- 2503 Dallas St. [HAR]
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Tag: 77003
Here are the renderings of the apartments that Mill Creek wants to build right across the street from the gameday roar and glare and incessant rhythmic drumming that goes on at BBVA Compass Stadium. Dubbed EaDo Station, the 5-story, 315-unit complex will sit at the corner of Dowling and Texas. Mill Creek tells the Houston Chronicle that the goal is to have these apartments ready to go to coincide with the running of the light rail, still under construction itself, next August.
- 1222 Sampson St. [HAR]
Construction should begin by the end of October to transform a chopped-up industrial street in East Downtown into something like the pedestrian promenade rendered here. Anton Sinkewich, the director of the East Downtown Management District, explains that 5 blocks of Bastrop St., between Bell and McKinney, running near the Houston Food Truck Park and leading toward BBVA Compass Stadium on Walker, will be regraded. A pedestrian-only crushed granite path will be installed and dozens of trees planted. This first part of the project is modest, says Sinkewich, though there are plans in place to include more amenities if and when the ’hood continues to grow.
That huge empty husk of a building at the corner of Leeland and Delano will be renovated into offices for ChaiOne, which designs and develops mobile apps. According to a press release, ChaiOne has bought the presently windowless, 25,245-sq.-ft., 3-story building that, in 1938, served as the first U.S. headquarters of Schlumberger. ChaiOne CEO Gaurav Khandelwal is also one of the owners of the nearby coworking incubator Start. This rendering of the building shows the possibility of ground-floor retail opening up in this mostly residential and industrial part of the East End, with a coffee shop appearing to face Delano St.
- ChaiOne announces expansion and purchase of new building in East Downtown Houston [ChaiOne]
- Previously on Swamplot: Warehouse Turned House Turned Mobile: Start’s East Downtown Startup Incubator
Rendering: ChaiOne
All day Friday these 3 parking spots in Market Square in front of Frank’s — and where Hines wants to build that 33-story residential tower — will be unavailable. Why? Well, Gensler and the Houston chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (including firms Asakura Robinson, SWA Group, M2L, and Elizabeth Austin Landscapes) are gonna be using ’em to set up a parkette for National Park(ing) Day.
Just as the similarly hopeful Better Block project attempts to reproduce pedestrian-friendly street life for a few hours in a controlled environment, these wee pop-up parks work like dioramas of urban leisure: A rep tells Swamplot that a shade structure, trees, shrubs, and board games (checkers and Jenga, yo!) will be rolled in and set up here at 417 Travis from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for anyone who wants to park it and stay awhile.
Additionally, a group of architecture students from Texas Tech are trying to stimulate the same simulation at the corner of Leeland and St. Emanuel in East Downtown, near the food trucks at the Houston Food Park.
- Houston Park(ing) Day [Facebook]
- Previously on Swamplot: A Few New Views of the 33-Story Apartment Building Hines Wants To Build in Market Square, A First Look at Some of the 33-Story Apartment Tower Hines Wants To Build in Market Square, How To Build a Buffalo Bayou Pedestrian Bridge: A Photo Tutorial, Hines Interested in Building Residential Tower on Downtown Block Near Market Square Park, East Downtown’s Food Truck Parking Park, Planning for the Future of Washington Ave, The Great Houston Street Life Simulation
Photo: Barbara Novoa
As many as 8 new bike-sharing stations could open inside the Loop in the next 2 weeks. Will Rub, director of Houston B-Cycle, tells Swamplot that permits are in hand and the bikes forthcoming for these 5 stations: Spotts Park, at 401 S. Heights Blvd; the intersection of Taft and Fairview, at 2401 Taft St.; the Menil Collection, at 1529 W. Alabama St.; Leonel Castillo Community Center, which is undergoing a restoration at 2109 South St.; and the intersection of Milam and Webster, at 2215 Milam St.
And Rub adds that 3 other locations are just waiting for their permits: Stude Park, at 1031 Stude St., and 2 others east, for the first time, of the Southwest Fwy.: Settegast Park at Garrow and Palmer in the Second Ward, and Project Row Houses at Holman and Live Oak in the Third Ward. Rub expects those to be ready to roll September 19th or 20th.
