Swamplot Archives by Tag: Recycled Materials

Friday, August 19, 2011

Explosive Fifth Ward Bungalow Bandshell Just About Ready for Its Breakout Jam Session

August 19, 2011 – 12:53 pm

Sculptor Dan Havel sends in photos of the construction he and fellow demo artist Dean Ruck have been working on for months in a new pocket park at 3705 Lyons Ave. More than a month before its debut as the backdrop for a community concert (yes, that’s a stage poking out from the front), Havel says their project is “substantially complete,” though there are still a few more details to fill in, including stairs for the stage and some landscaping. Working from a ready-to-be-knocked-down house from a couple miles northeast at 3012 Erastus St., Havel and Ruck added, ahem, a whole lot of support to the interior, as these photos taken earlier in the summer show:

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12:53 pm | 10 Comments | Read more about Art, Construction Materials, Neighborhoods: Fifth Ward, Openings and Closings, Parks, Public Art
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Friday, April 15, 2011

Pulling Out All the Stops at the Historic Houston Salvage Warehouse Extended Goodbye Sale

April 15, 2011 – 1:34 pm

As of this morning, Historic Houston has been able to raise only $13,000 of the $50,000 executive director Lynn Edmundson had figured the organization would need to keep its North Montrose building-parts salvage warehouse in operation for just 3 more months. After this weekend, she tells Swamplot, she will have lost all employees other than her crew. That means the warehouse at 1307 West Clay St. will only be able to be opened by appointment. This Saturday from 10 to 4, though, she’ll be holding a last-ditch 50-percent-off sale with a bonus: All purchases will be tax-free.

As a nonprofit, Historic Houston is allowed to hold 2 sales-tax-free sales a year. Similar events put on by the organization in past years have been “pretty big successes,” according to Edmundson. “There seems to be something about not paying taxes” that really encourages people to buy, she says.

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1:34 pm | 7 Comments | Read more about Construction Materials, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Recycling
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Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Can Historic Houston’s Salvage Warehouse Be Salvaged?

March 22, 2011 – 10:30 am

Note: The discounting has begun. See update below.

A weekend and a day after she sent out word that Historic Houston’s 7-year-old recycled-house-parts warehouse at 1307 West Clay St. would be shutting down, the nonprofit organization’s founder and executive director says she’s currently evaluating a few options that might allow her to keep the salvage operation in business. “Some very incredible offers came forward on Friday,” Lynn Edmundson tells Swamplot, “and I am spending the next day or two investigating each one to see if any of them will work out . . . as an interim strategy to keep the warehouse opened and operating for a few more months.”

Edmundson also says numerous supporters of the organization asked her to “calculate what cash we would need to stay afloat for 3 months — and then ask for it.” Which she did in a follow-up email she sent out Friday, seeking 500 donations of $100 each. Edmundson says she was encouraged by the immediate response: The first $1,000 was raised within 5 minutes of sending out the request. “We may not raise all that we need,” she says, but whatever amount is raised might “buy us a little more time to explore the options that have been offered.”

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10:30 am | 5 Comments | Read more about Construction Materials, Neighborhoods: North Montrose, Openings and Closings
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Comment of the Day: The Jerry J. Moore Memorial Houston Chateau Junkyard

August 10, 2010 – 2:29 pm
   

“Spoke to demo contractor and all structures will definitely be demolished, but finishes (both exterior and interior) will be salvaged and sold to be reused.” [Jonny A, commenting on Is Jerry J. Moore’s Friar Tuck French Palace Ready To Be Demolished?]

2:29 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Comments, Demolitions, Historic Preservation, Neighborhoods: Sherwood Forest, Quicklink
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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Kay O’Toole’s House in Back

February 10, 2010 – 3:49 pm

Ubiquitous design blogger Joni Webb hyperventilates over the March issue of Veranda magazine, which features actual interior pics of the house Kay O’Toole had built behind her Kay O’Toole Antiques & Eccentricities shop. The shop is in the building with the rounded corners next to the Firkin & Phoenix Pub parking lot at 1921 Westheimer:

I had heard the blogosphere mumbling about this Veranda showing Kay O’Toole’s new house and that was what had my mouth watering like Edward’s whenever Bella is around. Honestly, I’ve been waiting over two years for this issue!

O’Toole owns a French antique shop housed in a 1920s brick building that was once home to several different businesses. Through the years, she eventually acquired the entire building and tore down the dividing walls – creating a long and narrow haven for the best of what France, and now Belgium, Sweden, and Italy have to offer.

