Tag: 77006

03/20/17 11:15am

About Those Big Holes in the Sides of the Old Royal Oak Spot on Westheimer

Hyde Park, Renovations, Restaurants

1318 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, Houston, 77006

Just in time for the spring equinox, a reader sends shots of some recent trimming back at the formerÂ home of Royal Oak Bar & Grill, which may soon sprout a 2-story patioÂ if permits issued overÂ the last few months tell true. The bar and restaurant (right across Westheimer Rd. from the Doc’s formerly known as Wendy’s and thatÂ long-tarped turret of the Tremont TowerÂ condo building) was closed down last SeptemberÂ by owner Shawn Bermudez, who told Eric Sandler he planned to reopen the space under a new name and theme. The late-1950s house (previously converted intoÂ dance club Bartini, before the structure’s Royal Oak days began in the earlyÂ 2010s)Â has sinceÂ had its nose cut off; some larger holes on both stories have also been wooded over, over on the parking lot side:

New Growth in Hyde Park

77006, Adaptive Reuse, Bars, Hyde Park, New Construction, Remodeling, Restaurants

Castle Court

03/17/17 6:00pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Behind the Scenes

Homes for Sale, Interiors

1401 Castle Ct., Castle Court, Houston, 77006

1401 Castle Ct. [HAR]

77006, Castle Court, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Plants

03/17/17 1:00pm

Piecemeal 59 Bridge Blackouts Just Part of the Post-Super Bowl Plan

Richwood Place

No Comments

Partial Outage of Lighting of Bridges over US-59

Lighting of Bridges over US-59 Just because the crossings over US-59 were broadcasting football team colors in time for the Super Bowl last month doesn’t mean they were totally finished, Sarah Gandy from GandyÂ² Lighting Design tells Swamplot this morning. A number of readers have written in since the game to note bits and pieces of the new lighting going dark (as seen in the top shot), blinking, or appearing to be stuck on mismatched colors on occasion;Â Gandy says that per pre-game plans, there is still some hardware being installed and tuning being done, and that the contractors on the project aren’t scheduled to be totally wrapped up for aÂ few more months.

The forecast for tonight’s display — minus at least 1 bridge which’ll be getting worked on for the evening — is St. Patrick’s Day green; the bridges also spent some of the leadup to Mardi Gras last month enthusiastically flashing passing drivers with traditional bead colors:

Minor Turnoffs

77006, Bridges, Freeways, Lighting, Montrose Management District, Public Art, Richwood Place, US 59

03/14/17 11:30am

Edge Realty Now Seeking To Fill Bright Orange Box with Neighbors for a Montrose Velvet Taco

Montrose, Restaurants

8 Comments

Shopping Center at Westheimer Rd. at Montrose Blvd., Montrose, Houston, 77006

Swamplot’s elevated tipster with an eye on the Westheimer Rd. scene — just east of the Montrose Blvd. Smoothie King — sends some update shots this morning of the ongoing construction of a planned Ruggles-replacing restaurant-retail combo, half of which looksÂ slated for fill-in byÂ a Velvet Taco branch. The Dallas chain will take over a 1-and-a-half story piece of the center, next to the areas highlighted in orange above; Edge Realty is currently leasing the rest of the space in the center, which will attempt to hide some of its parking from prying sidewalk eyes:

Grill Gone Gray

77006, Leasing, Montrose, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail

03/02/17 3:00pm

Buffalo Exchange Exchanges Locations; Old Spot Up for Possible Tailoring

Montrose, Retail, WAMM

2 Comments

2901 S. Shepherd Dr., WAMM, Houston, 77006

1618 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, Houston, 77006 The body-oriented retail strip across from the recently browned-out Alabama Theater has just swapped second-or-more-hand clothing retailer Buffalo Exchange into the spot by Kipling St. last occupied by Centre Fitness Fusion, a reader notes. (Centre Fitness tookÂ over from Orange Shoe Fitness, which itself succeeded bike shop and implicit fitness purveyor Cycle Spectrum.) Buffalo Exchange joins Epique Massage next to Darque Tan, separated only by a driveway and some parking spots from Demeris Bar-B-Q.

And what of the old Buffalo Exchange spot, recently spotted sporting a variance request noticeÂ out front?

