05/05/16 11:45am

Smoke Plume at 1700 Laverne from Texas Medical Center

Update, 12:30 pm: Firefighters are reportedly being warned to watch out for live ammo; also, here’s some video of one of this morning’s explosions.

Update, May 6: The chemicals released by yesterday’s fire turned Spring Branch Creek blood red — photo and more info here.

Shelter in Place Area, 5/5/2016The fire department posted a long-distance shot this morning of the A1 Custom Packaging warehouse, currently on fire near the intersection of Laverne St. and Spring Branch Dr. north of Longpoint Dr. The 4-alarm blaze (shown above from nearly 9 miles away looking out over 59 across Upper Kirby) is about a quarter mile from Spring Branch Elementary School, which KPRC reports is being evacuated. Roughly 500 students and teachers are being bussed to the Coleman Community Coliseum about 5 miles west-by-southwest, at 1050 Dairy Ashford Rd.

Noting the release of hazardous chemicals, the city’s emergency notification system recommends that anyone not evacuating the square formed by Blalock Rd., Bingle Rd., Westview Dr., and Hammerly Blvd. (shaded in red on the map above) should close their windows, turn off the AC and ventilation systems, and maybe have a go at sealing up cracks with duct tape and plastic sheeting.

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Smoke Signals from Laverne St.
04/07/15 1:30pm

Guy Wires, 4101 Fulton St., Silverdale, Houston

All that’s left of a 1956 steel-frame industrial building on the campus of ALG Truck & Trailer Repair at 4101 Fulton St. just south of Patton is these old cast-in-place concrete supports. The building, which lines the west side of the North Line light-rail extension in the Near Northside, was torn down over the last 2 weeks. Why are just these portions left standing?

It’s not entirely clear, but it might have something to do with the guy wires that are holding down a radio antenna tower adjacent to a service bay behind the Love’s Truck Stop directly to the west, which is accessed from nearby Patton St. It’s visible at the far left of the above photo — and in this marked-up view from Google, showing how it looked when the building was still intact:

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Hang Tight
01/21/15 5:00pm

Demolition of International Mailing Systems, 815 Live Oak St., East Downtown

Sure, we all know the future of East Downtown is townhomes, and that the industrial structures that once dominated that landscape are on their way out. But have you seen a set of photos that better illustrates the transformation than this gallery of views taken by reader Jeff Peoples this morning? It shows the demolition of the former International Mailing Systems warehouse building at 815 Live Oak St. Not much more need for them to be close to downtown.

You can see the townhomes marching from the background of the above photo, smashing everything in their way.

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International Mailing Systems Gone
06/30/14 3:45pm

Amazon Fulfillment Center, 8120 Humble-Westfield Rd., Houston

Amazon Fulfillment Center, 8120 Humble-Westfield Rd., HoustonHumble-area news website HKA Texas has a few exterior pics of the new Amazon.com fulfillment center that opened last week at 8120 Humble-Westfield Dr. between Kenswick Dr. and Lee Rd. in Houston — a good mile west of the Humble city limits, according to the story, but good enough to rate a Humble address. The author of the story was restricted to exterior photos of the 250,000-sq.-ft. facility a couple miles northeast of Bush Intercontinental Airport, which is officially labeled a “sortation center” by Amazon. (The company typically reserves interior access to carefully controlled media visits such as the one described in this month’s profile of a Phoenix center in Wired magazine.)

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They’ve Got Your Package Here
11/21/13 3:00pm

Demolition of Former Elgin-Butler Brick Co. Building, 2619 Westpark Dr., Upper Kirby, Houston

Behold the final moments this afternoon of the Goode Company building at 2619 Westpark, just west of Kirby Dr. A reader sends in these images of the once-swank former Elgin-Butler Brick Company Building, built in 1966 with a fine sampling of the company’s glazed wares attached to its facade and converted in 1988 to an office building and commissary for the extended Goode Co. barbecue-seafood-taqueria-armadillo empire. In this hallowed hall — and the attached warehouse building, totaling more than 14,000 sq. ft. altogether — many a brick was spec’ed and many a pecan pie was congealed. But it’s all going away now.

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Goode Riddance
05/10/13 10:30am

The finishing touches are being put on this somewhat totemic new building at the ReUse Warehouse site in Independence Heights. This one’s built on the concrete slab and with the steel beams of the old Public Works machine shop here at 9003 Main St., downcycling that building’s roof for use as its ceiling. It’ll serve as office space for Solid Waste Management staff; it’ll also house a workshop to process donated materials (usually the leftovers from new builds and the salvaged stuff from demos) and feature a recycled-art gallery. Zen T. C. Zheng reports that the building should be ready to go by June.

Photo: Allyn West

05/01/13 11:30am

Construction has started in Pasadena on one of the largest loading and unloading zones of beer in Texas. Silver Eagle Distributors, whose lookalike company headquarters you can see from I-10 north of Memorial Park, says that the $25 million, 400,000-sq.-ft. distribution center will sit on 50 acres near the Sam Houston Tollway and those Independence Trail scenes painted on the Pasadena Freeway refineries.

Image: Silver Eagle Distributors via Swamplot inbox

02/13/13 9:30am

Will the recent purchase, a reader wants to know, of a 105,000-sq.-ft. building out near Spring Branch by Admiral Linen & Uniform Services mean anything for the company’s much-smaller headquarters at 2030 Kipling St.? Well, Admiral Linen isn’t available for comment.

The company closed just after Christmas on the building at 8020 Blankenship Dr., near Hempstead and Bingle. Since 1998, according to city records, it’s owned the three-building, 24,000-sq.-ft. headquarters a block west east of South Shepherd and directly behind the Randalls on Westheimer.

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10/30/12 2:34pm

A parking garage is planned on Westpark just west of Kirby Dr., to serve the Goode Company Taqueria and Goode Company Seafood restaurants that sandwich it. The new garage will replace the stylin’ 1966 glazed-brick-front Elgin Butler Brick Co. office building and adjacent warehouse that have served as Goode Company’s offices and commissary since 1988. Together, the modern buildings measure more than 14,000 sq. ft.

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