Tag: Swamplot Awards 2011

Awards
12/12/11 12:52pm

The Swampies: On to the Balloting!

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We’re rolling into the second phase in the 2011 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: the balloting. Nominations closed at midnight last night for the first 2 of the 9 categories in this year’s awards: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Teardown. Later today, we’ll announce the official nominees and begin the voting for the first of those categories, and continue with the rest throughout the week.

This means there are now only hours left to make your nominations for the next 2 categories, which are new this year: Best Parking Lot Dining Experience and Most Notable Recycling Effort. Nominations for these 2 categories will close at midnight tonight.

Some terrific nominations have already come in for all our remaining categories, but we still need your help to make sure that all the candidates are the right ones, and that each is presented in the best possible light.

So if you find anything missing from any of the 7 remaining award categories, please add your nominations now! Or if you think you can improve on any of the explanations submitted, feel free to write in with your own better presentation. If you see a nomination without an explanation, please add a good one! Got photos of any of the nominees? Please send them!

(Special note to neighborhoods hoping to make it to the final ballot for 2011 Neighborhood of the Year: A simple mention of your subdivision’s name, combined with descriptions that could be applied to many other parts of the city, won’t necessarily be enough. Instead, tell us what makes the neighborhood you’re nominating special or unique, and worthy of this award this year.)

There’s still plenty of time to contribute. Add your nominations to the comments section below the post that announces each category (you’ll find all the award categories listed together here). Or send them to us in an email. Who are the contenders in Houston real estate this year? What deserves recognition?

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Awards
12/09/11 1:10pm

Final Category in the 2011 Swampies: The Year’s Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate

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We’ve announced 8 categories so far in the 2011 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Parking Lot Dining Experience, Most Notable Recycling Effort, the “No Zoning” Award, the Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl, Best Neighborhood Upgrade, and Neighborhood of the Year. That’s a lot of ground to cover. What’s left?

Here it is, the 9th and final category. And maybe the biggest of them all: What was the Greatest Moment in Houston Real Estate of 2011?

Covering great moments in Houston real estate is the whole point of Swamplot; it’s why we’re here. Browse through the site if it’ll help you to draw up a list of contenders; or raid your own memory banks. (Did we miss a few this year?) Tell us what moment deserves this recognition — and why.

A great moment is lost if there’s no one there to chronicle it or cherish it. Which is why we need your help. Add your comments or send us an email describing the moments you’d like to nominate. (If you’ve got questions about how to make a nomination, you’ll likely find the answers here.)

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Awards
12/08/11 3:07pm

Now Open for Your Nominations: Neighborhood of the Year 2011

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We’re almost to the end of the categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. So far, we’ve opened nominations for Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Parking Lot Dining Experience, Most Notable Recycling Effort, the “No Zoning” Award, the Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl, and Best Neighborhood Upgrade. Have you added your own suggestions for each of them?

The next category is Neighborhood of the Year. What qualifications does a neighborhood need to meet in order to be declared Houston Neighborhood of the Year? You tell us — as you make your nomination! Of course, a neighborhood might be considered for Swamplot’s Neighborhood of the Year award for vastly different reasons than another one might be considered for an award of the same name from, say, the GHBA.

Please note that entrants in this category — as well as all the others — need not be located strictly inside Houston’s municipal boundaries. Swamplot tries to track the idea of Houston as it regularly travels outside the city limits. (In fact, the 2009 winner of the Houston Neighborhood of the Year award was . . . yes, Galveston.)

We’re ready to receive your nominations in the comments below, or in an email. If you need more guidance, consult the official rules. This year, who are the contenders for this award?

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Awards
12/08/11 12:35pm

What Was the Best Neighborhood Upgrade in the Houston Area in 2011?

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We’re on the home stretch! Yesterday Swamplot opened 2 more categories for nominations in the 4th annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Here’s the list of what we have so far: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Parking Lot Dining Experience, Most Notable Recycling Effort, the “No Zoning” Award, and the Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl.

