BAYOU PLACE TURNOVER NOW COMPLETE 
Curtain! The oldest tenant at Bayou Place downtown — and the only venue left from the original 1997 retail lineup at the revamped former Albert Thomas Convention Center — closed last week. Mingalone Italian Bar & Grill, with its balcony view of the Wortham Center plaza from across Texas Ave., had a 14-year run. Photo: Mingalone
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Tag: Downtown
If you’re the ghost of Kenneth Franzheim, scoot! Again. Cameraphone correspondent Pankaj reports that Cherry Demolition is already at work dismantling a second building designed by the Houston architect: the original Downtown YMCA at 1600 Louisiana St. Workers from the demo company have begun removing windows from the 10-story brick building; the property is now partially fenced. In 2008, as it announced plans to construct the new Tellepsen Y a few blocks to the east, the organization said it would tear down the 1941 structure in advance of selling the 85,000-sq.-ft. lot beneath it to Chevron, owners of the Enron hand-me-down tower next door.
“Does anyone know what is the plan here?” asks Swamplot reader and architect Filo Castore, who encountered this little wall-building project in front of the Preston St. side of Treebeards at 315 Travis St. downtown, across from Market Square. That’s where this mural normally hangs out:
- 606 Cottage St. [HAR]
In 2005, Houston’s transportation agency agreed to pay $15 million for 17.3 acres of flood-prone land along the northern bank of White Oak Bayou just north of Downtown, reports the West University Examiner‘s Michael Reed. Former Houston Rockets and UH basketball star Hakeem Olajuwon had purchased the property from the Union Pacific Railroad for an estimated $2 million six years earlier. But even more eye-popping than Olajuwon’s roughly estimated $13 million profit on the sale is this little nugget: A separate appraisal — conducted the same year as the sale — valued the property at only $2.6 million.
A reader whose office faces the old Sheraton-Lincoln Hotel at 711 Polk St. downtown reports that demolition work on the former Beatles hangout is now “in full swing”:
They are taking down the building literally floor by floor. So far they have removed all the utilities on the roof and the entire top floor. Seems like a very labor intensive project. I plan to take a picture everyday and make a time lapse video. Can watch it in reverse and pretend they are revitalizing southern downtown!
- Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: The Plot To Kill Sheraton-Lincoln, Old Sheraton-Lincoln Hotel To Be Torn Down for the Views and Parking Spots, Downtown Sheraton-Lincoln Redo: Too Many Reservations, The Beatles Slept Here
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Denver Hopkins tells abc13 he’s the brilliant mastermind who spent 30 seconds at an open, unlocked keyboard attached to a downtown electronic construction sign over the weekend, changing the message from “Poop” to “;> LOL.” What harsh punishment will the Texas Dept. of Transportation seek to inflict on this sign hacker? He turned himself in this afternoon to the TxDOT offices at I-10 and Old Katy Rd. to find out. TxDOT spokeswoman Raquelle Lewis told Chronicle reporters yesterday that messing with the sign carries a fine of “up to $500.”
- Accused construction sign hacker turns himself in [abc13, via Miya Shay]
- Downtown traffic sign becomes butt of joke [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Comment of the Day: Catch Me If You Can, Sez ‘Poop’ Hack Perp, What Dirty Little Secret Was This Downtown Sign Hiding?
Video: abc13
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CATCH ME IF YOU CAN, SEZ ‘POOP’ HACK PERP 
“I BROKE NOTHING!!!! THERE WAS NO LOCK!!!! THEY’RE TRYIN TO COVER THEIR A$$3$!!!! THAT’S CRAP!!!! But seriously, let them try to find me. I guarantee they won’t. I’ll give you a hint. I bounce around the world 9 times before I actually connect to the internet. If they wanna try to track my IP, they’ll be in for a long and hard journey. Also, as for cameras, I’d love to see the video! Bring it on! When you do things that can get you in trouble, you can’t be afraid of the consequences.” [theguythatdidit, commenting on What Dirty Little Secret Was This Downtown Sign Hiding?]
Note: Updates below.
