Swamplot Archives by Tag: 77030

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Neighborhood Guessing Game Over: Shakespeare at the Village Corner

We have a winner! The . . . same winner.

Where is this home? There were 2 guesses each for West University, Riverside Terrace, Idylwood, Montrose, and the Heights. The rest: “near Hobby Airport,” Pearland, Southampton, Southgate, Clear Lake, Spring Valley “or the area a little east of there,” “around Rice,” “Longpoint near Spring Branch Med Center,” Meyerland, “MacGregor/Riverside,” “outside the Beltway just south of I-10, maybe near Kirkwood or Dairy Ashford,” Friendswood, “off Lawndale and 45,” Westbury, Garden Oaks, “somewhere in the vicinity of Rice and Rice Village,” “one of the various neighborhoods along Greenbriar and Shepherd between Rice Village and West Alabama,” Oak Forest, Pasadena, and Deer Park.

The winner — for the third week in a row! — is Matt Mystery, who blanketed the Rice University area with a series of guesses, making sure to mention the Rice Village:

That converted attic to me is really the main clue along with that curious mail slot which seems to indicate there is also an entry. So it is in an older neighborhood where even the smaller houses, and this was probably a smaller house with several rooms added on, were a little more “upscale” than normal. One story but with a high-pitched roof which as I recall allowed for better cross-ventilation which kept the house cooler and of course added more storage space in the attic itself. It could be out in the boonies somewhere but my feeling is it’s “inside the loop” and somewhere in the vicinity of Rice and Rice Village although it could be further north in one of the various neighborhoods along Greenbriar and Shepherd between Rice Village and West Alabama and the various neighborhoods between West Alabama and 59 in the Montrose area. Draw a circle using Rice University as the center and I suspect this house is somewhere within a 5 mile radius.

Congratulations, Matt! Our runner-up this week is Carol, who also thought the home was “around Rice.”

Where is it exactly?

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Thursday, July 30, 2009

Building That African Forest in Hermann Park

Sure, “immersive landscapes” — where visitors are supposed to feel like they’re just hanging out with the chimps and rhinos and giraffes in the wild — are the latest craze in zoo design. But what’s really the most innovative aspect of the new 13-acre African Forest the Houston Zoo is planning for its southernmost quadrant, at the intersection of North MacGregor and Golf Course Dr. in Hermann Park?

The project

. . . will feature closed-circuit TV connections with area hospitals, allowing patients to view animal keeper presentations or simply to watch animals in their near-natural habitats.

[Houston Zoo President Deborah] Cannon said the programs first will be made available to children’s hospitals, then expanded. Ultimately, they may be made available to local schools, she said.

At last, an effort to capture some of that technological synergy swirling around the Houston Zoo-Med Center nexus! Best of all is the Chronicle’s own map identifying the project’s location, which is a gift to the city all by itself:

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Monday, June 15, 2009

Swamplot Price Adjuster: Braeswood Landbank

A Swamplot reader thinks this 1959 ranch at the corner of Bellefontaine and Morningside in Braeswood is priced too high even though the property is listed as “Pending Continue To Show”!

Here’s the scoop:

Location: 2401 Bellefontaine Blvd., Braeswood
Details: 4-5 bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths; 3,748 sq. ft. on a 14,436-sq.-ft. lot
Price: $700,000
History: Currently under contract. Listed as “Pending Continue to Show.”

Our nominator writes:

I was thinking about this property three ways.

It could be sold as a remodel (which would probably require $100K or more just to update surfaces - a little birdie told me, for example, about the bright purple shag carpet in the entire bedroom wing of the house) - if it was an updated large ranch on this prime corner it could probably get close to 800K on a resale IMO. So what would a “flipper” pay for that? I’m guessing in the 500’s.

It could be sold as a teardown. The land value here is good and probably won’t ever collapse, but it will not be generating any income for a couple of years at best. There is way too much inventory in the neighborhood right now (big houses, old houses, new houses, empty lots) for more building to make much sense.

It could be sold as a rental. I’m currently living in . . . a big beautiful ranch house that hasn’t been touched in 50 years. In some ways that’s neat, but in other ways (plumbing, electrical) it is not. So I’d guess the rental income here will be about $2700/month. What would be the math on that for a purchase? I think that would depend on how much cash you put into the house and if you were landbanking it. I’d still end up in the 500s.

So . . . you got a better number?