O’Toole’s single-story, one-bedroom stucco home — designed by Murphy Mears Architects — is another long and narrow haven, modeled after something O’Toole saw in New Orleans’s French Quarter: It’s one room deep, and backs up to the property’s back fence.

Couldn’t Webb have just charmed her way inside, camera in hand? Oh, she’d tried that:

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3:49 pm | 5 Comments | Read more about Home Decor, Houston Architects, Interiors, Neighborhoods: Winlow Place, New Construction: Residential, Retail
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Comment of the Day: Salvage Army Collections, Door to Door

January 20, 2010 – 2:02 pm
   

“It would be great if there was an organization to address this need. I’ve done some drive bys of the listed demos and seen everything from old clothing, furniture, fixtures, windows, cabinets, doors, everything get piled up and thrown into the roll-offs. Historic Houston and Habitat Re-Store seem to let the opportunities come to them rather than seek them out. Is there a way to get the word out to the masses that there is a way to reduce the waste and that salvage is an option?” [mstark, commenting on Demolition Strip Search]

2:02 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Comments, Construction Materials, Demolitions, Quicklink
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Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Demolition Strip Search

January 19, 2010 – 8:02 am
   

A reader writes in with a question: “Hi. I recently stumbled upon your website and noticed that you list homes scheduled to be demoed. Is it ok to go to these properties and remove things such as light fixtures, flooring, etc.? Is there a protocol to going about getting permission to do so? Thanks for any info you might be able to provide.” [Swamplot inbox]

8:02 am | 5 Comments | Read more about Construction Materials, Demolitions, Quicklink
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Thursday, July 23, 2009

Wilshire Village Apartments Demo: Maybe Not Quite Yet

July 23, 2009 – 12:37 pm

Here’s a little video sent to Swamplot from this morning, showing what appeared to a reader to be the beginning of the end for the Wilshire Village apartments. But in a comment to that post, Lynn Edmundson from Historic Houston reports this demo work isn’t really all it’s been cracked up to be:

I just returned from the site…and it looks like they are just breaking up the surface concrete. The contractors on the site are installing plumbing/water lines…and are not with the demolition company.

New plumbing lines? What for?

Meanwhile, Historic Houston Salvage to the . . . rescue? Edmundson adds:

With the permission of the contractors on the site, someone with me was able to look into one of the apartments and there is beautiful oak flooring still inside the apartments waiting to be reclaimed!

Video: Swamplot inbox

12:37 pm | 4 Comments | Read more about Construction Materials, Demolitions, Neighborhoods: Lancaster Place, Utilities
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Recycling Houston Building Parts

May 13, 2009 – 11:18 am
   

A new city-run Reuse Warehouse that’s been open for just 2 weeks at 9003 N. Main St. (just north of Crosstimbers) is designed to reduce the amount of excess building materials dumped into landfills. The warehouse accepts donations of extra building materials, and offers them for free to nonprofit organizations. What can you donate? “Cabinets, copper, doors, electrical fixtures and equipment, fans, flooring material, glass, gutters, hardware, lighting, lumber, metal, mirrors, pipe, plumbing, plywood, roofing material, screens, sheetrock, sinks, showers, trim, tubs, wall coverings, or windows” but no paint. “More than one-third of the waste stream in the Houston area is made up of construction and demolition material.” [Green Houston, via Hair Balls]

11:18 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Construction Materials, Green Design and Development, Neighborhoods: Independence Heights, Quicklink, Recycling
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

The Recycled Glass Driveway at the Cordell Shipping Container House

January 14, 2009 – 11:19 am

Next experiment at that Swamplot-Award-winning house built out of shipping containers on Cordell St. in Brookesmith? The unique driveway installed earlier this week. John Walker of Numen Development writes in with details:

It is composed of recycled crushed glass, with a resin binder, and achieves the consistency of caramel popcorn for lack of a better description, so it has voids that allow surface water to percolate through the paving and ultimately be absorbed into the underlying soil rather than running off into the storm drainage system. It is a triple threat: recycled material, reduces environmental impact of development, and it’s really cool!

Walker says Presto Geosystems, a division of Alcoa, installed the driveway as a pilot project for the Houston market.

This installation has been described by their consulting engineer as most likely the “first and last” residential project they will do in Houston as the product is expected to meet with huge commercial demand, especially for “landlocked” developments for whom expansion is limited by Harris County stormwater detention limitations.

Some views of the installation:

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11:19 am | 14 Comments | Read more about Construction Materials, Flooding, Green Design and Development, Neighborhoods: Brookesmith
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