Fashion Recycler Recycling

77006, Montrose, New Construction, Parking-Lots, Redevelopment, Remodeling, Restaurants, Retail, Variances, WAMM

02/24/17 11:30am

Australian Moving In, American Moving Out of Lower Westheimer Clothing Strip

Lower Westheimer

No Comments

1665 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, Houston, 77006

The equipment for some sort of procedure was noted atÂ the corner of Dunlavy St. and WestheimerÂ Rd. this morning by a reader driving by. Determinedly artsy Australian hair-and-skincare shop AÄ“sopÂ looks to be setting up in the retail shell left empty by the sudden 2015 evaporationÂ of clothing boutique Duo, locatedÂ across the street fromÂ CafÃ© Brasil and Hollywood Food & Cigar to the west and the north respectively.

And theÂ space next door currently hostingÂ American Apparel mayÂ be cleared out forÂ a new tenant around the end of April,Â as well: Following a sale of the twice-bankrupt clothing company’s brand and intellectual property to a Canadian company, all of American Apparel’s US storesÂ may end up closingÂ byÂ then, and partÂ of the company’s productionÂ is probably getting outsourced.

Cosmetic Changes in Montrose

77006, Adaptive Reuse, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail

02/16/17 12:45pm

Paul Qui’s New Houston Restaurant Announced After Hiding in Plain Sight on Westheimer for a Year

Montrose

Rendering of 528 Westheimer Rd., Avondale, Houston, 77006

Construction in August on Paul Qui's Aqui, 520 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, Houston, 77006 The pointy building rendered above (and shown here as well in an intermediate building stage last year, as construction began at 520 Westheimer Rd.) has just been confirmed this week as the planned site of Paul Qui’s rumored Houston restaurant, to be called Aqui.Â The depiction of the restaurant by lower-case Austin design firm a parallel architecture (the same firm that designed Qui’s then-eponymous spotÂ in Austin) wasÂ spotted by a reader at the site early last March, shortly before Qui picked up a couple ofÂ drug and assault misdemeanor chargesÂ which tackedÂ a question mark onto theÂ timeline of future plans and openings.

Following the chef’s rehab stint, Qui Restaurant in Austin has since closed and reopened as Kuneho;Â the self-describedÂ former-drug-dealer-turned-James-Bearded-Top-Chef-champ hinted at his connection to the building at 520 Westheimer on social mediaÂ a few days ago. The spot is wedged between Indika and The Cat Doctor.

Itâ€™s Official: Austin Chef Paul Qui Is Opening A Restaurant In Houston [Eater Houston]
Previously on Swamplot:Â What the Architects of Austinâ€™s Qui Have in Mind for the Lot Next Door to Indika on Westheimer

Images: a parallel architecture (rendering), Swamplot inbox (photo)

Here’s Aqui

77006, Lower Westheimer, New Construction, Restaurants

02/07/17 4:15pm

Richmont Square Holdouts Now Crumbling Away Before the Excavator

Menil

2 Comments

Demoltion of Richmont Square Apartments, 1400 Richmond Ave., Menil, Houston, 77006

The remaining segments of the Richmont Square apartments are on their way down — a reader sends a few shots this morning capturingÂ the current state of theÂ disunion. The demo permits for the then-remaining 2 thirdsÂ of the storied 1960s apartment complex have been trickling in since December, with a few more issued lateÂ last week; the associated flattening work on the Menil-owned property started late last year as well. The view from the Richmond Ave. parking lot and former entryway shows the empty space formerly occupied by the complex’s main entrance:

Clearing Rooms on Richmond Ave.

77006, Apartments, Demolitions, Menil

Demolitions

02/02/17 2:30pm

Meteor’s Apartment Neighbor Booted Out of East Montrose Parking Garage Footprint

East Montrose

Demolition of 2302 Genesee Apartments, Fairview, Houston, 77006

More knocking down and dragging out has been going onÂ around the handful of blocks between Genesee and Taft streetsÂ now being prepped for the area’s Fairview District redo. The 1930s-ishÂ apartment building at the corner of Genesee and Fargo St. (next to previously-shattered Meteor Lounge) is as of yesterday mostly out of the picture (as, uh . . . pictured above), freeing up the lot for the 5-story parking garage planned on the east end of the block. A reader snapped aÂ few final looks at and into the structure last Thursday, following the issuance of the building’s Inauguration day demo permits:

Fargo Away

77006, Apartments, Demolitions, East Montrose, Fairview District, Montrose, Parking-Garages

01/30/17 5:30pm

Expectations Lower for Long-Vacant Westheimer Lot

Lower Westheimer

8 Comments

1634 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, Houston, 77006 Â

Update, 1/31: A few readers noticed some TABC notices across the street — more here.

