Once a duplex, a box-on-box 1965 home two blocks from Baldwin Park in Midtown endures as newer townhomes sprout around it. The fenced-in side lot provides some yardage otherwise missing at the back of the property, which is light on windows (at right), but big on built-in storage cubes (top). Last weekend, the freshly painted, previously updated residence appeared on the market with a $760,000 price tag.
QUITTIN’ TIME FOR MUSEUM PARK COWORKING SPACE 
Culturemap reports that Caroline Collective, the coworking complex with that friendly fake zebra, is closing, after 5 years behind these gates in Museum Park: “The . . . site at Caroline and Rosedale is under contract to make way for Museum District’s current rush of development,” writes Tyler Rudick. It has not been reported yet what that development might be; Urban Deal, explains Rudick, has the deed to the 8,000-sq.-ft. property here at 4820 Caroline for at least a few more months. [Culturemap] Photo: Ed Schipul [license]
This big blaze early this morning destroyed much of the strip center on the 1500 block of Blodgett, where Gallery Jatad just opened back in June and catty-corner from the proposed site of 4 new Urban Living townhomes. According to the abc13 report, the fire sparked in the washateria on the west end of the strip center and burned east toward an about-to-open custom furniture shop and the art gallery, both of which appear to have sustained some water and smoke damage.
THE PARC BINZ GETTING SOME RESTAURANT BIZNESS 
Culturemap’s Eric Sandler is reporting that a coffee shop and wine bar and 2 new restaurants will be opening up this fall in Museum Park, all 3 of them going inside the 5-story, 50,000-sq.-ft. mixed-use Parc Binz building that’s currently under construction at the corner of Binz and Chenevert: “The first . . . will serve light bites and feature the same coffee beans from Greenway Coffee and Tea that are currently featured at Blacksmith . . . . The second will be a Korean fried chicken concept tentatively called Dak & Dop. The third will be a full service restaurant under the direction of executive chef Chris Leung, who’s already partnered with Balcor on ice cream shop Cloud 10 Creamery that’s set to open in Rice Village’s Hanover development this fall.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: Energy Architecture
Here’s the latest rendering of the once-protested Parc Binz development that’s going up on the corner of Binz and Chenevert in Museum Park. Prime Property reports that this mixed-use building, designed by Energy Architecture, should be all ready by the end of the year. During construction, though, the scale of it seems to have shrunk: Originally proposed to stand 6 stories and have 75,000-sq.-ft. of office, retail, and medical space, Sarnoff sizes what is actually being built at 50,000 sq. ft., and this brighter new rendering shows only 5 floors.
You can compare it with the previous one — featuring a solitary fellow brooding in the gloaming out on the terrace — after the jump:
A new residence hall for men rehabbing from drug and alcohol addiction looks to be shaping up in Midtown. Designed by Roesler Architects, the 4-story, 26,000-sq.-ft. building will hold 64 efficiency units meant to house 2 men at a time; each unit, according Roesler, will have a microwave, refrigerator, built-in desk, and a coffee bar. There will also be what Roesler describes as a “Linear Courtyard” — a fenced-in landscaping feature, presumably — that will be accessible from the dayroom on the first floor. The new building is located at the corner of Alabama and San Jacinto, east of the Men’s Center headquarters across Main St. from the construction of Broadstone 3800, the 5-story apartment complex facing the light rail line on Main.
Yeah, this old one is a goner: A rep from the city says that a variance application to reduce the building setback has been approved for this corner in Museum Park, making just enough room on the 8,100-sq.-ft. lot at Jackson and Blodgett so 4 townhomes can squeeze on in. The peach-trimmed, converted-into-apartments building at 1702 Blodgett St., catty-corner from the art gallery that opened in the strip center, was in the Daily Demolition Report this morning. County records show that the doomed 4,220-sq.-ft. building dates to 1935.
A reader sends a photo of what still remains of this 1930 home at 1813 Arbor St. MLS data show that the 2,004-sq.-ft. house on this 8,000-sq.-ft. Museum Park lot was sold in May for $285,000. Reports the reader: “I thought that they were going to rehab this house but now it looks like they are dismantling it and salvaging bricks and materials.” You can find these ruins a block west of Almeda, directly across the street from those Intexure homes that were reviewed here when featured on the Art Institute of Houston’s 2011 Modern Home Tour.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
There’s more going on at U of H than that new McDonald’s, apparently: A reader sends these photos of many of the construction projects scattered across the campus. This photo shows the pylons of the still-unnamed bowl with a Downtown view that’s replacing Robertson Stadium, demolished back in December. And in the background of the photo you can see the new Cougar Place apartments. KUHF’s Jack Williams reports that the new stadium is already about a third done; more photos after the jump illustrate the below-grade playing field.
A builder working on these bungalows at 4204 and 4208 Crawford St. says the owner is freshening them up into rental properties. The Museum Park pair sat side by side on the market for about a year until they were purchased back in April, county records show. Dating to 1929, the roughly 1,100-sq.-ft. houses each have 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. They sit 2 blocks north of Wheeler at Crawford and Eagle St., near where the Southwest Fwy. vaults over Midtown.
Photos: Allyn West
A reader wants in on the scoop with this swath of fenced-in property, bound by Ewing, Jackson, and Hermann Drive in Museum Park: “There has been a lot of surveying and staking of the empty lot . . . between The Parklane highrise and The Plaza Museum District condos. Off-and-on for a month, Bury Partners personnel have been surveying both the perimeter and interior of the property as well as inspecting the sewer access on Hermann Drive. Any thoughts on what this means?”
Photo: Allyn West
A pair of Houston artists have really spruced up what’s left of the interior of this former beauty parlor on Dowling St. in the Third Ward. Funded in part by the Houston Arts Alliance, reports Glasstire, Robert Hodge and Phillip Pyle II bought secondhand furniture, wallpaper, knick-knacks, framed photographs of JFK, MLK, Jr., and JC (Jesus Christ, that is) and a rug for this crumbling shell of a building at Dowling and Stuart near the Project Row Houses, turning it into an temporary installation they’re calling “Beauty Box.”
A reader sends photo of the construction progress of the replacement McDonald’s near the corner of Elgin and Cullen on the University of Houston campus. The McDonald’s that used to stand here was torn down in early June. A regional rep says that this new one should be ready by the time classes resume.
Photos: Thomas Heinold
This little lot on Almeda Rd. is being cleared for a 2-story office building. Between Blodgett and Wentworth and smushed between the Spanish Village Restaurant and a 2-story brick home, the lot at 4716 Almeda is just a bit more than a tenth of an acre. A replat application submitted to the city indicates that the proposed 3,000-sq.-ft. building is meant to be the new standalone headquarters of Mayberry Homes, which will be relocating from a retail center just down the street at 4412 Almeda.
More urban dominion: The unwanted vegetation has been ripped out and the foundations poured for the 8-pack of townhouses going by Rosewood Estates, developed by McCollum City Homes and Urban Living. These are just south of Wheeler and west of Almeda in Museum Park on a lot cornered by Rosewood and Jackson. And they appear to stick with that if-it-ain’t-broke 3-bedroom, 4-story design that might by now seem pretty darn familiar. Prices here, anyway, range from $489,000 for a 2,224-sq.-ft. one that faces Rosewood St. to $499,000 for the 2,286-sq.-ft. one that overlooks the shared drivepath and Jackson St.