Successive photos of the results of a hack made to the lighted construction sign parked across from the Hogg Palace on Louisiana St. just north of Prairie over the weekend. The pic above shows the message displayed on Sunday night. What’s so funny, really? Maybe something to do with the message on display the night before:
The bottom 2 floors of the 6-level parking garage at One Park Place will be dedicated for shoppers at the new Phoenicia Specialty Foods market going into that building, reports the Chronicle‘s Purva Patel. How convenient will that be for folks arriving by car who want to grab a few pitas from the conveyer belt and then head around the other side of the building to Discovery Green for a picnic? The opening of the 28,000-sq.-ft. store at 1001 Austin St. was originally scheduled for December and then April. It’s now been delayed until “at least” May 15.
THE AIRPORT DIRECT SHUTTLE’S LONG GOODBYE After a ride on Metro’s newly discounted but still cold-as-a-meat-locker Downtown-to-IAH shuttle, Texas Watchdog reporter Steve Miller hears from an Airport Direct staffer just how last-ditch an effort last month’s price cut was. The new $4.50 one-way fare has increased revenue only slightly, the staffer reports, “but it will have to do more or the plug will be pulled in June.” In less-direct language, a Metro spokesperson backs up that statement. [Texas Watchdog; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: UNLESS, OF COURSE, THEY SHOW URBAN COWBOY EVERY NIGHT AT MIDNIGHT “In regard to Sundance Cinemas, that’s potentially great news, but honestly, I wonder if it won’t succumb to the same fate as its predecessor. Even if it manages to reel in the handful of film buffs gasping for air in this sprawling sea of easily titillated Transformers, it still has to deal with being in a somewhat awkward spot. I just don’t see the independent film crowd planning a night of avant-garde cinema and theme bar hopping. Yee-haw, Thaddeus! Ride that bull.” [kilray, commenting on Report: Sundance Cinemas Replacing Angelika Film Center at Bayou Place; Bar Smorgasbord Moving in Upstairs]
$4.50 FROM DOWNTOWN TO THE AIRPORT That shuttle service Metro’s been running from Downtown to IAH just got a whole lot cheaper — and added a few stops on the way. The Airport Direct service used to leave from the transit center at 815 Pierce St. with maybe one or 2 passengers a trip and cost $15 one-way ($10 if you could show a valid plane ticket). As of yesterday, the ride now costs $4.50, but stops also at the Main St. Square station and the Four Seasons, Hyatt, and Hilton Americas hotels before heading up the freeway. The transit agency has been losing $1.5 million a year on the every-30-minute service since it was introduced more than 2 years ago. [Houston Chronicle]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: CLEAR PROOF THAT THEY WERE ONTO SOMETHING BIG, BEFORE IT ALL CAME CRASHING DOWN “well it would appear there’s lots of wind up there for harvesting!” [movocelot, commenting on Pieces of Wind Turbine Fall Onto Street from Top of Hess Tower Downtown; Blades on “Lockdownâ€]
Sometime before the Christmas holiday last year, “high winds” caused a part of one of the wind turbines mounted to the top of downtown Houston’s Hess Tower to “detach” from its mounting point. “Two pieces of the debris fell to the street. Nobody was injured,” Hess Corporation spokesperson Mari Pat Sexton tells Swamplot today. Sexton had no comment on circulating rumors that one or more of the the pieces struck a car on the street.
The incident helps explain why the whirling turbines, installed as a featured element at the top of the new 29-story tower last summer, have been silent since mid-December. In the photo above, taken by a HAIF commenter shortly before Christmas, the turbines appear to be missing. “After the event occurred, (the turbines) were locked down,” Sexton says, adding she is unaware of the turbines’ current status or whether there are plans to replace them. “The building is still under construction.”
The Gold LEED certified skyscraper, named Discovery Tower until Hess signed on to lease the whole thing 2 years ago, sits at the northern edge of Discovery Green, a short walk from Minute Maid Park. It was developed by Trammell Crow, designed by Gensler, is the thirtieth-tallest building in Houston, and was the first in town to feature — and draw some power from — wind turbines. Here’s how they looked (and sounded) last year, before the incident:
