THE BACK AND FORTH ON DUNLAVY ST. 
Back in May some Montrose urbanists rejoiced at a report that city traffic planners were hoping to constrict Dunlavy St. from 4 lanes to 2. However, as part of this year’s annual Major Thoroughfare and Freeway Plan, the city’s planning commission advised widening the Dunlavy corridor’s right-of-way 10 feet in certain areas. In an e-blast to her constituents, city council’s Ellen Cohen cited a lack of public input on the widening proposal and its potential negative impact on homeowners as key factors in shaping her “grave concerns” over the prospect of a fattened corridor, so that proposal has been tabled until next year’s review. [Houston Chronicle; Ellen Cohen] Photo: Raj Mankad /OffCite
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Tag: 77006
Finding a seat in the latest round of musical chairs among Houston’s theater crowd is the Classical Theatre Company, which recently announced it is moving operations into the 175-seat Chelsea Market venue vacated by Main Street Theater earlier this year. For the previously nomadic CTC, the space means a more permanent home for its artists and audiences — as well as a single spot for its offices, storage, rehearsals, and performances.
Main Street Theater, which has a Rice Village venue on Times Blvd. readying for a long-awaited renovation, had rented the Chelsea Market space for its Theater for Youth and educational programming since 1996. Youth activities shifted recently to the Talento Bilingue de Houston center at 333 S. Jensen Dr. That move had been prompted by the kickoff of work on the recently re-christened 20-story apartment project fronting Chelsea Blvd. (The Carter, formerly known as Chelsea Montrose), which took a big bite out of a once-extensive parking area.
Stage Shuffle
CHELSEA MONTROSE TOWER KICKS OFF CONSTRUCTION WITH A NEW NAME 
Prompted by a press release, the HBJ and the Chronicle announced yesterday that construction has begun on the new apartment complex at 4 Chelsea Blvd., just east of Montrose Blvd. along the southern edge of Hwy. 59. in the Museum District. The 305-unit, 20-story building will be called The Carter, both publications reported. That’s a new name — so new, in fact, that the website for the developer, Dallas’s StreetLights Residential, still identifies the project by its former title, Chelsea–Montrose. The Chelsea name and its NYC pedigree may have conjured up unpleasant images of unmade beds, ugliness, and loud music among prospective tenants, but the new name has its own rich NYC backstory — though an entirely fictional one. As a commenter on HAIF notes, “the Carter” was the name of the complex Wesley Snipes spends the first act of the early-nineties movie New Jack City turning into a vertically integrated crack-producing-and-marketing enterprise. More recently, the appellation has come to be used as an affectionate nickname for troubled residential projects seen to be slipping into similar directions. [Houston Chronicle; Lansing City Pulse; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: StreetLights Residential
Next on the docket at the Court at Museum’s Gate on Montrose Blvd., a 2-story condo (top) in the 1985 postmodern property (above) presents in its listing earlier this week an unstaged interior — and a $325,000 asking price. It was on the books for $319,000 earlier this year, but that listing terminated in May, prior to a flip-minded reboot. Soon to hit 30, the 49-unit complex appears to be revamping one condo at a time . . .
Plaza Entry
An expansive deck with pool for physical therapy (top) links a home and its back-of-lot studio apartment at a Montrose compound, which started October as a $795K listing. Recent updates to the 1922 bungalow (above) included new AC, duct work, and wallboard. The studio space was added in 2012. Located east of Stanford St. near Lovett Blvd., the property is within walking — or rolling — distance of many neighborhood restaurants.
Single Level Living
Had you been planning a big farewell meal at Van Loc later this week? Sorry, there’s been a change of plans: The Vietnamese restaurant at 3010 Milam St. in Midtown is now officially closed for good. “There are signs on the doors apologizing for having to close earlier than expected,” a reader tells Swamplot. The reason: So much business in the last few days that they’ve “run out of food” — and order and prep times mean new orders wouldn’t be ready much before the previously planned Friday closing.
Van Loc served its last meals Tuesday night. A sale of the property appears to be imminent.
- Previously on Swamplot: Midtown’s Van Loc Will Lock Up for Good This Friday; Midtown Vietnamese Restaurant Van Loc Says It’s Closing Up Shop
Photos: Allyn West/OffCite (front); Swamplot inbox (sign)
The Pho Has Flown
MIDTOWN’S VAN LOC WILL LOCK UP FOR GOOD THIS FRIDAY Those of you lamenting the closure of 28-year-old Midtown institution Van Loc may want to note this latest update on the Vietnamese restaurant: There’s now an actual deadline for you to get your orders in for duck & bamboo soup, garlic tofu, or No. 46. The restaurant will serve its last meals this Friday, October 17th. What will become of the place then? Separate rumors floated to a Reddit thread include new apartments and a 16-story office building with — wait for it — ground-floor retail. The restaurant at 3010 Milam St. sits on the southern half of a 50,000-sq.-ft. block, one block north of Elgin. Feel free to contribute your speculation, intel, or final orders below. [Reddit; Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West/OffCite
Here are a few views of the 11-story spec office building planned for the north side of the Montrose Blvd. bridge over the Southwest Fwy., across the street from Kam’s Fine Chinese Cuisine. And yes, it appears developers Griffin Partners really do intend to call the inside-the-Loop project Bridgeview Crossing. The design by Kirksey Architecture includes a single 1,500-sq.-ft. retail space facing Montrose, but the rest of the building at 4503 Montrose Blvd. is all business: 5 floors of office space sitting on top of a 6-level parking garage.
