the $75 million it hopes to raise in the offering to pay off debts, terminate an agreement with an advisory group, and open more than 50 additional locations over the next 4 years. [TM Daily Post] Photo of Chuy’s at 9350 Westheimer: Happy Family Travels

07/12/12 2:11pm

One of the reasons Brookesmith resident Vicki Scarpato bought the 1890 cottage on Archer St. pictured above last year was because of the 2009 Modern addition at the back: “I love the mix,” she says. Her home is next door to the modern structure architect Jeromy Murphy designed for his family and not far from the Cordell St. shipping-container house — all in a neighborhood that she calls “an interesting mix of beautiful new modern, Victorian cottages in various states of repair, and only a very few instances of three-to-a-lot townhouses.” Here are some pics of the back:

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07/12/12 10:12am

It isn’t calling itself a bar, but the website for a new craft-beer retail outlet planned for the former site of Kaboom Books next to the Antidote coffee shop on Studewood says it’ll offer “fresh pours” of draft beer and “growlers to go.” The Twitter account for Premium Draught at 733 Studewood announced yesterday that its construction permit has already been approved.

Meanwhile, the owners of Liberty Station on Washington Ave plan to open the craft-beer-focused Cottonwood Bar in the building shown above on Shepherd at 34th St., just north of Pink’s Pizza, according to the brand-new establishment’s Twitter feed — “adding everything we wanted to do at Liberty Station but didn’t have room . . . kitchen, more taps.”

Photo: Cottonwood Bar

07/12/12 8:30am

Photo: Stephen J. Alexander via Swamplot Flickr Pool