COMMENT OF THE DAY: LOOK WHO’S READING SWAMPLOT NOW! “But for Swamplot’s prestigious Neighborhood of the Year award, Idylwood would have maintained its quiet anonymity and escaped the notice of these blood thirsty parasites.” [Mel, commenting on Shocking Documentary Photos from the Idylwood Bedbug Invasion]
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Tag: 77023
“Remember a couple weeks back when I thought I was bit by a spider?” asks Idylwood blogger Lauren H. “Well, pretty sure that wasn’t the case.” She and her husband now think the critters who’ve seen fit to bite them in their east-side home 3 times each are actual bed bugs. “Or more specifically, couch bugs,” she notes in her online account. “Our living room is now covered in diatomaceous earth. It took care of our flea issue, and now we’re just hoping it continues to do [its] magic.”
Sure, we’ve all heard rumors about bedbugs in Houston. But until now, how much actual documentary evidence has been available? You know, the kind backed up by this kind of careful investigation and research:
The Episcopal church on the triangular block near the head of Telephone Rd. at Dallas and Eastwood is headed for demolition, according to information posted on its Facebook page. The congregation plans to vacate the Church of the Redeemer after a service on February 27th. A letter posted from senior warden Daniel Coleman declares the building “no longer safe to occupy”:
According to Tellepsen Construction and Studio Red Architects, the existing condition of the electrical, mechanical, and plumbing systems, the chunks of concrete separating and falling from our buildings (“spallingâ€), the lack of a fire alarm system, and the inadequacy of emergency exit signs and lights is more than enough to revoke our Certificate of Occupancy, if the Fire Marshall inspected the buildings. The cost of addressing just these issues would be $5 – 7 million. Neither our congregation nor our Diocese can afford that; and even if all those things were repaired, our congregation can no longer afford to maintain the building.
“The buildings will eventually be demolished, but we believe that the mural will be removed and preserved in the hope of future use,” adds a parishioner organizing a congregation “memory book.” Also likely to be saved, at least until the current contract expires: the bell tower, where T-mobile has a microwave relay. The original church on that site was built in 1920 as the Eastwood Community Church; Tellepsen was the contractor for its 1932 replacement. Additional structures were added in the forties and fifties, along with the sanctuary mural, called “Christ of the Workingman.”
- Letter from the Senior Warden [Church of the Redeemer]
Photo: Church of the Redeemer
Just as Swamplot was reporting on the leaked site plan showing that a new full-size Walmart SuperCenter is being planned off the Gulf Fwy. at South Wayside Dr., Councilmember James Rodriguez comes back from a meeting with the company waving a slightly different site plan. And look, this one shows the proposed East End store between Idylwood and the freeway has already slimmed down by 58,000 sq. ft.! Does that qualify as a rollback? Plus: This plan (shown above, again rotated to fit Swamplot’s format) features 13 more parking spaces! Meanwhile, Walmart spokesperson Kellie Duhr tells the Chronicle the new store would be “about 150,000 sq. ft.” and feature a full grocery. That number jibes with the plan above. Also included this time, at no additional charge: an extra Tire and Lube Express next to the Garden Center on the south side. One curious detail, though: Both this plan and the one featured in Swamplot’s story on Monday are labeled with the same date.
What’s going into the lot at the corner of Maxwell Rd. and the I-45 feeder next to the driveway at the southwest corner of the site, labeled “Outlot 1” on both plans? A source tells Swamplot it’s being eyed for a gas station from Walmart sidekick Murphy Oil.
- Wal-Mart eyes East End
- Previously on Swamplot: Surprise! Walmart Buying Land Next to Idylwood for Houston’s First Inner-Loop SuperCenter
Plan: Doucet and Associates
COMMENT OF THE DAY: TO THE VICTOR GO THE SPOILS “Undoubtedly, Walmart was attracted to Idylwood by Swamplot’s prestigious ‘Best Neighborhood’ award. I am now thankful my beloved River Oaks was omitted from the contest.” [LandedGent, commenting on Surprise! Walmart Buying Land Next to Idylwood for Houston’s First Inner-Loop SuperCenter]
The first-ever inside-The-Loop Walmart SuperCenter will be built near the corner of South Wayside Dr. and the Gulf Freeway, a source tells Swamplot. The 28-acre site sits between Idylwood and I-45; according to a preliminary site plan currently making the rounds in that neighborhood, the store’s main entrance will be from Wayside, which also serves as the freeway entrance to a few other eastside neighborhoods, including Country Club Place and Forest Park.
According to Swamplot’s source, a real-estate entity connected to Walmart has an 8-month option to buy the property, home to 6 vacant warehouse buildings that once served as a distribution center for Oshman’s — as well as the former corporate offices of the defunct sporting goods company. Walmart has been completing its analysis of the property and is less than 30 days away from completing the land purchase, for a price of $35 a sq. ft., the source says.
Isn’t Walmart already planning its first Inner-Loop store on the other side of Downtown — just south of the Heights? Yes, but that store won’t be a SuperCenter. The Idylwood store is expected to measure approximately 210,000 sq. ft. — almost 60,000 sq. ft. larger than the planned Washington Heights District location. The site plan of the Idylwood store, which is not final (and which we’ve rotated to fit below), shows an asphalt parking lot with 722 spaces, plus a garden center on the store’s south side:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE GOOD OL’ DAYS AT THE HOUTEX INN “I stayed there once for a few hours. It was nice.” [sally01, commenting on Houtex Inn, Round 2]
Having awarded a “development of distinction” award last night to New Hope Housing’s Brays Crossing project, ULI Houston is now letting y’all see the promo video, a slightly different version of which we posted briefly last week. Details and videos on other award winners here.
