Having awarded a “development of distinction” award last night to New Hope Housing’s Brays Crossing project, ULI Houston is now letting y’all see the promo video, a slightly different version of which we posted briefly last week. Details and videos on other award winners here.
Update, 1/21: Hey, what happened here? Urban Land Institute Houston executive director Ann Taylor writes in: “I’m sorry that we had to remove the New Hope Housing at Brays Crossing video, but it was not ready for prime time…still being edited to include more ‘before’ images and to add footage of the courtyards and gardens. It and all of the Awards Finalist videos will be screened for the public at the ULI Houston Development of Distinction Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 25.” We hope to post the finished video after that date.
Video: Cosmic Light Productions
Then you saw it, now you don’t: Part 2 of FEMA’s buy it, then demolish it plan for the oft-flooded home at 1954 N. MacGregor Way in Idylwood is now complete, reports a reader. “The plants around the trees seem to be all that’s left. And, that funny knotty thing on the tree on the right.” A source scores the low-lying property as the 10th FEMA buyout of Hurricane Ike-damaged homes in the neighborhood, though more residents have turned down similar offers. Just across the street from the property: The uppity banks of Brays Bayou.
Photos: Swamplot inbox
This house on Merry Lane in Idylwood is one of 4 “Century Built” homes designed in the late 1940s and early ’50s by a not-particularly-famous Houston architect named Allen R. Williams Jr. Where are the others? One — demolished a while back — was somewhere off Campbell Rd. north of I-10, though nobody seems to remember where. Another is on West 43rd St. in Garden Oaks. The third, built not far from Idylwood in Simms Woods, was restored and renovated by architect and interior designer Ben Koush in 2005, who dug up the home’s history, got it registered as the city’s first modern protected landmark, and now features it on his firm’s website and in occasional home tours.
All the homes had walls made of lightweight hollow concrete tiles (with electrical wires running through them in conduit), heavy slab foundations with grade beams and piers, metal casement windows, and roofs made of concrete panels and insulated with Fiberglas boards. And they all had similar floor plans. The Idylwood house has been on the market since the end of last month — for $150,000 — because its original owner, Carl Stallworth, passed away recently.
What could you do with this place?
Readers in Idylwood have been watching Swamplot’s Daily Demolition Report for the appearance of this house at 1954 North MacGregor Way, as it wraps around to Sylvan Rd. in their neighborhood. A local resident tells us the 1950 home will be the 10th Hurricane Ike-flooded house bought up by FEMA and torn down. (Other homeowners on the same street have turned down similar early-retirement deals for their properties, claims the resident.) But focusing on that singular pre-storm flooding event in 2008 only doesn’t do justice to this home’s long history of seaworthiness: Our source says this house had 4 feet of water in it on at least 2 occasions, along with several less dramatic Brays Bayou baptisms. Water from the bayou came back to play in the street in front of the house just 2 Fridays ago.
Idylwood scored 3 FEMA buyouts in the wake of Tropical Storm Allison, in 2001.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
COMMENT OF THE DAY: A PARK GROWS IN IDYLWOOD “The neighborhood will be able to ‘use’ the vacant land but cannot build permanent structures upon it. With the exception of one lot at the far end of N. Macgregor, 9 are connecting so that they will form a large U shaped property. There’s been talk of a shared garden but who knows… The area still looks pretty rough right now, but the damaged sidewalks, where driveways once were, are being repaired and curbs installed. There are existing trees and lawns so hopefully it will become, at the very least, another usable green space. I suspect that, when the next big flood happens and some of the remaining homes get hit yet again, if another FEMA buyout is offered, we’ll be seeing more open land along N. Macgregor. . . .” [PYEWACKET2, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Great Idylwood Shoreline FEMA Buyout]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE GREAT IDYLWOOD SHORELINE FEMA BUYOUT “The ten houses in Idylwood, 6 along N. Macgregor, 2 on Wildwood and 2 on Park Ln were all heavily damaged by Hurricane Ike. Most all those houses have been hit numerous times, not the least of which was Allison. Those homes were right on Brays Bayou. Come on folks, some of the homeowners hated to sell to FEMA but it was either that or jump through impossible hoops to raise the homes’ foundations. True, there’s been a lot of improvement to the bayou but who knows if those improvements will be effective when the next flood hits? Not everyone chose to take the buyout.” [PYEWACKET2, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Idylwood Hat Trick]
The Swamplot Price Adjuster needs your nominations! Found a property you think is poorly priced? Send an email to Swamplot, and be sure to include a link to the listing or photos. Tell us about the property, and explain why you think it deserves a price adjustment. Then tell us what you think a better price would be. Unless requested otherwise, all submissions to the Swamplot Price Adjuster will be kept anonymous.
