- 3793 FM 441 [HAR]
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Two-tone design elements run the show at 4104 Greeley — from the front entry (top) to the dining room tableware (above). The 2,471-sq.-ft. house 2 blocks north of Richmond was built in 1920 and sold to its current owner about 60 years later.
It’s been a bed and breakfast dubbed the Robin’s Nest for nearly 30 years:
The Robin’s Nest
The marketing materials for Hunington Properties’ new apartment building planned in place of Bethel Church a block north of Wash Ave come chock full of cultural references. There’s the Seinfeldian restaurant sign depicted on the corner of Shepherd and Center St, pick-up and drop-off zones adjacent to the parking garage’s entrances labeled Uber (sorry, Lyft!) in the site plan — and if that’s not enough, the leasing brochure notes that tenants “will be given latitude to incorporate unique elements into their storefronts promoting their individual brand identity.â€
Of the 4 corner retail segments planned — 25,000 sq. ft. total — 3 include patios. To accommodate them, Hunington is requesting several modifications to the setbacks: on Center St., on Durham, and the boldest on Shepherd — where the patio would sit only 5 ft. from the roadway, 20 ft. closer than is typically allowed. Last Thursday, Houston’s planning commission deferred the variance request. It’s now waiting on more information regarding the proposed patios before reconsidering the developer’s plans.
Bethel Church’s building currently takes up half of the block:
The Interpose
- Pearland’s Lonza Viral Therapy Biotech Building Trades Hands [Realty News Report]
- Clay Development To Buy Vacant Kennametal Industrial Building for New Development Dubbed Offices @ North Post Oak [Houston Chronicle]
- The Economic Growth Challenges Facing Houston’s Suburbs [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Eight Elements of a Successful Innovation District [The Urban Edge]
- FEMA Praises Houston’s New Floodplain Regulations [Houston Chronicle]
- Raw Fish Restaurant Diced Poke Debuts at Mid Main Lofts [Eater Houston]
- Taiwanese Sweet Shop 85C Bakery Café Planning New Houston Location in Friendswood [Eater Houston]
- Hearsay Bar Opening in the James Fadden Building in Downtown Galveston [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
- David Adickes Piece ‘Art is Everywhere in Houston’ Installed Along I-10 Near Yale [Houston Chronicle]
- Slideshow: Scenes from the 31st Annual Houston Art Car Parade [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Art Car Parade: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
There ain’t nothin’ in the world like a big-eyed bulldozer.
- 10815 Tupper Lake Dr. [HAR]
Crews are now peeling back the corrugated metal paneling that covers over the original façade of the Sears building on the corner of Main and Wheeler, exposing some of the 1930s art deco details underneath. The plain skin was added onto the 4-story structure in the 1960s. It remained in place after the company that manages Rice University’s endowment bought out Sears’ lease on the property 6 months ago and the department store closed in January.
Yesterday, Mayor Turner announced that an extensive redo of the building — overseen by Hines and designed by Gensler along with New York-firm James Carpenter — would transform it into a startup incubation center, the anchor of a 4-mile “innovation corridor” planned between Downtown and the med center. The vertical mosaic pattern pictured above on the south side of the building is one of the first hidden touches to see the light of day as part of the work that’s now beginning to restore the exterior.
Also uncovered is the row of metal beams used to mount the outer shell:
Art Deco Unveiling
The former Haliburton manufacturing plant at 1907 Sabine St. is now the eighth structure to take on a post-industrial life by joining the group of First Ward art buildings collectively dubbed Sawyer Yards. Developer Jon Deal oversaw the redo of what he’s now calling Sabine Street Studios. Its new look consists of freshly-installed siding as well as added clerestory windows and doors along the parking lot on the corner of Silver and Spring streets. Spring Street Studios — another Sawyer Yards building — is just north across the street.
To the south, the building spans the entirety of Shearn St. between Silver and Sabine:
Done Deal
What’s going on at Greenway Plaza besides the coming Lifetime Fitness and the patio addition west of Edloe? A new covered walkway now traverses the complex’s Fountain Green — linking buildings 9 and 11 to each other at ground level. The path divides the quadrant into 2 separate lawns: one to the north where the fountain pictured at top bubbles up behind the row of flags that line Richmond. The other, to the south, is a smaller strip along City Club Dr.
