H&M LANDING IN HOUSTON, BUT STAYING OUTSIDE THE LOOP Fashion retailer H&M this morning officially announced its first 2 stores in Houston, both in malls. A 19,400-sq.-ft. slot at the Baybrook Mall already mentioned on the company’s website is scheduled to open sometime this spring. Next: a 25,600-sq.-ft. store in the Willowbrook Mall. The company press release didn’t refer to any plans for inner-loop locations. [Shop Girl; previously on Swamplot]
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The reddish steel structure shown here is UH architecture grad Neil Denari‘s design for the new light-rail transfer station on Main St. between Capitol and Rusk downtown, where the new East End and Southeast Lines currently under construction will intersect with the existing rail line. Besides Denari, whose firm is based in LA, 3 New York and 1 local architecture firm were invited to dream up schemes for the long open-air, 11-ft.-wide rail platform. A jury selected by Metro will pick the winning design, but Metro is still asking for rider comments on each of them.
- Ike Emergency Housing Program Ends Having Housed 17,500 Families [Houston Chronicle]
- Harris County OKs $1M Effort to Replace Traffic Lights with LEDs at 880 Intersections [Houston Chronicle]
- Apache Expands, Extends Lease at Post Oak Central [Houston Business Journal]
- Houston Faces Penalties over 1970s Smog Limits [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Near Bottom of List of Biking, Walking Cities [Houston Tomorrow]
- New Sam’s Club at Shadow Creek Ranch Will Open by October [Prime Property]
- Positioning the Texas Gulf Coast as an International Trade Hub [Guidry News, via Houston Tomorrow]
- ULI ‘Development of Distinction’ Awards Honor 9 Houston Projects [Culturemap]
- Downtown Exhibit Depicts Houston in 2020 [KUHF]
Photo of Glenwood Cemetery: Theodore Scott [license]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: ONE OF THESE DAYS THEY’LL HAVE HOUSTON PEGGED “Another version of the same description we’ve heard for the past 5 years. Prior to that, no description was heard. I’d say having any kind of identity is better than none at all. L.A. spent decades being bashed until a new gaggle of journalists discovered the ugly duckling had grown up. I expect a similar timeline for Houston.” [Dana-X, commenting on More Spit Than Polish]
MORE SPIT THAN POLISH Another magazine profile of Houston, another run for the metaphor machine: “Houston is what you might get if you took everything that is really, really great and slightly irritating and crazy in a good way about the South and about America and threw it in one of those rock-polishing tumblers for a spin or two before dumping it all out and leaving everything where it lay.” [Garden & Gun]
Do you remember the MuffinMan? Or maybe you’ve been trying hard to forget it? Well, the home of “the greatest penis shaped muffin restaurant Houston [ever?] had” — aka the yellow 1940 American foursquare at 2310 Converse St. just north of Fairview — is now in foreclosure and was listed for sale last week. Sadly, the listing photos show almost no signs of those few whirlwind months in the fall of 2010 when would-be restaurateur Jason Perry operated a notable Montrose after-hours spot on the premises — without bothering to obtain any of the necessary city or state permits. No signs, that is, except for that painted “Muffin Man” insignia still emblazoned on the front of the home’s upper story.
- Astros Name Change Off the Table Following Fan Backlash [Ultimate Astros]
- Clear Lake City Water Authority Owes Developers More Than $2.24M in Promised Reimbursements [Bay Area Citizen]
- SBA Disaster Loans Available for Homeowners, Renters, Businesses Affected by Jan. 9 Floods [KUHF]
- New Yoshio Taniguchi-Designed Asia Society Texas Center To Open April 12 [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- Solar Powered Zap Pickup on the Lot at East Downtown Electric Car Dealer [KUHF]
- Singing Skeletons, Treasure Maps at Galveston’s New Pirate Museum [abc13]
- Preview Night at Uchi Houston [Hank’s Food and Restaurant Blog]
Photo of FM 762 power lines: Theodore Scott [license]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HOUSTON MUSIC UNDERGROUND “it sounds really really cool, but aside from asking Pauline Oliveros to re-record her Deep Listening album i can’t think of a single thing that would make good use of an abandoned cistern.” [joel, commenting on Poking Around in Buffalo Bayou’s Abandoned Basement]
CRICKET TRAILER TAKES IT OFFLINE 
How’d the Cricket Trailer do in its national teevee debut last night on Extreme RV, the Travel Channel’s new show? Former furnituremaker-to-the-astronauts Garrett Finney didn’t get top billing in the episode for the second version of his unique 2-wheeler pop-top vehicle, painstakingly crafted in his Woodland Heights workshop — that prize went to Simon Cowell’s behemoth 45-footer motor home. Still, the Cricket website attracted enough attention from the RV early adopter crowd to knock it off its server. From the Cricket’s Facebook page, Finney promises it’ll be back online soon. Update, 1/31: It’s back in business. [Previously on Swamplot]
POKING AROUND IN BUFFALO BAYOU’S ABANDONED BASEMENT 
Lisa Gray finds echoes, art, and a few dramatic rays of light in the giant abandoned 1927 underground reservoir near the Buffalo Bayou at Sabine St., under the planned site of a new outdoor performance pavilion: “The question now, of course, is what to do with the Cistern. [Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Guy] Hagstette says that everyone now agrees it won’t be used for parking or storage. But what should it be? How should the public have access to it? And how will it be paid for? (The Cistern was discovered after the Buffalo Bayou Project had budgeted all its Shepherd-to-Sabine money for other projects.) When we reached the far end of the Cistern, we left the ledge, walking down concrete stairs to the muddy floor. The silty red mud, Shanley explained, was composed of iron and other minerals that long ago settled out of the reservoir’s water. Every now and then, a drop of condensed water from the ceiling would hit the soft mud, and the tiny sound would echo. Shanley shone his flashlight on the ground, examining the droplets’ marks. ‘It’s like the surface of Mars,’ he said.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Site plan for Water Music Place on top of reservoir: Buffalo Bayou Partnership
One of several Trader Joe’s stalkers in The Woodlands sends us this pic of the shopping center site at 10868 Kuykendahl Rd. near Woodlands Pkwy., “looking more and more like a store!” The photo was taken Sunday; no opening date is listed on the Trader Joe’s website, but it’s expected to be sometime this spring.
- Previously on Swamplot: Trader Joe’s Braces Itself for a Woodlands Shopping Center Landing, Your Early Photos of the Trader Joe’s in The Woodlands, Here’s Where the First Trader Joe’s Is Going — in The Woodlands
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Let’s start out the week with these homemade appetizers:
- New Retail Businesses Opening Downtown Get Free Rent, District Grants [Houston Chronicle]
- Landry’s Pleasure Pier Redo To Open by Memorial Day with Whac-A-Mole, Bubba Gump [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
- Highland Village Apple Store’s Glass Front Peeks Out from Behind the Curtain [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- Alternative to Blocked White Oak Bayou Bike Trail Also Blocked [Off the Kuff]
- City Investing $100K from Other Reinvestment Zones in Leland Woods Redevelopment [Houston Chronicle]
- Construction Begins on Fairmont Parkway Expansion [Pasadena Citizen]
- Astros Name Change Seems Unlikely [TM Daily Post]
Photo: Thomas Hawk [license]
