COMMENT OF THE DAY: SULTRY, SCENTED HOUSTON SUMMER SCENE “Love the big cushy sofa in the Armature Works backyard. Imagine reclining there on a sultry Houston summer evening, cold beer in hand, brownfield perfume transporting the senses, viewing the sunset while the humid dusk lights the multicolored drums in a scene worthy of a Thiebaud.” [Miz Brooke Smith, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Broken Armature; photos]
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Tag: 77007
What’s this — another deserted Second Life strip center? No: just a rendered view of Venture Commercial’s proposed new South Heights Retail Center, forwarded to Swamplot by a reader. The 32,100-sq.-ft. project promises to bring together a motley assortment of existing buildings into a single 2.2-acre development, all of its components refaced and decorated using what appears to be the latest in texture mapping technology.
The project is planned for the north side of White Oak Dr. between Studewood and Oxford St., bridging the great spatial and cultural divide between Fitzgerald’s and the Onion Creek Coffee House. The magic ingredient is a new 76-car parking lot on the south side of the street, directly behind Jimmie’s Place.
The fog cuts both ways: Reader Stephen Cullar-Ledford sends in this view looking back at Downtown, taken from the AIG American General building on Allen Parkway yesterday morning.
. . . Along with yet another economy/fog/building metaphor, ripe for the captioning:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHITE OAK DECO STRIP “Per HAIF, the tower rendering on this sign has been replaced by a rendering of a renovated version of the current retail center.” [ArlingtonSt, commenting on White Oak Tower: It Was All Just a Bad Drawing]
Yelp user Minh L. does his part to clear up all those Washington Ave. rumors. How many new bars are planned there? Really?
1. “The Lot” next to Pearl Bar will be open at 2 pm this Thursday.
2; The Daily Grind that closed down, the owners of Cork Screw has taken over the place, and is now currently being remodeled.
3. Owners of Whiskey Creek is opening a bar right next to “Busty La Rue” which is also right next to Pub Fiction new place on Washington. 5102 Washington Houston TX 77007
4. That Gawd awful yellow/stone place your talking about is called “Zen Ultra Lounge”
5. Owner of Pandora is opening another one down the street. Its that purple buidling. DBA is called “Blue Book” don’t think they have a name yet.
6. That really big one is called “Reign Lounge” One of the owners name is Luis. Very nice guy.
7. The old Pig stand is going to be called “Sawyer Sports Bar”
8. “Rare Bar” is opening soon on Durham & Washington
All in all there’s about 16 bars/club so far wanting to open on Washington, but we’ll see how many of them really open. These are all the ones I have time to confrm.
And where exactly does Minh L. get his info?
Snapped this morning: that new butterfly roof on the new second story of what used to be the Pig Stand, at the corner of Washington Ave. and Sawyer. Going in: The Sawyer Sports Restaurant and Bar, from the owners of The Drake nightclub.
Another view sent in by the same reader, from yesterday:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: STREET FIGHTERS “Washington Ave is short on Mexican food but it may be long on wrestlers.” [EMME, commenting on Washington Ave. Latest: Wrestler-Themed Tacos To Calm the Nightly Grind]
Here’s a concept perfect for the former home of the Daily Grind coffee shop at 4115 Washington Ave.: A new bar!
But the Washington Ave. Drinkery will be very different from all those nightclubs Sixth Ward residents love to stand outside and videotape, owners Andrew and Doyle Adams explain to Allison Wollam of the Houston Business Journal:
“It will be a place where people will want to come to have a good time instead of wanting to be seen having a good time,†Andrew Adams says.
Unlike other high-end bars in the area, Adams says The Washington Ave. Drinkery is designed as an unpretentious, laid-back bar.
Sure, but what will all those down-to-earth customers do in the wee hours after the new bar closes?
COMMENT OF THE DAY: BUILDING GREEN SPACE “I think the State and Henderson historic properties are adjacent and both owned by Fenchurch Properties. Certificate of Appropriateness information at http://tinyurl.com/bhfzsj and http://tinyurl.com/al479p – in both applications, Fenchurch claimed it wants to turn the properties into green space. The Chairman of Fenchurch Properties is Thomas A. Reiser. Tom Reiser spent $1.2 million of his own money in a 2002 Texas House race against Chris Bell, and lost.” [ArlingtonSt, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Making Demolition History]
Ready to see some fun pix from around town? Here’s the guardhouse for the loading dock at the Igloo plant in Katy, as captured a while back by blogger Donna B.