- Distinction Awards [ULI-Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot: What Happened to the Houtex Inn, A “Deep Renovation†Gone Wrong
Update, 1/21: Hey, what happened here? Urban Land Institute Houston executive director Ann Taylor writes in: “I’m sorry that we had to remove the New Hope Housing at Brays Crossing video, but it was not ready for prime time…still being edited to include more ‘before’ images and to add footage of the courtyards and gardens. It and all of the Awards Finalist videos will be screened for the public at the ULI Houston Development of Distinction Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 25.” We hope to post the finished video after that date.
- Brays Crossing [New Hope Housing]
- Previously on Swamplot: A “Deep Renovation†Gone Wrong
Video: Cosmic Light Productions
Then you saw it, now you don’t: Part 2 of FEMA’s buy it, then demolish it plan for the oft-flooded home at 1954 N. MacGregor Way in Idylwood is now complete, reports a reader. “The plants around the trees seem to be all that’s left. And, that funny knotty thing on the tree on the right.” A source scores the low-lying property as the 10th FEMA buyout of Hurricane Ike-damaged homes in the neighborhood, though more residents have turned down similar offers. Just across the street from the property: The uppity banks of Brays Bayou.
- Previously on Swamplot: Another FEMA Find Leaves the Shores of Idylwood
Photos: Swamplot inbox
Here’s another “Century Built” hollow-concrete-tile home designed by Allen R. Williams Jr. This 1954 model is at 6328 Brookside Dr. in Simms Woods. Interior designer and recently minted architect Ben Koush plucked it from obscurity and gussied it up for himself a few years back. It isn’t for sale, but it is available to compare with the unrenovated one that is, across Lawndale in Idylwood. Koush’s home has now been added to the roster for Houston Mod’s Mod of the Month open house this weekend. Both homes will be open Saturday from 1 to 4.
A few views inside:
This house on Merry Lane in Idylwood is one of 4 “Century Built” homes designed in the late 1940s and early ’50s by a not-particularly-famous Houston architect named Allen R. Williams Jr. Where are the others? One — demolished a while back — was somewhere off Campbell Rd. north of I-10, though nobody seems to remember where. Another is on West 43rd St. in Garden Oaks. The third, built not far from Idylwood in Simms Woods, was restored and renovated by architect and interior designer Ben Koush in 2005, who dug up the home’s history, got it registered as the city’s first modern protected landmark, and now features it on his firm’s website and in occasional home tours.
All the homes had walls made of lightweight hollow concrete tiles (with electrical wires running through them in conduit), heavy slab foundations with grade beams and piers, metal casement windows, and roofs made of concrete panels and insulated with Fiberglas boards. And they all had similar floor plans. The Idylwood house has been on the market since the end of last month — for $150,000 — because its original owner, Carl Stallworth, passed away recently.
What could you do with this place?
Readers in Idylwood have been watching Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report for the appearance of this house at 1954 North MacGregor Way, as it wraps around to Sylvan Rd. in their neighborhood. A local resident tells us the 1950 home will be the 10th Hurricane Ike-flooded house bought up by FEMA and torn down. (Other homeowners on the same street have turned down similar early-retirement deals for their properties, claims the resident.) But focusing on that singular pre-storm flooding event in 2008 only doesn’t do justice to this home’s long history of seaworthiness: Our source says this house had 4 feet of water in it on at least 2 occasions, along with several less dramatic Brays Bayou baptisms. Water from the bayou came back to play in the street in front of the house just 2 Fridays ago.
Idylwood scored 3 FEMA buyouts in the wake of Tropical Storm Allison, in 2001.
- Previously on Swamplot: From Show House to Wet House to No House: Saying Goodbye the MacGregor Way
Photo: Swamplot inbox
D&W Lounge owner Keith Weyel told the Houston Press‘s John Nova Lomax last year he was “somewhat disappointed that the kids in the nearby new condos” hadn’t quite found their way yet to his bar just past the train tracks on Milby St., at the western edge of Eastwood. But Lomax doesn’t mind:
. . . to cater to the third shift at the coffee plant, the D&W Lounge opens at 7 AM. The interior is done up with pictures of Marilyn Monroe, statues of the Buddha, and a super-cool tin man hand-fashioned out of school cafeteria cans.
More evidence of the bar’s rough-and-tumble street cred: last month’s on-site fatal shooting.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A PARK GROWS IN IDYLWOOD “The neighborhood will be able to ‘use’ the vacant land but cannot build permanent structures upon it. With the exception of one lot at the far end of N. Macgregor, 9 are connecting so that they will form a large U shaped property. There’s been talk of a shared garden but who knows… The area still looks pretty rough right now, but the damaged sidewalks, where driveways once were, are being repaired and curbs installed. There are existing trees and lawns so hopefully it will become, at the very least, another usable green space. I suspect that, when the next big flood happens and some of the remaining homes get hit yet again, if another FEMA buyout is offered, we’ll be seeing more open land along N. Macgregor. . . .” [PYEWACKET2, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Great Idylwood Shoreline FEMA Buyout]