Buying and Selling
06/30/11 5:51pm

Sold! Astrodome’s Air Conditioners Buy AstroWorld Model, Will Donate to Downtown Library

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A local engineering firm is buying the original 1967 model of AstroWorld listed for sale recently on Craigslist — and plans to donate it to the Houston Public Library’s Metropolitan Research Center, so that it can be put on display in the newly expanded Julia Ideson Building. I.A. Naman + Associates president and “very regular” Swamplot reader Thomas G. Barrow says he learned about the model from our post yesterday: “My accountant happened to be walking by my office and I asked if I could have some money. He looked at the piece and said ‘That’s cool!’ and a few minutes later we did the deal.” Barrow says he’s already spoken with library officials about the installation, and that they’ve already begun looking for an interim home for the model before it goes on display to the public. Naman was the mechanical and electrical design engineer for AstroWorld, the Astrodome, and several related facilities.

Photos: Bill Davenport

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Evictions
06/30/11 5:03pm

Like Pulling Teeth: Screwed Up Records Won’t Be Evicted Easily

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LIKE PULLING TEETH: SCREWED UP RECORDS WON’T BE EVICTED EASILY Houston hip-hop landmark Screwed Up Records & Tapes is facing eviction from its longtime South Park storefront, says the Houston Press. The building’s owner, Dr. Zeb F. Poindexter III, reportedly has plans to expand his dental business into the store’s space at 7717 Cullen Blvd. From early 1998 until his death in late 2000, the CD and tape shop served as the musical headquarters for Robert Earl Davis Jr., also known as DJ Screw, who pioneered Screwston’s “chopped and screwed” sound. The store has been run by family and friends ever since. Blog reporter Rizoh says an eviction judge has ruled in Poindexter’s favor, but that Screwed Up Records & Tapes has filed an appeal and is waiting for a new court date. [Rocks Off; store info and samples]

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Midtown
06/30/11 2:10pm

Artisans Filling Out the Mix in Midtown

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Two sets of self-proclaimed artisans are hard at work on the southernmost space in Midtown’s super-urban Mix building at 3201 Louisiana. First, there’s Artisan Builders, now building out the 4,800 sq.-ft. restaurant space on the corner of Stuart St., which a source at the construction company says will include a small outdoor patio in front. Then there’s the French restaurant getting ready to move in 4 to 5 months from now, which will now be called Artisans Restaurant. (That’s a change from an earlier name: Chef’s Table.) In charge of the interior: Austin’s Michael Hsu Office of Architecture, of Austin and Houston Uchi fame. Hsu and Artisan Builders also collaborated a few years ago on Sushi Raku at the other end of the building.

Photo: InnerLooped

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North Montrose
06/30/11 1:16pm

The Back Story on Tony Mandola’s Opening Last Night

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In the new but apparently burgeoning tradition of Swamplot opening-day (and opening-night) photos of Waugh Dr. parking lots comes this reader photo of the car-filled scene behind the new Tony Mandola’s Gulf Coast Kitchen at 1212 Waugh, taken from Rosine St. last night around 7 pm. Sure, residents of the Piedmont condos along Rosine now can walk to the new Whole Foods Market. But the condos “have no guest parking other than on the street. Now we will have NO guest parking at all,” reports the reader. “People are steamed.” Next on the local agenda: trying to swing permit-only parking signs for Rosine.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Comments
06/29/11 11:52pm

Comment of the Day: Parking Equality

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: PARKING EQUALITY “Public street Parking Permits should be illegal. The City should not be allowed to give a select few individuals exclusive rights to use public property. I’m surprised no one has sued the COH over this ridiculous practice. What if a neighborhood group signed a petition to only allow themselves to use the local public park, public pool, or public jogging trail because they were too crowded with “outsiders”? Public means public. If you want private use of the street then buy it or build you own. Our taxes pay for all the public streets and all of us should be able to drive or park legally on them whenever we please.” [Jon, commenting on Comment of the Day: Street Parking in the Heights]

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Buying and Selling
06/29/11 5:15pm

Now on Craigslist: Original AstroWorld Model

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Why is the original scale model of AstroWorld listed for sale on Craigslist? Curator Bill Davenport spent a lot of time dusting the giant model before exhibiting it at his Norhill gallery last fall. He says he’s going to need to move the “irreplaceable (if awkwardly large) bit of Houston history” out of Optical Project on 11th St. soon — “and I really don’t want to dis-assemble it and put it back in Mr. Henderson’s garage, where it will get dirty again.” Ed Henderson built the model in 1967; it was returned to him when the park was dismantled 6 years ago — after long stints in Judge Hofheinz’s 9th-level suite at the Astrodome, and in a Foley’s display case downtown before that. For the Craigslist appearance, Davenport jacked up the asking price to $5,500, but says Henderson would accept $3,000 “from somebody who planned to keep the model in Houston, or donate it to the Houston Public Library’s Metropolitan Research Center.” Library representatives have told Davenport they’d like to put the model on display in the newly expanded Julia Ideson building downtown, but don’t have the money to pay for it.