A few more:
It sure is hard to keep straight all those white-stucco Modern homes a few Houston architects keep churning out. Which probably explains the big “oops” in the latest issue of Houston Lifestyles & Homes magazine, a free publication distributed to “45,000 upscale homes in the Houston area.”
February’s cover story, “An Inside Outside House,” centers around the somewhat spectacular home local architect-builders MC² built for Barry and Sherry Johnson, along the edge of a fault line on a small lot adjacent to Memorial Park. The tall and narrow home, which features a three-story living space, slanted columns holding up a V-shaped roof, and third-floor balconies looking out over a pool, was featured in a Houston AIA home tour last year.
ARAIYAKUSHIMAE STATION, THE WASHINGTON CORRIDOR, AND THOSE NARROW PRIVATE DRIVES “So why does an aerial photo of Rice Military look just like Tokyo? A few things set Houston apart from most other American cities here. For one, American cities have long had a prejudice towards public streets. Development regulations stipulating that ‘every lot must have X amount of frontage on a public street’ date to the 1800s in most American cities, well before the age of zoning. Interior lots reached through shared access easements are a common feature of rural and exurban development, but Houston is relatively uncommon in allowing such arrangements in a high-density setting. This results in narrow alleyways more characteristic of cities in Japan and, on a larger scale, Great Britain.” [Keep Houston Houston]
To counter the all-shutterings edition of Openings and Closings posted on Swamplot earlier this week, here’s a mostly debuts version:
- Opening: With the opening of Bryan Caswell’s Little Big’s, Montrose’s late-night restaurant row is complete — at least on weekends, when the burger shack will be open until 3 a.m. Writes Katharine Shilcutt in Eating Our Words:
In addition to sliders, fries and shakes, Little Big’s also offers wine and beer at extremely reasonable prices, which will all but ensure their popularity. Once the large, welcoming patio is completed, it’s a sure bet that this will be the new hot spot in Montrose.
This Little Big’s is in the former Ming’s Cafe on Montrose just north of Westheimer; the next one will be in Hermann Park.
There’s more!
Nothing new this time; Swamplot’s latest Openings and Closings report is just a list of old places going away:
- Going: There’s nobody home at Washington Ave. coffeehouse The Daily Grind, reports Jason Bargas at Houstonist:
A peek through a window facing the parking lot yielded a dining area devoid of tables. The cash register was no longer on the corner of the bar yet a ceiling fan twirled overhead. An industrial looking extension cord hung from the rafters perhaps indicating an intention to use power tools. But, no signs or bulletins indicated a remodel in progress nor a closing of the business.
Signs or no, the restaurant’s most recent spate of online publicity renders a closing less than surprising. One comment on the Houstonist post notes a rumor that the coffeehouse will be reopening “next to Rudyard’s.”
- Going: A poster on HAIF notes that the On the Border restaurant on the feeder road of the Northwest Freeway in Cypress appears to be toast: “Lights out, nobody home.”
- Gone: And there will be no more Frock shopping: The Frock Boutique on Greenbriar near Westheimer closed late last year, but owner Marianne Mayeux says she will come to you.
Got the scoop on other retail openings or closings in your area? Send your tips to Swamplot!
- Is The Daily Grind Still Alive? [Houstonist]
- A Bitter Brew [She Eats]
- On The Border Restaurant closed [HAIF]
- Frock Your Closet
Photo of The Daily Grind: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave
Some juicy emails to former residents of Park Memorial leaked to Swamplot reveal new information about the proposed sale of the shuttered 4.85-acre property off Memorial Drive. The emails were sent by the condo complex’s board of directors, which apparently has quite a few problems to work out before the sale can go through.
First, about that mysterious buyer — whose name had apparently been kept secret from condo owners. The buyer is “now known as Detering Acquisitions,” according to the latest email. Detering Acquisitions is also the name of an LLC managed by Marvy Finger, president and CEO of apartment developer The Finger Companies.
According to the emails, 97 out of 108 Park Memorial owners want to sell the complex to this “unnamed” buyer for an agreed-upon price of around $17 million. But 11 others are seeking separate negotiations with the buyer, even though the buyer has indicated that he “will not negotiate” with the group.
This is also the group of people that filed the actions against the City, and that is now suing the Association (along with individual directors, the realty company, and an attorney).
And . . . there’s even more quasi-legal fun!