Location: 6601 N. Park Ln., Idylwood
Details: 3-5 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths; 2,914 sq. ft. on a 5,750-sq.-ft. lot
Price: $320,000
History: Listed since late May. Price cut $5K in late June.
The reader who’s nominating this property has a few gripes:
First, $320,000 for a house that corners on Wayside? Idylwood is great, but the houses cornering right on Wayside have to deal with the truck and general traffic noise & have to be discounted to sell. I don’t care if you dip it in gold, you aren’t get three-anything for something cornering on Wayside. . . .
The backyard is all concrete with a token deck and some sort of garage apt. You can’t rent those out in Idylwood, so it would have to be for a relative or a guest house. Your guests would really sleep well with those big trucks rumbling right by you.
And then, from a longer set of complaints about how the listing reads:
I can deal with a few typos & such, but some of it is just damn confusing. “Here’s you (sic) NEWLY updated HOME” I guess special emphasis needed to be placed on HOME in all caps so no one would think that being on such a busy corner might make it eligible for commercial? It goes on to describe “w/a converted or not garage w/apt/living quarters for guest/family…” Um, what? . . .
She sums it up with “reminds me of the old Heights area in Houston.” I’m glad she quantified that with the Heights area that is in Houston, we might have confused it with some other Heights. Of course the confusion is natural when a flat area of late 19th century and WWI era, mostly wood frame homes on flat terrain reminds you of a late 30’s & WWII era mostly brick homes on slightly hilly terrain. Yes, well, anything over 30 years starts to look alike I suppose.
So . . . any better numbers for this place?
The 2-story 1939 brick home at 1504 N. MacGregor Way, on the banks of Brays Bayou in Idylwood, has completed the Swamplot trifecta. In July of last year the home made its first appearance, as the subject of a Neighborhood Guessing Game (answer revealed here). In September, after the pre-Hurricane Ike storm surge brought about 2 feet of water in for an extensive tour of the first floor, the home was featured again: an after-Ike-cleanup poster house, still on the market for $359,000.
And then, this morning, a third and likely final showing on Swamplot: in our Daily Demolition Report.
A quick look back at the home’s better (and not-so-much better) days:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: IDYLWOOD APPRAISAL CASE CLOSED “All of you people are batsh!t crazy if you think you can get a house like that in Idylwood for the low $200’s. If houses LESS than 1300 sq ft have been selling for just under $200,000 or $145 to $150+ a foot. Do the math. 500 more sq ft, a second bath that not all of the other sales had and more upgrades for only $10,000 or so more? . . . This house has closed. It sold for $242,000 as well it should.” [Robert, commenting on Idling in Idylwood: Where’s a Friendly Appraiser When You Need One?]
The Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff says low appraisals are becoming the “newest threat” to Houston’s housing market. Her example? The story of the redone bungalow at 6707 Fairfield St. in Idylwood, where the sellers accepted a full-price offer less than a week after the property was listed.
But the appraisal on the 1,780-square-foot home came in at just $206,000. The buyer couldn’t come up with enough cash to make up the difference and [co-owner Derrick] DeCristofaro wasn’t willing to drop the price, so the deal fell through.
Why can’t the appraiser buy that $242,900 asking price?
ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES Verdant, fertile Idylwood, where the crops come in like weeds: “Tomato season started early at my house in the East End of Houston this year. It crept in on stealthy little bird feet, thanks to a volunteer plant that chose to sprout next to my veteran Tabasco bush. I was thrilled when I spotted the familiar tomato foliage–as excited as if someone had sent me an unexpected birthday present. The plant soon climbed into sprawly, indeterminate territory, and when a spiral stake proved inadequate to contain it, I just stuck a busted-out old tomato cage nearby. Martha Stewart would not have approved. When the yellow flowers set fruit, I surmised I’d be harvesting cherry tomatoes. Still, it was a surprise when–a little over two weeks ago–I realized the tiny yellow globes were not going to get any larger or any redder. They were the size of gooseberries, ripened to a clear, sunny gold, and they were ready. Each popped with spurt of tart juice and a vegetal aftertaste that seemed to roughen my tongue. At the moment, I was convinced they were the best tomatoes I had ever tasted.” [Cook’s Tour]
A “DEEP RENOVATION” GONE WRONG A building collapse this afternoon killed at least one worker and seriously injured 2 others at Brays Crossing, a 6-building, low-cost apartment project being fashioned from the former HouTex Inn on I-45 just north of Griggs Road, near Forest Park Cemetery. “The two-story building collapsed as construction workers were replacing joists and the structure began to shift, said Richard Cole, chief of the fire department’s rescue team. The original building was a wooden frame building and had no steel beams for the support needed, he said. . . . New Hope Housing, the city’s partner on the 149-room apartment complex, bought the inn and hired Camden Builders to rehab it beginning in January. When it’s finished, small, single room occupancy apartments will be rented to the newly homeless, said Richard Celli, the city’s director of housing and community development.” [Houston Chronicle; schematic diagram (PDF)]
Remember this house from July, featured as the subject of our weekly Neighborhood Guessing Game? Yeah, the one with the wacky carpet in the garage apartment. On the corner of N. Macgregor and Wildwood Way, on the left bank of Brays Bayou in lowest Idylwood.
Well, the pre-Hurricane-Ike storm surge brought it some problems. Sad photos below:
More new players in this week’s Neighborhood Guessing Game . . . but more old guesses, too!
Three of the 4 Montrose guesses were nicely specific: We had Montrose north of Alabama and west of Montrose Blvd., “the northwestern corner of Montrose, east of Shepherd around West Dallas,” and “either off Hawthorne or above Westheimer between Dunlavy and Montrose.” Two of you guessed the Heights, with a third player specifying the “Shepherd/Durham side” of the neighborhood. There was another vote for Woodland Heights.
Six guesses clumped together: Boulevard Oaks, Edgemont, Greenbriar, Southampton, Southgate, off Bissonnet east of Kirby. We had individual guesses of Garden Oaks, River Oaks, “the area around Braeswood and Buffalo Speedway,” and Bunker Hill. Also, single votes for the generic “Eastside,” “around the Medical Center off 288,” Eastwood, Idylwood, Sienna Plantation, Sugarland, Friendswood, Pearland, and Village Grove in Pasadena.
The winner is . . . first-time guesser Chris, who strolled right into the correct neighborhood:
Nicely remodeled…has a 20’s or 30’s style, though I cannot tell if it is designed that way or authentic. Looks like they use every inch for living or storage, which means it *is* probably genuinely old–still, I am not sure of the actual size as the wide-angle lens throws me off. Still, the look is reminiscient of Eastwood’s finer homes, or perhaps Idylwood.
. . . but then kept on going:
Or maybe off Greenbriar around Rice. Now I’m confusing myself.
Come on back to the East Side, Chris!
Another first-time player, Brian, clearly deserves an honorable mention for making these sharp calls:
It looks like the dropped ceilings along the edge of the kitchen were done for the sole purpose of adding air conditioning after construction. The vegetation appears too close, too big, too lush to be new construction. The roof line on the second floor seems more shingle style than victorian, so I doubt the Heights.
After the jump: on the Live Bodies side of Brays Bayou. Plus . . . it’s been snagged!