The design’s surface treatments, however, play down that simple offices-over-cars division, presenting instead a glassy-and-griddy front to Hwy. 59 on the south:
Bridgeview Crossing
Longtime (and formerly late-night) Midtown Vietnamese mainstay Van Loc has announced it will be shutting down soon after 28 years in business. The restaurant’s owners have posted a note (shown at right) letting customers know of its plans, but have not announced a closing date. The freestanding restaurant building and its parking lot sit on the southern portion of the Midtown block at 3010 Milam St., between Rosalie St. and Anita, a block north of Elgin St.
Making Vermicelli History
SNIFFING OUT THE SUBTLE SECRETS OF THE ROTHKO CHAPEL 
Exploring the Menil’s quiet, deep-purple monument, the Chronicle‘s Leah Binkovitz turns up a couple new lines of investigation: “In a turn Rothko, with his proscriptions for proper viewing, could never have anticipated, the chapel has its own Yelp page. ‘Whatever, some people don’t like to think too much about life and what our place is and if you’re one of those people, this isn’t the place for you,’ writes Eric J. in his recent review, ‘You need to head on down to Moody Gardens for “Pirates” or whatever.’ Inside, there’s a collection of Rothko paintings — dark and turbid — that surround the viewer. When the sun sifting through the clerestory shifts, the purple panels shine like scars. People meditate on cushions on the ground or lean against each other on the benches. The occasional crinkle of a plastic bag breaks the silence. There’s a smell, a specific Rothko Chapel smell. That’s the first thing two dashing young men in khaki shorts comment on when they leave the chapel.” [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Ed Uthman [license; cropped]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WE’RE NOWHERE NEAR PEAK MONTROSE 
“I don’t think we’re anywhere close to the peak of property values in Montrose. You can still get an older 1,500 square foot townhome in the area for under $250,000. The average price for a bigger (~2,500sf) recent construction townhome is probably around $600,000. Those prices would be laughably low in comparable neighborhoods in most cities. Gentrification doesn’t really stop halfway like that barring a major economic downturn — once the ball starts rolling like this it just keeps going until the whole neighborhood is gleaming and wealthy. If you think Montrose has reached that point yet, you’re wrong. A fully gentrified urban neighborhood doesn’t have horrible apartment complexes like Takara So or vacant lots and skeazy strip centers on its main commercial street. Gentrification isn’t going to stop in Montrose until you can’t get a new townhome for less than a million or an apartment for less than $1,400.” [Christian, commenting on Gibbs Boats on West Gray and Montrose Is Selling Everything Now] Illustration: Lulu
- 1316B Willard St. [Zillow]
Sawzall-wielding housecutters Dan Havel and Dean Ruck have been carving up 3 condemned homes (from Midtown, the Museum District, and the Third Ward) to gather the raw materials for their latest exhibition, which opens tomorrow in the Art League of Houston gallery, on the occasion of their being declared the Art League’s “Texas Artists of the Year.” Collected wall parts will be stacked in a “bowl-like structure” in the complex’s main gallery (see photo above).
Havel Ruck Projects
Construction appears to have begun on the site at 3400 Montrose Blvd., where a 30-story apartment tower by Hanover named 3400 Montrose will replace the 10-story 1953 office building formerly on the site. That building was named 3400 Montrose as well, but was also also referred to as “That building with the Skybar on the top floor,” or (later in its life) “Don’t walk along that sidewalk or you might get hit on the head by a limestone panel.” Demolition was completed this past spring. A reader sends Swamplot these views of the corner of Montrose and Hawthorne, where a wooden construction fence has recently gone up.
- Previously on Swamplot: The Art of Disappearance at 3400 Montrose; Demolition of 3400 Montrose Building Reaches the Skybar Removal Phase; A Deck Pool, but No ‘Skybar,’ for the new 3400 Montrose; New 30-Story 3400 Montrose Tower Will Face Kroger, Show Montrose Blvd. Its Garage and Drive-Thru; Apartment Developer Buying Montrose Blvd. ‘Skybar’ Building; What 3400 Montrose Looks Like Inside; Redo Plans for the Office Building at 3400 Montrose Blvd.; Will 3400 Montrose Rise from the Dead?; Stone Panel Leaps to Montrose Blvd. Sidewalk from Former Skybar Balcony; Everybody Out: The Ghost Town at 3400 Montrose; Comment of the Day: A 3400 Montrose Blvd. Inspection Report; Why Scott Gertner’s Skybar Is Leaving the Montrose Sky; Scott Gertner’s Skybar Closing, May Take the Whole Building with It
Photos:Â Swamplot inbox
3400 Montrose
A LOOK AT SOME OF THE LIQUID POO FLOWING ONTO COLQUITT ST. IN MONTROSE 
A reader wants to be sure Swamplot readers are alerted — as city inspectors, the HPD’s environmental division, and the property manager have already been, the reader says — to the “recurring” problem of raw sewage flowing out from the Takara-So Apartments at 1919 W. Main St. and into neighboring storm drains. The photo at left, taken on Monday, shows the sewage (“you can smell it”) along Colquitt St., pausing for a bit of sun on its way to lower-lying bayous and waterways. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
