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September 25, 2007 – 10:37 am
Note: Story updated below.
A house in Houston can’t earn much more of a modern Texas pedigree than this: Designed in 1970 for Oveta Culp Hobby by quintessential Texas architect O’Neil Ford. Built by Brown & Root. Later, the home—until his death earlier this summer—of former Texas secretary of state, attorney general, chief justice, and 1978 Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Hill.
It’s just been listed with Greenwood-King agent Colleen Sherlock: three stories, five to seven bedrooms, five full and two half-baths, 8275 square feet on a quarter-acre lot in River Oaks. Asking only $2,395,000.
From O’Neil Ford, you’d expect a classic Texas modern design: clean brick lines with a sense of history, an easy flow between indoors and out. Until you get inside, where—it appears—an early-1960s interpretation of a New England colonial interior has somehow been grafted in.
Sound like a jarring contrast? Continue after the jump, and see for yourself.
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Read more about: 77019, Architects, Homes for Sale, Houston History, Interiors, Modern Design, ONeil-Ford, River Oaks
August 10, 2007 – 7:29 pm
The Houston Business Journal gives more details on the River Oaks District, a 15-acre, $600 million mixed-use development proposed for Westheimer just inside the loop, on the site of the Westcreek Apartments, between Highland Village and the Galleria. It’s hard to imagine River Oaks moving further west than that. Once you get to the other side of the loop of course, you might as well call yourself Tanglewood.
Two luxury hotels are on tap. The five-star properties will have a total of 500 guest rooms, and 150 condominiums for sale at the top of one tower.
Another building will hold 300 upscale apartment units. A 10-story office building with 250,000 square feet of space also is part of the mix. And since the Galleria is synonymous with shopping, the developer plans 350,000 square feet of mostly ground-level retail space.
San Diego developer OliverMcMillan says groundbreaking is scheduled for a good year-and-a-half from now. So there’s plenty of time for this project to morph into a more typical Houston-style mixed-use project: maybe a stylish Sam’s Club next to some shiny new apartments?
After the jump, plans and more flashy drawings!
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Read more about: 77027, Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Galleria, Highland Village, Highrises, Hotels, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping Centers, Westheimer
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Read more about Apartments, Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Malls, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Highland Village, Neighborhoods: River Oaks, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers
One of the biggest office landlords in Texas has announced that he wants to build a very tall tower in either Chicago, Los Angeles, or Houston. Zaya Younan, who’s been in the real-estate business for five years, wants to show the world how tall a building he can erect. How tall is that?
. . . he doesn’t want a building that will barely rate a mention in the history books, a delicate titleholder surpassed in some Asian capital before its paint dries. “I want it to be the tallest for as long as I am alive,” Younan told the Sun-Times. . . .
The chairman of Younan Properties Inc. said that to build something with a lengthy hold on the record, he’ll need about 500 feet of cushion between his building’s height and any probable competitors.
By today’s standards, that means going up about 3,000 feet. It’s Sears Tower times two. It could cost $4 billion.
The Chicago Sun-Times article declares that the wealthy and powerful L.A. developer “is not crazy.” Younan Properties owns and manages the Norfolk “Tower” (it looks maybe ten stories tall; see the photo above) at Greenbriar and 59 in Houston. The company is the top office landlord in Dallas and the third-largest owner of Class A office space in Texas.
Houston airspace height restrictions blah blah blah downtown blocks too small a base blah blah blah free publicity in three cities blah blah blah.
Read more about: 77019, Development Strategy, Highrises, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, River Oaks, Skyscrapers
A three-bedroom, two-bath, 2700-square-foot house on a cul-de-sac. A half-acre, wooded, park-like lot. Overlooking the bayou. Designed by Houston’s own Frank-Lloyd-Wrightian architects, MacKie & Kamrath, and built in 1969. Lots of built-ins and stained glass.
At $259,000, is it a bargain?
It’s in Meadow Creek Village. Meadowcreek has some nice mid-century moderns. But yes, it’s on the southeast side of Houston, and it’s not too far from Hobby Airport or Pasadena. That bayou is Berry Creek, a tributary of Sims Bayou.
So some of you are probably imagining how nice this house would be if it were only in a different part of town.
How nice would it be? Read on for an estimate—and more photos.
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Read more about: 77017, Architects, Homes for Sale, MacKie and Kamrath, Meadowcreek, Memorial, River Oaks, Southampton
The teaser website for the apartments-and-retail complex slated for that large, recently scraped site at the southwest corner of Kirby and Westheimer is up! What will you find there? For starters, a trance soundtrack you’ll have a tough time figuring out how to turn off, plus slick rendered views and a whizzy video of a dark and urban-looking streetscape where pedestrians wield shopping bags and hover precariously on balconies.
This is the former site of the River Oaks Tennis Center. The development is named West Ave, and to prove it they’re putting in a new street by the same name just west of Kirby, extending from Kipling to Westheimer. Of course the big news is the two floors of retail space facing Kirby, West Avenue, and Westheimer. On top of that: five stories of apartments, managed by Gables Residential. The parking garage is tucked in back.
After the jump: The plan and more images.
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Read more about: 77098, Apartments, Mixed Use, New Construction, New-Streets, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping, Upper Kirby
Not wasting a single day, Weingarten has already filed for a “certificate of appropriateness” that would allow it to demolish the northern curve of the River Oaks Shopping Center horseshoe.
The HAHC will consider the certificate at its May 23 meeting; if the commission denies Weingarten the certificate, the company will have to wait until Aug. 7, 90 days after it applied for the COA, to actually get demolition permits.
Looks like we’re right on schedule.
Read more about: 77019, Demolitions, Development Strategy, River Oaks, River-Oaks-Shopping-Center, Shopping Centers, Weingarten Realty
April 26, 2007 – 12:28 pm
Disposing of older buildings used to be so simple. It’s tougher now, but it’s not impossible. You’ll just need to use some new techniques. If the buildings you want to demolish have a high enough profile, you’ll also need a good PR consultant who can help you with strategy.
For a while, it looked like Weingarten Realty might have some trouble tearing down its historic River Oaks Shopping Center, River Oaks Theater, and Alabama Bookstop (which used to be the Alabama Theater—back in the day when people watched movies instead of reading so much). When rumors first began to circulate, there was the big hullabaloo about the River Oaks Theater, and all those online petitions.
But since then, not so much. Weingarten clearly has its winning gameplan mapped out. How did they do it? How do you tear down an immensely popular older building in Houston today, and do it right?
The technique you need involves outrage bait. What’s that? Read on, after the jump!
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Read more about: 77019, 77098, Demolitions, Development Strategy, Landmarks, Preservation, River Oaks, River-Oaks-Shopping-Center, River-Oaks-Theater, Shopping Centers, Weingarten Realty
