COSTCO SIDEWALK MAZE: BETTER FOR THE TREES Lee McGuire gets to the bottom of the wacky sidewalk screwup at Trammell Crow’s Greenway Commons, on the corner of Weslayan and Richmond: “It turns out the city actually required the new sidewalk to run right through the utility poles to save a row of trees. The developer said the project meets federal guidelines — except perhaps the blocked handicap ramp. The final inspection won’t take place until the shopping center is finished. If it’s in violation, the developer promises to fix it.” [11 News, via BlogHouston; previously]
Sign up for the Newsletter
Tag: 77027
The wise folks behind Greenway Commons — the new shopping center replacing the old HISD headquarters building at the corner of Richmond and Weslayan — have apparently taken some extra-special steps to make sure the new development (which includes a brand-new Costco) is super-friendly to pedestrian visitors!
Making everything welcoming to people arriving on foot makes sense — the project had been criticized for exhibiting suburban-style development patterns in a location that some dreamers had imagined would be a street-fronting mixed-use center. It’s already a busy corner, and Metro’s new University Line will have a stop only a short walk away.
But “easy to access” can also mean “boring.” So it’s comforting to see these pictures of the project’s street edge sent in by a reader, which show a gentle, fun infrastructure-themed obstacle course taking shape along the new Weslayan and Richmond sidewalks in front of Trammell Crow’s grand development:
The winner of this week’s contest . . . didn’t even bother with a guess!
The rest of you guessed Westbury, “off Rayford,” the Woodlands, Memorial, Memorial Drive, Hilshire Village (twice), Braeswood, Old Braeswood, Braes Heights, Piney Point, Meyerland, Riverside Terrace (twice), Glenbrook Valley, West University, Bellaire, Afton Oaks, Spring Branch (three times), Tanglewood (three times), Memorial Bend, Spring Valley, T.C. Jester just outside the Loop, Richmond inside the Loop west of Weslayan, or off Woodway near Sage.
Nobody actually guessed River Oaks, but Richard mentioned it:
. . . I also like this house and totally agree that it took some $$$ to create the hallucinogenic patterned nightmare. Without the kitchen it actually looks like a Howard Barnstone house or even the house that Philip Johnson designed for Dominique de Menil in River Oaks.
So he is the winner!
An honorable mention goes to paneling expert Robert, who obviously knows his woods:
The paneling in the den is a pecky cypress commonly referred to as “wormwood.†Expensive in it’s day, too expensive for Westbury. The house appears to large with too many custom features like that to be a basic tract house. The pattern festival was popular back in the 70’s and cost a lot to create that abomination in decorating.
In what part of River Oaks has this home been hiding?
The Houston Business Journal‘s Jennifer Dawson is reporting that the Novati Group’s plan to dust off a 15-year-old Ziegler Cooper design for a 20-story office tower and build it on the West Loop
appears to be in limbo. The deal isn’t dead, but it’s not moving forward.
The problems: finding debt financing . . . and that pre-leasing thing.
Meanwhile, Dawson expects Transwestern to announce details soon on a large new addition to Uptown’s Four Oaks Place — to replace the 24-Hour Fitness on Post Oak Blvd. owned by TIAA-CREF:
The proposed building being called Tower Five at Four Oaks Place is now set to be 30 stories tall, with 525,000 square feet of office space on 22 floors atop a parking garage with roughly 1,500 spaces, says Carleton Riser, head of Transwestern’s development group.
He says the building designed by architectural firm Pickard Chilton could break ground in the first quarter of 2009.
The fact that no tenants have committed to the new building won’t delay construction, Riser says.
- Office buildings on and off [Houston Business Journal]
- That Nineties Retro Tower Coming to the West Loop [Swamplot]
- New West Loop Tower: Keeping the Uptown Office Market Up to Date [Swamplot]
Rendering: Ziegler Cooper
Tower? What 27-story tower? A spokesperson for Interfin tells the Memorial Examiner the company has “no plans and no timing as of now” for anything on the site of the State Grille.
What do they mean, no plans? The site plan above, for the northeast corner of Weslayan and W. Alabama, is shown in a document on the Interfin website, labeled “Future Development.” And it clearly shows what the demolition crews were busy . . . uh, building on the site last week.
- ‘No plans and no timing’ for State Grille site [Memorial Examiner]
- Future Development (PDF) [Interfin]
- State Grille Closing Down; 27-Story Tower Going Up? [Swamplot]
- Daily Demolition Report: Living Improvements [Swamplot]
Site Plan: Interfin
Walking from their car to the front door of the Circuit City on San Felipe, Bunny Bungalow resident Annie Sitton and her husband notice a crack in the stucco covering a pilaster at the front of the building. Looking closer, they notice that . . .
COSTCO $17K LEFT TURN GREEN LIGHT The new Costco on Richmond gets on okay for tree-free left turns: “According to Craig Cheney, spokesman for partner-developer Trammell Crow, nine bald cyprus and three other trees will be removed from the Weslayan median and replanted elsewhere. The developer will ‘buy out’ three live oaks that will be cut down on Richmond to make way for two left-turn lanes for a total of $17,000, a spokesman for the city said. [River Oaks Examiner, previously in Swamplot]
HIGHLAND VILLAGE SPRINKLES “Sprinkles Cupcakes, The Original Cupcake Bakery, opens in Houston this winter at 4010 Westheimer in Highland Village. Let’s see, we have Sugar Baby’s, Crave and Ooh La La Dessert Boutique (they’re actually in Katy, TX, but it’s a suburb of Houston so we’ll count it) and now Sprinkles, the one who started the cupcake craziness in 2005 in Beverly Hills.” What’s next — Pinkberry? [Cleverley’s Blog]
Street trees in medians on Weslayan and Richmond will likely be disappearing soon, reports Sarah Kortemeier in the offline-only Village News. Three left-turn lanes on Weslayan and two on Richmond are planned for the new Greenway Commons Costco-powered Power Center under construction on the northeast corner of that intersection:
Trammell Crow Managing Director of Retail Development Craig Cheney says that the company was required by the City of Houston to put the turning bays in for traffic mitigation purposes, and his company was not made aware of any extra permitting required to remove trees. . . .
