Tag: Billboards

Public Art, Signage

3 Comments

Noticing a Billboard [Vimeo]
here are some images from the first week of installation [Inbound:Houston]
Six billboards in place [Houston Chronicle]

Video: Christopher Sheridan, Brave/Architecture

77006, Billboards, Midtown, Public Art, Signs

Development Restrictions

09/23/08 3:35pm

The Great Secret Billboard Repair Caper Begins

Disaster Aftermath, Quicklink

1 Comment

THE GREAT SECRET BILLBOARD REPAIR CAPER BEGINS Certain billboards grandfathered by city ordinance can’t legally be rebuilt after the hurricane: “For billboards, the city ordinance says that if the cost of repairing the weather damage is more than 60 percent of the cost of erecting a new sign, the billboard comes down. . . . [Scenic Houston program director Holly] Eaton said documenting weather damage is critical because ‘it’s one of the few ways we can get these things down.’ Showing the city the damage avoids ‘sneaky, stealth-of-darkness repairs on signs that really should be coming down.’ She’d collected photos or notice of at least 20 billboards with significant problems by Monday afternoon.” [Houston Chronicle]

Billboards, Development Restrictions, Disaster Aftermath, Hurricane Ike, Signs

Attractions

07/16/08 10:41am

Man Living in Billboard: No Film at 9

Downtown, East Downtown, Hazards

3 Comments

And now you know the kind of thing that gets left out of the evening news: Fox 26 TV reporter Isiah Carey spots a man “just hanging out” inside a billboard over 59 near the George R. Brown downtown, grabs a camera, and . . . reports it in his blog a week later.

What’s that say on the billboard?

77003, Billboards, Downtown, East Downtown, Hazards

03/06/08 7:51am

What the Billboard House Looks Like Without Its Billboard

Lawn Care, Neighborhood Disputes, Retail

Site of Former Billboard in Front Yard of House at 4743 Banning, Afton Oaks, Houston

From our email: Photographic confirmation that the 90-ft.-tall billboard in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning has indeed been removed.

After the jump, the billboard that Afton Oaks ate!

77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Lawn Care, Neighborhood Disputes, Retail, Signs

Art

03/05/08 11:12am

Storefront Ad: Midtown Full Frontal Oddity

Commercial Real Estate, Midtown, Real Estate Investing, Retail, Shopping Centers

Storefront Ad for Red Bull Art of Can Competition and Exhibition on Elgin St., Midtown, Houston

Here’s one advantage if you’re one of the not-so-large number of retail centers in Houston that doesn’t have a parking lot in front: If business ain’t so hot, you can always sell the highly visible adspace on your facade!

A reader sends in this photo of an ad for Red Bull’s Art of Can competition on the streetfront of a retail center on Elgin, across from the Calais apartments in Midtown. The Maple Leaf Pub is two doors down.

Is this the future of retail real estate? Sure, we’ve all seen ads painted onto the sides of old buildings and the giant window stickers on David’s Bridal storefronts, but doesn’t this go a bit . . . beyond that? Think of the possibilities: Stores . . . with ads covering their entire fronts, advertising . . . other stores. Or anything.

Forget billboards, graffiti, and wheatpaste posters. When this new market really kicks in, we’ll see Houston for its revenue-generating possibilities: We’ve got acres and acres of exploitable advertising space.

Tyvek Housewrap was only the beginning.

What comes after Tuscan-themed shopping centers? Billboard-themed shopping centers!

After the jump: a second photo, so you can get your Red Bull straight.

77006, Advertising, Art, Billboards, Commercial Real Estate, Midtown, Retail, Shopping Centers, Signs, Storefronts

03/03/08 3:13pm

Front-Yard Billboard: Vanished!

Neighborhood Disputes

No photo this time — just imagine a 90-ft.-tall billboard . . . that isn’t there!

That’s right: The billboard placed in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning St. near the West Loop has apparently been removed. Says our tipster:

I drove by the Afton Oaks billboard house yesterday and the billboard is now GONE!!! I wonder what happened? Maybe the guy who told me they were making the billboard larger was just pulling my chain?

Previously in Swamplot: Sign-A-Rama: The Billboard That Ate Afton Oaks, Billboard House: No Reason for a Front Porch Anyway, The House with the Very, Very Tall Sign in Front [Swamplot]

77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Neighborhood Disputes, Signs

02/25/08 12:51pm

Sign-A-Rama: The Billboard That Ate Afton Oaks

Neighborhood Disputes, Retail

Expansion of Billboard at 4743 Banning Dr., Afton Oaks, Houston

When last we left the house at 4743 Banning Dr., a giant billboard had been planted in the front yard and the enterprising owners had successfully converted the front porch into a driveway. In this installment, our correspondent gleefully returns to the scene and finds even more exciting transformations, plus hints of a lot more fun in store for Afton Oaks. Here’s the report:

OH BOY!!!! Do I have some scoop for you.

So I went by the house on Banning and it has been swallowed up like a snake eats a rat. . . . It’s been completely usurped by Sign-A-Rama…now looks like one structure.

After the jump: it’s not just one billboard . . . there’s so much more!

77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Neighborhood Disputes, Retail, Signs

02/04/08 4:38pm

Billboard House: No Reason for a Front Porch Anyway

Neighborhood Disputes

House with Billboard at 4743 Banning Dr., Afton Oaks, Houston

With their Afton Oaks neighbors up in arms over their enterprising 90-foot-tall front-yard billboard, the owners of the home at the corner of Banning and Vossdale have apparently decided there won’t be much need to hang out on the front porch anymore. A Swamplot reader drove by the site Friday and sends in photos and comments:

Yes, the driveway is now where the front porch once was. Also, every shade on the house was drawn. I wonder if they have gotten threats from this? Oh wait, this is Afton Oaks. Of course they have.

The reader, who asked to be called “Buildergeek,” also reports on the yard improvements described in the Afton Oaks eNews:

As for landscaping, if you call not mowing a tuft of grass and leaving a mud track where your old sidewalk used to be landscaping, they did a really good job.

Below the fold: Buildergeek’s view from the front.

77027, Afton Oaks, Billboards, Neighborhood Disputes, Signs

02/01/08 8:20am

The House with the Very, Very Tall Sign in Front

Neighborhood Disputes

House and Billboard at 4743 Banning Dr., Afton Oaks, Houston

Yes, that’s a mighty big sign in the front yard of the house at 4743 Banning Dr. in Afton Oaks. And it’s not listing the house for sale.

A reader sends in photos and says they’re from a couple of months back. He adds, “What good is having a home at the edge of the West Loop if you can’t put up a 90 foot tall billboard in your front yard?”

Remember that hiccup in the city’s sign ordinance, back in October? Well, look how resourceful some people are! The Afton Oaks January eNews reports that the billboard is still there, but that there’s now . . . landscaping around the base!

Court date: postponed until the second week of February. After the jump: a few more pics from our tardy tipster.