Tag: Attractions

A few months after Ike, this tricked-out FEMA trailer rolls into Houston as . . . art?? Paul Villinski’s reworked 30-ft. Gulfstream “Cavalier” trailer, which took the artist 7 months to mod, will be parked outside the Rice University Art Gallery starting later this month.

Re-born as the Emergency Response Studio, the trailerâ€™s formaldehyde-ridden original materials are replaced by entirely â€œgreenâ€ technology and building materials, including recycled denim insulation, bamboo cabinetry, compact fluorescent lighting, reclaimed wood, and natural linoleum floor tiles made from linseed oil. It is powered by eight mammoth batteries that store energy generated by an array of solar panels and a â€œmicroâ€ wind turbine atop a 40-foot high mast. Not only practical, Emergency Response Studio is a visually engaging structure with an expansive work area featuring a wall section that lowers to become a deck. A ten-foot, elliptical geodesic skylight allows extra headroom and natural lighting in the work area. Though designed as an artistâ€™s studio and residence, Emergency Response Studio is an ingenious prototype for self-sufficient, solar-powered mobile housing.

Party on the back deck!

77005, Alternative Energy, Art, Attractions, Green Design, Home Design, Manufactured Homes, Rice-University, Solar Power, Temporary Housing, Utilities

01/08/09 1:16pm

Imagined History of that Med Center Fountain Plaza

Parks, Texas Medical Center

As a prelude to the extended narrative of his and John Nova Lomax’s latest grand pedestrian effort — a 14-hour walk from IAH to Downtown — Marfa city councilmember and Houston bingo scofflaw David Beebe describes his first encounter with the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Park at the southwest corner of Holcombe and Main. It’s the walkway and fountain assembly that replaced the Shamrock Hotel:

On this day, as on many days, the fountain is actively spouting water columns to nobody, as the fountain downtown on the light rail line is supposed to do (but is always messed up). This bizarre guilt trip tribute to the concept of public space mixes elements of a grand promenade with Vegas style accents contrasting with the feel of a confined and secluded corridor. Its out of the way entrance and low visibility from Holcombe is probably why I had never seen it before. This is a very good park to go to if you don’t want anyone to find you. I couldn’t help but picture Nixon and Kissinger walking side by side alongside the fountain and columns planning the next offensive maneuver in Vietnam.

Beyond Bush IAH to North Main- the longest walk [David Beebe’s take on music and more in Texas]
Previously in Swamplot: Snuff Is Not Enough: South Post Oak Lubricated Walking Tour, A Walk Down Cheezy Street: Richmond Avenue, Past Its Prime, Southeast Side: A Tour of the Houston Heartland, Long Point, Long Walk, Long Story, Telephone Road Walking Tour: Not How They Sang It Was, Shade, Subs, Plexes and Suds: A Bissonnet Story, Lonely East Side Walking Tour, Walking on Bellaire

Photo: David W. Beebe

77030, Attractions, Houston History, Parks, Texas Medical Center

01/07/09 5:43pm

Winter Reductions at the MFAH

Financing, Quicklink

No Comments

WINTER REDUCTIONS AT THE MFAH The Art Newspaper is reporting that the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston has so far lost almost a quarter of its endowment as a result of the ongoing financial crisis. The endowment “fell 22% to around $780m by December, says director Peter Marzio.” [The Art Newspaper, via B.S. Houston Art Blog]

77004, Attractions, Financing, Museums

01/07/09 4:52pm

The Super Happy Fun Land Sock Monkey Rescue Plan

Development Strategy, East Downtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings

Former Heights landmark Super Happy Fun Land may reopen in its new ~~East Downtown~~ EaDo location soon, writes Omar Afra in the Free Press. What’s happened since we last checked in?

To give you a brief synopsis, Houstonâ€™s favorite uber-eclectic outsider arthouse and music venue SHFL operated out of a house in the Heights for 5 years until the property owners squeezed them out. Well, the silver lining was that they found a new home in a gigantic warehouse just east of downtown that could facilitate larger shows, more art, and crazier antics. So we at Free Press Houston decided to have a giant shindig at the new venue to celebrate our 5th anniversary and the opening of the great new spot. The place was packed. Err, too packed. The fire marshals came and, lo and behold, SHFL did not have adequate occupancy permitting to permit such an event. They of course got ticketed out the watoozy and have since been jumping through all the municipal hurdles required to submit building plans, acquire permits, and such to open their doors legit. It looked rather bleak for a while as the city does not exactly get excited about doing what it takes to get outsider-art venues open. After having their plans denied several times and given the run around for nearly a year, the good folks at SHFL have got their chance. Their plans were recently approved and they are set for a final inspection in early January to get their occupancy permit. Problem is, they need help.

