THE ART GUYS GO TO THE LIBRARY 
A Swamplot reader says that the eponymous live oak (shown at right) in “The Art Guys Marry a Plant,” acquired by the Menil Collection in 2011, has been uprooted from Menil Park. Art Guy Jack Massing “didn’t want to say where the tree has gone,” reports the Houston Chronicle: “‘We’ve got it all taken care of,’ he said.” Instead, he wanted to talk about the Art Guys’ 30 years of working together; they’re planning “12 Events:” a year of once-a-month “behaviors” beginning on January 23 with a marathon autograph session at the Julia Ideson Library on McKinney: “They see signatures as something both basic and profound that’s evolved from the simplest mark making — drawing a line — into a legally-binding expression of identity. ‘People say they can’t draw, yet they have a signature. It’s a way of drawing your identity with a linguistic connection so you can be relevant in the world,’ Massing said. ‘It’s simple and basic, and yet incredibly profound.'” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Robert Boyd
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Tag: 77002
Welcome to the new Houston Club: this rendering shows Gensler’s renovation plans for the lobby near the top of the 50-story One Shell Plaza, where the city’s oldest social club is merging with the not-as-old Plaza Club and moving in. Since 1955, the club met at 811 Rusk (shown at right); but Skansksa bought the 18-story building last year, hastening the move. Swamplot reported in early January that much of 811 Rusk’s contents are being auctioned off tomorrow — the less club members will have to drag up 49 floors to their new fancy digs:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHEN PENNZOIL MADE A DENT IN THE SKYLINE “That compliment was a little tongue-in-cheek… she was referring to Houston as being entirely a car and freeway-based city. But she was ecstatic about Pennzoil Place (said it had the biggest impact on a city skyline since the Empire State Building), and made that comment in a review of it. Huxtable was the first newspaper architecture critic, and now a bunch of papers have one (Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, etc.). Will the Chronicle ever?” [Mike, commenting on Kick a Building In Memoriam]
What’s this? Near the intersection of W. Gray and Milam, a for-sale sign has popped up on the Central Square Plaza buildings on a 1-acre lot in Midtown. We’re hoping to get more details soon. The fate of the 12- and 14-story offices and parking garage at 2100 Travis has been tied up in court for years; Swamplot reported last summer that owner Alfred J. Antonini won a skirmish in a ongoing battle against the city, which had in 2011 ordered him to make “a bunch of repairs” to the buildings, vacant now for a real long time.
- Previously on Swamplot: City Loses Skirmish in Battle To Repair Central Square
Photo: Swamplot inbox (sign); LoopNet
Yesterday morning, Macy’s announced that it would be closing its store Downtown at 1110 Main this spring. But what’s going to happen to the building? Mayor Parker, who knows a thing or two about demolition, said yesterday afternoon that Kenneth Franzheim’s former Foley’s is coming down: “Macy’s is losing the lease, and the owner of that piece of property wants to build something else,” she told KUHF News. The owner in this case would be 1110 Main Partners, an entity connected to Hilcorp Ventures, whose president, Doug Kelly, told the Houston Chronicle yesterday that the company has “no specific plans to announce” about the site. Well, announcing plans is one thing:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON’S MISSING DISTRICT OF GOOD-ENOUGH OLD BUILDINGS “I think the general feeling on this one from historically/architecturally sensitive people like myself is that while it’s not the greatest building ever built in Houston, it’s a lot greater than what is on at least 100 of the blocks downtown. This is where you get to the difference between Houston and a city like San Antonio, which still has a significant historical flavor in its downtown. Most historic buildings are not great, they’re average. If you only preserve the landmarks, most of your historic stock gets wiped out and you lose that historic dimension in your city. San Antonio does not allow its historic buildings to be torn down, and thus maintains a vibrant historical (and walkable) downtown core, while leaving plenty of room for new buildings. Houston started out with roughly as many early 20th century buildings as San Antonio had, it just didn’t preserve them.” [Mike, commenting on Houston Club Building Will Be Demolished, Say Auctioneers]
Did you know Macy’s had a store Downtown? Well, not for much longer. Macy’s announced this morning that its 1110 Main St. location will be shuttered this spring. Clearance sales will start January 7 and continue for up to 11 weeks. The store debuted in 1947 as the Foley’s flagship (at right) in a 791,000-sq.-ft. Kenneth Franzheim building. The company will close 5 Macy’s and one Bloomingdale’s in other cities as well.
- Macy’s Outlines Normal-Course Adjustments to Stores Portfolio [Business Wire]
- Previously on Swamplot: The Mostly Glass Building That Won’t Be Replacing the Downtown Macy’s
Photos: jaraylee182004 (Macy’s), Jim Parsons (Foley’s)
HOUSTON CLUB BUILDING WILL BE DEMOLISHED, SAY AUCTIONEERS Going, going . . . gone?: The company auctioning off the contents of the Houston Club ahead of its move to the 49th floor of One Shell Plaza gleefully reports on its website that the Jesse Jones-era 18-story office building at 811 Rusk is “scheduled for demolition!†That’s more than Skanska, which owns the building, has officially announced, though the Swedish construction firm’s own website does note that “future redevelopment” is planned for the Downtown site. [Lewis & Maese via CultureMap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Silberman Properties
This rendering of a glassy new Macy’s, posted a couple of weeks ago on the website of architects Munoz + Albin, incited a new round of speculation (on HAIF, anyway) about the fate of Downtown’s last department store. The ol’ box of bricks at 1110 Main St. (pictured below), designed by Kenneth Franzheim, opened in 1947 as the Foley’s flagship. Would Hilcorp, which now owns the property, demolish the post-war relic?
