Tag: 77004

08/01/18 9:30am

BeyoncÃ©’s Early Childhood Home Could Be Yours for $500K

Homes for Sale, Riverside Terrace

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“BEYONCE! MED CENTER! CLOSE TO EVERYTHING!” proclaims the listing for 2414 Rosedale St., the singer’s early childhood home in Riverside Terrace. Matthew and Tina Knowles bought the house in January, 1982 back when BeyoncÃ© was just shy of 5-months old. Located 2 blocks north of Southmore Blvd. and one east of Hwy. 288, it hit the market a few weeks ago for $500,000.

Stepping through its front entrance portal puts you in the foyer, next to the staircase:

Destiny’s Infant

77004, Beyonce Knowles, Homes for Sale, Riverside-Terrace

07/03/18 12:00pm

Trailblazing a New McGowen St. Miniature Bike Lane Perpendicular to the Columbia Tap Trail

Third Ward

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Over the weekend, members of cyclist group BikeHouston along with a number of volunteers sent to Houston by Evangelical Lutheran Church made a few bike-friendly modifications to the McGowen St. roadwayÂ between Burkett and Nettleton streets — the block that’s bisected byÂ the Columbia Tap Trail. Armed with stencils, paint, and a supply of rubber armadillos, the group sectioned off a protected bike lane along the road leading toward the trail.

Along they way, they included a few helpful reminders:

Tactical Urbanism

77004, Bike Trails, Third Ward

06/20/18 3:30pm

Shuttered LaDet Motel Now Going Red in the Face on Riverside Dr.

Hotels, Renovations, Riverside Terrace

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Photos from the middle of Riverside Dr. between 288 and N. MacGregor Wy. show the new paint job underway on the building once home to the shuttered LaDet Motel. The central 88-year-old Riverside Terrace mansion now receiving a fresh coat is about 50-years older than the ring of 2-story lodging buildings that wrap it as well as its surrounding parking lot on 3 sides — closing off the inner court from all angles, except through the gate at the front of the 2612 Riverside complex.

Now up on that fence, these brighter-hued red tags from the city’s code enforcers:

Ruddy Complexion

77004, Building Permits, Motels, Renovations, Riverside-Terrace

06/19/18 2:00pm

How Much Progress Has Been Made on Holocaust Museum Houston’s New Flat-Topped Backyard Building

Museum District, Museums, New Construction

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Photos from the 13th floor of the office tower at 1200 Binz St. look northeast to show the state of things at Holocaust Museum Houstonâ€™s construction site off Caroline St. Peeking out behind the chimney-like roof cylinder on the existing wedge-shaped building, you can seek 3 stories of steel now standing behind it. They make up a nearly three-times-larger structure now taking shape where the museum’s previous single-story northern building was torn down earlier this year. In its place, the new 57,000- sq.-footer designed by Mucasey & Associates will houseÂ a 200-seat theater, bigger exhibition spaces, more classrooms, a larger library, and more offices than its predecessor.

It’ll abut the existing ramped building as shown in the elevation below, with an entrance in between the 2:

3-Story Steel

77004, Museum District, Museums, New Construction

05/29/18 4:00pm

Let Next Level’s Video Game Venue Begin in Fast Traffic’s Midtown Garage and Apartment on Austin St.

Midtown, Renovations, Retail

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Now gunning for Fast Traffic Auto Workshopâ€™s garage and adjoining apartment on Austin St.: Next Level, Houston’s second planned but not-yet-open eSports venue. Following the auto shop owner’s retirement, the competitive videogaming hub has plans to stock the place with virtual reality gaming rigs, 40 PC setups, and a dozen or more gaming consoles — all of which will plug in somewhere between a planned competition stage, full bar, and “custom tabletop gaming tables” for lower-tech games.

The photo at top views the corner of the garage from McIlhenny St. It occupies the northeast spot on the Austin St. block where a foursome of bars plans to move in, next to the strip building at 2404 that CORE Church Midtown recently departed:

Press Start

77004, Midtown, Renovations, Retail

05/17/18 11:45am

Boxing Gym Joining Wireless Store, Hair Salon, Braun Realty HQ in Former Bathhouse on Fannin St.