- New Locations Coming Soon [Houston B-Cycle]
- B-Cycle spreading west and north of downtown [The Highwayman]
- Previously on Swamplot: Are Houston’s B-Cycles ‘Merely Toys for Urban Bohemians’?, Going Back to the Near Northside School on the Hill, Multiplying Houston’s Rent-a-Bike Fleet, What Bike Sharing in Houston Might Look Like
Photo of station at Lamar and Milam: Reddit user txsupernova
A 3-block stretch of the median along Navigation Blvd. was outfitted yesterday with some functional swag — bike racks, bus stops, solar panels and LED string lights, shade screens, benches — designed to perk up the East End streetscape into a shaded little walkable market dubbed The Esplanade. The stretch in question spans N. St. Charles and Delano, running alongside the Original Ninfa’s and the recently opened El Tiempo Cantina.
This mural of what is presumably a voodoo queen recently went up on the side of Voodoo Queen, that new bar and eatery from the hot dogs at Moon Tower Inn. Also in the East End, Voodoo Queen will be opening soon in the former Joe’s Bar and Grill at 322 Milby St., at the corner of Milby and Preston; that’s just one block north of the Maximus Coffee Group plant and the forthcoming East End light-rail line along Harrisburg.
After the jump, you can see a photo of the entrance facing Milby:
- 2304 Sperber Ln. [HAR]
This is where Houston’s food trucks will come to loiter — er, idle: The so-called Houston Food Park is opening in about a week here at 1504 St. Emanuel in East Downtown, in the parking lot beside the vacant Meridian Sports Bar. You might recognize the weedy lot bound by Leeland, Bell, St. Emanuel, and Chartres from its cameo in Alex Luster’s street-art documentary Stick Em Up. (And this is also catty-corner from the human espressos and doggie hemp treats served at The Green Bone on Leeland.) According to Alison Cook Syd Kearney, the Food Park will celebrate its opening with a festival this Saturday, and regular lunch service from 11 to 3 will begin June 24. Co-owner Ponce Tirzo tells Cook Kearney that there’s room here for 8 or 9 trucks, but they’re hoping to use some of the other vacant lots nearby, too.
H-E-B Montrose Market architects (and International Coffee Company Building renovators) Lake Flato designed these 4-bedroom, 3.5-bath Nagle St. townhouses that are going up in East Downtown. They’re coming in at 2 sizes: 3,375 sq. ft. for the endcaps with screened-in terraces and 3,664 sq. ft. for the ones scrunched in the middle. Developed by Lovett Homes, the townhouses face the 700 block of Nagle between Capitol and Rusk, just east of BBVA Compass Stadium. One of the larger townhouses, listed at $549,000, has already gone pending.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THEY GET AROUND IN THAT PART OF TOWN “. . . Welcome to the East End, where humble homes like you are still welcome (for now). And within walking distance of both MetroRail AND Elbow and Nipple. Take a train or fix a drain.” [Dana-X, commenting on Chapter 2: The Little Gibson St. Bungalow Finds a New Home]
From Magnolia Grove to a previously vacant lot with a single sickly magnolia: What a journey it’s been for this little bungalow! After being sold in 2012 and cleared for demo, then suddenly spared last week and trucked away from its home at 4414 Gibson St., the 1,200-sq.-ft., split-pea-soup-green bungalow has finally come to rest. Where? Almost 6 miles away on Hussion St. in the East End. It’s now behind the for-sale Finger Furniture on the I-45 feeder and catty-corner (well, almost) from the Houston Elbow & Nipple Company.
- Previously on Swamplot: The Story of the Little Bungalow at 4414 Gibson St., Previously on Swamplot: Daily Demolition Report: How Houses Disappear, Finger Furniture Selling Showroom, Old Baseball Stadium Property Near UH
Photo: Allyn West
Flanked by a pair of churches, these stick frames just popped up in the Third Ward. Plans for the development called Bastrop Plaza show a row of 9 townhouses on a vacant lot at the intersection of Webster and Bastrop. That’s a block west of Dowling St., 2 blocks south of the Gulf Fwy., and 2 5 north of Emancipation Park, primed for a very expensive redevelopment project of its own this summer. A sign at the construction site here announces that the townhouses will start at $260,000.