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

West U Treatment: Now Even More Safe and Smelly

   

Noticing anything different about the area around Brays Bayou and Kirby Dr.? “‘It smells like raw sewage,’ said [nearby homeowner Hector] Caram. ‘That’s what it smells like.’ Last month, the city of West University Place cut down the thick crop of trees surrounding its sewage treatment plant on Kirby and North Braeswood within Houston city limits. And for neighbors who live, work or jog around there, the difference is jarring. “You noticed it right away,” said jogger Lauren Cozad. ‘You said, “Oh, why’d they take those trees down,” because we didn’t even know there was anything back there.’ But West University Public Works Director Chris Peifer says his city didn’t have a choice. ‘It is a secure facility,’ said Peifer. Peiffer told us the state ordered the city to clear the fence line here and increase visibility, so security guards can more easily spot anyone trying to break in there. He says it’s a matter of homeland security.” [abc13]

Update: As commenter Carol notes below, the Chronicle has more on the story here.

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Hanging Around the Old Fire Station, Waiting for the Next Development

Hunting down information about the abandoned Modern Fire Station at the corner of Fannin and South Braeswood just south of the Med Center, Houston building arch-ivist Lauren Meyers stumbles upon dangling plans for a new development on the huge vacant lot behind it, which was once home to an apartment complex.

The city sold the [fire station] to an entity named Texas SFI Partnership 33 in February of 2007. Texas SFI Partnership 24 owns the Lanesborough Apartments that are to the west of the fire station at 1819 S. Braeswood Blvd. Lanesborough’s parent company is The Richdale Group, and Richdale is a part of Slosburg Co. A representative of Lanesborough via Slosburg informed us that the property, including the large tract of land to the south, is slated to become a large mixed-use development with a medical emphasis.

There is no timeline for the project and it is still in the design phase. An existing sign on the large empty tract advertises a “Better Lifestyle” with Lanesborough apartments and richdale.com, but there is no other information about the future development on it.

What about that cool 1950 fire station?

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Monday, April 20, 2009

Seen on the Street: Need To Get Out More Often

Here’s the latest installment of Swamplot’s fun-pix-from-around-town feature!

Above: While visiting last weekend’s Gulf Coast Green symposium and expo at the Reliant Center, Sean Morrissey Carroll catches the Astrodome peeking in on the action.

A few more images loom:

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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Rice-Baylor Merger: Yup

   

A joint statement just out from the presidents of Rice University and the Baylor College of Medicine: “We are pleased to announce that the governing boards of Rice and BCM this week approved the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that lays out a broad framework for formal negotiations about a possible merger of our two institutions. While no decision on a merger has yet been made and many issues remain to be resolved, our boards have concluded that a closer affiliation has abundant potential benefits for both institutions, as well as for our home city of Houston.” [Swamplot inbox]

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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Comment of the Day: The New Kirby Trees

   

“. . . the stretch of Kirby south of Rice Village to Brays Bayou is finished. It now has a center median. The tree planting is identical to the Kirby project from Westheimer to Richmond. Tree plantings on both sides of the road and in the median. The bonus of the Westheimer to Richmond section is that all the power lines will be underground. So the trees will be able to grow freely unlike the ones that were removed!” [kjb434, commenting on West Ave School of Loud but Muffled Knocks]

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Friday, February 27, 2009

Avoiding Illegal Food Movements: Sliders in Hermann Park

Alison Cook previews the promised second location for Little Big’s — set to open “probably late spring” in Hermann Park. The home of tiny burgers will slide into a shack overlooking a new bridge on a portion of McGovern Lake, just north of the Zoo.

But chef Bryan Caswell’s attempt to operate food carts in the park have forced him to face a Houston food legend that dates from long before the age of the taco truck:

The promised Little Big’s cart service inside the park is turning out to be complicated, however. Houston health ordinances forbid the actual cooking of sliders on the carts, which means Caswell & company must come up with some new “park-themed” menu ideas. “The whole restricted versus non-restricted cart thing is amazing,” says Caswell.

The chef notes that during the research phase of the project, “we found some very interesting info on why Houston doesn’t have street food cart vendors like New York City or New Orleans. If I recall correctly, in the early 1900s, the original Market Square was littered with tamale carts. One busy hot summer day, a large group of people got sick and I think even a few died. The carts were all blamed and chased out of town. Ever since, the food cart has been a heavily restricted H-Town deal.”