A rendering of the renovated plaza from its then-owner Parkway (which was bought by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board last year) shows the full partition:
Office Park Pathway
- Second Phase of Fallbrook Pines Business Park Under Construction in Northwest Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- Mayor Turner Reveals Plans Thursday To Transform Former Midtown Sears into an Innovation Hub [Bisnow]
- Signorelli Co. Building New Subdivision Called Granger Pines Near Conroe [HBJ]
- Kelvin St. Senior Living Tower Dubbed The Village of Southampton Now on the Rise [HBJ]
- Kings Cove Apartments in Kingwood Wraps Up $6M Renovation After Harvey [Houston Chronicle]
- Sears Looking To Unload 3 Houston-Area Retail Stores Through Online Auction [HBJ]
- South Korean Soft Serve Chain Milkcow To Debut on S. Mason Rd. off Highland Knolls [Eater Houston]
- Sweet Paris Crêperie & Café Opens New Location in Katy [Eater Houston]
- National Weather Service Officially Retires ‘Harvey’ as a Hurricane Name [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of Bellaire H-E-B: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Demolition creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand.
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
- 15018 Walden Rd. [HAR]
The new 235,000-sq.-ft. job training center Alief ISD started building 2-years ago on the corner of W. Houston Center Blvd. and Richmond Ave is almost a done deal. Now that the building — dubbed the Center for Advanced Careers — is up, the photo at top looks across W. Houston Center from outside Walmart to show what will be the entry to its culinary arts wing at the far end of the blocked-off driveway. A view facing north back when the 19-acre site was still flat and home to the Golf Range on Richmond shows where visitors used to tee off on it.
The new building is wrapped by parking lots:
Training Grounds
Coming soon to the strip of vacant 1920s storefronts along Main — catty-corner to the Greyhound bus station at Webster St. and directly north of the Shell station at Hadley: a new bar dubbed Pour Behavior. The 12,600-sq.-ft. building — once home to the Houston Spinal Pain Center, Ambassador Shoe Repair, Liviko’s Printing, Gold & Silver Buyers & Sellers, and the Salvation Army — sits on just over 3 quarters of an acre. A parking lot neighbors it on the corner of Travis and Webster where Downtown Body Shop was demolished a couple of years ago.
The aerial above pictures the whole property with some two-tone manipulation courtesy of the Oxberry Group, which had — but dropped — plans to redevelop it and bring in new restaurants and retailers a few years after the auto shop vanished. A new developer bought the building last year. The rendering above — released on Facebook by the bar’s proprietors last week — views the building from the corner of Travis and Webster streets and shows a patio fronting the current parking lot. Further down Webster to the east, a few windows reopen what was once the entrance to Webster St. Pharmacy, adjacent to the parking lot.
Here’s what the Salvation Army’s front face next to the gas station looked like before it closed:
Pour Behavior
Today Swamplot is brought to you by the 3-bedroom home at 5702 Warm Springs Rd. in Westbury. Thanks for the support!
What does a smart renovation of a Westbury Mod look like? The before (above) and after (at top) photos of the previously slate-slathered master bath in this 1959 property offer one suggestion. Reversing this and other unsympathetic changes made to the interior over the years, the home’s current owners have spent time and energy reversing earlier “updating” attempts (the listing agent calls it “backdating”) — to bring the house closer to its midcentury and modern roots.
This flat-roof mod has some history of its own: It was part of the Parade of Homes put on by the Greater Houston Builders Association in 1959. A wall by the entry is covered with a custom mosaic tile pattern; behind it, the den, kitchen, breakfast area, and an alcove now furnished with a tiki bar flow into each other in an expansive space. The back yard of the 8,400-sq.-ft. lot is fenced. The 2,311-sq.-ft. home features 2 separate attached single-car garages, as well as a separate storage building.
If you’d like to see for yourself the home’s new boomerang Formica surfaces, cork floors, and other era-appropriate appointments — as well as a number of original built-ins and period furnishings — you’re in luck: The home has been chosen as Houston Mod’s “Mod of the Month” for April; the organization’s open house event will take place at the property this Sunday, April 15th, from 2 to 4 pm.
To view more photos of this former Westbury show home, check out the property website. If you can’t make this weekend’s open house but would still like to see it in person, contact the listing agent, Robert Searcy of Robert Searcy Properties.
Properties that deserve attention deserve to be showcased as a  Swamplot Sponsor of the Day.
Sponsor of the Day
