Tag: 77554

Galveston
10/26/10 9:21pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Calling the Kettle

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Gulfton, Houston Heights, Montrose, New Construction
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Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.

  • Galveston: Watercolor artist Don Springer, who makes a habit of rendering area oddities, wants to know more about the Galveston Kettle House on the San Luis Pass between Pirates Beach and Pirates Beach West he painted a few weekends ago. “I know that it was not the radio station KUFO which once broadcasted from the foot of the Flagship (That flying saucer is now a house on West Beach).” He passes on a story he heard from “credible sources” that the half-water-tower turned house was the home of a landscaper who recently passed away, but asks, “Can you use your unlimited resourses, connections, and talent to determine the history of this landmark before it rolls off into the sunset?” Readers? He’s talking to you.
  • Montrose: Chronicle tech guy Dwight Silverman wants to know what’s going into the building at 1721 Waugh, just south of the Commonwealth split; at about the same time, another Swamplot reader sends us this recent pic of what looks to be a refacing job on the building:

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Buying and Selling
03/29/10 10:23am

Trying to Preserve Preserve Land

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Financing, Galveston, Landscape, Proposed Developments, Quicklink
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TRYING TO PRESERVE PRESERVE LAND A year and a half after Hurricane Ike, what’s going on with Marquette Investments’ “The Preserve at West Beach” development plan for a huge chunk of Galveston’s West End? Here’s an update on a piece of it: “Last year, the environmental group Artist Boat applied for $11 million in federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program money to buy 343 acres of bay-front land from developer Marquette Land Investments. Gov. Rick Perry rejected the application, even though island leaders and environmentalists flooded his office with e-mails, letters and faxes urging him to save one of the island’s most ecologically diverse tracts. . . . Now, Artist Boat and the city of Galveston are working together to secure a $3 million Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program grant, administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The grant application was submitted Thursday. . . . [Artist Boat Executive Director Karla]Klay said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association will announce the winners of the grant within six to nine months. Darren Sloniger and his partners at Marquette agreed to provide $3 million in matching land value if Klay and the city get the grant. If that happens, the city would hold the title to one-third of the 343-acre site, which sits east of 11 Mile Road and north of Settegast Road. Marquette intended to turn the site into a 35-acre marina and residential subdivision. The property is part of a 1,058-acre development that will include a 15-story resort hotel, 4,000 condominiums and houses and an 18-hole golf course.” [Galveston County Daily News]

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Demolitions
11/11/09 11:56am

Downsizing the Galveston Church

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Galveston, Quicklink, Religious Facilities
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DOWNSIZING THE GALVESTON CHURCH Archbishop Daniel DiNardo details the demo list: “The St. Therese of Lisieux mission building on the Bolivar Peninsula already has been demolished. The new plan adds Our Mother of Mercy church, also on the peninsula, to the list to be torn down. Members of Our Mother of Mercy’s congregation, who have opposed the archdiocese’s plans through litigation, said via e-mail Monday that the church’s fate was still to be decided. They said there would be a mediation session on the issue Friday. Ancillary buildings, but not the main church structures, will be removed at both the Holy Rosary and Sacred Heart campuses. The lot and buildings at Reina de La Paz are slated to be sold. The buildings that comprise the St. Peter the Apostle site are all to be either destroyed or sold. Historic stained glass windows, sacred statues, artwork and other items of architectural or symbolic interest will be preserved, Auxiliary Bishop Joe S. Vasquez said. ‘The church intends to keep them. We won’t throw them away or sell them, and will reuse them locally if possible.’” [Galveston County Daily News]

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Disaster Aftermath
07/22/09 5:42pm

The Grey Gardens of Galveston’s Original Aqua Beach House

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Galveston, Home Decor, Interiors, Laffite's Cove
2 Comments

How’d that Granddaddy of all aqua-toned beach houses in Lafitte’s Cove stand up to Hurricane Ike? Joni Webb — who after Verandah magazine is perhaps the home’s greatest fan — shows off some recent pics of the once-grand weekend showcase on her blog, Cote de Texas:

It is here, today, almost a year after Ike, still languishing empty and neglected – a sort of sad, upscale Grey Gardens of Galveston. I’m not sure why it hasn’t been repaired – it all seems like minor, superficial damage, certainly nothing on a par with the slaughter of the Live Oaks going on uptown. But, still, the house has been left to the elements – something that on the beach should always be avoided. Maintenance is a must in the salt air. A loyal Cote de Texas reader happened upon the Aqua House and took new pictures for me.

The home, decorated in all its much-copied aqua glory by Houston designer Babs Watkins, was sold by a later owner shortly before the hurricane hit last year. And then?

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Flooding
07/01/09 1:17pm

The Passing of the San Luis Pass

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Galveston, Quicklink
4 Comments

THE PASSING OF THE SAN LUIS PASS Galveston will . . . survive! “‘The current predictions for sea level are that it will rise somewhere between two feet and three feet over the next century,’ said [Rice University Oceanographer and Geologist John] Anderson. ‘I think most scientists would agree from about Jamaica Beach west will probably disappear by the end of this century.'” [11 News]

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Development Restrictions
12/18/08 9:03am

A Line in the Vanished Sand

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Disaster Aftermath, Galveston, Quicklink
2 Comments

A LINE IN THE VANISHED SAND Galveston Planning Commissioner Chula Ross Sanchez, surveying damaged properties on the island 3 months after after Hurricane Ike: “The General Land Office (GLO) has drawn a new line in the sand four-and-half feet above sea level. People can stabilize their properties on the beach but we cannot issue new construction certificates in that zone. The line is normally based on vegetation but the storm wiped that out and the new line is based on mean sea levels. Drawing that line, many houses have ended up on public property.” [OffCite]

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Disaster Aftermath
10/17/08 12:31pm

Galveston Damage Map

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Flooding, Galveston
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Hurricane Ike Damage Assessment Map of Galveston East of 61st St.

FEMA-approved colors liven up this property-damage-assessment map for 24,000 structures in Galveston.

The red areas are “unsafe; leaning; structurally unsound; completely destroyed; collapsed or structure missing.”

Yellow means “general interior flooding; wind damage; or significantly damaged, but repairable.”

And green means go! “No damage or only minor damage; or missing siding; shingles; handrails; breakaway walls.”

The gray areas? “Flood zone.”

More colorful maps of other Hurricane-Ike-hit areas of the city are available on the City of Galveston website.

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Galveston
07/08/08 10:57am

The Aqua Beach House That Launched a Thousand Aqua Beach Houses

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Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Laffite's Cove
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Bedroom, 3310 Lanyard Pl., Laffite’s Cove, Galveston

Houston interior designer Babs Watkins’s ur-Aqua Beach House in Galveston, featured in a summer issue of Veranda magazine shortly after the home was completed in 2004, is now on HAR, notes Joni Webb:

The beach house generated quite a stir as it was knock-out gorgeous and was furnished with wonderful, painted antiques instead of typical tacky, beachy, white wicker. The most alluring aspect of the house was the color aqua used throughout. Aqua was everywhere, aqua floors, aqua fabrics, aqua furniture, aqua mirrors. Without a doubt, owing to how memorable this beach house was, it started a trend for Veranda: each summer since this home has graced the cover, Veranda has featured another aqua beach house. Obviously they are trying to top Watkins’ version, but in my opinion, the torch has not been passed. Watkins’ work remains the best of all the Veranda “Aqua Beach Houses.“

Webb finds not much has changed about the house since it was featured, but does note some surprises. The HAR photos show . . . a pool table! And a huge open Kitchen that looks onto to the living space! And a curvy banquette and ottoman covered with a woven palm-tree-print fabric on the opposite side of the Kitchen counter. And . . . lots of floral prints in the Master Bedroom. And many more not-ready-for-Veranda moments hidden from shelter-magazine gawkers. But Webb isn’t so fussy herself:

It certainly is everything one would want in a second home, if, of course, you have a couple of cool millions. . . . In fact, this is the second time it has been listed. It’s held up pretty well, and is remarkably still “photo ready” for a second shoot which is amazing for a beach house considering the wear and tear they take.

The 6-bedroom, 6-and-2-half-bath house is on the canal side of Laffite’s Cove, and sprawls over three lots. The asking price is $2.1 million, but you may be too late to buy it: It’s listed as “Pending Continue to Show.” After the jump: a few pics from HAR, before they’re disappeared!

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