Ten dangerous buildings and a pool, plus more. Goodbye!
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: SHOPPING THE OBITS “. . . My co-worker said she has been told by two neighbors that they received sale solicitation letters within ten days of loved ones being laid to rest. That’s either a weird coincidence or just….ick.” [Hellsing, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: The Wrecker of Wakefield]
Details on the 6-story mixed-use building being planned for the corner of Studewood and 11th 1/2 St. in the Heights will be announced “very soon,” a representative of the new property owner promises Swamplot. A couple readers wrote in earlier today with questions about the new construction fence that just went up on the 25,000-sq.-ft. lot, directly behind the Someburger stand on 11th St. Here’s all the owner, a new firm called Vita Nuova, is willing to say about the project — dubbed Studewood Place on city permits:
The New York sculptor behind those new splashy welcome signs on JFK Blvd. outside IAH passed away over the weekend after a short bout with liver cancer. Dennis Oppenheim explained the inspiration behind the Radiant Fountains sculpture and light show to the Chronicle‘s Douglas Britt last August: It was a sign he had seen as a child from the Bayshore Freeway in Oakland, California, which featured an animated version of the famous Sherwin-Williams “Cover the Earth” logo.
It was the world globe and then a bucket of paint dripping on top of it, and this captivated me. I told them [the Houston Arts Alliance] quite frankly that I would be extremely satisfied if I accomplished something like that, because it really did capture the ongoing traffic. I also said that it would be nice if these works were so … whatever … that people would turn around and come back to see them again.
- Dennis Oppenheim, creator of Bush airport sculpture, dies [29-95]
- Artist Oppenheim to create splash with light fountains [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Here’s Your Splashy New Welcome Sign, Houston, IAH’s New Welcome to Houston Sign: We Hope Your Splashdown Was Pleasant
Video: Andrew Vrana
After 3 years, 2 locations, and hundreds of Knitting Bootcamp, Make Your Own Jeans, and Needle Felted Monster Balls classes, Heights DIY needle shop Sew Crafty has announced it will be closing its doors at the end of February. In a post on the store’s Facebook page, store owner Sarah Gabbart talks about the difficulty of running a small business in the current economy, the joys of seeing customers put together their own stuff; and she encourages everyone to keep on crafting. Then she gets down to business: Sale! Starting this Friday: sewing supplies, remnants, furniture and fixtures — everything must go! (Except all those rented sewing machines, of course.) Plus, the 2-story space at 321B 19th St. is now available for lease. Just call Marcela — she’ll hook you up.
- Sad news peeps – we’re closing [Facebook]
Photos: Sew Crafty
Note: Now there’s video! See below.
All is back to normal at the Warwick Towers condominiums across from Hermann Park after last Friday’s frightening flying dinosaur episode. For Houstonians more accustomed to tracking dinosaur migrations below the earth’s surface, the appearance of a full-scale ankylosaurus dating from the early 1960s hovering high in the sky above its recent home at the Museum of Natural Science must have been a harrowing sight:
$4.50 FROM DOWNTOWN TO THE AIRPORT That shuttle service Metro’s been running from Downtown to IAH just got a whole lot cheaper — and added a few stops on the way. The Airport Direct service used to leave from the transit center at 815 Pierce St. with maybe one or 2 passengers a trip and cost $15 one-way ($10 if you could show a valid plane ticket). As of yesterday, the ride now costs $4.50, but stops also at the Main St. Square station and the Four Seasons, Hyatt, and Hilton Americas hotels before heading up the freeway. The transit agency has been losing $1.5 million a year on the every-30-minute service since it was introduced more than 2 years ago. [Houston Chronicle]
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Come see what the little bird ate:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THEY TOOK OUR YARDS! “The Chinese Tallow has been taking quite a beating lately in the press. ‘Wahhh, kill them all because they’re not native and they’re invasive!’ I’m starting to get these hateful declarations confused with Arizona’s immigration law. How about if instead of simply dismissing it as a ‘noxious weed,’ we instead think about the potential of that much fast-growing biomass. Fear is what’s invasive.” [kilray, commenting on Comment of the Day: Gotta Know Your Chinese Imports]
DOWN IN THE DYNAMO DISTRICT, FEELING THE LAND RUSH What’s happening to land values around the East Downtown site of Dynamo Stadium at Texas and Dowling? “Dave Cook with Cushman & Wakefield of Texas Inc. said he has six properties listed for sale in the area with an asking price of $50 per square foot, or nearly $2.2 million per acre. ‘That’s what the value will be when the soccer stadium is an actual reality,’ he said. Cook said property sold for $30 to $35 per square foot before the stadium site was acquired. An investor signed a contract last week, Cook added, to buy an 11,000-square-foot building on a one-acre tract at 2020 McKinney that’s leased to the City of Houston for parking administrative offices. The asking price was $2.2 million. ‘We got very close to that,’ said Cook, who would not reveal the actual sales price.” [Houston Business Journal]
The big East Downtown orangish blob that will be Dynamo Stadium takes on a more definite shape in these new drawings. That’s a giant steel mesh wrapping the 22,000-seat soccer and football venue. Inside: 34 luxury suites, 1,000 “club” seats, and a stadium club. Separate canopies connected to the exterior mesh hang over both sidelines and a stage on the south end. The Houston Business Journal‘s Allison Wollam reports that orange lights will shine on the stadium at night — but the tower lighting shown in earlier renderings is gone from the latest images. Maybe, as a Dynamo fan on HAIF suggests, the place is just gonna glow from within.
Clearing a little more room around the table at Mai’s. Won’t you pull up a chair?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CULTURAL EXCHANGE “If it’s any consolation, if there’s a scale model of the Astrodome outside of Beijing, it’ll probably get paved over eventually, too.” [tinyvoices, commenting on Out of the Way, Tiny Soldiers, Here Comes the Grand Parkway: Katy’s Forbidden Gardens Is Closing Down]
Update, 1/21: Hey, what happened here? Urban Land Institute Houston executive director Ann Taylor writes in: “I’m sorry that we had to remove the New Hope Housing at Brays Crossing video, but it was not ready for prime time…still being edited to include more ‘before’ images and to add footage of the courtyards and gardens. It and all of the Awards Finalist videos will be screened for the public at the ULI Houston Development of Distinction Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 25.” We hope to post the finished video after that date.
- Brays Crossing [New Hope Housing]
- Previously on Swamplot: A “Deep Renovation†Gone Wrong
Video: Cosmic Light Productions