Round about the end of April, artist Gloria Becker lopped $53,000 off the asking price of her art-and-animal-filled home at 7309 Greenbriar (near Main) featured here a month ago. It’s now listed for $795K.
Have any of you seen this place?
Read more about: 77030, Art, Braeswood, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Price Reductions
A reader reports that artist Gloria Becker is selling her home at 7309 Greenbriar, just south of the Med Center. That’s the big brick house with the the 8-foot-tall topiary bears out front. Plus . . .
She has a wildcat in her dining room, deer on her sofa, fish in her bathroom, squirrels in her entryway, a caribou at the top of her stairwell and a prairie dog in her den.
From the foyer, where a stuffed bear in a sundress and rhinestone-studded sunglasses stands at the foot of the stairs covered in imitation tiger fur, to the farthest corner of the second-floor spare room, which is adorned with a giant cloth cow in a sun hat, a wreath of monkeys and a Virgin Mary hubcap, the house is a cacophony of contented clutter.
“Empty spaces make me nervous,” [Becker] Rasmussen says.
Becker, who makes a living selling her incredibly detailed Santa Claus sculptures and handcrafted sock monkeys, calls herself an “an upscale, sophisticated recycler.”
Her Braeswood home has 3 or 4 bedrooms, 3 full and 2 half baths, and sits on a 12,563-sq.-ft. lot near the corner of S. Main. Asking price: $848,000.
After the jump: Some interior pics from the listing, plus: Where did all the sock monkeys go?
Read more about: 77030, Art, Braeswood, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Staging
Nope, no condos in the planned Houstonian Medical Center hotel — but there will be 100 apartments. Medistar consultant Doug Williams gave a few more details about the planned 40-story Main St. tower at the edge of Southgate in yesterday’s Planning Commission hearing:
The commission approved a revised version of the variance request but attached several conditions having to do with landscaping and parking spaces.
After the jump, the view from Southgate!
Read more about: 77030, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances
From fuzzy video stills to washed-out photocopies: In the agenda handout for today’s Planning Commission hearing are hazy images that provide even more details about the new 40-story hotel and condo tower Medistar wants to build on Main St. in the Medical Center, at the eastern boundary of Southgate.
The drawing labels identify the hotel as the Houstonian Texas Medical Center, or Houstonian TMC for short. The architect is the Hill Glazier Studio of HKS, out of California. And a section drawing gives an actual height for the tower.
After the jump: It’s very tall!
Read more about: 77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances
The Hermann Park kiddie trains are running again! But blogger Lou Minatti considers the replacement C.P. Huntington too “plasticy”:
A news photographer was there and we chatted for a bit. According to his sources, the old train was replaced due to three reasons: The old 50’s-era train had no dead man’s switch, it wasn’t wheelchair-accessible, and our collective asses are bigger than they were in the 1950s. Hence the need for the much wider train.
Photo: Lou Minatti
Read more about: 77004, 77030, Attractions, Hermann Park, Parks, Trains, Transportation
If you’ve been waiting for your chance to take the perfect dramatic nighttime photo of the Mecom Fountain, act now! The fountain at the middle of the five-way intersection of Main, Montrose, and Hermann Dr. is currently bubble-bath-free and lights up properly at night, thanks to a more-than-$100,000 renovation effort approved by City Council back in November and completed last week.
Back in the fall of 2006, someone had stolen the 264 bronze canisters and light bulbs that lit up the fountains. After staying in the dark for months, it got some help more recently . . . with floodlights from high atop Hotel ZaZa. Maybe now those floods can be turned into motion detectors!
Security measures to protect the Mecom Fountain lights will include additional surveillance by the Houston Police Department, the Hotel ZaZa and the Houston Parks and Recreation Department.
After the jump, photos of the fountain lit up the way it was and how it’s supposed to be, plus a view of the Hermann Park beauty taking a bath.