Midtown, Redevelopment, Retail

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Title Boxing Club is the latest tenant on its way to the block-long former Midtowne Spa at 3100 Fannin St. Braun bought the building the same year the bathhouse shuttered in 2016, set up a 4,664-sq.-ft. office on the second floor, and began ushering other tenants into the building. Two months ago, Verizon opened at the south end of the structure, on the corner of Elgin and Fannin. In between it and the national boxing chain’s new location, a Bishops hair salon is planned.

The bathhouse — pictured above from the north before its recent whitewashing treatment — had been in the building since at least the ’80s. Other locations still operate under the same brand in Denver and Los Angeles.

Its first floor included this swimming pool and hot tub setup:

No Longer Midtowne Spa

77004, Midtown, Redevelopment, Retail

Bars and Clubs

05/09/18 4:30pm

Core Church Midtown Flees Its Austin St. Strip Center in Advance of Syn Hospitality’s Bar Quartet

Churches, Midtown, New Construction, Openings and Closings

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Construction broke ground in March on America Gardens, the star-spangled first venueÂ Syn Hospitality has planned as part of a 4-bar complex dubbed Midtown Common it’s developing on Caroline St. And already, Core Church Midtown has fled the block and taken refuge in the CrossWalk Center, a 2-story structure in the Near Northside. Formerly home to Employment Training Centers Inc., it’s on N. Main 3 blocks south of Quitman —Â next door to Label Warehouse’s building — and houses a facility that assists convicts recently released from jail.

The 5,000-sq.-ft. now-vacant strip center in Midtown had been home to the church since 2016. When the neighboring construction wraps up, America Gardens and its 3 planned accomplices —Â Don Chingon, the Social House, and Wishful Drinking — will abut the empty building’s west side, as indicated in the map below:

Midtown Common

77004, Bars and Restaurants, Churches, Midtown, New Construction, Openings and Closings

04/20/18 5:00pm

What First Presbyterian’s New 4-Story School Building off Montrose Blvd. Will Look Like

Museum District, Proposed Developments, Schools

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During- and after-school views east across Oakdale St. show the 4-story, Gensler-designed school building that First Presbyterian Church plans to build adjacent to its current one in the Museum District. The new building is tucked into the pie slice of streets and parking lots north of the MFAH between Montrose Blvd. and Main. It sits on 2 vacant lots totaling just under one fifth of an acre in the loop formed by Oakdale and Pinedale streets. Catty-corner to it is the existing First Presbyterian School’s driveway — visible at the bottom of the daytime view above.

A sliced-open view from the building’s backside shows its lobby fronting the existing pre-K-through-8 school:

Museum District

77004, Churches, Museum District, Proposed Developments, Schools

Adaptive Reuse

04/13/18 5:00pm

Shuttered Midtown Sears Now Shedding Its Full Metal Jacket

Midtown, Renovations

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Crews are now peeling back the corrugated metal paneling that covers over the original faÃ§ade 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 Universityâ€™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

77004, Adaptive Reuse, Midtown, Renovation, Restoration, Retail

03/16/18 4:30pm

House of 11 Stacked Shipping Containers on McGowen Now Awaiting Doors, Windows, Electrification

New Construction, Third Ward

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When the owner’s work is finished on what he’s calling the McGowen Container House, the stack of boxes just east of 59 will be a 4-story house with a carport at ground level and a terrace atop the blue Hanjin unit shown in the photo above. A few windows, doors, and portions of the staircase that will climb through the building’s east side have been installed, according to theÂ blog for the project. Rough-in plumbing and some preliminary electrical wiring is finished as well, but the utilities aren’t on yet.

Here’s a view of the cargo hold from the east, near Hutchins St.:

Third Ward Freight

77004, New Construction, Residential, Shipping-Containers, Third Ward

03/16/18 12:30pm

What’s Next for the Third Ward’s Riverside General Hospital Campus?