How can you help Super Happy Fun Land open again?

77003, Attractions, Clubs, Development Strategy, East Downtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings

12/22/08 1:18pm

The Water Wall: Going Public

Buying and Selling, Galleria, Parks

4 Comments

If the purchase deal can pass City Council, the Water Wall next to the Williams Tower will go from developer amenity and vacant-lot placeholder to actual Galleria public park:

The seller is an affiliate of Houston-based Hines Interests LP, which originally developed the Water Wall and adjacent Williams Tower along with Transco Energy Co. in the 1980s. The skyscraper, Water Wall and green space have changed hands over time, but went back under Hines-related ownership earlier this year when they were acquired by Hines Real Estate Investment Trust Inc.

The city is expected to pay $8.5 million for the Water Wall and the three-acre park where it sits.

How good a real estate investment was that fountain back in 1985?

The land was most recently appraised at $3.8 million, according to Harris County Appraisal District records. But [Mayor] White and [Uptown TIRZ administrator John] Breeding said the $8.5 million price was well below market rates, which occasionally have gone as high as $200 per square foot, which would have amounted to a $24 million selling price.

City makes splash with Water Wall [Houston Business Journal]
$8.5 million deal assures Water Wall will survive [Houston Chronicle]

Photo: Dave Thomas

77056, Attractions, Buying and Selling, Parks

12/08/08 12:25pm

Church of the Shepherd Drive-Thru

Quicklink, Religious Facilities

CHURCH OF THE SHEPHERD DRIVE-THRU “The Christian non-denominational Succeed in Life Center near Shepherd and Tidwell has been offering drive-thru prayer service to members and non-members alike a couple of Saturdays a month since October, and pastor Damien Jackson tells Hair Balls the event has garnered praise from participants. ‘The reaction has been great. The people who drive by say everything from, “I’ve never heard of this, this is such a need idea, this is so helpful,”â€™ says Jackson, adding they regularly see between 20 and 30 cars an hour. Jackson explains that participants drive up to a window and fill out a request sheet, then drive to another window where they receive the prayer and a ‘quick word of encouragement’ from a pastor.” [Hair Balls]

Attractions, Churches, Drive-Thrus, Religious Facilities

Art

12/03/08 4:11pm

Museum of the Weird Update: Going Out of Business Sale, Name Change

Attractions, Home Decor, Homebuying, Houston Heights, Interiors, Openings and Closings, Real Estate Marketing

No Comments

Note: Story updated below.

The mystery buyer of the house at 834 W. 24th St. has revealed herself! Quilter, artist, and Art Car builder Kim Ritter, who says she was “raised mid-century modern,” expects to close on the Museum of the Weird on December 15th. Museum curator Dolan Smith is planning his own art sale on the property two days earlier; Ritter says that the sale will run from 2 to 8 pm, and that the prices will be far less than what you’d expect to pay for, say, a sculpture made of hair:

Come by and get a bargain, stuff starting at 5 and 10 dollars!

Ritter tells Swamplot she’s purchased some of Smith’s work herself, including a piece entitled “Man of Ten Thousand Nails,” which she intends to keep on the property.

Does this mean the museum will be preserved?

77008, Art, Attractions, Home Decor, Homebuying, Houston Heights, Interiors, Museums, Openings and Closings, Real Estate Marketing

Art

12/01/08 1:22pm

Who Is Buying the Museum of the Weird?

Attractions, Hazards, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, Interiors, Real Estate Marketing

4 Comments

Conspicuously absent from the MLS listing for 834 W. 24th St. in the Heights: any mention (or photos) of the Scar Room, a small chamber of sculptures and small wood panels on which house owner and artist Dolan Smith and sympathetic visitors graphically documented their physical and psychological afflictions. Sample Scar Room decor: “a submerged doll with a piece of rubber hose wrapped around its neck, representing the umbilical cord that nearly strangled Smith at birth.”

But it isn’t too hard to find exacting descriptions of the home online. The Houston Press, for example, featured this bit of color as it celebrated the home’s come-from-behind win of the paper’s “Best Shrine to the Abnormal” award back in 2002:

Donations of every imaginable variety show up weekly: horns, doll heads, a film canister of Tommy Lee Jones’s spit, balls of Saran Wrap, clumps of hair, an appendix, color photos of fallopian tubes and contemporary art of a disquieting nature. Artist/nutball Dolan Smith has turned his Heights bungalow into a mecca for all things weird. . . .