Already, great suggestions have come in for each of these. But to make these awards as smart and razzle-dazzly as they can be, we still need your help!

The next category up: Best Neighborhood Upgrade. Yes, this category is meant to be just as ambiguous as it sounds. Is it meant to celebrate an upgrade in one of the city’s best neighborhoods? An upgrade that happened to take place in a particular neighborhood? Or a neighborhood that itself has been upgraded? And what exactly is an upgrade, anyway? We hope you’ll take a stab at answering those questions with your own clever nominations and explanations. Look around you: What thing, place, or effort deserves this award?

If you’ve been following the Swampies, you know what to do by now: Add your smartly worded nomination as a comment below — or send it in an email to Swamplot. Be sure to include a convincing explanation for your choice. You’ll find the complete nomination rules here. Who we got this time?

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Awards
12/07/11 6:10pm

Announcing the Swamplot Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl. Your Nominations, Please?

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The category announcements are rolling here at Swampies central. Earlier today we introduced the 5th category in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Here’s the complete list of our categories so far: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Parking Lot Dining Experience, Most Notable Recycling Effort, and the “No Zoning” Award. And already, you’ve identified some terrific potential nominees for all of them. Keep them coming!

Category number 6 is brand new for this year. It’s the Award for Special Achievement in Sprawl. What thing, place, or event from the greater Houston area could be worthy of such an honor this year? That’s what we’re hoping you’ll tell us. Got any potential winners in mind?

Refer to the official nominating rules if you need them. But really: We need your smartly formulated suggestions for this category! Add them and explain them well below — or email them to us privately. You have until midnight next Tuesday, December 13, to suggest nominees for both categories announced today.

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Awards
12/07/11 2:50pm

A New Category for the Swampies This Year: The “No Zoning” Award

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On Tuesday we added a couple more categories to this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. That means 4 categories are now open for your nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, Best Parking Lot Dining Experience, and Most Notable Recycling Effort. Keep those great entries coming for all of them!

The next category is the “No Zoning” Award. What does it mean that Houston is a “no zoning” city? Most obviously, the opportunity for residential areas to “go commercial,” or vice versa. Also: scenic and otherwise unusual views that might make for terrific postcards, like an office building going up over someone’s backyard fence. But the “no zoning” label also regularly causes outsiders to suppose Houston has far fewer building regulations than it actually does. And it spurs thoughts of Houston as some sort of untamed urban force.

What development, event, or controversy from this year, then, might deserve Swamplot’s “No Zoning” Award? And why? Yes, this is another brand-new award category for the Swampies, and we’ll obviously need your smart nominations to make it work. Tell us who or what deserves this honor — in a comment below or in a private message. Consult the official nominating rules if you like. What’s your choice?

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Awards
12/06/11 4:27pm

Nominations Needed for Houston’s Most Notable Recycling Effort

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So far, 3 categories in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate have been been opened up for your nominations: Favorite Houston Design Cliché, Best Demolition, and Best Parking Lot Dining Experience. Up next: another brand-new category, specially selected for this year’s competition: Most Notable Recycling Effort.

Sure, automated curbside recycling is still only a pilot program in Houston. But developers here have had extensive experience recycling building sites. Which area effort to reuse existing materials, locations, or ideas deserves recognition with this award?

Send us your nominations! As usual, your spin will make the difference between a plain ol’ suggestion and a compelling choice for the award. You’ll find all the rules for the nominating process here.

You have until midnight next Monday, December 12, to suggest nominees for both categories announced today. Throw your ideas into the comments bin below (or the Swamplot inbox); we’ll try to reuse them if possible.

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Awards
12/06/11 12:29pm

Your Nominations, Please, for Houston’s Best Parking Lot Dining Experience

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Yesterday we introduced the first 2 nominating categories in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. Nominations will remain open until midnight Sunday, December 11, for both awards: Favorite Houston Design Cliché and Best Demolition.

Today, there are 2 more award categories to introduce. And they’re both new to the Swampies. The first is for Houston’s Best Parking Lot Dining Experience.

