Making a meal of Oats, and other local demo delights:
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- Yes, That Was a Tornado in Kingwood Yesterday [abc13]
- Mayor Parker Claims Second Term Amid Low Voter Turnout [KHOU]
- All the Details You Missed on This Year’s AIA Houston Home Tour [Architangent]
- Construction Among Leading Job-Creating Sectors in Houston, Real Estate Economist Predicts [Houston Chronicle]
- Officers Arrest Occupy Houston Protestors Over Tent Dispute [Click2Houston]
Photo taken yesterday near Hidden Lakes Drive at April Run Court: Christine Dobbyn/abc13
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN THE NEW H-E-B MARKET OPENS ACROSS THE STREET “I shop at the Dunlavy Fiesta fairly regularly. To brace themselves for the new competition, the staff just got spiffy new uniform shirts, and they’ve put out a banner that says that location has housed a neighborhood grocery store for 60 years (indeed, my grandmother shopped there decades ago when it was a Safeway). I keep wanting to ask the employees if anyone is moving over to the HEB, because if I were running HEB the first thing I’d do is hire away the best Fiesta employees. But I’m sure it’s a touchy subject. I love HEB and will probably shop there, too, but I’m going to feel like a traitor.” [Carol, commenting on Meanwhile, on the Former Site of the Wilshire Village Apartments]
MISSOURI CITY GROWS ITS OWN TRAIL MIX 
Missouri City forester Paul Wierzbicki tells reporter Cory Stottlemeyer that he expects the Jujubes, Mexican plums, Mexican persimmons, mulberries, pomegranates, figs, pears, and kumquats he began planting along the Oyster Creek Trail last fall to survive through the year. The 70 fruit- and nut-bearing trees now growing along half of the Missouri City section of the trail between Mosley Park and FM 3345 were selected for their tolerance to local conditions, including drought and Gulf Coast pests. Planted in 7 separate groves and interspersed with signage bearing descriptions and the corporate logos of sponsors, they constitute the region’s first-ever edible arbor trail. By next fall, Wierzbicki hopes to have the city’s entire portion of the trail lined with tree bounty trailgoers can reach out and eat. [Fort Bend Sun] Photo: Missouri City
HISD has now contracted with an industrial hygienist to evaluate the drainage systems, mechanical rooms, and plumbing and electrical systems at Barnett Stadium in an attempt to determine what might have caused 22 band or dance-team members from Stephen F. Austin High School to become mysteriously ill during a football game there Friday night. Several students displayed what appeared to be symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. Epidemiologists have been interviewing students and school officials “to get information on the whereabouts of the band members within the stadium and collect other health related-factors that could have played a role in the event,” the school district announced. The HISD Athletics Department is expected to announce tomorrow morning whether 2 UIL playoff games scheduled for this week at the 6800 Fairway Dr. location will be moved to a different field.
- Questions still remain about sick students at football game [abc13]
- HISD hiring own investigator in stadium illness case; facility may stay closed, games switched [West U Examiner]
Photo: Paragon Sports
The Trader Joe’s market in The Woodlands looks like dirt. For now, at least. Yesterday, the company finally admitted that this tree-stripped site in the under-construction Woodlands Crossing Shopping Center at the corner of Kuykendahl Rd. and Woodlands Parkway will be the first Houston-area store to open (even though the other potential TJ’s location on the horizon — in-town, inside the former Alabama Theater — appears to be in the moving-dirt-around stages as well). Swamplot broke the news of The Woodlands store’s location last week — then asked readers to send in pics showing how far construction has progressed. And our Woodlands-area readers came through with these photos from yesterday and over the weekend, showing just how a baby shopping-center TJ’s is born:
These houses should stack nicely.