Photos: Bill Davenport

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Art
06/29/11 1:35pm

New Sicardi Gallery Gets the Go-Ahead

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After a 3-year delay, construction is ready to begin on the new Sicardi Gallery at 1506 West Alabama, catty-corner from the Houston Center for Photography at Mulberry St. and across the street from the Menil parking lot. A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday. There’s been at least one design change from Brave Architecture’s earlier versions of the project: The latest rendering (above) shows a large window in the building’s formerly blank south-facing forehead, looking onto the parking lot in front.

Rendering: Brave Architecture

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Gardening
06/29/11 12:42pm

Where the Grass Is Always Neater

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WHERE THE GRASS IS ALWAYS NEATER “I used to walk to school everyday and I used to pass by the home of the richest man in the area and he had a square block that was magnificently trimmed at all times and in the back of my mind subconsciously I considered a lawn like that as ‘success.’ So when I bought me a big house here in Houston the weeds were growing all around my trees and everything and i couldn’t get anybody to do it. Finally I found somebody that’d do it and he reached down into the grass and he got bit by a snake and I spent the rest of my day trying to save his life rather than get my yard done.” — dance instructor George Ballas, inventor of the Weed Eater, who passed away over the weekend at age 85. Ballas came up with the idea for his transformative product after watching spinning bristles clean his Cadillac at a car wash near Houston International (now Hobby) Airport. Until he sold the company to Emerson Electric, the company’s worldwide headquarters stood at 10515 Harwin. The company got a major boost from commercials shown during David Frost’s interviews with former president Richard Nixon in 1977. [Business Makers; obituary] Photo of Ballas’s West Houston lawn: Corky and Shirley Ballas

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Comments
06/28/11 11:47pm

Comment of the Day: Street Parking in the Heights

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COMMENT OF THE DAY: STREET PARKING IN THE HEIGHTS “West of Studewood in the Heights has a lot of unpermitted off street parking facilities on public right of ways or parking pads on streets without curbs. These are ditches that are covered up with cars parked on them. Heights residents will tell you that you cannot park in front of their houses on their pads. That leaves the houses without parking pads open to all the parking. I forsee lots of problems with residents telling people they cannot park in front of their houses when these new places come in. And yes, I see my neighbors telling people to move their cars every day. The Parking Wars are coming.” [Studes2nd, commenting on More Heights Second Locations: Sonoma Wine Bar Aims for Studewood]

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Art
06/28/11 6:19pm

A Hotsheet Montrose Residency for Artists

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Patrons of the fast-paced arts, you have less than 55 hours left to fund the hotsheet action planned for Richwood Place’s Skydive exhibition space next month. In a somewhat compressed version of the typical summertime creative retreat, the converted home at 2041 Norfolk St. will play host to a stream of 50-something artists taking up residency — each of them for only an hour or 2 or 12, though. (That should be enough: With all the chit-chatting, hobnobbing, and strategic carousing, how much would you have expected an Elaine Bradford, Rachel Hecker, or any of the dedicated nappers of the NAP Church to get done in a couple of weeks at Yaddo, anyway?) The Houston Many Mini event follows a similar project that took place in Berlin a couple of years ago (the next is scheduled for Copenhagen). Slots for the week of July 10-16th appear to be all filled, but the Kickstarter project that’s hoping to pay for part of the exercise is currently stuck at less than half its fundraising goal.

Photo of 2041 Norfolk St.: Skydive

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Demolitions
06/28/11 5:04pm

Sherman’s March: The New Northside Elementary

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A reader passes on these renderings showing the new Sherman Elementary School planned for the school’s current location at 1909 McKee St. in Northside Village. Construction of the 86,000-sq.-ft. structure is on target to begin within 2 months, after the existing school is demolished. The new school will serve students from Crawford Elementary, which will then be closed.

Renderings: HISD

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Historic Districts
06/28/11 3:59pm

Singing It to the Council

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SINGING IT TO THE COUNCIL In advance of tomorrow’s scheduled vote on the fates of historic districts in Heights South, Glenbrook Valley, and Woodland Heights, supporters and opponents of historic designation in those neighborhoods have been pulling out all the stops at today’s city hall public comment hearing. [Justin Concepcion, via Twitter] Photo: Daniel

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