Smith is supplementing his empire of the bizarre with a two-thirds-complete pet cemetery. Last year, Tropical Storm Allison took its toll on the nascent final resting place for pets. Rising floodwaters filled the jars of 32 dead rats, inadvertently creating biological pipe bombs.

Sure, you’re thinking . . . Who’s gonna buy this place?

No problem. Realtor Weldon Rigby, himself no stranger to homes graced by an occasional mannequin, has already done himself proud. After just a month and a half on the market, the home — listed for $150,000 — went “option pending” on November 14th.

77008, Art, Attractions, Cemeteries, Hazards, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Houston Heights, Interiors, Museums, Real Estate Marketing

10/23/08 10:33am

Plans for the Transmission Dome Shift into Low Gear

Larchmont

Transmission Dome, 3420 Chimney Rock Rd., Houston

Sign for Transmission Dome, 3420 Chimney Rock Rd., Houston Slampo notices another famous Houston dome from the 1960s has lost its tenants:

While its exact wonderment ranking is lost to history, it is generally recognized by preservationists and architectural historians as the first domed transmission repair shop in the 3400 block of Chimney Rock. The first fully equipped one, that is. But now the Transmission Dome has fallen into disrepair and disuse, a magnet for the graffiti artist and vagabond. There is some talk of turning the Dome into a Japanese-style hot-sheet hotel, complete with a small “gondola ride” between cubicles, but the credit crunch has probably queered those plans.

Commercial Landmarks of Houston, No. 5 in Our Award-Winning Series [Slampo’s Place]

Photos: Slampo

77056, Attractions, Houston Landmarks, Larchmont, Retail

10/20/08 4:16pm

Discovery Green Hits the Visitor Guides

Downtown, Parks, Tourism

Live Oak Trees and Walkway at Discovery Green, Downtown Houston

Pretending to be a tourist in his hometown, Misha from Tasty Bits puts together a day’s itinerary that includes the Breakfast Klub, the Rothko Chapel, the Menil, Westmoreland and Audubon Place, Nippon, . . . and Discovery Green:

11am: Head to Discovery Green to see exactly how much park $145 million dollars buys you. The corporate sponsorship at this place is a bit â€œenthusiasticâ€, but overall Disco Green (thatâ€™s what the cool kids call it these days, I hear) is a surprisingly good time. I didnâ€™t bring my bocce balls or a putter, but I did have fun reflecting the best of Kraftwerk off the completely awesome Listening Vessels, designed by Doug Hollis. Being a bit stubborn, I also spent no less than half an hour trying to figure out if the Synchronicity of Color sculpture was interactive. Itâ€™s not, but feel free to give it a shot anyway.

The most interesting thing about Discovery Green is not how much it cost, but how much more livable Houston Downtown appears to be than it was as recently as 5 years ago. . . . Though a bit crammed with â€œfeaturesâ€, the park goes a nice job of combining a nature, architecture and art in a single organic space that anchors a new, far more residential Downtown than ever before.

Itinerary: Rothko Chapel and Discovery Green [Tasty Bits]

Photo: Misha

77010, Attractions, Audubon Place, Downtown, Parks, Tourism, Westmoreland

09/29/08 1:03pm

Hurricane Ike Turns a Warehouse into a Haunted House

Crosby, Disaster Aftermath, Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail

Last week Hair Balls blogger Dusti Rhodes reported that most Houston-area haunted-house attractions were faring pretty well after Hurricane Ike — and managed to elicit this gem from the owner of haunted-house chain Phobia:

Our customer base is still screwed over. We bet theyâ€™ll be happy to hear that the fake houses in the area have their power back.

Now from Crosby comes a different kind of Hurricane Ike haunted house horror story: A warehouse attached to auto accessories shop B&M Accessories received so much damage from the storm that the owners decided to scrap their plans to expand their store into it. Instead, they’re turning the entire building into . . . yes, a haunted house:

â€œWhen we first came and walked through, my son said it looked like a haunted house in here,â€ [co-owner Billy] Maness said.

Though the power was out around much of the community, two light bulbs flicked on at the mention of Halloween.

After some discussion it was decided: the eerie warehouse was to become Crosbyâ€™s House of Terror, a 9,000-square foot maze of Halloween fun and fear.