The median does not appear to be wide enough to accommodate extra lanes without removing trees. Cheney says that Trammell Crow is “open to any suggestions [the City] might have” about relocating or mitigating the effect on trees, but that the turning bays cannot be constructed without removing or relocating at least some of the trees.
- Costco’s Price May Include Weslayan Trees [Village News]
- Greenway Commons: Gas Station Too! [Swamplot]
- Big, Expensive HISD Box To Be Replaced by Big, Cheap Costco Box [Swamplot]
Photo of Costco construction: Flickr user Graustark
Medistar’s brand-new River Oaks Physician Plaza adjacent to the just-shuttered River Oaks Hospital has just one tenant, reports Monica Perin in today’s Houston Business Journal:
The 105,000-square-foot, five-story River Oaks Physician Plaza was intended to house offices for River Oaks Hospital physicians as well as a sports medicine center, sleep lab and an endoscopy and pain management center, all operated by River Oaks Hospital, which was originally set to lease space in the building. . . .
But, according to Dr. Leroy Sterling, a physician investor in River Oaks Hospital, there is currently only one tenant — a physician — in the building.
Colliers is now trying to lease the building to commercial tenants. Space is listed at $21 a square foot, triple net. The building has been renamed River Oaks Plaza.
- Doctor investors explore legality of hospital closure [Houston Business Journal]
- River Oaks Plaza [Colliers International]
- The Hospital Formerly Known as Twelve Oaks Is Dead [Swamplot]
Photo of River Oaks Physician Plaza: River Oaks Hospital
A Swamplot reader who’s been itching for one of them new 3G iPhones points us to this page on the Apple website, designed to show where you’ll be able to buy an iPhone. On July 11th, the new phones will be available at Apple Retail Stores and at AT&T outlets.
Naturally, Apple illustrates the two store options with photos of the most glamorous examples of each type. The Apple Store shown is the famous glass cube on 5th Avenue in New York City. And the AT&T store is . . . the AT&T Experience Store on the side of the Southwest Freeway between Edloe and Weslayan!?
Our reader comments:
And no, it doesn’t look that good in person. It’s on at least its third incarnation as a cellphone store: first it was a pretty boring two-story concrete box for Houston Cellular, then it got some outlandish rooftop decoration with a rebranding to Cingular, and then it changed brands (and colors) to ATT.
- Where to buy iPhone [Apple]
Looking to lease medical offices near the Southwest Freeway? Medical Properties Trust — which last year bought the former Twelve Oaks Hospital building just west of Greenway Plaza and the 6700 Bellaire building in Sharpstown from Hospital Partners of America and leased them both back to the River Oaks Hospital — may soon have a lot of space available! HPA announced yesterday that both of its River Oaks Hospital locations are closing.
Be sure to check out Medistar’s brand-new River Oaks Physician Plaza (above), designed by Kirksey — also part of HPA’s complex!
- Medical Properties Trust Comments on Closure of River Oaks Medical Center [BusinessWire]
- River Oaks Hospital closes its two facilities [Houston Chronicle]
- River Oaks Hospital campuses to close [Houston Business Journal]
- Medical Properties buys Twelve Oaks [Houston Business Journal]
- Twelve Oaks Hospital clears path for replacement building [Houston Business Journal]
Photo of River Oaks Physician Plaza: River Oaks Hospital
Is it going to happen? A construction permit for Pelican Builders’ Highland Tower was approved by the city last week.
A couple purty drawings of a unit, after the jump.
A reader who lives near the Highland Village Shopping Center reports that work on “the structure being built (so slowly) on top of Waterworks” at the corner of Drexel and Westheimer appears to have started up again, after a long period of nothing-going-on. Plus: he hears it’s going to be a French restaurant. Wasn’t last year’s rumor that it was going to be a wine bar?
And speaking of rumors, the same reader wants to know what’s going to happen on the opposite corner of the same intersection, where the Gap used to be:
I have hear that it will be either a 5 story boutique hotel or 2 story retail, and, as of a few weeks ago, that they would be deciding between retail vs hotel by mid May.
Pedestrian scribe John Lomax and Marfa City Council candidate David Beebe have, by this time, earned the right to make a few sweeping statements about various Houston neighborhoods. And Lomax exercises that right in his chronicle of the pair’s latest adventure on foot, along Richmond Avenue from Mission Bend to Midtown:
. . . the epicenter of H-Town cheese is the corner of Fountainview and Richmond. A four-story, day-glo, red, white, turquoise, and tan building looms over the southeastern corner there, and it houses a Sprint shop, a little downstairs bar with the godawful name Identity, a scalper’s office, a massage therapist, and a huge Darque Tan outlet.
Sure, Westheimer’s got some cheese, and is a little tattered around the edges in spots, but there’s a veneer of gentility as expressed by old-line businesses like Christie’s Seafood. Richmond, by contrast, used to have that sub-Landry’s fried seafood emporium King Fish Market, which despite the incessant awful commercials that polluted local airwaves circa 1999, is now out of business and practically in ruins. The whole lot of it is a great vat of rancid Velveeta.
As is much of the Richmond Strip. That giant sax outside of Billy Blues is looking more and more like the torch sticking out of the sand at the end of Planet of the Apes.
After the jump: how’s the nightlife?