Hospitals, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Third Ward

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WHAT’S NEXT FOR THE THIRD WARD’S RIVERSIDE GENERAL HOSPITAL CAMPUS? The 3-acre Riverside General Hospital campus is home to 3 buildings: Houston’s first hospital for black patientsÂ fronting Elgin (pictured above) and a former nurses’ quarters along Holman (both opened in 1926 as the Houston Negro Hospital), as well as a newer 1961 hospital building.Â The entire facility closed in 2015 after its former CEO Earnest Gibson III was convicted of Medicare fraud.Â Earlier this week, the Harris County Commissioners CourtÂ voted to buy all 3 buildings. If they don’t become a part of theÂ new mental health facility the county plans to open on the site, what purpose might the 2 older buildings serve? The neighborhood may get a chance to review smaller-scale proposals for those historic structures:Â a job training center, small business incubation facility, maker space, cultural museum, library, youth hostel, swing dance club, chess club, or dominoes club. UH architecture professor Alan Bruton tellsÂ Houston MattersÂ hostÂ Craig CohenÂ that the Emancipation Economic Development Council — a Third Ward nonprofit — invited him to collect residents’ ideas for the space. His students next fall will create designs for some of those concepts; the Council may use them to raise money and rally support for the proposals. [Houston Public Media; audio]Â Photo of former Houston Negro Hospital building at 3204 Ennis St.: Ed Uthman [license]

77004, Hospitals, Proposed Developments, Third Ward

03/06/18 4:30pm

This One Neat Trick Will Help You Cross Hutchins and Tuam Streets Faster Than Ever Before

Third Ward

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New protective barriers of ankle-high concrete have been added around the curbs that already front each corner at the intersection of Tuam and Hutchins streets, slowing down traffic and speeding up curb-to-curb travel times for pedestrians crossing at the crosswalks. The additions were put there by the city’s Complete Communities initiative, a project Mayor Turner launched last April to focus in its initial round on adding infrastructure to 5 neighborhoods: the Third Ward, as well as the Second Ward, Near Northside, Gulfton, and Acres Homes.

The photo at top — Tweeted out by an observer heading southbound through the Third Ward along Tuam — looks down the street to show all 4 new pedestrian pockets including the one in the left foreground that sits outside the northeast corner of Emancipation Park. That portion of the park is where its playground lays out as indicated in the map above.

A view looking east from inside the park shows what the kids’ corner has to offer:

A Concrete Solution

77004, Emancipation Park, Pedestrians, Third Ward

01/29/18 4:00pm

A Toilet-Tank Aquarium’s New Life in a Riverside Terrace Bathroom Redo

Interiors

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The Fish â€™n Flush toilet-tank aquarium can’t support life without a connection to a power outlet — unavailable in this particular guest bath — but that didn’t stop the owners of the 3-bedroom at 3838 Southmore from extending the piscine theme to the rest of their bathroom after moving into the home. The couple bought the house in 2016 and renovated the room, which was previously featured on Swamplot. Having documented the work on their own blog, they now send these photos in an update on the porcelain apparatus.

The photo below shows the bathroom with new wainscoting, navy paint, and two framed fish renderings hanging above the window next to the shower. To the right of the window, the toilet sits in a separate room:

Water Feature

77004, Bathrooms, Interiors, Renovations

Institutional Buildings, University of Houston

11/27/17 1:00pm

Upstairs in the New Pharmacy Building Where UH Will Be Birthing Its New Medical School

by Swamplot

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Where’s the University of Houston going to put its new College of Medicine? In the top 2 floors of this new structure behind the campus Rec Center, pictured here as construction completed this summer: the new Health and Biomedical Sciences Building 2. The College of Pharmacy is expected to complete its move into lower floors of the building by the end of this year. The adjacent tower (shown in the upper right of the photo below) is the 4-year-old Health and Biomedical Sciences Building (soon to be known as HBSB1), which, together with the older but also-attached Armistead Bldg. at the corner of Calhoun and Wheeler, houses the school’s College of Optometry.