Can’t we all take turns hacking away at this stuff?
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- Google-Map Your Way Through Bush and Hobby Airport Terminals [TechBlog]
- HUD Brought in To Revamp Houston’s Hapless Housing Department [Houston Chronicle]
- LEED Gold Hilton Garden Inn Going Up at Highway 290 and West Little York [Houston Business Journal]
- HOV Lane on 290 Westbound Now Open from Eldridge to Skinner Rd. [Cypress Creek Mirror]
- Bayou City Art Fest Won’t Abandon Deforested Memorial Park [Culturemap]
- Insurance Company Claims Rare Bugatti Sports Car Driven into La Marque Lagoon on Purpose [Jalopnik]
- $900 Million Federal Grants a Milestone for Houston Passenger Rail [Streetsblog]
Photo of Woodlands Waterway: Joel Olives [license]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: TEARDOWN STREET CRED I love the nothing but exterior shots – particularly the one down the street to indicate “See – there’s ONE other McMansion on this block already . . .†[mollusk, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: A Stitch in Tyne]
DRINKING FOR THE GREATER GOOD Among the goals of OKRA, the new business organization founded by a group of mostly Montrose-area restaurant and bar owners (including Anvil’s Bobby Heugel, Chris Shepherd of the upcoming Underbelly, and Greenway coffee couple David Buehrer and Ecky Prabanto): Opening a new, collectively run non-profit neighborhood bar as early this summer — preferably in the refurbished digs of some recently shuttered for-profit drinking establishment. All proceeds would go to a different charity each month, which drinkers would get to vote on. Also coming this spring from the group: “a multi-pig roast unlike Houston has ever seen.” [Facebook; more from 29-95, Culturemap, and Eater Houston]
LUPE TORTILLA AXES KIDDIE SANDBOX 
The removal of the sandbox play area adjacent to the bar at the Lupe Tortilla on the 59 feeder road just east of Kirby has attracted little attention. Well, except for grumbles from disappointed families showing up for dinner with sand buckets and plastic shovels — and the “SAVE the Sandbox at Lupe Tortilla’s on the Southwest Freeway” Facebook page. (So far that protest page has garnered only a single “Like.”) The bleachered sandbox was shut down only a few weeks ago, to accommodate a planned expansion of the restaurant’s deck. Photo: Flickr user amydell
- Springwoods Village Wants 4 New Hotels [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Revised Development Ordinance Would Allow Higher-Density Housing Outside Loop [Prime Property]
- Anemic Hurricane Season Comes to an End [Houston Chronicle]
- Shortage of Highest-Quality Retail Space Inside the Loop, Leasing Brokers Say [GlobeSt.com]
- Is the Chronicle’s Art Critic Trying To Get Himself Fired? [The Great God Pan Is Dead]
- Linbeck’s Plans for Downtown Block South of Market Square [Prime Property]
- Making Houston Safe for Math and Engineering Tourism [Houston Strategies]
Photo of Brazos State Park: Flickr user garlandcannon [license]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: INSIDE POLITICS “I’m amazed nobody who ran against him had pictures of this interior . . . this alone would sink a lesser candidate. For Example, ‘Bob Lanier claims to represent Houstonians, but how can he relate to the common man when perched on his pretty, pink, princess bed!?!’ -or- ‘11 Bathrooms?!?! What is he trying to hide?!?!’ -or- ‘Bob Lanier is such a clown, his ceilings are painted like a circus tent!’ I do kinda like the ceilings though . . .”
An M.D. Anderson Cancer Center official tells the HBJ‘s Jennifer Dawson that the UT institution will likely wait 3 to 10 years before putting any new structure on the site of the former Prudential Tower it’s been working diligently all year to knock down. Workers were moved out of the 18-story structure — renamed the Houston Main Building — last year. The hulking remains of the iconic 1952 Kenneth Franzheim building at 1100 Holcombe Blvd. will come down in a cloud of dust after several rounds of dynamite blasts on January 8th.