A reader noted the recent earth-scraping on the now-largely-grassless corner lot at 1634 Westheimer Rd. (shown above in last week’s aquatic trappings).Â The long-empty land, across Kuester St. from Buffalo Exchange, is listed as the former site of Kewpie’s Cleaners and Dyers,Â and was previously tapped as the intendedÂ site of aÂ 5-storyÂ Bunkhouse hotel. The midrise plan fell through, though,Â freeing the land to become the future site of the Edmont. That plan also fell through: Only a temporary version of the woulda-been restaurant was ever built, for a 1-night fundraiser supporting a foundation started in memory of chef and Edmont co-founder Grant Gordon.

Recently issued city permits suggest the space is turning to the parking industryÂ for now. Here’s another shot, facing southwest through the fence towardÂ interior design shop Merchant & Market,Â exterior design shopÂ Houston Ink Society, and smoke shop High End:

Down to 0 Stories for Now

77006, Hotels, Montrose, Parking-Lots, Proposed Developments, Restaurants

01/27/17 5:30pm

Architects Now Hanging Out Behind 2 Layers of Leafy Cover on W. Alabama St.

by Katie Schon

Menil

4 Comments

Dillon Kyle Architecture office, 1500 W. Alabama St., Menil, Houston, 77006

Dillon Kyle Architects’s new dramatically cantilevered headquartersÂ at 1500 West Alabama at the corner with Mulberry St. is now largely enveloped byÂ the leafy wooden screens mentioned in the firmâ€™sÂ announcement of the building early last year. The company moved into the spaceÂ in December, around the timeÂ work crews wrapped up most of the cherry-picker-assisted installation of the paneling (shown below):

Both Made of Trees

77006, Menil, New Construction, Office Space, Trees

East Montrose

01/23/17 5:00pm

Shake Shack, Steel City Pops Pop Up in East Montrose Fairview District Depictions

3 Comments

Fairview District Update, January 2017, Fairview at Mason St., East Montrose, Houston, 77006

The renderings in Edge Realty’s marketing material for the mixed-use office and retail redevelopment planned for the area around Fairview and Mason streets now include signage for another outpost each of New York-based Shake Shack and Alabama-based Steel City Pops. The eccentric popsicle shopÂ is shown inhabiting thatÂ freestanding dessert island planned in the parking lot east of Max’s Wine Dive; Shack Shack is depictedÂ in a corner unit in theÂ multi-story building planned across Mason St., next to the empty former siteÂ of Meteor Lounge (and catty-corner across Fairview from Meteor’s current crumbly resting place). A reader tells Swamplot that Shake Shack was also mentioned as a future Fairview District tenant at last week’s meeting of the East Montrose Civic Association, though possibly placed in a different spot in the development.

Also showing up in the latest images is Houston-based yoga and bike-in-place fitness outlet Revolution Studio; other names dropped on the flier includeÂ Austin-based barber shopÂ Finley’s,Â California-based and -flavored fast-casual restaurantÂ lemonade,Â haberdashery chain Goorin Bro.’s,Â Â shoe-polish-brand-turned-upscale-watch-retailer Shinola, and — down on the Genesee St. corner — enthusiastic burger jointÂ Eureka!:

Fairview Views

77006, Commercial Buildings for Lease, East Montrose, Fairview District, Leasing, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Redevlopment

01/17/17 3:30pm

Lake Flato Restaurant Redo To Take a Bite Out of Fairview’s Former McGowen Cleaners

Hyde Park

4 Comments

Rendering of 1931 McGowen St., Hyde Park, Houston, 77006

Over the weekend MATCH Theater and Montrose H-E-B designer Lake Flato hit Instagram to releaseÂ some depictionsÂ of what the former McGowen Cleaners at the corner of Fairview and Morse streets might looked like dressed up as a restaurantÂ (as per that TABC license notification spotted over the summer at the site). The designÂ shows some of the current doors turned into windows, some of the current windows turned into much longer windows, and an existing patio cover hosting a series of hanging seat-pods, amid much leafier landscaping. The plan also calls for the creation ofÂ a new courtyard out back, to be “carved out of the existing building;” another rendering shows a sliver of what that might look like from the inside, on the right below:

Tailoring in Hyde Park

77006, Adaptive Reuse, Dry Cleaners, Hyde Park, Restaurants

01/17/17 10:45am

National Burger and Drag Chain Hamburger Mary’s Heading to Montrose