Sure, other cities may have sidewalk cafes and street life, but what can compare to the many opportunities for fine parking-lot-facing patio dining available in the greater Houston area? In the lot or just looking out onto it, you never leave the action behind. In a city full of places to park and eat, what makes one stand out? Which local dining establishment deserves to be credited with this award?

As usual, the Swampies are open to the sharp and clever formulations of readers. If you use your nomination to give this category a twist, sell your vision!

More complete instructions covering the nominating process can be found on this page. In the meantime, you’ll find plenty of spaces available for your nominations in the comments section below — and in the Swamplot inbox, if you’d prefer a more private venue.

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Awards
12/05/11 7:08pm

Best Demolition of 2011: Your Nominations, Please

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Earlier today, we introduced the first category in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, celebrating best and most this city has to offer. And now nominations are open in a second category: Best Demolition.

Sure, demolitions are raw, physical acts, but emotional, historical, cultural, artistic, literary, sonic, and ecological aspects are often hard at work too. What property would you honor as Houston’s Best Demo of 2011 — and why?

If you’re like most people and have a little trouble remembering buildings once they’re gone, you can scroll through Swamplot’s archive of demolition stories to refresh your memory. Then add your thoughtful and well-argued nominations for this coveted award to the comments section below — or send them in a private message to Swamplot HQ. For a more thorough description of the nominating process, see these instructions.

Nominations for both award categories announced today will remain open until midnight this Sunday, December 11. But why wait until the last minute to submit your nominations? Could you knock a few out now?

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Awards
12/05/11 3:44pm

Houston’s Design Cliché of the Moment: Which Would You Nominate?

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Let’s kick off the nominating process for the 2011 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate with this tried-and-true category: Favorite Houston Design Cliché. Past winners of this award include Lone Stars, “Lakes of” Subdivisions, and “Tuscanization.” What Houston building, shopping center, streetscape, home, interior, neighborhood, or yard cliché deserves recognition this year? Your suggestions for this award may be inspired from stories on Swamplot or from your own keen eye for overused detail.

Nominations for this category are now open to your brilliant, clever, or possibly hackneyed suggestions! Enter your choice in a comment to this post only or — more privately — in an email the Swamplot tip line, with the subject line “Nomination: Favorite Houston Design Cliche.” Nominations will be accepted for one full week, after which the best-presented choices will be opened for voting.

You can submit as many nominations as you like in this category, but your choices will have a better chance of succeeding if you use the opportunity to make your point in a clever and convincing way. When the actual awards are open for voting — next week! — each selected nomination will be introduced with some edited bastardization of the arguments made by the readers who submitted them. So be eloquent and persuasive! If you can send your own photos in support of a nomination, that will help a lot — and it’ll likely help you make your case to voters. Send images to the Swamplot tip line, but be sure to identify them and indicate what they’re for.

Comments to this post will be counted as nominations only. Nominations may be seconded, expanded, or improved. Even simple “me too” posts could help an entry find a place on the actual ballot, but they won’t be counted as votes for the winner. The actual voting in this category will begin next week. Are you ready? Send us your favorite clichés!

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Awards
12/05/11 12:02pm

The 2011 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate Begin This Week

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It is that time — already. Swamplot’s annual end-of-the-year review of the best, most, and much too much of Houston’s local real-estate scene begins this week. And we need your help to select the winners.

Later today, we’ll announce the first 2 categories for the fourth annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate — the Swampies. And we’ll continue with the remaining categories over the rest of the week. The awards honor the neighborhoods, developments, designs, personalities, dreams, and absurdities that continue to make Houston real estate so entertaining.

For each category, we’ll need your help to come up with the right slate of official nominees. You be the judge: What was notable in 2011? What caught your eye and wouldn’t let go? What valiant efforts are deserving of recognition? And what brilliant comments can you add to encapsulate the story?

As always, all nominations and votes for these awards will come from Swamplot readers. We hope you’ll participate and join in the fun!

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