Four businesses and seven residences gained official release from the restricting confines of structural integrity yesterday. What’s going down? Our list of falling buildings is after the jump.
Read more about: 77003, 77004, 77005, 77006, 77009, 77018, 77019, 77026, 77030, 77081, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
A fast food icon quickly devoured, plus the end of a house on an oak-lined Woodland Heights street. Details after the jump.
Read more about: 77004, 77005, 77007, 77009, 77019, 77055, 77056, 77087, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
Sure, the canopy of coastal live oak trees along Sunset Boulevard north of Rice is purty and all, but what’s really great about it is that it’s going to block views of a new six-story medical tower going up in Southampton. Well, okay, the fact that car windshields don’t curve all the way up over our heads—that helps too. Just don’t look up while you drive by, okay?
Now if Southampton residents would just shut up about the new Medical Clinic of Houston building long enough to watch this drive-by video produced by the new building’s nice architects—showing the still-leafy drive along tree-lined Sunset Boulevard, they’ll see how silly their complaints are.
After the jump, un-foliated views of the new tower, plus the seven-level parking garage that’s going to face Rice Boulevard.
Read more about: 77005, Medical Clinics, Proposed Developments, Rice-University, Southampton, Trees
Coming down soon . . . in a neighborhood near you! It’s our daily report of sold demolition permits. Our list of casualties approved Friday begins after the jump.
Read more about: 77005, 77008, 77019, 77025, 77051, 77098, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions, Houston Heights, Montrose
A teensy item appears in the middle of a long list of projects on the revised agenda of an obscure public agency. The list is voted on, and presto! Nine months years later The Westpark Tollway gets extended all the way to Kirby Drive!
Christof Spieler spots this exciting news—sure to make a lot of West U-area residents take notice—and complains:
Once a project is on a list that gets approved by the TPC, it’s a lot closer to happening. Months or years from now, a neighborhood might object. And they’ll be shown the list and told, “it’s in the plan. It got approved. There’s nothing you can do.” Pieces of paper can have a lot of power.
And this piece of paper came out of nowhere. There was no public announcement, let alone hearings. It was a last minute addition to the agenda. David Crossley of the Gulf Coast institute spotted it only because he was looking through the TPC web site. [emphasis added]
Photo: Flickr user Danburg Murmur
Read more about: 77005, 77027, 77081, 77098, Freeways, kirby, Toll-Roads, West University, Westpark Tollway
Don’t let this happen to U: City Council voted last week to limit the size of porches in West University. You see, that’s the problem with those giant new megamansions in Houston’s priciest Zip: It’s those damn arched entrances!
The new ordinance limits the height of front porches that encroach onto front sebacks to a mere 20 feet on 100-foot-deep lots. Peristyle patrons need not panic prematurely, however. The ordinance will have to pass a second time, over the objections of angry, front-balcony-loving newcomers, before it can be enforced.
[Photo: 6332 Auden, listed at HAR]
Read more about: 77005, Development Restrictions, Megamansions, Neighborhoods: West University, Porches, West University
Here it is: The mixed-use giant about to plant itself at the northern edge of the Rice Village, at the 2400 block of Bolsover Street, between Kelvin and Morningside. “Abandonment proceedings” for the property have already begun. Say goodbye, Nit Noi!
It’s about 250 residential units perched over high-end retail and office space, all wrapped around a parking garage with a pool on top. Lamesa Properties vice president Julie Tysor tells the West University Examiner that construction is to begin early next year, and that the retail will likely consist of “a boutique grocer, a bookstore, and several upscale restaurants and shops.”
Tysor goes on to say that “nothing is defined or set in stone yet,” but Ziegler Cooper Architects features these drawings of the project on its website.
One question: will all that head-in parking along Kelvin have signs in front of each space that say “Parking for Bailey Banks and Biddle only“?
Read more about: 77005, Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, New Construction, Parking, Retail, Rice-Village
