Headlines
06/22/12 9:00am

Headlines: Home Sale for Beyoncé’s Mom; Texas Drought No Longer ‘Exceptional’

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Photo of 20 Farnham Park Dr.: HAR

Bayous and Waterways
06/21/12 11:19pm

Comment of the Day: Up from the Ship Channel

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: UP FROM THE SHIP CHANNEL “Many will think I’m crazy, but I don’t care . . . Buffalo Bayou (even on the east side of downtown) can be an aesthetically pleasing stream, and could be developed into something nice. Look at the recent improvements and re-naturalization at Eleanor Tinsley park, just a mile upstream. The section between downtown and the Ship Channel (the S.C. technically does not begin until the Turning Basin, about 4 miles east of downtown) is currently mostly idle with vegetated banks and a surprising variety of wildlife. A few more floating litter booms like they use upstream would clean it up a little more, and make for a nice park-like setting.” [Superdave, commenting on Along the Shores of Buffalo Bayou]

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Fifth Ward
06/21/12 12:02pm

Along the Shores of Buffalo Bayou

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ALONG THE SHORES OF BUFFALO BAYOU Catie Dixon comes up with a few gems in her interview with the team marketing the 136-acre campus HQ at 4100 Clinton Dr. in the southern portion of the Fifth Ward just east of Downtown that Halliburton spinoff KBR has just put up for sale. HFF has given a name to what may be the “largest infill site” near a major U.S. Central Bus District: “Cityscape on Buffalo Bayou.” And members of the sales team believe it’s ripe for a mixed-use development, now that KBR’s industrial buildings have been demolished. Five office buildings dating from the early seventies (totaling 720,000 sq. ft.) and a 36,000-sq.-ft. employee center are still there. The property’s outstanding “water feature” is a mile of frontage on Houston’s scenic Ship Channel. [Bisnow] Image: HFF

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Headlines
06/21/12 9:00am

Headlines: Culberson Blocks Funding of Uptown Line; New Aurora Picture Show Premiere

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Photo of razed Ross Ave. house: Cleveland Advocate

Home Design
06/20/12 1:24pm

Revamped Heights Home Ramps Up Price, Too

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The last time this 1920 Houston Heights home was on the market, it was a tiny bungalow and sold for $235,000. That was way back in 2009, before Arnold Builders remodeled and spiffed it up as the builder’s own home. Earlier this month, the renovated property hit the market — at a much heftier $750,000.

As part of the overhaul, a driveway-covering 1,600-sq.-ft. addition more than doubled the now 2,708-sq.-ft. house. Its revised elevation sports a third gable and a new front room so the porch, formerly off-center, now sits squarely between old and new construction. The redo pumped up many of the home’s Craftsman-y design details, inside and out.

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Adaptive Reuse
06/20/12 11:37am

WOAH, Much Bigger Than a Hole in the Wall

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Dancers ranging through the 100,000-sq.-ft. former JCPenney at the West Oaks Mall — now known as the West Oaks Art House — “got pretty vigorous,” explains local art blogger Robert Boyd, who attended one of the inaugural performances in Houston’s newest, largest, and loneliest independent arts facility. One of them kicked the hole in the wall pictured at right. No grief from the free-range arts center’s laid-back L.A. landlord, though: “I kind of love the hole in the wall,” Pacific Retail’s Sharsten Plenge tells him. “It is like a souvenir of the energy that Suchu graced WOAH with.” (Yes, Plenge is an artist herself.)

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Headlines
06/20/12 8:30am

Headlines: Houston Home Sales Record; Northwest Park Piñata Ban

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1 Comment

Video of oak tree move: City of League City

Comments
06/19/12 11:47pm

Comment of the Day: Just To Clear Things Up

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20 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: JUST TO CLEAR THINGS UP “I don’t understand why everyone on this website gets so worked up about the demolition of these blighted old houses. Houston is actually fortunate that people want to move out of the suburbs into the city center. There are too many reasons why these out-dated houses should go. But practically speaking, old houses are inefficient (usually) and a poor use of space (one story takes up the same space as three). I’ve lived in other places that could USE a bit of urban renewal. Houston is lucky the builders are willing to spend the extra money to clean up the eyesores.” [Confused, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Ran Overbrook]

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Buying and Selling
06/19/12 2:24pm

Strip Center at the Corner of Westheimer and Montrose: Sold

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The half-empty strip center left over from a series of unfortunate redos of City Hall architect Joseph Finger’s 1937 Tower Community Center (which once served as an art-deco companion piece to the former Tower Theater across the street) is now under contract to a new owner, along with the entire 2.86-acre block at the southwest corner of Westheimer and Montrose. That’s the word from a posting on the property’s listing site noted by Going Up! City, but the listing brokers at HFF aren’t providing any additional information.

Unless someone wants to spill the beans on the purchaser’s identity or any plans for the current home of Half Price Books, Spec’s, Papa John’s, and 3-6-9 China Bistro (along with the standalone Jack-in-the-Box at Montrose and Lovett) before then, you’ll have to wait until the seller issues a press release — which will happen sometime next week, a source tells Swamplot — for additional details. The property went on the market in early March.

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Downtown
06/19/12 12:25pm

Windows Are Breaking at Houston Pavilions

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A reader who works in Downtown sorta-mall Houston Pavilions has decided that a mysterious problem with broken windows in the complex’s 11-story office building is “becoming a situation.” A notice sent out to workers in NRG Tower recently, according to the reader’s report, declares that they are no longer allowed to exit the building from the first floor onto Polk St. The concern? That someone might get hit by falling glass. The reader explains: “The part of the building that faces inside the pavilion has an overhang on the second floor so we can walk into the building. The Polk street side has no such overhang.”

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