Christmas Eve was the last day of business for Houston’s only Books-A-Million location, in the Houston Pavilions sorta-mall. Workers at the 1201 Main St. store are now packing the bookstore’s remaining inventory onto pallets (at left), which will be shipped off to the national chain’s warehouses or other locations. (That means there’ll be no goodbye sale.) Books-A-Million had threatened to leave the space back in January of 2011; a quickly arranged sweetened rent deal from its landlord allowed it to stay. But that agreement has now expired, and Pavilions has new owners: A group headlined by former LA Lakers point guard Magic Johnson bought the 3-block complex — out of bankruptcy — this past August.
- Previously on Swamplot: Books-A-Million at Houston Pavilions: Back from the Dead!, Books-A-Million Bailing out of Houston Pavilions
Photos: Downtown Houston Management District (store); Swamplot inbox (pallets)
HEAVEN ON EARTH FIRE DRILL 
A reader figures all the Houston Fire Department units and ambulances gathered downtown around the long-vacant former Holiday Inn at 801 St. Joseph Pkwy. at Travis St. on Sunday morning were there for some training exercises: “There was no incident active on the HFD Active Incidents web site, which is just a dump from their dispatch system. I monitored their radio traffic related to it as well. . . . I assume they had permission from the owner. Interesting to see this building getting some attention. I don’t think they were setting it on fire, though.” The 31-story 1971 building was also, for a time, a Days Inn; it was last known as the Heaven on Earth Plaza Hotel, operated through most of the nineties by an organization affiliated with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, though many residents and neighbors referred to it more affectionately as the Beirut Hilton. [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot] Photo: arch-ive.org
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOUSTON FIRST SKIPS THE BULLY SALES BLOCK “Instead of ‘hoping’ to get residential/retail development on the site, why not REQUIRE such development on the site via deed restrictions or other contractual agreements with the buyer? This is how HISD screwed themselves on the sale of their old administration building. They sold to the highest bidder and ‘hoped’ they would build something like the fancy mixed use rendering they were passing around. Instead we got a Costco and an LA Fitness. When you consider that HISD pockets more than 50 percent of every tax dollar paid by the property, they might have made more money in the long run by GIVING AWAY their land to someone who would have developed it more intensely.” [Bernard, commenting on Headlines: Downtown Block for Sale; Accessing Remote Hermann Park]
BEHIND THE GLASS AT THE DOWNTOWN STRIP HOUSE PEEP SHOW 
Peeking through darkened windows into the former Strip House steakhouse on McKinney St. in Houston Center, which abruptly shuttered over the summer, restaurant watcher Eric Sandler spies signs that workers have gone further than simply removing the strip-club-themed decorations that once lined its walls. Ladders and “other signs of construction” reveal designs on the space by the Pappas restaurant group, which Sandler reports is preparing to put a Pappas Bros. Steakhouse in its place. [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user jerry1540
A restaurant owned by family members of former Rockets star center Yao Ming has been shut out of the space it leases from the Houston Pavilions — for nonpayment of rent, according to a sign posted on the door by Midway Management. Yao Restaurant and Bar opened in the space near the corner of Dallas and Fannin — a few blocks from the Rockets’ home court at the Toyota Center — more than 2 years ago. A story in the NY Daily News earlier this year had owner Bill Wang saying business had been good since Ming’s retirement from the Rockets in 2011, but also giving a shout out to the Rockets’ latest star: “We want this place to be the home restaurant of Jeremy Lin.†A group headlined by former LA Lakers point guard Magic Johnson bought the 3-block Houston Pavilions complex out of bankruptcy earlier this year.
- Yao’s Locked Out Of Houston Pavillions [Eater Houston]
- At Yao’s place, Linsanity already on menu [NY Daily News]
- New owners hope to bring new life to Houston Pavilions [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: CityCentre Owner Buying Houston Pavilions
Photo: Wolfgang Houston
The retail tenants at the bottom of the Americana Building at 811 Dallas across Travis St. from Macy’s downtown have just about cleared out, reports a reader: Popeye’s, the Travis Food Store, and Zero’s Sandwich Shop (pictured at right) are already gone. Fast Signs has a sign up saying it’s moving soon. Subway is still open, but the reader reports hearing that its lease has been bought out. When the James Coney Island on the ground floor of the 15-story office block shut down 2 years ago after 35 years in the same location, a spokesperson complained to KHOU 11 News that the restaurant had been forced to close “because their building is falling apart, but the landlord won’t fix it.”
Photos: Boxer Property (top); Swamplot inbox (below)