While others are mourning the loss of their homes and businesses, the duo turned their misfortune around, giving the entire community something to scream about. Since Sunday, theyâ€™ve been hard at work, not cleaning up, but ramping up the Halloween spirit unleashed by Hurricane Ike.

The Halloween attraction will open to the public on October 3. Less than a year ago, the building at 117 Ulrich Ln., off FM 2100 in Crosby, was Shooters Bar. Before that, it was called the Chicken Coop.

After the jump: design touches from Hurricane Ike!

77532, Attractions, Crosby, Disaster Aftermath, Haunted Houses, Hurricane Ike, Industrial Properties, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail

08/28/08 9:50am

Is Shadow Creek Ranch Ready for the Bush Leagues?

Pearland, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Shadow Creek Ranch

IS SHADOW CREEK RANCH READY FOR THE BUSH LEAGUES?

“JD Daniel, USA Partnersâ€™ managing principal, said the firm has received approval from former President George Bush and wife, Barbara, to name the proposed complex in their honor. The facility, to be located on a 30-acre site west of Kingsley and north of Shadow Creek Parkway, would be called the George and Barbara Bush Sports Complex.” The Pearland City Council will vote on the proposal the Monday after Labor Day. [Houston Chronicle]

77584, Attractions, Pearland, Shadow-Creek-Ranch

07/31/08 11:50am

Engine Room Shutdown

Downtown, Openings and Closings

No Comments

Engine Room Sign, 1515 Pease St., Downtown Houston

The Downtown music venue is giving it a rest on Pease St., according to the club’s official MySpace page:

Hey everyone Yes the Engine Room is closed down now. All dates have been canceled. We know it’s frustarting to some but we are doing our best to let everyone know who has a date booked with us. We are having a hard time getting a hold of everyone who has a date booked here so please spread the word. We apologize for the inconvenience and any confusion this may have caused anyone. The Jet Lounge will remain open. Once again the Engine Room has been closed down and ALL DATES HAVE BEEN CANCELED!!!

Engine Room is closed down ALL DATES ARE CANCELED!! [MySpace, via HandStamp, via mikemcguff.com]

Photo: Flickr user Stacy Davidson

77002, Attractions, Nightlife

07/30/08 5:38pm

Through the Eyes of Houston Tourists: A Brief Guide to the Brilliant Travelogues of the Houston Chicks

Shopping Centers, Tourism

7 Comments

Chick Chung in North Houston

Probably the best introduction to the particular and engaging humor of the Houston Chicks’ relentlessly cheery stuck-in-Houston-for-the-summer tourist travelogues is the soon-to-be-classic entry entitled “Houston: Day Seven” from last month, which begins with this striking line:

Today, we went to Rice Village…We stayed for 10 minutes…and left…

and ends, 10 photographs later, in a Galleria parking lot — after a brief repose with an egg-salad sandwich.

The brilliance of the Chicks’ photo essays is difficult to communicate in an excerpt. If you’re looking for a quick take, try The Houston Chicks Have Won!, which recounts a popular Houston archetype in only two frames.

But there’s so much more:

Attractions, Shopping Centers, Tourism, Tours

07/23/08 12:35pm

Snow Mountain, Texas: Indoor Skiing in Houston

Proposed Developments

28 Comments

Diagrams of Proposed Snow Mountain Indoor Ski Resort, Houston

It’s difficult to imagine anything more perfect for 21st-century coastal Texas than this: A 2.7-million-sq.-ft. self-contained year-round indoor ski resort on a 21-acre site . . . on the “outskirts” of Houston.

Some details on this proposed development are available on the website of S333, an architecture firm based in the Netherlands. The firm’s London office has worked hard to pack hotels, indoor water parks, “extensive recreation areas,” a parking garage, retail space, timeshare apartments, and five separate ski slopes into what appears in the company’s drawings to be an 18-story terrace-roofed megastructure.

Inside the building, the different ski slopes and play areas are arranged side by side to form a continuous landscape of snow surfaces. New advances in scenography, acoustics and building technologies will be employed to create the ultimate feeling of â€˜still being outsideâ€™ on a mountain.

The external shape and form of the building continues the landscape theme that is established in the buildingâ€™s interior. The rising geometry of the ski slopes is extended as a series of stepped terraces. These terraces accommodate on one side private apartments and gardens, and on the other more public amenities such as restaurant, pavillions, gardens, terraces and a central water park of pools and weirs. The water cascades down the roof and links with the water feature at the centre of the leisure complex. This iconic landscape will attract attention to the site, brand the location and help establish a dramatic back-drop to the lake and water-side retail facilities.

More details and drawings below: