This is the route the Art Guys say they will be taking tomorrow morning when they stage the 5th of the yearlong series of monthly celebratory stunts they’re calling “12 Events:” Titling this one “A Length of String,” Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth will unwind a spool of thread they’ve had sitting around since 1983 while walking along White Oak Bayou between W. Tidwell and T.C. Jester, just north of the Loop, and then they’ll turn around . . . and wind it back up. Last month, you’ll remember, they donned tuxedos and conducted the sounds of the Ship Channel from the Santa Anna Capture Site in Pasadena. [Art Guys; previously on Swamplot] Map: Art Guys
Read more about: 77091, Art, Art Guys, Bayous and Waterways, Garden Oaks, Oak-Forest, Performances, White Oak Bayou
At the site shown here in Pasadena near the old Paper Mill and Washburn Tunnel, where General Antonio López de Santa Anna is said to have been captured during that historically succinct Battle of San Jacinto, the Art Guys are planning their next performance: They’ve announced they’ll crack out their batons and “conduct the sounds of the Houston Ship Channel.” (Not sure what that could look like? Go see it for yourself.) Jack Massing and Michael Galbreth, the helmsmen of “12 Events,” a yearlong series of monthly head-scratchers that commemorate their 30 years of Houston mischief, have so far in 2013 shrugged off their divorce from the Menil, signed their names for 8 hours at the Julia Ideson Library on National Handwriting Day, and walked all 29.6 miles of Little York Rd., the longest in Houston. Next up, once they’ve conducted the Ship Channel waters? The Art Guys unwind a spool of thread, and then — wait for it — wind it back up again. [The Art Guys; Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: JimmyEv via Waymarking
Read more about: 77506, Art, Art Guys, Bayous and Waterways, Houston History, Houston Ship Channel, Pasadena, Performances
A reader sends this stitched-together panorama of the Heights bike trail spanning White Oak Bayou and wonders what’s going on with all the denuding: “This is kitty corner from where the proposed Emes Place condos will go. Mother nature swamped their work in the bayou with the recent rains. They appear to be taking revenge by bulldozing the nearby clump of forest. This is a larger piece of bird/homeless person sanctuary than the tract Emes Place is to be on, so I wonder what the story is. Harris County Flood Control comes by the site all the time, but I can’t find any mention of it on their website, or anywhere.”
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Read more about: 77006, Bayous and Waterways, Condos, Houston Heights, Landscape, Proposed Developments, Trees, White Oak Bayou
February 26, 2013 – 4:30 pm
This remodded 1966 Mod in Charnwood was once featured in Southern Living magazine, its listing declares. The furnishings from that photo shoot are long gone, but a boatload of built-ins and some ravine views remain. Appearing in the market mid-month, the 4,077-sq.-ft. home has staked out an initial asking price of $939,000.
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Read more about: 77063, Bayous and Waterways, Charnwood, Homes for Sale, Interiors
February 20, 2013 – 11:00 am
The same architecture firm that transformed Wilshire Village into the H-E-B Montrose Market across town has been pegged to redo 1910 International Coffee Company Building (aka Sunset Coffee Building), resuscitating the derelict shell on Allen’s Landing into use as a Downtown tourist attraction and kayak rental shop. San Antonio firm Lake Flato submitted this drawing of the building at the coffee-with-cream-colored confluence of White Oak and Buffalo Bayou underneath Main and Fannin to Buffalo Bayou Partnership, which plans to begin the project in April.
Rendering: Buffalo Bayou Partnership
Read more about: 77002, Adaptive Reuse, Allen's Landing, Bayous and Waterways, Buffalo Bayou Partnership, Downtown, Houston History, Houston Landmarks, International Coffee Company Building, Proposed Developments, Renovations, Tourism, Water
October 12, 2012 – 3:41 pm
The director of the Bayou Land Conservancy announced yesterday that a 100-acre tract of flood-prone land surrounding Cypress Creek just south of the Hewlett-Packard campus between Hwy. 249 and Jones Rd. will now become a permanent conservation easement. (Segments of the waterway marked in dark and light blue in the map at right indicate the 100-year floodway and 100-year floodplain, respectively.) The land trust purchased the property with help from a $500,000 Houston Endowment grant; plans are to incorporate the tract into the planned Cypress Creek Greenway, extending the full length of the bayou from Spring Creek to the Katy Prairie:
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Read more about: 77070, Bayous and Waterways, Buying and Selling, Cypress, Cypress Creek, Development Restrictions
October 4, 2012 – 7:05 pm
“Years ago I saw someone pull a snapping turtle out of that bayou, near the Shepherd bridge. Vicious-looking brute; the snapper was mean, too.” [Brian, commenting on Headlines: Americana Remodeling Plans; a Place for the Houston Blues Museum]
Read more about: Bayous and Waterways, Buffalo Bayou, Comments, Critters, Urban Wildlife
September 7, 2012 – 10:16 am
Reader Jeromy Murphy sends a couple pics of a temporary ford of Buffalo Bayou seen last week near the site of the Police Officers Memorial off Memorial Dr. just west of Downtown. Planned nearby: a new permanent pedestrian bridge that will make the memorial accessible to soulmates hanging about in Glenwood Cemetery to the north. The bridge will also open the memorial to visits from bikers on the recently updated trail on the bayou’s north side.
This map shows the plan:
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Read more about: 77019, Attractions, Bayous and Waterways, Buffalo Bayou, New Construction, Trails
August 14, 2012 – 1:48 pm
A Swamplot reader offers a trade: A few photos of the retention ponds going in north of White Oak Bayou where 6th St. was blocked between Yale and Shepherd (above and below) — in exchange for more details on the park that’s apparently planned for that location, including a scheduled completion date for the construction. “I have no ‘official’ information, only old data and hearsay,” reports the reader. Which includes this map dating from 2010:
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Read more about: 77007, Bayous and Waterways, Houston Heights, New Construction, Retention Ponds, Water Detention, White Oak Bayou
You might well expect a home on street named “Leafy Lane” to sport a woodsy setting. While this new Spring Oaks listing is on a 16,788-sq.-ft. lot more groomed than sylvan, it does back up to a ravine formed by a ribbon of Spring Branch Creek. The 3-2 window pattern beneath the low-slung gable in front is a tip-off that the front room is not one room at all. Rather, the street-facing space contains a family room and a bedroom. Both sides of that great divide at the roof ridge, however, have vaulted ceilings. Elsewhere inside, other unexpected treatments include a dual personality fireplace that features an ornately carved mantle tacked onto a plainer midcentury brick wall; a common room currently re-purposed as a dining room; and in the kitchen, wall paneling that matches the knob-free cabinets.
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Read more about: 77055, Bayous and Waterways, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Spring Oaks, Spring Valley
February 13, 2012 – 10:35 am
Looks like that Charting Buffalo (as in Buffalo and Lower White Oak Bayous) draft report might not have gone over so well. A popup note shown to first-time visitors to the project’s website, posted just last Friday, dryly notes the entire report has been pulled — only 2 days after it first went out for community feedback: “In light of compelling issues regarding the presentation of certain concepts in the Charting Buffalo draft report, the Harris County Flood Control District is in the process of modifying the report. The District is suspending the report’s distribution, review period and all scheduled community meetings until further notice,” it reads. The feedback period for the report, intended to form the foundation of a master plan for reducing flood damage along the entire Buffalo Bayou and lower White Oak watersheds from the Barker Reservoir to the Ship Channel Turning Basin, was originally scheduled to extend until April 1. Possible flashpoint: the “more than 40 options for reducing flooding risks and damages” spelled out in the report. The Charting Buffalo project was the flood control district’s response to a City of Houston request to “provide land” for stormwater detention.
Map of Study Area: Charting Buffalo
Read more about: Bayous and Waterways, Buffalo Bayou, Flooding, White Oak Bayou
February 10, 2012 – 11:51 pm
“This appears to be a banking scheme that would have the Federal Reserve Bank(s) finance and hold securities on these important lands in many large cities across the US. More scrutiny of the fine print and long-term ramifications is needed before yielding to the sensuous propaganda.” [Dana-X, commenting on Enormous Plan To Build Bayou-Side Parks: The Movie]
Read more about: Bayous and Waterways, Comments, Parks, Proposed Developments
February 2, 2012 – 7:06 pm
“Roaches? I didn’t leave them out. I just didn’t see any — as in, not one. No living creatures at all, except us humans. The place smelled clean, like fresh water. I wonder where those roaches went…. and (ugh) what they were eating down there in the ’80s.” [Lisa Gray, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Cockroaches Found That Cistern First]
Read more about: 77007, Bayous and Waterways, Buffalo Bayou, Comments, Critters, Old-Sixth-Ward
November 9, 2011 – 1:03 pm
By a wide margin, New Braunfels residents voted to uphold an ordinance passed by city council over the summer that will prohibit Comal and Guadalupe River tubers from using disposable containers within the city limits. Supporters of the beer-can ban, which takes effect January 1, hope it’ll limit pollution from visitors; layers of tossed aluminum cans have been found lining riverbottoms after peak tubing season weekends. A group of local business owners has already filed suit to block the ban, claiming it violates state law. [San Antonio Express-News; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Lelombrik
Read more about: Attractions, Bayous and Waterways, New Braunfels, Pollution, Water Quality
Does li’l ol’ Buffalo Bayou qualify for a river guide? It does now. 
Comment of the Day: Buffalo Bayou Wildlife
“Years ago I saw someone pull a snapping turtle out of that bayou, near the Shepherd bridge. Vicious-looking brute; the snapper was mean, too.” [Brian, commenting on Headlines: Americana Remodeling Plans; a Place for the Houston Blues Museum]