- Skanska Office Building Breaks Ground in Galleria [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
- Whole Foods Confirms Katy Store, Will Open in 2013 [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot]
- 528 Memorial Park Trees Marked for Death from Drought [MyFox Houston; previously on Swamplot]
- Metro Now Officially $1 Billion-Plus in Debt [Your Houston News]
- Pita Conveyer Belt Running, Phoenicia Market Finally Open Downtown After Months of Delays [CultureMap; previously on Swamplot]
- Uchi Recreates Famous Arched Windows from Austin Concrete; Felix Sign Going Away [Eating Our Words; slideshow; previously on Swamplot]
- Midrise ‘Avenue R’ Apartments Planned for Former Site of Pilgrim Elementary School [Houston Business Journal]
- Photo Tour of Houston’s Toxic East End [CultureMap]
Photo: Patrick Feller [license]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY WE MOVED UP TO THE WOODLANDS “My mom moved to Afton Oaks as a child & went to Lamar. I grew up in the Galleria area & my family now lives in TW because we work out of our homes and, when that’s the case, TW becomes the more rational place to raise a family. The air is cleaner, the free schools better; the city has been officially declared bike friendly, and the 160 miles of paths are great for a runner like me. I really don’t want to spend $300,000 over 12 years sending my children to private and then never be able to retire. Sometimes as a native Houstonian who lived in H-Town — Galleria, Rice Military, downtown loft — for much, much longer than we have lived here, this back-and forth is tiresome. “Chains†up here include Hubbell & Hudson, 1252, and the G’s, and those who tend to blindly diss TW are simply ignorant. So; fine; I’m glad we’re getting a TJ. Houston’s going to be getting one too.” [M77002, commenting on Here’s Where the First Trader Joe’s Is Going — in The Woodlands]
Yes, the pool grotto connects directly to the master bedroom of this $2.4 million party estate, if you had to ask. “Long before there was a subdivision called Gleannloch Farms, there was a ranch there called Gleannloch Farms where they raised Arabian horses,” explains a reader who claims to know something about this property. “I am 99% sure that this listing is actually the original house for the ranch. HCAD shows it as built in 1979, which would predate the subdivision by about 20 years, so I guess it would have to be.” You’re looking at the home’s “grand ballroom” above, which faces the front motor court. Also on the 6-acre grounds: a tennis court, a pond with spurting fountain, a detached 8-car garage, a guest house turned into an exercise gym, a separate gameroom building with a summer kitchen, and an actual outdoor pool you can use if this skylit indoor one starts to fester:
The godfather of Houston’s high-ceilinged modernists passed away last Wednesday at the age of 91. Preston Bolton moved to Houston in the days before air conditioning, after serving in a field artillery unit during World War II. An architect of many distinctive homes in the area — first in partnership with Howard Barnstone, and later on his own — Bolton was also a cofounder of the Houston Ballet and an early supporter of many other arts organizations. Among the homes designed by Bolton featured on Swamplot over the past few years: This elegant single-story townhome on a street that bears his name in Lafayette Place, and his own Buffalo Bayou-side home on Pine Hollow Ln., which is still listed for sale.
- Architect and civic leader Preston Bolton dead at 91 and Editorial: Preston Bolton was an arts pioneer [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: As It Is and Was: Preston Bolton Single-Story Townhome Near the Galleria, Preston Bolton’s Pine Hollow Home — For Less!, Comment of the Day: There’s Probably an ‘N’ Missing in There, but Houston Architects Will Take All the Compliments They Can Get, North Post Oak Courtyard Mod: When Townhome Didn’t Mean Stairs, Preston Bolton’s House of Skylights, Weekend Open House Tour: Hunters Creek Village
Photos: HAR (266 Pine Hollow Ln. and 519 Bolton Pl.)
Yes, ExxonMobil “values the environment.” That’s why the company is building this 385-acre pedestrian-friendly campus with an “urban vibe” — in the middle of the forest 20 miles north of Houston.
- Previously on Swamplot: Welcome to the Land of ExxonMobil: A Tour of the Company’s New North Houston Campus, ExxonMobil Fesses Up to Its Employees About That New North Houston Campus It’s Been Building, ExxonMobil’s Top Secret New Corporate Campus Now Hiding in Plain Sight on Google Maps, Aerial Views of ExxonMobil’s New Sprawling, Top Secret Houston Headquarters, A First Look at the Plans for ExxonMobil’s Humongous New Corporate Campus North of Houston, How Springwoods Village Will Earn Its Lunch Money, and other Secrets of the Great ExxonMobil Frontiers, Who’s Behind Springwoods Village, Anyway?, Is Springwoods Village the New Exxon Mobil Eco-City?, Spawn of the Grand Parkway: Huge New Woodlands-Like Development, Just South of The Woodlands
Video: ExxonMobil, via Loren Steffy
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
For the same price today: more than Double demo.
- West Houston Residents Upset Over Proposed Flood Control Plan, Fear Loss of Trees [abc13]
- Campaign Signs Flood Curbs as City Turns Blind Eye [Click2Houston]
- Food Deserts a Problem in Houston [abc13; previously on Swamplot]
- A Townhouse That’s Fit for 150 Guests [CultureMap]
- Bartender Spills on ‘Haunted’ Downtown Hotel [Eating Our Words]
- Holes in Port of Houston Security Fence Worry Neighbors [Click2Houston]
- Discovery Green Among America’s Best New Parks [The Atlantic Cities]
Photo: Gary Denham [license; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: GOOD ENOUGH FOR VISITORS “. . . I’m always befuddled when my husband’s family comes in from Boston or New York and is eager to go to the Galleria. Apparently, that’s enough of a tourist destination for some people . . .” [Adrianne, commenting on City Playing Musical Blocks with Downtown Houses]