M.D. Anderson senior VP Dan Fontaine says the Med Center institution doesn’t even have a design yet for the 2 new structures — likely for outpatient care — that will eventually be built in that location. Until the institution finds a better use for it, the demo site will be turned into a “park-like setting.”
- Hospitals hesitate on billions of dollars of construction [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Med Center Prudential Tower Skeleton Will Survive Through End of Year, M.D. Anderson Tower Will Go Out with a Bang, Kill It in One Big Boom, Or Piece by Piece?, M.D. Anderson’s Quiet Preservation Effort: Peter Hurd’s Prudential Mural Has Left the Building, Sure Looks Like Demolition This Time: M.D. Anderson Begins Taking Down the Prudential Tower, Will M.D. Anderson’s Contractor Bungle the Largest Fresco Rescue Ever?, The Prudential Tower’s Grand Entrance, Before Its Not-so-Grand Exit, Update: M.D. Anderson Not Demolishing Former Prudential Tower Yet, Just Hacking Away at It a Bit, Report: M.D. Anderson Begins Demolishing Med Center Icon
Photo: Karen Lantz
It’s been on the market for 2 and a half years, its price tag receiving regular trimmings during that time. And here’s the latest: The carefully choreographed 1988 River Oaks estate belonging to former mayor Bob Lanier and his wife, port commissioner Elyse Lanier, dropped a million more earlier this month. The 13,386-sq.-ft. pad is now available for just a smidge under $7 million, $5 million less than the original asking price.
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Go ahead: Knock them down. Just see what happens.
- Houston Population to Reach 6.18 Million Next Month [Houston Business Journal]
- Yale Street Bridge Use Restricted as TxDOT Reduces Load Limit [Off the Kuff]
- Houston More Than Halfway Through Cutting Down 7,000 Dead Trees [Memorial Examiner]
- Woodlands Water Restrictions Lifted [The Woodlands Villager]
- Stray Dogs Running Wild in East Houston [KHOU]
- DIY Home Energy Audits from City Green Building Resource Center [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston’s Director of Sustainability Focuses on Cost Savings [The Atlantic Cities]
- Houston Still Trying To Quit Ghost of Enron [Fuel Fix]
Photo of Buffalo Bayou from McKee St. Bridge: Mike Fisher [license]
THAT’S THE SOUND of Swamplot sneaking out for a long holiday weekend, too. The best of Thanksgiving wishes to all of you. Our streaming parade of Houston real estate action will kick up again on Monday. Video: Ana Serrano
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BIG LOTS “In regards to crazy land values inside the loop, I have an opinion as an active RE broker. Anything that is 2 to 5 acres seems to be in huge demand from institutional multi-family developers. They have lenders that want to lend on apartment projects and the scarcity of larger in-fill tracts result in the $75psf average that hits a range between $60 to $85psf. What is missed here is that owners who sit on dirt in the same dense areas with smaller parcels way under 2 acres, have no market driving forces paying anywhere over $50psf. Home builders used to drive the market, but they have gone on a diet. Hope this helps put it all in perspective; there is just a higher premium paid for larger tracts.” [Janak, commenting on West Ave-Style Apartments and Retail Planned for Dunlavy Fiesta Site?]
With $3.3 million already raised, Memorial Assistance Ministries began construction last week on the first phase of a $4 million, 17,000-sq.-ft. expansion: a new and bigger parking lot extending onto what used to be an open field. Early next year, the nonprofit, which helps out families in need and serves as a last backstop before homelessness for many of its clients, will begin adding 3 separate Kirksey-designed wings to the tilt-wall building the same architecture firm designed for it 6 years ago at 1625 Blalock, north of Long Point in Spring Branch. First up: filling in the building’s back yard with more administrative work areas, more warehouse space for the MAM resale store, and an enclosed courtyard. Once that portion is complete, builders from Brookstone Construction will move on to enlarge the resale store, add a new educational wing called the Center for Family Independence, and insert a drop-off area between them, closer to the new parking area on the north side of the building:
