Tag: 77019

Featured Posts
04/01/16 11:30am

Bayouside Estate Sports Title, Tobacco Barn Floor, and $5.5 Million Price Drop in River Oaks

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3688 Willowick, Houston, 77019

Known as ‘Bayou Breeze’ to its friends, the 16,022-sq.-ft. English manor-style residence designed by architecture and landscape firm Curtis & Windham includes 6 bedrooms, 6 baths, and 2 half baths. Listed in January 2013 at $19.995 million, the house’s asking price has lowered incrementally 5 times since then, most recently falling to $14.495 million just in time for Christmas last year.

The house was built along Buffalo Bayou across from Memorial Park in 2000, but incorporates older materials (such as wood from some North Carolina tobacco barns used in the floor above, and bricks plucked from the previous house on the property).  Nods to antiquity in the furnishings come from New York interior designer Bunny Williams. The 3.71 acre lot includes a pool, a putting green, and several formal gardens.  

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Mostly Born on the Bayou
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Featured Posts
03/31/16 10:30am

1939 River Oaks Mansion Seeks New Cast and $16.95 Million

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, River Oaks
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1721 River Oaks Blvd, Houston, 77019

This 3-story Georgian  rolls out the red carpet at the corner of River Oaks Blvd. and Del Monte Dr.  Its 16,931 sq. ft. include a flexible 6-to-9 bedrooms, 10 full baths, and 5 half baths.  Built in 1939 on a 1.02 acre lot, this house premiered on the market in mid-October of 2015 at the price of $16.95 million.

Ready for a close-up?

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For Your Consideration
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Featured Posts
03/30/16 10:00am

A Glimpse Behind the Shotgun Chameleon’s Adaptable Skin in Fourth Ward

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Fourth Ward
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Shotgun Chameleon, Fourth Ward, Houston

Shotgun Chameleon, Fourth Ward, Houston

From the inside out and the outside looking in, here’s a peek through the semi-see-through mesh facade of University of Houston architecture professor Zui Ng’s Shotgun Chameleon house, located just east of the intersection of Cleveland and Gillette streets in the Freedmen’s Town National Historic District. The 2-story 3-bedroom home was named Architectural Record‘s house of the month last month, and was originally designed for a 2006 expo of building ideas for post-Katrina New Orleans. The space can be used as a duplex or a split home-office setup thanks to a set of exterior stairs leading to the upper floor.

The design’s appearance can also be adapted to blend in with different neighborhoods and urban settings. The metal mesh, which covers most of the upstairs balcony on the street-facing side of the building, could provide a scaffolding for leafy cover, or could get wooden siding tacked over it to help the structure fit in with similarly-adorned neighbors. Ng says the front could even go commercial, with the upstairs hosting a billboard for a downstairs business, or go high-tech, with options ranging from solar panel arrays to breeze-catching louver arrangements.

The Chameleon is shown above between a metal-skinned contemporary house and an older wood-sided home. Here’s a view from the back side, which is shorter due to the structure’s sloped roof: 

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Blending In in Freedmen’s Town
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Featured Posts
03/29/16 11:00am

McGowen Cleaners For Sale on Fairview Near Restaurant-Slated Former Te House of Tea

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Vermont Commons
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1931 Fairview St., Vermont Commons, Houston, 77019

Just a few blocks northwest from the ballroom in the works on Woodhead, a reader sends a shot of the former McGowen Cleaners at 1931 Fairview St., now up for sale by NewQuest Properties. The cleaners closed shop on Friday the 13th back in November, though they allowed straggling clients to come by for their left-behind clothes through the end of last year.

The once-actually-on-McGowen business’s 3090-sq.-ft. former building (on a 15,000-sq.-ft. lot) is surrounded to the north and east by townhomes, and by older homes and duplexes to the south and west; 1 block down Fairview is the former Te House of Tea, which the reader reports just got a new parking lot where its back garden used to be. NewQuest’s  sales flier for the McGowen Cleaners property also shows the Te’s spot tagged for a new restaurant:

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Fairview Fare
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Featured Posts
03/29/16 9:15am

Blacked Out Warehouse Getting Ready to Host Parties Near Lanier Middle School

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Montrose
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2512 Woodhead St., Montrose, Houston, 77019

A reader took advantage of an opportunity to peek inside the 1945 warehouse at 2512 Woodhead St., now painted black and getting done up with decorative wooden siding: “A door literally blew open as I was poking around the exterior,” writes the tipster, going on to describe a mostly-open interior and a double staircase leading to a balcony. A building permit was issued in February for the conversion of the warehouse into a ballroom by Life HTX; another earlier permit references future use of the space as a 225-occupant banquet hall, and the as-yet-skeletal Facebook page for the venue also implies plans for a rentable events space.

The building sits just north of the parking lot for The Upper Hand salon, at the corner with Westheimer across from to-be-remonikered Lanier Middle School. Here’s another shot of the redone exterior, followed by a few of the mural that previously faced Bravo Key & Lock and the Shamrock gas station from across Woodhead:

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Woodhead at Westheimer
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Commercial Real Estate
03/18/16 11:15am

House Next Door to Shiny New San Felipe Office Tower Still Seeking Buyer

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Development Restrictions, Highrises, Home for Sale, Leasing, Office Buildings, River Oaks
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2244 Welch St., Vermont Commons, Houston, 77019

A reader notes that the 1938 house at 2244 Welch St. — just 60 ft. east of the new 17-story office tower neighbor at 2229 San Felipe (peeking in from the right in the frame above) — is up for sale. Renting residents of the house made the news during early construction of the “boutique” San Felipe Place highrise in 2014; the occupants complained of diesel fumes, noise, and structural damage to the property from equipment operating feet from the fenceline (including the giant crane planted in the lot next door). Hines’s efforts to patch up the neighborly dispute escalated from the hasty installation of “hobo-penthouse” plastic sheeting to an eventual payoff arrangement that helped the renting family move to Pearland around April of 2014.

The house went on the market for $789,000 last November, not long after the 2-time lawsuit-defying completion of the tower in September and the pickup of a handful of tenants. The Kinder Foundation announced in October that it would be leasing the top floor of the highrise, which can be seen peering in through the shutters in a few of the house’s listing shots: 

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Neighbors
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Demolitions
03/08/16 11:30am

Demo Crew Sacks Former Home of Bud Adams in River Oaks

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River Oaks
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Demolition of 3218 Del Monte Dr., River Oaks, Houston, 77019

The former home of the House of Pain’s developer is shown above in a world of hurt this morning, as a demo crew tackles the longtime residence of Oilers-turned-Titans owner K.S. “Bud” Adams Jr. at 3218 Del Monte Dr. in River Oaks. The Oklahoma-bred oil baron moved into the 6,604 sq.-ft. house with his wife in 1954; having survived his wife, Adams died alone at his desk in the house at age 90, in October of 2013  — just days after the death of Bum Philips, the glory-days Oilers coach Adams hired and fired.

The demo permit for the building was issued on the 16th. According to the photographer, the shutters pictured above and below were long the same Columbia blue once donned by Houston fans:

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Final Takedown
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Featured Posts
03/03/16 10:15am

Swimming Through an Italian Baron’s Expanded River Oaks Holdings

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, River Oaks
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2115 River Oaks Blvd, Houston, 77019

A natatorium nestles in the center of this $17.9 million home, once owned by Italian-born Cullen oil-heir Baron di Portanova. The 1968 house was expanded to more than double its size in the 1970s to enclose the backyard after the baron was unable to buy a famous Manhattan club for his wife as a birthday present.  The 21,500 sq. ft. mansion has also reportedly hosted an extensive cast of characters, including a helicopter drop-in by James Bond (as played by Sir Roger Moore). The home contains 8 bedrooms, 9 full baths, and 3 half baths, and was listed on HAR in 2014 for 4 days; it was relisted in May of 2015 with a $1 million price drop.

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Pool Party Pad
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River Oaks
02/23/16 3:45pm

Inside a Not-Quite-Murdered Texas Governor’s Stately Former Estate in River Oaks

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2411 River Oaks Blvd, Houston, 77019

Set your sights on this River Oaks mansion previously owned by late Texas governor John Connally (in office when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and wounded in the same car). The 1958 house’s minimalist-inspired exterior at the corner of River Oaks Blvd. and Locke Ln. belies a suite of neoclassically appointed formal rooms inside.   The 8,426-sq.-ft. home also contains 5 bedrooms (of which 3 are masters), 8 full baths, 2 half baths, and a pool. and is currently on the market for $4.9 million.

A state historical marker at the corner gate notes the house’s significance as John Connally’s former dwelling:

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What’s in the Box
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Featured Posts
02/08/16 12:00pm

New Dunlavy Traffic Signal Rising by Cemetery on Allen Pkwy.

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North Montrose
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New Signal at Dunlavy St. and Allen Pkwy., Buffalo Bayou Park, Houston, 77019

The metal arm of a future traffic signal is now reaching out of the ground across a few westbound lanes of Allen Pkwy. at the intersection with Dunlavy St. The new crosswalk will protect foot traffic on the way to bayou-side party-venue The Dunlavy and to the Adath Yeshurun Cemetery next door.

The stoplight fits into the larger plans to revamp Allen Pkwy., in part intending to dial down the road’s speeds from not-quite-freeway to next-to-a-park levels. The redo also aims to make it simpler for both cars and people trying to make their way to all the new park infrastructure and improvements along Buffalo Bayou.

A drawing from early last year shows the plan view of the finished intersection at Dunlavy:

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Crossing Over
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Quicklink
12/21/15 11:30am

You May Yet Have Your Chance to Live On Top of the Sur La Table by the River Oaks Theater

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YOU MAY YET HAVE YOUR CHANCE TO LIVE ON TOP OF THE SUR LA TABLE BY THE RIVER OAKS THEATER River Oaks Shopping Center rooftops Senior Leasing VP Gerald Crump of Weingarten Realty Investors told Nancy Sarnoff of the Chronicle last week that even bigger changes are likely on their way to the River Oaks Shopping Center section on the north side of W. Gray between McDuffie and Driscoll, currently housing Sur La Table, Brasserie 19, and Cafe Ginger, among others (shown here from above, facing a distant Kroger’s). Still-nebulous plans for revamping the space include incorporating residential units, more retail or more parking. Any changes to the center, which is designated a historic landmark by the City, would need the nominal thumbs-up of the Houston Architectural and Historic Commission — though need for that approval can be bypassed by letting a 90-day waiting period expire, David Bush of Preservation Houston told Sarnoff. Crump says that the company will work to communicate plans to the surrounding community as they develop, but also tells Sarnoff that “as an owner and developer, you have to remain relevant”. The redo, whatever shape it eventually takes, could take that shape as early as 2019. [Houston Chronicle, previously on Swamplot] Photo: bjoelio via Swamplot Flickr pool

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