The category announcements are rolling here at Swampies central. Earlier today we introduced the 5th category in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Here’s the complete list of our categories so far: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Parking Lot Dining Experience, Most Notable Recycling Effort, and the “No Zoning” Award. And already, you’ve identified some terrific potential nominees for all of them. Keep them coming!

Category number 6 is brand new for this year. It’s the Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl. What thing, place, or event from the greater Houston area could be worthy of such an honor this year? That’s what we’re hoping you’ll tell us. Got any potential winners in mind?

Refer to the official nominating rules if you need them. But really: We need your smartly formulated suggestions for this category! Add them and explain them well below — or email them to us privately. You have until midnight next Tuesday, December 13, to suggest nominees for both categories announced today.

• A New Category for the Swampies This Year: The “No Zoning” Award, Nominations Needed for Houston’s Most Notable Recycling Effort, Your Nominations, Please, for Houston’s Best Parking Lot Dining Experience, Best Demolition of 2011: Your Nominations, Please, Houston’s Design Cliché of the Moment: Which Would You Nominate? [Swamplot]
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2011: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2011 [Swamplot]

On Tuesday we added a couple more categories to this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. That means 4 categories are now open for your nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Parking Lot Dining Experience, and Most Notable Recycling Effort. Keep those great entries coming for all of them!

The next category is the “No Zoning” Award. What does it mean that Houston is a “no zoning” city? Most obviously, the opportunity for residential areas to “go commercial,” or vice versa. Also: scenic and otherwise unusual views that might make for terrific postcards, like an office building going up over someone’s backyard fence. But the “no zoning” label also regularly causes outsiders to suppose Houston has far fewer building regulations than it actually does. And it spurs thoughts of Houston as some sort of untamed urban force.

What development, event, or controversy from this year, then, might deserve Swamplot’s “No Zoning” Award? And why? Yes, this is another brand-new award category for the Swampies, and we’ll obviously need your smart nominations to make it work. Tell us who or what deserves this honor — in a comment below or in a private message. Consult the official nominating rules if you like. What’s your choice?

• Nominations Needed for Houston’s Most Notable Recycling Effort
• Your Nominations, Please, for Houston’s Best Parking Lot Dining Experience
• Best Demolition of 2011: Your Nominations, Please
• Houston’s Design Cliché of the Moment: Which Would You Nominate? [Swamplot]
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2011: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2011 [Swamplot]

So far, 3 categories in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have been been opened up for your nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, and Best Parking Lot Dining Experience. Up next: another brand-new category, specially selected for this year’s competition: Most Notable Recycling Effort.

Sure, automated curbside recycling is still only a pilot program in Houston. But developers here have had extensive experience recycling building sites. Which area effort to reuse existing materials, locations, or ideas deserves recognition with this award?

Send us your nominations! As usual, your spin will make the difference between a plain ol’ suggestion and a compelling choice for the award. You’ll find all the rules for the nominating process here.

You have until midnight next Monday, December 12, to suggest nominees for both categories announced today. Throw your ideas into the comments bin below (or the Swamplot inbox); we’ll try to reuse them if possible.

• Your Nominations, Please, for Houston’s Best Parking Lot Dining Experience
• Best Demolition of 2011: Your Nominations, Please
• Houston’s Design Cliché of the Moment: Which Would You Nominate? [Swamplot]
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2011: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2011 [Swamplot]

Yesterday we introduced the first 2 nominating categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Nominations will remain open until midnight Sunday, December 11, for both awards: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition.

Today, there are 2 more award categories to introduce. And they’re both new to the Swampies. The first is for Houston’s Best Parking Lot Dining Experience.

Sure, other cities may have sidewalk cafes and street life, but what can compare to the many opportunities for fine parking-lot-facing patio dining available in the greater Houston area? In the lot or just looking out onto it, you never leave the action behind. In a city full of places to park and eat, what makes one stand out? Which local dining establishment deserves to be credited with this award?

As usual, the Swampies are open to the sharp and clever formulations of readers. If you use your nomination to give this category a twist, sell your vision!

More complete instructions covering the nominating process can be found on this page. In the meantime, you’ll find plenty of spaces available for your nominations in the comments section below — and in the Swamplot inbox, if you’d prefer a more private venue.

• Best Demolition of 2011: Your Nominations, Please
• Houston’s Design Cliché of the Moment: Which Would You Nominate? [Swamplot]
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2011: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2011 [Swamplot]

Earlier today, we introduced the first category in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, celebrating best and most this city has to offer. And now nominations are open in a second category: Best Demolition.

Sure, demolitions are raw, physical acts, but emotional, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, sonic, and ecological aspects are often hard at work too. What property would you honor as Houston’s Best Demo of 2011 — and why?

If you’re like most people and have a little trouble remembering buildings once they’re gone, you can scroll through Swamplot’s archive of demolition stories to refresh your memory. Then add your thoughtful and well-argued nominations for this coveted award to the comments section below — or send them in a private message to Swamplot HQ. For a more thorough description of the nominating process, see these instructions.

Nominations for both award categories announced today will remain open until midnight this Sunday, December 11. But why wait until the last minute to submit your nominations? Could you knock a few out now?

• Houston’s Design Cliché of the Moment: Which Would You Nominate? [Swamplot]
• The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate 2011: How To Make a Nomination [Swamplot]
• Swamplot Award Nominations 2011 [Swamplot]

Let’s kick off the nominating process for the 2011 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate with this tried-and-true category: Favorite Houston Design Cliché. Past winners of this award include Lone Stars, “Lakes of” Subdivisions, and “Tuscanization.” What Houston building, shopping center, streetscape, home, interior, neighborhood, or yard cliché deserves recognition this year? Your suggestions for this award may be inspired from stories on Swamplot or from your own keen eye for overused detail.

Nominations for this category are now open to your brilliant, clever, or possibly hackneyed suggestions! Enter your choice in a comment to this post only or — more privately — in an email the Swamplot tip line, with the subject line “Nomination: Favorite Houston Design Cliche.” Nominations will be accepted for one full week, after which the best-presented choices will be opened for voting.

You can submit as many nominations as you like in this category, but your choices will have a better chance of succeeding if you use the opportunity to make your point in a clever and convincing way. When the actual awards are open for voting — next week! — each selected nomination will be introduced with some edited bastardization of the arguments made by the readers who submitted them. So be eloquent and persuasive! If you can send your own photos in support of a nomination, that will help a lot — and it’ll likely help you make your case to voters. Send images to the Swamplot tip line, but be sure to identify them and indicate what they’re for.

Comments to this post will be counted as nominations only. Nominations may be seconded, expanded, or improved. Even simple “me too” posts could help an entry find a place on the actual ballot, but they won’t be counted as votes for the winner. The actual voting in this category will begin next week. Are you ready? Send us your favorite clichés!

• Swamplot Award Nominations 2011 [Swamplot]