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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Designed To Move: Ginger Barber in Southgate



Itinerant Interior
Designer Ginger Barber is moving yet again: Her latest redo is on the market, reports Cote de Texas’s Joni Webb. This time it’s a 3-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath 2-story near the corner of Greenbriar and Holcombe in Southgate — but Webb spots furniture in the photos she’s seen in earlier Barber homes:

Her wonderful assortment of pine and dark wood furniture, down-filled upholstered pieces covered in linen slips, and all her textural wicker, seagrass, and stone moves from house to house almost seamlessly. . . . With no wallpaper, colored walls or patterned fabrics to contend it, the nomadic Barber can reuse her possessions, over and over again – which is a wonderful lesson to take from her.

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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Addio, Buon Appetito? Holcombe Home Cooking

The time-travel vehicle known as the Buon Appetito Restaurant — housed in an old duplex on Holcombe just west of the Medical Center — has been put up for sale.

What could you do with this place?

“Move out the tables and chairs,” reads the mock-Sicilian listing, “and is ready for your signle fam. residence.”

Or . . . take over the restaurant and run it yourself:

This is also an excellent opportunity for someone to step in and start running this already successful business. The owner has been there for 32 years and is retiring. Everything is included in the sale.

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Thursday, January 8, 2009

The Baptist Church, the Hooters Waitresses, and the Hurricane Victims

   

A 9-year-long relationship between congregants of the Rice Temple Baptist Church in Southgate and a group of Hooters waitresses led to a bit of help for residents of Ike-devastated Oak Island over the holiday. “Over the years, the church has found additional ways to develop the relationship. The church has been a sponsor of an annual Hooters golf tournament, giving away Bibles. They have also worked with the restaurant’s employees on Habitat for Humanity building projects. . . . The waitresses have even joined with the congregation in walking through the neighborhood singing Christmas carols. ‘You could tell they hadn’t gone Christmas caroling before, because they all showed up in high heels,’ [Pastor Clint Reiff] recalled.” [Associated Baptist Press]

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Imagined History of that Med Center Fountain Plaza

As a prelude to the extended narrative of his and John Nova Lomax’s latest grand pedestrian effort — a 14-hour walk from IAH to Downtown — Marfa city councilmember and Houston bingo scofflaw David Beebe describes his first encounter with the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Park at the southwest corner of Holcombe and Main. It’s the walkway and fountain assembly that replaced the Shamrock Hotel:

On this day, as on many days, the fountain is actively spouting water columns to nobody, as the fountain downtown on the light rail line is supposed to do (but is always messed up). This bizarre guilt trip tribute to the concept of public space mixes elements of a grand promenade with Vegas style accents contrasting with the feel of a confined and secluded corridor. Its out of the way entrance and low visibility from Holcombe is probably why I had never seen it before. This is a very good park to go to if you don’t want anyone to find you. I couldn’t help but picture Nixon and Kissinger walking side by side alongside the fountain and columns planning the next offensive maneuver in Vietnam.

Photo: David W. Beebe

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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Smashburger: Meat Candy for Strip Centers

“Houston’s first Smashburger is going into an unnamed strip center at the intersection of Main Street and Kirby Drive, right beside Reliant Center,” reports Globe St.’s Connie Gore:

[Ryan McMonagle, Smashburger's CFO] tells GlobeSt.com that Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston each will start with two “grade A-plus locations” this year and reach eight to 10 before 2009 ends, putting the new chain on “a clear path to 30 over the next three-year period” in each city.

What’s a Smashburger?

Jason Sheehan of the Houston Press’s sister publication Denver Westword says it’s a burger joint where

the burgers are truly smashed — thrown and mashed onto the flat-top grill with a press that I at first thought was for show, then realized played an important role. When a half-pound of ground, nicely fatty Angus beef is whacked onto the hot steel, it produces a flood of meat juice that caramelizes instantly into a crispy halo of blood and fat around the edge of the burger. It’s like meat candy, the delicacy you lose when a burger is cooked on a slotted grill — the traditional cooking surface for burgers smashed by hand.

Photo of Denver Smashburger interior: Flickr user johnny_nissan [license]

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Friday, November 14, 2008

Long on the Market in Old Braeswood: The Sock Monkeys Can’t Wait

Den, 7309 Greenbriar St., Old Braeswood, Houston

In exile now from artist Gloria Becker’s home now for almost 9 months, her sock monkeys are likely getting a tad restless. But still: no sale!

In October, Becker dropped the price on her scrubbed and staged Old Braeswood stuffed-animal planet another $45.5K.

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