Read more about: 77005, 77030, Crime, Fountains, Hermann Park, Museum-District, Outdoor Lighting, Public Art
Thanks to some intrepid reporting lazy online-video scanning over here at Swamplot, we now have more information about Medistar’s 40-story hotel and condominium tower planned for the corner of Dryden and Main St. in the Medical Center.
Yesterday, the Planning Commission voted to defer any consideration of Medistar’s request for a lot-line variance along Main St. But the president of the Southgate Civic Club voiced his objections to the variance — and other aspects of the project — anyway.
After the jump, more stills from the civic-club president’s presentation to the Planning Commission, plus a few bits of armchair analysis from our crack crew of expert TV watchers.
Read more about: 77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Neighborhood Associations, Neighborhood Disputes, Planning Commission, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center, Variances
Here’s what we know so far about the new 40-story hotel-and-condo tower Medistar Corporation is planning for the corner of Main St. and Dryden, between Rice’s new Collaborative Research Center and the Baylor Clinic on the west side of Main: not a whole lot.
But at 40 stories, the new building would likely be the tallest tower in the Texas Medical Center. (The new Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza is only 31.) That’s taller than those twin hypodermics, too.
A lot-line variance for the project is item number 111 before the Planning Commission this afternoon. And the request provides a few clues. Medistar wants the same 10-foot setback along Main St. that the Baylor Clinic has, so the new building can have a similar passenger dropoff and a “pedestrian friendly” entry on that side. The building’s longer axis will be perpendicular to Main. The arguments imply Medistar intends to have “ornamental decorations and balconies” on the Main St. side, and that the tower will be linked by skybridge to the Medical Center main campus across the street.
According to the Southgate Neighborhood Newsletter, the tower will include a 1200-car parking facility.
This isn’t the only new building type Medistar is planning to stir into the Medical Center mix. A block down the street, just south of the company’s Best Western Hotel at 6700 Main St., Medistar is planning a 600,000-sq.-ft. medical mall. The Houston Business Journal reported on that project late last month:
The high-rise would house offices and showrooms for companies that sell equipment, supplies and pharmaceuticals to Texas Medical Center institutions. Tenants could also include organizations working to develop new medical technologies and treatments.
Read more about: 77030, Condos, Highrises, Hotels, Malls, Proposed Developments, Southgate, Texas Medical Center
This house in Braeswood looks like a million bucks! And it sold back in August for just over that — $1.1 million — after lingering on the market for just over half a year with an asking price $400K higher.
And it’s featured in today’s Daily Demolition Report!
Below the fold, photos of demolition-ready interiors, plus some quick math.
Read more about: 77030, Braeswood, Buying and Selling, Demolitions, Land Prices, Teardowns
So professional and amateur detectives have huddled over the Crowne Plaza demolition videos and what have they come up with? Here are the rumors . . . er, clues!
First, mysterious Flickr member txrice123 writes:
the police are investigating a report that there may have been someone inside the structure on the fifth floor in the middle. a video taken from the face of your side (from St. Luke’s) apparently shows this person run to the edge, then run back. if you have any shots from before, you may like to look closely and send them to hpd.
The photo txrice123 is commenting on was taken from the west side of the building, and St. Luke’s is to the north, so the comment is a little confusing, no? And, uh . . . which fifth floor? The hotel had a podium.
Next, KPRC-TV keeps talking about a “shadow,” but isn’t shedding any light on the subject:
The home video showed a shadow inside the building moments before it was destroyed on Sunday.
Who knows what lurked in there?
And of course there’s the mysterious sliding door, shown enlarged above from the video in Swamplot’s earlier post. ABC13 hypes this part of the video, but neglects to point out that several gust-inducing dynamite blasts have taken place and the building has already started to rumble by the time the door starts “sliding.” Hey, isn’t a fire door supposed to close in a case like this?
After the jump, the door slides shut!
Read more about: 77030, Attractions, Crime, Demolitions, Implosions, Texas Medical Center
Watch this video very closely. Do you see someone entering the building before the demolition begins? Maybe on the left side of the screen?
No? Well, keep looking. How about enlarging the video — or breaking it down frame by frame — so you can examine it more carefully?
Apparently someone who shot a video of the same event from the same angle saw something in it so disturbing that he brought the footage to the attention of the Houston Police Department. And officers found the evidence credible enough that they spent the greater part of Wednesday searching through rubble to see if maybe someone got into the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the Texas Medical Center shortly before it was imploded Sunday morning.
KHOU-TV reports that police are focusing their search on the Fannin side of the building, which would be the street on the left. The station also says that the video used as evidence was in fact taken from the St. Luke’s Medical Tower — the same vantage point as the YouTube video above.
So is the video above the same one the police are studying?
Read more about: 77030, Attractions, Crime, Demolitions, Hazards, Hotels, Implosions, Texas Medical Center
Here’s an awful thought: Was someone inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel when it was imploded Sunday morning? Channel 11 News is reporting that police received a tip earlier today “about a possible death on the site during the implosion.”
According to the tip, there may be video showing the person inside the building when it went down. It was unclear who had the video.
Police have yet to determine if the tip is legitimate.
Read more about: 77030, Attractions, Demolitions, Hotels, Implosions, Texas Medical Center
Looks like Sunday morning’s Crowne Plaza Hotel implosion at the Medical Center was a real party! We have reader reports and pics, plus a roundup of video and images from around the web — all after the jump.
Read more about: 77030, Attractions, Demolitions, Hotels, Texas Medical Center
Update: Demo pics, videos, and more are now here.
Who says real estate isn’t a spectator sport? There’s nothing that brings out crowds of dedicated fans early in the morning like a good ol’ fashioned Houston building implosion.
This weekend, you’ll be able to combine your demolition obsession with a romantic weekend getaway at the Medical Center Holiday Inn — where, from the comfort of your own room (if you can reserve one facing north), you’ll be able to start your Sunday morning with a bang.
At 7:10 on November 11th, the Crowne Plaza Hotel across the street at 6701 Main will come down in a cloud of dust, to the cheers of onlookers able to sneak into prime viewing areas — such as the south side of the soon-to-be-the-former John O’Quinn Medical Tower. If you’re an explosives fan but don’t have that kind of access to medical-office space, you can try the view from Southgate, east of Travis.
Fannin and Main Streets will be closed from Dryden to Holcombe starting at 6:30 a.m.
What’s the best spot for viewing the Cherry Demolition job?
Read more about: 77030, Attractions, Demolitions, Hotels, Texas Medical Center
Why did St. Luke’s decide to sell the Texas Medical Center’s most recognizable building?
Once the tower sale goes through, St. Luke’s — which plans to lease back its current space on floors nine through 12 for continued hospital operations — plans to extensively renovate and update the 27-story patient tower, which opened in 1971. The original seven-story hospital building, built in 1954 and now used for administrative functions, will be torn down, and new facilities will be built on that space as well as possibly on other nearby undeveloped land owned by St. Luke’s, according to [St. Luke’s senior vice president David] Koontz.
“That is the ‘why’ behind the move to sell this medical building,” he says.
For sale: The Madonna tower. Designed by Cesar Pelli. Officially named only a couple of years ago for donor and breast-implant litigator John O’Quinn.
After the jump, a picture-postcard-perfect view of the original 1954 St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital building, not long for this world.
Read more about: 77030, Demolitions, Highrises, Leasebacks, Medical Buildings, Office Buildings, Office Space, Renovations, Texas Medical Center
Demolition begins at the Allen House Apartments, plus a few other structures around town. See our daily list of Houston destruction sites after the jump.
Read more about: 77008, 77019, 77024, 77026, 77030, 77090, Daily Demolition Report, Demolitions
