Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
That’s what this demolition is; that’s what we’ve got.
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- 9651 Judalon Ln. [HAR]
Aside from some interior remodeling and roof repairs, the 5,362-sq.-ft. Hilliard House on Del Monte Dr. has been mostly untouched since J. Leon Osborn built it in 1936. According to the city planning department’s historical commission: “no updates to any electrical, structural or other systems have been performed.” In February, that commission approved the owners’ application to tack an extra 3,000-sq.-ft. onto the backside of the structure. The portion they’re now set to build — adjacent to a new pool — will include a network of new living rooms on the first floor and a new master bedroom suite with an adjacent office and exercise room upstairs. An added 2-car garage should also bring the property’s parking situation up to modern speed; right now, the only garaging option is a carriage house.
The site plan above shows how the building will sit on its almost-21-acre just-over-half-acre lot after the add-on — designed by Rogelio Carrasco — is complete. Nearly everything running back adjacent to the pool is new.
Right now, the house’s backyard stretches straight back behind the rounded side tower:
Hilliard House
A LAWSUIT OVER RIVERSTONE’S VANISHED LEVEE 
More than 400 residents of Fort Bend County’s Riverstone development — between Hwy. 6 and the Brazos River — are suing the engineering firm that designed their stormwater systems, alleging that the design left one portion of the community flooded by the runoff from the other during Harvey. The roughly 3,700-acre area is divided into 2 Levee Improvement Districts — LID 19 (shaded blue on the map) and 15. “It became very clear when we passed into LID 15 that something was not right,” one LID 19 homeowner said in a press conference. “We were inundated with water in our neighborhood, and just on the other side of the street everything seemed to be perfectly fine.” Both LIDs were designed by Costello, Inc. the company founded by Houston’s flood czar Steve Costello. (He’s said he divested from it in 2015.) That firm’s failure to consider what would happen when a levee that ran between the 2 districts — along Hagerson Rd. — was removed is what downstreamers say is to blame for much of their soggy state. In total, reports the Chronicle’s Rebecca Elliott, about a third of the 1,760 homes in LID 19 flooded. [Houston Chronicle] Map of Riverstone LIDs 15 and 19: Riverstone LIDs
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- HFF Acquiring Renovated Montrose Apartment Complex 1218 Jackson [Houston Chronicle]
- Intrepid Business Park in Northwest Houston Trades Hands [HBJ]
- HomeGoods and Marshalls Join Grand Central Park’s 336 Marketplace in Conroe [HBJ]
- Aladdin Mediterranean Cuisine Eyeing June 1 Oak Forest Soft Opening [The Leader]
- Hurricane Harvey Still Buoying Houston’s Multifamily Market [Bisnow]
- Houston One of 22 Cities To Join Smart Cities Collaborative Focused on Addressing Transportation Problems [HBJ]
- Improvements Planned for Third Ward Streets [abc13]
- Houston Lags Behind San Antonio, Austin in Solar Power Gains [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Environment Texas: State’s Companies Faced Minimal Enforcement for Recent Releases into Waterways [Houston Chronicle]
- Forecasters Predict 2018 Hurricane Season Won’t Be As Bad as 2017 [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of City Hall: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Demolition is the final form of love.
- 2107 Looscan Ln. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BACK TO NATURE 
“Cities with a ‘home flood rate’ of over 25 percent — like Bellaire — should really consider mandatory green space, meaning some property owners simply cannot rebuild. Tough in the short term but the city can front good money to buy them out . . . because all that park land, trails, fishing, sports fields will pay back multi-fold when these communities are Edens in the midst of a major city.” [movocelot, commenting on Bellaire’s Flooded Home Count; Chicken Salad Chain Making Houston Debut] Illustration: Lulu
A bunch of pipes arrived yesterday in the vacant field behind a pair of Montrose video stores, a Swamplot reader reports. Audio Video Plus shut down 6 years ago, next door to it on W. Clay is the warehouse home to the lesser known Astro Audio Video equipment rental store — also shuttered. The photo above shows the scene on Peveto St. behind the latter store.
Audio Video Plus neighbors another vacant storefront — Quintanilla Jewelers — in the strip mall on the corner of Waugh:
North Montrose
- $150M Live and Work Campus Dubbed The Cannon Breaks Ground North of I-10 and West of the Beltway [HBJ ($)]
- Stag Industrial Buys Brookhollow West Business Park in Northwest Houston [Houston Chronicle]
- Braun Enterprises Acquires Former Aztec Rentals Center in Garden Oaks [HBJ ($)]
- Main Building of Houston Tech Innovation District Slated for Former Sears Location in Midtown [HBJ ($)]
- Senior Living Community Planned for Atascocita [HBJ]
- Fiesta Mart Signs 2 Leases for New Houston HQ Near the Galleria [HBJ]
- Postino Wine Cafe To Debut at the Heights Mercantile on April 11 [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
- City Council Approves Post-Harvey Floodplain Rule in 9-7 Vote [The Texas Tribune]
- 5 Key Points When It Comes to Flood Mitigation [The Urban Edge]
- More Than 1,300 Homes in Harris County Have 50-50 Chance of Flooding Every Year [Houston Chronicle]
- Hurricane Harvey Blamed for Overcrowding at the Harris County Jail [Houston Chronicle]
- First Redesigned Flood Warning Sign Planned on Studemont Near Washington [KHOU]
Photo of mural on Bayou City Cycles, 1303 Cullen Blvd.: Leonid Notax via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report lists buildings that received City of Houston demolition permits the previous weekday.
Success is not final, demolition is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.
- 6401 FM 539 [HAR]
Exterior renovations are nearly complete on the 39,213-sq.-ft. building Houston’s First Baptist Church took over from a local branch of the Communication Workers of America on the corner of Jefferson and Chenevert last year. The new location is number 4 for the church — existing worship centers include the flagship spot on the Katy Fwy. just outside 610, as well as other sites in Cypress and Missouri City.
Crews began whitewashing the brick walls adjacent to the curved entrance drive along the building in January:
Downtown Christening
Braun has a 2-step plan for developing the former Aztec Rental Services property on 34th St. between Oak Forest and Ella. A brochure on the developer’s website designates the portion of the site to the east as that of future residences. On the western edge of the would-be housing spot, Aztec’s former storefront — pictured above — looks toward an additional 2-acre parcel the equipment outfitter gave up.
That’s where Braun wants to plant a pair of 10,050-sq.-ft. retail buildings surrounded by a moat of parking:
One of Each
